Landscape Ontario calls on province to let independent garden centres open for Mother’s Day

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, garden centres across the province would usually be packed with customers buying plants and flowers. But that is not the case this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Landscape Ontario is calling on Premier Doug Ford to allow independent garden centres to open their doors this weekend or risk losing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in product.

The open letter, which you can read at the bottom of this article, is addressed to Ford, MPPs and provincial health officials, says they are prepared for when garden centres are deemed an essential service and are ready to open their doors under COVID-19 health protocols.

The organization says facilities are mostly outdoor and open-air, making it easier for people to follow the province’s physical distancing requirements.

They call the Mother’s Day weekend “critical” for the industry — that hundreds of family-owned companies are at risk if they’re not allowed to fully open and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of plants will have to be composted if they are not sold.

The organization also notes that many grocery stores and food retailers across the province have been allowed to open their garden centres, while smaller businesses cannot.

Landscape Ontario represents more than 2,000 garden retailers and family-run growers.

The province allowed a small list of mostly seasonal businesses to reopen Monday, including garden centres with curbside pick-ups, lawn care and landscaping companies, and automatic car washes.

Last month, Ford released a three-step plan for slowly reopening Ontario’s economy, but it did not include a timeline. It said Stage 1 could include opening select workplaces and parks, allow more people at certain events such as funerals, and hospitals to resume some non-urgent surgeries. Stage 2 could include opening more businesses and outdoor spaces, while Stage 3 would include opening all work places and further relaxing rules on public gatherings — though large ones such as sporting events and concerts would still be restricted.

The Open Letter

Open letter to Premier Doug Ford, Members of Provincial Parliament and Ontario Health Officials:

We are the independent Garden Retailers and Family-run Growers of Ontario. Our professional trade association, Landscape Ontario, represents over 2,000 independent retail operators, landscape professionals, designers and plant growers.

We know how concerned our decision-makers are about the health and welfare of all Ontario citizens. We share those concerns.

We have been preparing for the day when garden centres are deemed an essential service and we are ready to open our doors under strict COVID-19 health protocols. Our facilities are largely outdoor and open-air shopping spaces. Social distancing and other safety protocols are easier in outdoor environments. Garden Centres are open in every other province but Ontario and we are learning from their experiences.

Gardening is about food security. We believe that every Canadian deserves access to the food plants, seeds and supplies they need to grow their own healthy vegetables, herbs, fruit and berries.

We also believe that this issue is about sustainability: giving the public the opportunity to maximize control over their own food sources in a sustainable way.

What is at stake? 100s of family-owned companies and family farms. Independent garden retailers, greenhouse and nursery growers in Ontario are working together to ensure a safe environment for shopping. All of them are at risk and many will fail if we are not able to open for Mother’s Day business.

1,000s of jobs. Pre-COVID-19 over 80,000 people were employed in Ontario horticulture in the private sector alone.

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of highly seasonal, perishable plants will be composted if they do not find a customer before the Mother’s Day weekend (the largest special occasion sales period for flowers and flowering plants on the calendar).

Tell us your concerns and let us address them.

We are here to serve Ontario residents and answer to the decision-makers in the province.

Mr. Premier, please, let us do our work and allow residents of Ontario to enjoy the health and wellness benefits that garden retailers and family run horticultural farming operations offer.

Sincerely,
Dave Wright, President
Alan White, Chair, Covid Task Force
Tony DiGiovanni, Executive Director of over 2,600 member companies of
Landscape Ontario

P.S. We have difficulty with the fact that many food retailers in the province can open retail garden sections/garden centres while family-owned independent garden centres cannot. Why is that?