April 15th. The day after this was posted, Greenhouses and Garden Centres have now been declared an essential business. Thank you everyone involved in advocating for this change - for we have succeeded.
I am getting many emails and calls to enable garden centre and greenhouse businesses to open as they should be considered essential businesses. They are very important as part of our food supply chain because many people rely on vegetables and other plants to produce their food during the summer. It does not make sense to allow companies all over Manitoba to produce vegetables for people's consumption and not allow people to grow vegetables themselves. Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta already consider garden centres and greenhouses as essential businesses which can operate during the pandemic. It is time for Manitoba to do the same. There will need, as with other businesses which operate during the pandemic the need for garden centres and greenhouses to operate safely and with appropriate physical distancing.
Manitoba implemented physical distancing measures in mid-March. South Dakota has still not made physical distancing mandatory. The result is a dramatic difference in the incidence of covid-19 viral infections between the two jurisdictions. This graph shows the number of people with Covid-19 infections from March 27 to April 14. Manitoba ( red line ) started leveling off about April 4 and has seen only a small increase in Covid-19 infections since then. South Dakota ( blue line ) has seen a dramatic increase in Covid-19 infections since April 4. Those who are skeptical of the impact of physical distancing in Manitoba should look at this graph! Data are from the Johns Hopkins daily tabulations
What an amazing accomplishment. Thanks Liberal Party for advocating for this important change
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