Ontario lockdown means these workers are out of a job — again

This is the fourth time Amanda Battaglia is out of work since the pandemic began. 

She's part-time office manager at a restaurant in Etobicoke, Ont., west of Toronto. The province has banned indoor dining as of Wednesday, due to the surge in COVID-19. And that means no more shifts for Battaglia.

"I'm just feeling a bit frustrated," she said. "I just wish [Premier Doug Ford] would have reacted ahead of time instead of reacting when it's too late."

It's not that she didn't expect it. Omicron has pushed Ontario's COVID case counts to record highs, forcing it to scale back who gets tested, halt non-urgent medical procedures and move school online for two weeks. Places like gyms, theatres, museums, concert venues and galleries were also told to close by Wednesday until at least Jan. 26.

As office manager, Battaglia has witnessed the wave firsthand over the past few weeks, answering emails from work colleagues saying they tested positive.

Still, the shut down stings.

Battaglia, 23, just finished her undergraduate degree last June and is working to pay off her student loan. She's planning to go to law school and needs to save up for that too. That's on top of things like car payments and day-to-day expenses.

"Now I'm kind of met between a rock and a hard place where I have to now delegate where my money is going."

Her workplace is still deciding whether to pay staff for missed shifts this lockdown or put everybody on layoff status.

The province hasn't started any new initiatives for workers this particular lockdown, but points to Employment Ontario and the Second Career program, funding tuition to help start a new job. Some workers qualify for the federal government's Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB), temporarily offering $300 a week in income support.

Zara Mohammed plans to apply. She's a full-time student in London, now out two jobs during this shutdown — one at a Thai restaurant, the other at a brewery. Between the two, she was working four or five days a week.

"It's going to be another tough situation where I am using a lot of savings," said the third-year commerce student at Fanshawe College. Mohammed, 20, worries about paying for future semesters.

"Those types of things are really scary to think about because I'm supporting myself through all of this."

She's saving money by living at home with family, while going to school online. She too is frustrated with how this lockdown happened, hoping for more communication and wondering if restrictions would have been better before Christmas — she knows a bunch of people who got COVID over the holidays.