The City of Peterborough has cancelled the weekend closure of George Street between McDonnel and King streets in downtown Peterborough.

The street was immediately reopened to vehicles mid-day on Saturday afternoon (June 13) and will remain open for the remainder of the weekend.

The city had closed the section of George Street at 3 p.m. on Friday (June 12) in an attempt to provide additional space for pedestrians to maintain social distancing.

City council made the decision to close the street the previous day, in response the Ontario government’s announcement that restaurants, bars, cafes could reopen their patios on Friday and the expectation that restaurants on George Street would be opening pop-up patios through a fast-track process.

However, partly because of the cool weather on Friday, there were few pop-up patios. Restaurants on George Street that don’t have patios suffered from the lack of accessibility to their businesses, as did retailers who lost business from customers with cars.

Terry Guiel, executive director of the Peterborough Downtown Business Area (DBIA), told the Peterborough Examiner on Friday that the closure was a “debacle” and that he was “was on damage control with angry shop owners.”

“Based on feedback after the first day, the city is reopening the road to vehicles,” says the city’s manager of communication services Brendan Wedley in a media release. “The city apologizes for the confusion.”

The city still plans to make longer-term changes to public space in the downtown area over the next couple of weeks to provide additional space for pedestrians by changing vehicle traffic lanes and on-street parking.

With every meal served at Peterborough’s La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, a Hunter Street destination since 2002, owner Sandra Arciniega celebrates everything she loves and misses about her home country.

Sandra enjoys people and entertaining, which drew her to tourism management studies while at university in her hometown of Guadalajara in Mexico. After graduation, she met her future husband while on a celebratory trip with university friends and, after six months of a long-distance relationship, she followed her heart to Toronto and, eventually, she and her new husband made the move to the cottage country community of Buckhorn.

It was a massive cultural change for Sandra as a recent newcomer to Canada, but she took it all in and made the most of new opportunities.

“I always loved hosting friends and family without appointment,” Sandra recalls. “I have always loved my culture and good food and, when I got pregnant, I was craving so much of what I had left behind.”

Sandra’s pregnancy cravings were so strong she decided to open a restaurant to recreate and share the feasts and the flavours that she was missing. When she stumbled upon the unique space on Hunter Street in downtown Peterborough, she knew she had the perfect ingredients to pursue her dream.

“The spot was so beautiful,” Sandra says. “It had a good feeling and it was time for Peterborough to have some ethnic food in the area.”

Sandra says La Hacienda lets her celebrate each day. Sometimes those days are long, and the money is not going to make anyone rich, but she says everything she missed was brought to life in the cozy restaurant that has stood the test of time over the past 18 years.

Sandra raised her kids and her restaurant at the same time, and sometimes there was jealousy — but there was also pride in their mother’s accomplishments.

“When they started hearing from friends and teachers that it was someone’s favourite place to eat and had the best food, they were proud and it was okay with them,” Sandra laughs.

That pride got her kids through some tough times — experiencing the feeling of being different and of not being white. Eventually, the kids embraced their culture and now there is much more happiness.

Sandra notes how the Peterborough community has changed over the years. The community is more multicultural and, from the range of ethnic foods to the variety of languages people speak, there is far more diversity.

This diversity has always played a part in how Sandra runs her business. She provides employment for many newcomers to Canada, making sure everyone has a chance to be successful and to put down roots.

“I don’t just sell food,” Sandra explains. “Stories are shared in a plate. Everything is fresh and flavourful — we share emotion with food for your soul.”

Sandra has focused on that food-to-soul connection since the COVID-19 pandemic hit small businesses across the region. The team at La Hacienda has faced each new challenge with the understanding they are an important part of Peterborough, and that they matter to community.

Through it all, Sandra keeps focusing on opportunity.

“We closed for the first 10 days and then we decided to try take-out and delivery,” Sandra says, her voice wavering. “I was even making the deliveries myself, and the response from people was so beautiful my heart was broken with happiness. I kept hearing how we were needed, and how much the food meant to people.”

Sandra says she has always been an independent worker, but she’s grateful for the support from the Peterborough community — not only from customers who continue to order food but also from her landlord and from her family.

“I do this because of what it means to people,” she explains. “This is a time when to make food means even more. With passion you can do anything, but for now I just have to do a little and expand as I can.”

Despite the uncertainty of how long restrictions will stay in place during this life-changing pandemic, Sandra and her team are doing their best to stay connected to the community and to be as responsive as possible to the community’s needs.

“Right now, I want to keep giving people something to be excited about,” Sandra says. “And this is what I need to do to help.”

La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant serves authentic Mexican dishes based on family recipes, from scratch and using fresh seasonal ingredients. Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options are available.

Located at 190 Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough, La Hacienda is open for take-out and patio sit-down dining from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday (temporary reduced hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic). For patio reservations, call 705-742-1559. For more information, email info@lahaciendaptbo.com or visit lahaciendaptb.com. You can also connect with La Hacienda on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

This year, the New Canadians Centre is celebrating 40 years of welcoming and supporting newcomers, and the annual Multicultural Canada Day Festival is an important part of this history. The festival brings our community together for a celebration of our country’s birthday and the multiculturalism that is core to Canada’s national identity.

Newcomers and their families have grown to be part of the rich cultural fabric that binds our community together. “Peterborough Is My Home” — our chosen home that we love, cherish, and support. This year’s Multicultural Canada Day programming embraces this sentiment and has been adapted to reflect physical distancing guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To learn more about other #PtboIsMyHome activities and events leading up to and on Canada Day, please visit nccpeterborough.ca. You can also follow New Canadians Centre on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Ontario government has increased the number of people who are permitted to attend weddings and funerals.

When originally announcing Ontario’s stage two reopening plan on Monday (June 8), the government had increased the limit on weddings and funeral attendees from five to 10 people.

Now that limit has been further increased to 30 per cent of the capacity of the venue where the wedding or funeral is behind held or, in the case of outdoor ceremonies, to 50 people.

The changes came into effect on Friday, June 12th at 12:01 a.m.

“With recent progress to reduce the spread of COVID-19, we are able to ease restrictions on these special ceremonies,” says health minister Christine Elliott. “We have taken deliberate steps to increase testing and increase our ability to track and contain this virus. As we loosen these measures, I strongly urge everyone to remain careful and cautious as we are all still at risk.”

The 30 per cent capacity limit for indoor ceremonies is now the same as the new limit for attendees at places of worship in Ontario, which the government also announced on Monday.

For both indoor and outdoor ceremonies, attendees must practice physical distancing by remaining two metres away from people who are not from the same household or in their established 10-person social circle.

It should be noted that the loosened restriction applies only to wedding and funeral ceremonies, not to receptions.

The maximum number of people allowed to attend indoor or outdoor wedding and funeral receptions remains at 10 people.

On the same day that Ontario saw its lowest increase of positive COVID-19 cases since March 28th, the Ontario government is updating its public health guidelines to allow for a “social circle” of up to 10 people.

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement on Friday (June 12) at a media conference at Queen’s Park, along with health minister Christine Elliott and Ontario chief medical of health Dr. David Williams.

“Today is an exciting day for Ontario,” Ford said. “Our public health trends are improving. For the first time in months, we’re under 200 new cases today. We’ve hit a new record for testing this week, over 28,000 tests in a day, and still an overwhelming majority of these tests, about 98 per cent today, have come back negative.”

On Friday, the government reported 182 new COVID-19 cases — the lowest increase since March 28th — and 28,335 completed tests, the highest number since testing began.

“Today, we have more good news to share with the people of Ontario,” Ford added. “We know there are friends, families, and loved ones, who you haven’t been able to hug or come into close contact with in months. Today, the public health guidelines will be changing to introduce social circles.”

“This is a very, very important step forward. This change will expand the number of people who we can come into close contact with, who live outside our homes. Social circles will allow a family and friends to reunite safely, while reducing the risk of exposure and spread. This means finally hugging your grandparents, or sharing a meal with your parents or closest friends.”

Health minister Elliott explained that a social circle can consist of up to 10 people who are members of your immediate household as well as other members of your family, your friends, or members of another family.

“Our chief medical officer of health has updated public health guidelines, effective immediately province-wide, to allow for social circles of up to 10 members,” Elliott said. “Think of your social circle as people you can touch, hug, and come into close contact with.”

In a social circle, you don’t have to maintain physical distancing. Elliott shared five steps for establishing a “safe social circle”:

1. Start with your current circle: the people you live with or who regularly come into your household.
2. If your current circle is under 10 people, you can add members to your circle, including those from another household, family members or friends.
3. Get agreement from everyone that they will join the circle.
4. Keep your social circle safe. Maintain physical distancing with anyone outside of your circle.
5. Be true to your circle. No one should be part of more than one circle.

“Most people just start with whoever they live with — family, roommates, whatever,” Elliott explained. “They would be the natural start, and then you can build from there, It’s really just common sense for most people. It would be perhaps grandparents that they’d like to bring into their social circle.”

“In other cases, it may be a situation where two families might like to get together, where there are children of the same age and they want to be in the same social circle as well for the benefit of their children who can see each other. The parents in some cases can also share some of the other duties, perhaps taking care of the other people’s children so they can go to work.”

Elliott stressed that a social circle of up to 10 people is different than a social gathering of up to 10 people, which the government is also allowing as of Friday (June 12).

A social gathering includes people from outside of your social circle, and you must maintain physical distancing of at least two metres from other people in a social gathering who are not members of your social circle.

“For example, the expansion of social gatherings will allow individuals and families to enjoy the company of others at backyard barbecues and picnics and neighbourhood parks while respecting physical distancing guidelines,” Elliott said.

When asked by a reporter if there would be any enforcement of social circles, Ford said that enforcement would be difficult to enforce in a province with 14.5 million people and that he trusts the people of Ontario to follow public health directives.

“The social circle police aren’t going to be knocking on your door,” Ford said. “We trust you’re going to be doing the right thing. Just follow the protocols. It goes back to why we’re at the numbers we’re at, because the vast majority have been following the protocols.”

As Peterborough enters stage two of reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday (June 12), the City of Peterborough is closing a portion of George Street in downtown Peterborough to vehicles this weekend, so that people can visit downtown businesses while maintaining physical distancing.

The city announced on Thursday night (June 11) that George Street will be closed between McDonnel Street to King Street from 3 p.m. on Friday, June 12th until the evening of Sunday, June 14th.

Side streets and intersections remain open during the George Street closure, to assist with emergency access as well as deliveries and pickups for businesses.

While many downtown businesses were allowed to reopen during stage one of the province’s reopening, this is the first weekend that restaurants, cafes, and bars are allowed to reopen their patios.

The street is being closed only to provide space for pedestrians to stay a safe distance away from each other, not for street activities or structures. Smoking is not allowed on closed roads according to the city’s by-law.

As for restaurants, cafes, and bar patios, only patios previously approved by the city for downtown sidewalks can open. The city has set up a new streamlined application process for businesses looking to add new patios or expand previously approved patios.

Businesses operating patios are expected to follow the provincial government’s guidelines on safe reopening and public health guidelines, including:

• Restricting the number of patrons on the patio to a maximum of 50% of the previously approved capacity.
• Ensure physical distancing of at least 2 metres between patrons from different households.
• Using reservations – no lineups as space is limited and lineups onto the sidewalk will make it difficult for physical distancing.
• Limiting the number of patrons allowed in the outdoor space at one time.
• Ensuring enough space between tables, including to allow for movement.
• Access to indoor facilities is limited to patio/outdoor dining area access, food pickup, payment, washrooms or other health and safety purposes.
• Not using overhead structures such as tents and canopies that may impede with pedestrians and physical distancing (using umbrellas is encouraged to provide shade).
• Ensuring tables and chairs are at least one metre from the outer limit of the patio, in order to facilitate physical distancing.

Smoking and vaping are prohibited on all patios and within nine metres of the patio.

The city says the temporary weekend closure of George Street is an interim measure while it works to implement broader changes, such as changing vehicle lanes and on-street parking, to increase sidewalks space to assist with physical distancing. The broader changes are expected to be implemented within the next couple of weeks, as the city acquires and installs barriers between vehicle lanes and the new pedestrian spaces.

Besides providing more pedestrian space, the broader temporary changes will allow businesses to work with the city through a new streamlined application process to make use of some sidewalk space to offer services outside, while maintaining space for physical distancing and following public health guidelines.

A date has yet to be set on when the broader temporary changes would end, as it will depend on the COVID-19 pandemic situation and provincial direction as well as the activity in the central area.

The planned broader temporary changes to sidewalks, vehicle lanes, and on-street parking were developed in collaboration with Peterborough Public Health and the Downtown Business Improvement Area. A map of the changes is provided below.

This story has been updated to indicate the side streets and intersections remain open during the weekend closure.