Due to COVID-19, two popular summertime activities might not look the same this year.
Despite pleas from operators of drive-in theatres, the provincial government has not yet given the green light to reopen the establishments for movie showings.
According to Richard Schiefer, owner and operator of The Boonies Drive-In Theatre in Tilbury, drive-in theatres from across Ontario have been working together the last few weeks, lobbying provincial officials to let them open for the season.
Schiefer said drive-in theatre owners have been thoroughly making sure that if they were to open, operations would comply with government health regulations.
However, despite support from local MPs, Schiefer said drive-ins are being lumped in with typical cinemas and the requests have "fallen on deaf ears."
"Their issue I guess is the passengers in the car, being together in the car. That's their issue right now that's what's holding things up," he said.
Like many business owners right now, Schiefer said he plans to think of outside the box ways to continue to reach his customers. This includes opening up the establishment's concession stand and offering drive-in food service.
Otherwise, he said he's just waiting to get the approval from the province to reopen the theatre side of operations.
"I'm also a campground. I see they're letting campgrounds open that are self-sufficient. I might even let trailers come in here. They've got their own washrooms and running water in their vehicles so they don't have to leave, I can just bring food to them. I'm trying to work around the wording right now and see what we can do," he explained. "That's about all I can do right now."
Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Colby, said, in theory, he believes that visiting a drive-in theatre would be fine but recognizes that there could be some cause for concern.
"If they stay in their cars and just use family groups, I think it's fine," said Colby. "I would have a problem with large groups, groups of friends getting in a vehicle and basically having a party close together while they're watching a movie."
Although taking a trip to the drive-in theatre may be on hold for now, there is hope for people to enjoy a yard sale this summer.
Colby said public health officials will be closely monitoring the situation.
"We would have a very hard time prohibiting yard sales and enforcing such a prohibition...we've discussed this and I think we're going to monitor the situation very closely and work very hard to push the 'physical distancing' message so that people are able to attend yard sales safely," he explained.
Colby said that health officials are strongly encouraging that anyone hosting a yard sale has hand sanitizer readily available. He adds that more guidance on the topic is expected to be issued in the near future.