STEPHEN RICCIO
PONTIAC Sept. 19-20, 2020
Operation OSCAR was initiated throughout Quebec two weekends ago, with police around the Pontiac stopping by bars and restaurants with alcohol licenses to check in on compliance with COVID-19 measures.
MRC des Collines spokesperson Sgt. Martin Fournel said that . . .
only one check-in was done in the Municipality of Pontiac. Gavan’s Hotel in Quyon was visited three times throughout the weekend and no fines were given out.
He added that there would normally have been more businesses to stop in on were it not for pandemic-related closures.
“What we notice, it’s not just for the Pontiac, but there’s lots of our establishments that have just decided to close,” Fournel said. “Some of them were not even open. In total we did only 21, but we have more than 60 [businesses in MRC des Collines].”
Although the Sept. 19-20 weekend was labelled as a special operation, Fournel said that it is likely that regular check-ins on alcohol serving businesses will become more the norm.
He added that the weekend operation was done while the Outaouais was still at a yellow warning, but now that the region is at orange there is less lenience and further restrictions.
Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Sgt. Marc Tessier said that police were checking in on establishments throughout the MRC Pontiac as part of the operation, but he said that he had no localized data to share.
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