Premier Doug Ford said the province is facing costs of up to $23 billion to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 and that the federal government's $14-billion offer to help provinces restart their economies safely must be the "start of the conversation, not the end."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a media availability on Friday morning that he had presented a $14-billion offer — a "safe restart agreement" — to all premiers during a call on Thursday for "the things that all Canadians need."
Trudeau said the funds would be targeted towards "very specific standards that need to be met for Canadians right across the country."
The agreement would cover the next six to eight months, said Trudeau, who outlined several areas for funding. These included more personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health-care workers and businesses, sick pay of up to 10 days and funding for childcare, municipalities, seniors and other vulnerable populations.
"I’m looking forward to working with the premiers to make this happen," said Trudeau. "Provinces and territories are facing different realities so flexibly will be important, but here’s the bottom line: for seniors and people who need extra support for kids and for workers, this plan is for you."
The prime minister, speaking in French, described his conversation with the premiers about this plan as "positive."
"But of course, there are a lot of details that will have to be discussed in the coming days, but we do hope to be able to get that money out to them soon, so that they can help Canadians across the country," he said.
At Queen's Park a few hours later, Ford said he's "grateful," but that $14 billion isn't enough.
"It’s a good start and I thank the prime minister for his support, but the reality is we have a $23-billion problem in Ontario, and $14 billion for all of Canada, it won’t solve the problem," Ford said, adding that the $23-billion cost estimate includes funding for the COVID-19 healthcare response, PPE, municipalities, childcare and long-term care homes.
"$14 billion for all of Canada just won’t cut it," said Ford.
He also called for flexibility in the funding so that provinces could use it for what they need and said he doesn't support funding for 10 days of paid sick leave. The Progressive Conservative government overhauled labour legislation in 2018, cancelling paid sick days.
"I don’t support it," Ford said. "We have legislation that protects jobs of people if they don’t feel safe, they don’t have to go into work, and that’s a priority for B.C., but there wasn’t too much take up on that right across the country to be very frank."
Ford said he would rather the funding go towards long-term care or municipalities.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca criticized the premier's response, saying it showed he "hasn’t learned any lessons from the pandemic."
"Make no mistake, if there are no paid sick days vulnerable workers will show up to the job in order to make ends meet and it will imperil others," Del Duca said in a statement. "The best way to keep Ontario workplaces healthy is to ensure sick workers can remain at home — that is good for the employee and good for the employer."
Stage 2 details coming soon
Ford said the government will share details about the second stage of reopening the province "early next week." But he stressed that this doesn't mark the beginning of this next step.
"Stage 2 will not begin immediately, we’ll be giving notice to businesses to start getting ready," said Ford, whose comments came one week after he announced that officials were considering a regional approach to reopening. "We’re making steady progress and we’ll be ready very soon to take our next steps in restarting our economy, but it won’t happen overnight."
The government will also outline a "phased plan" for gradually reopening childcare centres next week, said Ford. Currently, only select centres that are providing emergency childcare for frontlines workers are allowed to be open.
"As much as Stage 2 will be focused on getting people back to work, it’s also about finding ways to try to get life back to normal this summer, even if it’s a little different than before," Ford said.
Ontario entered Stage 1 of reopening on May 19, which allowed retail stores with street entrances, car dealerships, recreational sports centres for individual sports and other facilities to open. Responding to a question, Ford said on Friday that he thinks Ontario is "moving at the right pace."
"I can't say we're moving too slowly, we're moving cautiously," said Ford.
Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli said while many sectors would like to open "right away," the government will continue to follow the advice of health experts.
Ford thanks Torontonians for "peaceful protest"
The premier praised Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders for taking a knee with people protesting against anti-Black racism in downtown Toronto on Friday.
#BREAKING - Toronto police chief Mark Saunders takes a knee with demonstrators on Yonge Street. https://t.co/fFlr8wHc9V
— Richard Southern (@richard680news) June 5, 2020
"I saw that picture, man that was impactful. You know, that’s what you call true leadership, is what the chief did," said Ford. "As for politicians, that's really up to the politicians if they want to do that, you know, by all means."
Ford said while he hadn't planned on meeting with the protesters in Toronto, if he did, he would thank them for their "peaceful protest."
"You know our country was founded on protests and getting your voice out there, so it's important they get their voice out there and we're listening," he said.
Trudeau was also seen kneeling with protestors on Parliament Hill.
Protesters and the PM take a knee again as folks observe a moment of silence #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/lpk1mawYY4
— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) June 5, 2020
The march in Toronto on Friday follow a wave of demonstrations across Canada and the United States after the police killing of George Floyd.
Asked why the government wasn't making it mandatory for ministries, especially the Ministry of Health, to collect race-based data, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province hasn't "traditionally" done this for health.
She pointed to the option for local public health units to collect race-based data if someone consents to it and said the government is working on a "broader framework in order to be able to collect that in a meaningful way and of course to protect people's privacy and confidentiality."
A report on many long-term care reports
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario released a report Friday that compiled the recommendations of 35 different reports on long-term care, plus a public inquiry and a coroner’s inquest, on the systemic problems in long-term care. In sum, the huge body of work calls for increased staffing levels and a modernized funding formula to meet the needs of the increasingly fragile population.
The RNAO is not calling for a public inquiry, as the opposition parties and many other health-care associations have, but for immediate action.
“It is disheartening, exhausting and expensive to continue to study problems that are known and understood and where the missing factor is the political will to act decisively rather than, once again, kick the can down the road with more commissions and more reports,” said CEO Doris Grinspun in a press release. “Enough of over-studying and under-acting in this sector – we know and the government knows what needs to be done to improve and save the lives of LTC residents.”
The RNAO has suggested a specific staffing formula that gives each resident at least four hours of direct nursing and personal care per day and recommends how that should be divided between registered nurses, registered practical nurses and personal support workers. The organization noted that prior to the pandemic the ministry began a study on the staffing mix in long-term care, prompted by the findings of the Long-Term Care Homes Public Inquiry, and that report is due at the end of July.
-with files from Jessica Smith Cross
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