The City of Toronto is reopening registration for CurbTO to provide temporary pickup zones for small businesses offering curbside pickup while the city is in lockdown.

Starting today, small businesses in the city can register for the service to provide easier curbside pickup for customers.

“The whole idea is supposed to be very easy. We then come out and put some blue signs in place in a given zone, taking up some parking spaces frankly that are normally for people to park. Or in areas where we sometimes wouldn’t allow parking but this is a special arrangement,” Mayor John Tory told CP24 Friday morning.

The program initially started in April to help small businesses provide convenient parking spots for customers and delivery personnel to use for quick pickups amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout the summer, around 200 temporary parking pick-up zones were created along main streets for short-term parking of no more than 10 minutes.

“Over time it got down to 65 (temporary parking pickup zones) for various reasons that people didn’t need to renew them or didn’t want to renew them but we’re prepared to go back up to a number that’s going to help the small businesses across the city to facilitate the curbside pickup because we want people to support those small businesses,” Tory said.

Tory added that city staff are working with Toronto police to plan enforcement and to ensure that the designated parking spots are used appropriately.

Many small businesses are currently struggling to keep afloat as Toronto is under a provincial lockdown for at least 28 days.

Toronto and Peel Region entered the grey “lockdown” level of the province’s COVID-19 response framework on Monday in an effort to reduce virus transmission in the hot spots.

Lockdown restrictions include the closure of non-essential businesses, indoor dining, gyms and movie theatres.

Main street businesses and BIAs can register for CurbTO on the city’s website.