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Prince George Citizen April 9, 2020

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Carrier Sekani helping residents Arthur Williams Citizen staff

Like all communities in Canada, First Nations are struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to respond to the ever-changing needs, Chief Mina Holmes said.

Citizen Photo by James Doyle

Vegetables are scooped onto a plate of turkey with all the trimmings at White Goose Bistro’s fifth annual Christmas Day dinner in December. During the coronavirus pandemic, the restaurant is busy offering takeout service. Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff

As soon as the provincial health minister ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms and only offer takeout orders, White Goose Bistro turned to social media to encourage their customers to continue patronizing the establishment in a different way.

The response has been tremendous. The family-owned business has been successful for the last 14 years and has never experienced anything like this, Fallon Moreland said. She believes their continued success is because they have reached out to people on Facebook to have a conversation about

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what customers would like to see on their menu. Recently, The White Goose Bistro featured a full Greek menu that was a great success during a two-day event. For the next event, White Goose is considering a Mexican theme. Still, it takes some getting used to not to have guests sitting in their establishment. “I miss the interaction with customers,” Moreland said. “I love talking to people, I love serving people and I love my job. This situation is a whole other experience.” It’s all in the timing for fine dining, now there’s no spacing needed to enjoy each courses. It’s all served at once. “There’s a learning curve for sure but we’re doing good though,” Moreland said. “We had to figure out a new way to do this to keep it going. We’re doing what we can to keep the doors open and ride the wave until everything goes back to normal.” And Moreland believes people will flock back to restaurants when we’re all past this pandemic. “People are bored,” Moreland said. “They will go back to their old routine after all this is done. It’ll be like ‘we’re free!’” On the flip side, Dragon Stone Mongolian Grill has been forced to shut its

door permanently in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Owner Wendy Wedman opened the restaurant in 2015 after family members visited a Mongolian style restaurant in the States and then another in a different part of the province. “I thought we needed to bring a healthy option like that to Prince George,” Wedman said. “We jumped in with both feet.” It was Wedman’s first restaurant and her last. “I won’t be doing this again.” The decision to close was because there was no opportunity to social distance in the way the restaurant was designed. “It was more so than even just a buffet,” Wedman said. “Once you got your food you stood in line to watch it being made so it was a double line of not being able to physically distance yourself. The experts are saying this is going to go on for months and then the second wave is going to come in the fall and there will probably be restrictions throughout the summer and for our style of restaurant all the restrictions would have to be lifted before we could even being a viable option again.” Wedman said they just couldn’t hold on for that long. “So we made the decision that made the most sense,” she said.

“They’re all in crisis management mode right now,” Holmes said. “They’re setting up road checks... encouraging people to stay home, wash your hands.” The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council - a coalition of the Ts’il Kaz Koh, Nadleh Whut’en, Saik’uz, Stellat’en Takla Lake, Tl’azt’en and Wet’suwet’en First Nations - is also doing the best it can to reach out to members living off reserve, to offer what support they can, she said. “It’s really important that people have current information and accurate information,” Holmes said. The tribal council has been reaching out to youth to offer support and providing information on crisis lines they can call if they need to talk to someone, she said. First Nations youth have the highest rate of suicide in Canada, and the social distancing measures being enforced could leave vulnerable youth feeling alone and unsupported Many First Nations administrative offices are closed or running on limited hours, and some staff have been given the option to take a layoff or altered duties. “This has changed the way we do business. Work has not slowed down one bit,” Holmes said. “My schedule has not slowed down at all. Although I am self-isolating, and working from home.” First Nations’ businesses also have been hit hard, the same as businesses throughout Prince George, Canada and the world, she said. “Everyone is experiencing the struggle to make payroll and minimize layoffs,” she said. The tribal council delivered care packages to vulnerable Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Prince George over the weekend and early this week. Holmes also co-founded a Facebook group called COVID-19 Coming Together (Prince George), where Prince George residents can reach out and help each other get through the pandemic.


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