Air quality warnings continue; businesses worry about safety of customers, employees

As air quality warnings continue for Central Ontario, businesses have had to adjust how they can keep their customers and themselves safe.

Braydon White, head golf pro at Tangle Creek Golf said the passionate golfers remained out on the links Thursday morning.

“It’s a little bit hazy out there for sure, you can smell it,” said White.

“But most golfers are sticking it out so far.”

Downtown Barrie restaurants and bar patios are mostly vacant as staff persuade customers to sit inside and avoid the smoke.

Kayla Mckenzie, server at Pie, said the often-packed patio has been empty over the last two days.

“Normally we’re really busy on the patio, (today) not many people coming out,” said Mckenzie.

“If they do, we advise them to stay inside, we just prefer safety and everything for the customers as well as us,” Mckenzie said.

Also on Thursday morning, Innisfil Farmers Market announced they would be canceling their weekly meet in the arena parking lot in Stroud as the air quality was poor.

Kelsey Leroux, manager of the market said they have been actively watching the weather.

“It was so smoky, we were watching the weather yesterday and we had hoped to open today and then first thing this morning we notice that the radar was really bad,” said Leroux, adding “so we made the very difficult decision to close our market down early.”

“I don’t think a lot of people realize how much work goes into setup and take down of a farmer’s market and just the initial hour of setting up could cause a lot of harm,” said Leroux.

With the closure of the market for the week, three locations were made available to vendors who still wished to sell their products including Lakeview Gardens.

Co-Owner Rob Radcliffe said they wanted to be cautious but still provide a space where people can shop and vendors can sell.

“We just, thought it’d be prudent to err side on caution with the air quality and we just wanted everybody to be safe,” said Radcliffe.

I wanted our employees to be safe as well as myself and for the other vendors and our customers, so we just re-pivoted,” he said.

“We wanted to create a space where vendors could pop up, show up for customers that do still want to come out, get stuff, but still provide that safety so they can come inside,” said Leroux.

“It’s a stronger breeze, less people, and less manual labor for them to set up,” she added.

The Barrie Baycats has also taken a cautious approach to the air quality, as they were scheduled to host a free game Thursday at Athletic Kulture Stadium but have since issued multiple releases on their social media pages regarding tonight’s game.

The game is moving forward but the team has advised those with respiratory conditions to watch the game at home.