The Lacombe Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors has written a letter to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in an effort to ask him to allow all retail businesses to open in Alberta. Personal services, hair salons, aesthetics, tattoo parlors, dance studios, gyms, and other businesses continue to experience a second lengthy shut down.

“While we were pleased to see the Alberta government’s decision to allow all retail businesses to remain open, rather than shuttering small retail businesses who were not deemed ‘essential’ during the lockdowns in spring of 2020, more needs to be done,” it read in the letter.

The Chamber noted that many of those businesses that were permitted to open in June with stringent health measures were able to operate safely and believe that can once again be the case.

“They had to put a huge amount of resources, time, and money into changing protocols, procedures, with purchasing PPE and setting up their spaces in a different way so that people could distance,” explained Executive Director for the Lacombe Chamber of Commerce, Monica Bartman.

Bartman says there have been some monetary supports provided by the provincial government such as the Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant which offers $20,000 for businesses who have seen a revenue reduction of 30 per cent. Some businesses may not be eligible for that money or in some cases, it simply may not be enough.

“If you think of a business that had to shut down in the spring for two months and now is going into their fifth or sixth week of being shut down for a second time, $20,000 is not likely going to be the difference for a lot of those businesses,” said Bartman.

Although one business in Innisfail has recently opened in spite of the public health restrictions, the Chamber wants to work together with the provincial government to improve the outlook for those businesses still facing a shut down.

“We in no circumstances want to encourage businesses to go against those recommendations. They're there for a reason and public health is a priority. There's no denying that but the health and sustainability of our businesses also needs to be a priority and the message with this communication is that we want to work together,” said Bartman.

Since the letter has been sent on January 11th, the Chamber has been notified by the Premier’s Correspondence Unit that the letter is now under consideration.