Montreal will face with the mask

Photo: Paul Chiasson, The canadian Press
A “period of adaptation and thanks to [will be given] in order that everyone is ready”, said Valérie Plant.

Jeanne Corriveau,

Guillaume Bourgault-Côté,

Guillaume Lepage

7 July 2020

• Health

The City of Montreal decided on Monday to make a not that the government Legault is still reluctant to cross : it will make compulsory the wearing of the mask in all enclosed public places within its territory as of July 27. A decision that has been received coldly in Quebec city.

“We have taken note of the announcement of the City of Montreal in the end of the day, indicated the Duty of the cabinet of François Legault. There is still a lot of questions without answers. We will have discussions with the City of Montreal. “

However, the mayor Valérie Plante believes that there is no reason to wait.

“In the last few days, we have witnessed the emergence of some households of an outbreak in the suburbs of the metropolis, which could undermine the efforts that we have been doing since the beginning of this pandemic,” she said on his page Facebook.

“We must do everything to protect us, has supported Mrs Plant. A back would be a disaster to human lives and to our economy. “

The City is working on a ” regulation making compulsory the wearing of the covering face in public places closed “. The mayor stated that Montreal will be based on the experiences of other canadian cities to successfully organize the measurement.

Montreal hopes that its regulation shall enter into force at the same time as the obligation to wear a covering face in public transport — a measure unveiled last week by the prime minister Legault.

We must do everything possible to protect us. A back would be a disaster to human lives and to our economy.

— Valerie Plant

For the moment, Quebec does not intend to go further than that. On Monday, the new minister of Health, Christian Dubé, reiterated that Quebec “relies on the intelligence of the people” to follow the recommendations of the public Health. “We said that, if the trends in the data, we showed that there is a danger, we will change our policy “, he answered when he was asked about the mandatory wearing of the mask.

There were Monday, 74 new cases in Quebec, for a total of 55 937-infected persons. The number of hospitalizations was up by six, at 377. A person under the age lay in the intensive care unit, or 25. Only eight infections were added in the Montréal region, in relation to Sunday, for a total of 27 425.

Detail

Other than to say that the mask will be mandatory in enclosed public places, Valérie Plante has not given further details about the establishments affected by the regulation.

In Toronto, for example, the mask will be required starting Tuesday in all retail businesses, grocery stores, places of worship, community centres, museums and theatres. The regulation also applies to bars, restaurants and gyms, but allows a temporary removal of the cover face during a meal or training session. A few exceptions apply.

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A ” period of adaptation and thanks to [will be given] in order that everyone is ready “, said Valérie Plant. “In the future “, Montreal ” will not hesitate to take tough action for violators in order to enforce the application of the rules “, she warned. But it is especially ” a way to help the merchants to meet more easily the rules with their customers, and to target a minority of institutions offenders “.

The bars

Earlier in the day, Quebec had also hardened the tone compared to some of the recalcitrant — in this case, the owners of bars, primarily.

“What I’ve seen in the last few days is not acceptable,” argued in point press Christian Dubé. “I want to be clear : wrongdoers must be punished, and we will not hesitate to close down facilities. “

The end of the week that has just ended has been marked by a variety of transgressions in different facilities : dance floors crowded, distancing physical not respected : the “party ” has lifted here and there, and Québec intends to break it. “The virus is circulating,” said the national director of public health, Horacio Arruda.

Term, [Montreal] will not hesitate to take tough action for violators in order to enforce the application of the regulation

— Valerie Plant

Fines, closed institutions, of suspended licences, or even a reconfinement full of the sector of bars : the government Legault is now studying all options to ensure that the “incidents” of the end of last week will not be repeated.

Mr. Arruda said that it did not want to ” punish all the world. But if the bars become media of transmission, it is clear that we are going to stop “.

“This is not what you want to do [to confine the area], but we can just look at what is happening in some us States” to understand the side-effects of this kind of behaviour, argues Christian Dubé. “There is no question that a minority of offenders put at risk the health or the recovery of Quebec. “

Mr. Dubé has asked his deputy minister to submit by Thursday a list of recommendations to “see what needs to be done, or changed, within the guidelines already in place, the application of which would be” difficult “.

Several of the people are put to work to study the different options : how to suspend the operating licence in case of non-respect of the rules ; and what fines to impose to owners and customers ; at what point does consider ” reconfiner bars “.

Mr. Dubé has been promised “very clear” for the rest of the things.

Discomfort

The director-general of the Association of business development corporations (SDC) of Montreal, Caroline Tessier, believes that the decision of the City will facilitate the life of traders. They have implemented measures of protection, but a certain uneasiness could be felt among customers between them, according to her.

“It is sure that this is not all the world that complies with the regulations, but when there are consequences, it becomes a lever for traders. “

Stéphane Drouin, executive director of the Conseil québécois du commerce de détail, says that approximately 50 % of customers already wore a mask in the institutions. He feared, however, that a regulation would have the effect of preventing residents from outside the metropolitan area come to shop in Montreal.

The application of this regulation would be possible in bars when people are moving inside the establishments, believes on him, Pierre Thibault, president of the association of the bar of Quebec (NABQ). “It sécuriserait a lot of people. One feels that there is a certain letting go. Wearing a mask would bring a civic health “, he says.

Close to midnight ?

Mr. Thibault has also welcomed the government’s decision to tighten the rules that regulate the area of the bars — to the extent that it is support for good students and to get tough with recalcitrant.

According to him, the owners should close up shop at midnight to avoid to the maximum the skids. “It is often in the last three hours that it becomes difficult to control the whole world,” he notes. Pierre Thibault also believes that the police should patrol more around bars and restaurants of the province.

That said, the message launched on Monday by Quebec has not had the same effect everywhere. Philippe Haman, co-owner of four establishments in The Distillery in Montreal, understands already the worst. “Either they want us to fear, or the decision to close is taken, and it is coming “, let-t-he fall.

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