Cafes and restaurants are at the front line of possible “vaccine theatre”
New Brunswick’s new vaccine passport system came into effect Wednesday, meaning that people are now required to be fully vaccinated before entering non-essential services like cafes, bars, restaurants, gyms and cinemas.
Indoor concerts, sports events, and organized gatherings like wedding and funerals will have the same stipulation. Churches and faith-based groups are exempt from the rule, instead being required to prove that they have surveyed their members, and achieved a 90% vaccination rate among them.
The system is not honour-based, like current border rules, which require people travelling into New Brunswick to register in advance, but with no enforcement or government presence at border crossings.
In the case of vaccine passports, businesses like Sackville cafe The Black Duck are being asked to actively screen their customers, requiring a government issued ID and a proof of vaccination.
That has Black Duck co-owner Al Barbour concerned about a few things: training his employees to do the screening, having enough staff to do it, and also the possibility that even vaccinated customers will be discouraged from stopping in for coffee or a meal.
Barbour says he’s been trying to prepare the Black Duck for their new obligation to screen customers, but feels the process is still unclear.
“It’s one thing to say we should be checking for that people are fully vaccinated,” says Barbour, “but how do we do that?… Continue
Sackville Food Bank finds a temporary home courtesy of The Black Duck
The Sackville Food Bank has found a new, temporary home after a flood forced it to move out of its current space at 9B Willow Lane.
Food bank president Heather Patterson says the group was able to move in Monday morning to 21 Bridge Street, right beside the Black Duck Cafe, courtesy of an invitation from cafe owners Al Barbour and Sarah Evans.
“We’ll probably be a month before we can move back into our normal space,” says Patterson. “So Alan and Sarah have given us the storefront for as long as we need it, bless their hearts. I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
Al Barbour says once he heard about the flood (while listening to Meg Cunningham on Tantramar Report), he thought immediately of the empty storefront next to the Black Duck.
“It’s just sitting there empty, full of fridges and freezers,” says Barbour. “So we just inquired if they needed a space… We offered it up and they accepted it. And they’ll be there until they can go back to the other space.”
Patterson says the Black Duck space is a bit smaller than the food bank’s permanent location, but with two freezers and two fridges there, it’s a “wonderful solution” to the rather immediate problem they faced.
The Willow Lane location flooded due to a water main break last Wednesday morning, forcing the food bank to cancel its regular pick up day and go into emergency recovery mode.… Continue