Businesses given crucial direction only belatedly By: Dan Lett Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, May. 7, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2020 (1597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Thursday, the province posted a detailed bulletin entitled “workplace guidance for business owners” on its COVID-19 website. Measured on its own merits, it’s a solid collection of advice.

The six-page document highlights the fundamentals of COVID-19 suppression — hand hygiene, physical distancing and keeping sick people at home — along with other health and safety procedures for any business allowed to re-open after nearly two months of inactivity.

The only problem with this bulletin is that it arrived on May 7, four days after thousands of Manitoba businesses re-opened in the first phase of Premier Brian Pallister’s ambitious and expedited economic revival plan.

Pallister announced on April 29 that some previously shuttered businesses would be allowed to re-open on May 4. Stunned at the lack of advance warning, the premier’s critics suggested he was moving too far, too fast.

The shock and awe of the announcement strongly suggested that Pallister, a man who attaches some form of superlative to almost every government decision and measure, was committed to matching pace with provinces like Saskatchewan, which had two weeks earlier announced the re-opening of parts of its economy on May 4.

If the timeline alone isn’t enough to convince you that Pallister thinks he is in a race with the other premiers, then consider the fact that specific guidelines for business owners was issued days after some of those businesses opened.

Confusion among those business owners permitted to re-open is plainly evident. Many who were allowed to open have remained shut. Others are still operating in much more limited fashion than they are permitted. It’s all the consequence of a government that approved the re-opening of business in an information vacuum.

In the previously posted but clearly incomplete guidelines for businesses, there were virtually no details on some of the most basic questions facing business owners. Chief among those questions is whether staff need to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and if so, what kind?

The newly posted guidelines are much clearer. PPE is not necessary but if it is used, it should be in conjunction with proper distancing and hand hygiene, not as a replacement for those controls. Gloves are not really recommended and do not eliminate the need for frequent hand washing.

If the timeline alone isn’t enough to convince you that Pallister thinks he is in a race with the other premiers, then consider the fact that specific guidelines for business owners was issued days after some of those businesses opened.

Most importantly, your employees do not, in most instances, need to wear medical-grade masks. If physical distancing is not possible, non-medical masks are sufficient. This is consistent with what most provinces along with the federal government are telling re-opening businesses. No one wants a barista or a big-box store cashier wearing a N95 respirator because those are still desperately needed by health care workers.

As good as the new guidelines are, they may be late for some businesses.

This week, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce launched an “Urgent Call for PPE Suppliers” to provide masks, gloves, plexiglass shields and sanitizing supplies to businesses preparing to re-open. After receiving numerous inquiries about where to source equipment like this, the chamber wants to establish a listing of local businesses that can either make or supply PPE.

It’s an excellent idea but it may signal that — in the information vacuum created by the Pallister government — many businesses are unclear about what kinds of protective equipment they need to give to their employees. It further suggests that business owners, now that they are allowed to re-open, could trigger a second wave of panic buying and hoarding similar to what we saw at the outset of the pandemic.

Pallister clearly wanted to match pace with other provinces like Quebec and Saskatchewan that were re-opening businesses this week. However, a quick survey of the websites in those other provinces shows that they were providing detailed guidelines to businesses on things like PPE well in advance of any openings.

In other words, it’s a terrible time to inadvertently trigger a wave of panic buying among business owners who may want the extra protection from a N95 mask but really don’t need it.

There may still be business owners in those provinces who will insist on going above and beyond guidelines to provide employees with PPE, but at least their governments gave them a fighting chance to make informed decisions.

The overarching concern here is that Manitoba is still suffering from a shortage of PPE, which means it definitely does not have the reserves to safeguard health care workers in the event that a second wave of COVID-19 crashes down upon us this fall.

That means it is the perfect time right now, while the total number of new infections has flattened and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 remains extremely low, to start building up the stockpile of PPE we need now and in the near future.

Building up a sufficient emergency stockpile will remain a challenge given that the global capacity to supply gloves, gowns and masks is still lagging well behind the demand. In other words, it’s a terrible time to inadvertently trigger a wave of panic buying among business owners who may want the extra protection from a N95 mask but really don’t need it.

Everyone wants the economy to reclaim as much pre-pandemic activity as possible. But wanting something like that, and overseeing it in a safe and measured fashion, are two very different things.

As the economic revival plan continues to unfold, the Pallister government would be well advised to consider this simple equation: guidelines before green lights.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett
Columnist

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.

   Read full biography