COVID-19 restrictions end in N.L. on Monday, but some will choose to keep masks into the future
CBC
All of Newfoundland and Labrador's COVID-19 public health restrictions will be dropped as of 12:01 a.m. Monday, but that doesn't necessarily mean the rules will be changing everywhere.
The provincial government will no longer require capacity limits, physical distancing or mandatory masks, however businesses, workplaces and other public spaces can choose to continue requiring workers and customers to wear a mask.
Amy Anthony, owner and operator of The Nook and Cannery in St. John's, says she'll be choosing to keep a mask requirement in place at her restaurant beyond Monday.
"It would be much safer to keep that in place," Anthony said, noting how four of her staff members are immunocompromised, as well as some of her regular customers.
"It's just about making sure that they're comfortable and not deterred from coming in. So, that's why I'm sticking with it and trying to, for a lack of a better term, avoid it like the plague."
Anthony said she's also been continuing the practice of having customers fill out contact tracing sheets at the door. While the Nook and Cannery will no longer require a vaccine passport for entry as of Monday, Anthony said she would have loved to continue using that system as well.
"Based on what's happening in the province now, I don't think we're going to win the fight with the vax passes," she said.
Barry Bennett, owner of Vu Restaurant and Slainte whiskey bar in St. John's, says he will keep tables socially distanced and will continue checking vaccine passports in his businesses, but won't require masks.
Bennett said he will be letting his staff and customers decide if they want to wear a mask or not, but he expects many people will still choose wear them.
"If they feel comfortable enough to come in here without a mask on, we're OK with that, if they want to wear a mask, we're OK with that as well. It's their choice," he said.
"[But] we will not put the tables we removed two years ago back, we will keep the tables spaced the way it is right now, just so that people will feel comfortable and secure in our restaurant."
The pandemic has been difficult for his businesses, Bennett said, but he believes it's time to move past mandatory masking for what he anticipates will be a busy summer.
"We managed to fight through it and hopefully now at this point in time where we're to with mandates being dropped [Monday], people would probably feel more comfortable going out," he said.
"It's time that we move on from the masks now, in my opinion, and get on with our lives."
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.