Here are today’s new developments:
- Canada’s House of Commons resumed today, with the federal Conservatives blocking an agreement reached by the other parties for sittings of Parliament to be limited while the pandemic continues.
- Canada is bracing for potential shortages of critical drugs needed to treat COVID-patients, and has put a call out for new suppliers.
- Ontario appears to have avoided the worst-case pandemic scenario, with new projections suggesting the province saw the community spread of COVID-19 peak earlier than anticipated, which health officials attribute to vigilant social distancing measures — officials stressed that these measures must be continued for Ontario to eventually ease up and re-open the economy.
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The projections are far less promising when it comes to the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario’s long-term care homes and other congregate settings, where the curve continues its upswing.
Here are some concerns we are working on, and solutions we’re pushing for:
- With long-term care and other group home settings the epicentre of the pandemic, we called on the government to intervene with a host of measures, including taking over the management of long-term care homes most at risk, mandating that all workers limit to one facility—including temp agency workers—and raising wages for workers to $22 an hour.
- We also provided a fact-check to Premier's dismissal of the importance of Ontario collecting race-based data.
Here are some things we’re hearing from our community members:
- Ontario drivers say they need immediate relief on their auto insurance premiums, something the Ford government's approach falls far short of.
- People are raising concerns about the state of long-term care and seniors homes before COVID-19 — a problem we have been raising for years.
- Ongoing concerns about small businesses that are failing, with some facing eviction — through no fault of their own — because there is no provincial support in place for expenses like commercial rent.