'They're really hitting the hardest hit industries during the pandemic': Businesses reeling, calling for evidence to support closures

Christmas isn’t cancelled, but new health rules are definitely dampening spirits.

“Disappointment I guess,” said Langley resident Brian Krueger when asked for his reaction to B.C.’s latest COVID-19 restrictions.

“Frustration. It’s all over and over again.”

“Nobody likes it,” said Langley’s Joe DeSousa. “I don’t like it neither, but it’s a reality.”

The sweeping new public health restrictions are about to come into effect as B.C. faces record-breaking COVID-19 case numbers.

Indoor organized events like parties and weddings are cancelled.

Dance studios, night clubs and gyms are all being shut down.

“They’re really hitting the hardest hit industries during the pandemic,” said Anita Huberman of the Surrey Board of Trade.

Huberman says in Surrey, one in 25 businesses has already shutdown since March 2020, when the first pandemic restrictions were introduced.

Sara Hodson, president of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada, says the gym closures have left her industry reeling.

“We are shocked and we are disappointed,” said Hodson, who is also the founder of Live Well Exercise Clinic.

“To go from fully open to fully closed with no discussion and no other measures put in place is shocking.”

She doesn’t believe gyms are the problem.

“I have 10 locations across the Lower Mainland and in the last six months, we’ve had not a single mention of a COVID case in one of our clinics,” she said, adding that now, more than ever, people need to be able to exercise.

“Fitness is a place for more than just lifting weights,” she explained. “This is a place for us to truly treat our physical and mental health.”

Huberman says business organizations would like to know the science behind the closures.

“If you’re exercising at a gym, you’re on an elliptical versus attending a staged performance at Rogers Arena with 9,000 people, how is that safer than exercising at a gym?” asked Huberman.

While Ottawa has announced help for businesses, the Surrey Board of Trade says there is no immediate relief, and that is turning a normally prosperous time of year into one filled with anxiety and uncertainty.

The new bans and restrictions were brought in just before Christmas in an effort to curb surging cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“It’s hard to make sense of and it feels exhausting after years of this now, but (I’m) also feeling grateful we can still meet with family and friends,” said Natalie Snyder, who was sitting outside a Fort Langley coffee shop.

Meanwhile, Jaylie Holmes is back from university for Christmas break and is disappointed she won’t get to see more of her friends.

“I think we’re just all pushing through it and waiting for the end of it,” she said.