Premier Legault adds new jobs to 'essential' list

The government of Quebec has announced that they will be extending the "essential" designation to additional businesses. Premier Francois Legault said in a press conference on Monday that as of April 15, mines, auto-shops and garages, landscaping and garden centres will be allowed to reopen.

Construction and renovations of residential homes are scheduled to reopen on July 31, 2020, according to TVA Nouvelles.

Owner of Frank Florist and Garden Centre, Pierre Potvin told CTV News, “This year, it's crazy, everybody wants to make a garden and they want to make flowers,” said Potvin. “I don't think they will travel this year, they're going to stick around the house.”

There are lots of garden centres that have remained open but just for deliveries. Owners of these outlets say their stock will go to waste if customers can't come in person to make their selections, or they will turn to big box stores that have been allowed to stay open.

“A lot of people are calling us and they want to buy something and we tell them we're not open,” said Potvin. “They said 'Okay, Canadian Tire and Rona and even the grocery store, they have soil outside and plants. It's really unfair to us.”

At the federal level the Association of Consulting Engineering Cos (ACEC) has been pressuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to allow critical construction sectors to continue working and drawing up plans for infrastructure spending to fight the economic halt brought on by COVID-19.

“It’s a checkerboard,” said John Gamble, president and CEO of ACEC/Canada. “We have seen provinces go back and forth on this, on what they deem to be critical infrastructure.”

Construction lawyer and vice chair of National Construction and Infrastructure Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, Andrew Heal, said, "we are in the moderate middle. We are perhaps not at one end where everything is 100 percent open like Sweden … but we have not seen the kinds of shutdowns as Boston has done.”

“The Canadian economy will be better off if we remain open for business safely, those businesses that are essential,” said Heal. “Even Quebec recognizes that with a narrow group of essential construction projects.” said Heal.