Premier Doug Ford says he agrees “it’s not fair” that Walmart, Costco and The Bay on Yonge St. can stay open while small retailers of non-essential goods must keep their doors closed to customers.

But, under pressure to ease lockdown measures in Toronto and Peel as Ontario reported a record 1,589 new COVID-19 cases and another 19 deaths Monday, Ford said doing so risks the virus spreading faster.

“We would be in terrible, terrible shape.”

The comments came as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business pleaded for help with non-essential businesses limited to curbside pickup and deliveries with the busy holiday shopping season on the way.

Only retailers selling essential items such as food, pharmacy and hardware can keep their doors open to customers, although at 50 per cent of customer capacity under the lockdown that began Monday.

“Too many business owners feel they are being unfairly targeted so the government can send a signal to the public that they need to take the pandemic seriously,” CFIB president Dan Kelly said, echoing concerns raised in the first lockdown last spring.

The lobby group called existing government supports a “drop in the bucket” and pushed for reopenings with strict capacity limits on customers, such as no more than three at one time or shopping by appointment to keep main streets alive.

“Many businesses in these regions have already lost three to five months of their year from government shutdowns,” Kelly said, dubbing the advantage granted to bigger retailers “outrageous.”

Asked about levelling the playing field by forcing Walmart and Costco to block off areas of the store not selling essentials, Ford said his discussions with executives convinced him that would be a “logistical nightmare.”

That’s no consolation to small retailers left to pay the price of the pandemic without adequate provincial supports, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

“It’s simply unfair that Costco and Walmart can continue selling jewelry, PlayStations and other non-essential goods while mom and pop retailers must shut down entirely.”

Small Business Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said provincial aid includes a $600 million assistance fund available for applications online, and acknowledged business owners are facing “significant challenges.”

The decisions on which businesses to close were made “with the best advice of public health officials” amid the surge in COVID-19, he added.

“We’ll continue to work with our public health officials to get this right.”

With the CFIB demanding to see data supporting the closure of non-essential business, associate chief medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe said specifics are hard to come by because public health units can’t keep up with contact tracing.

But she told reporters there is “widespread community transmission” of COVID-19 and that it can happen in small spaces that are crowded or with poor ventilation.

“Those are the kinds of circumstances that may occur in smaller businesses,” Yaffe said.

The 1,589 new cases reported Monday lift the province’s seven-day rolling average of new infections to 1,429, near its record of 1,443 last week.

Ministry of Health figures showed Peel Region had 535 new cases and Toronto had 336. There were 205 in York Region, which remains in the red or “control” zone of precautions, which is one category short of lockdown.

Ford said tough restrictions were necessary with hospitalizations from COVID-19 climbing rapidly since September and threatening to crowd out non-emergency surgeries once admissions to intensive care units topped 150.

That number rose to 156 in Monday’s reports, the highest since mid-May.

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: