New safety guidelines
As the Ford government prepares to reopen the province's economy — gradually and slowly — it has released new safety guidelines for businesses and added inspectors to make sure companies are compliant with existing laws.
The government has prepared over 65 different sets of guidelines for sectors like health-care, retail, automotive, tourism and hospitality, office workers, transit, transportation, utilities, and construction, Premier Doug Ford said.
The guidelines released on Thursday are for the manufacturing, food manufacturing and processing, restaurant and food service, and agricultural sectors. They include tips like holding team meetings outdoors, staggering shifts and installing plexiglass barriers in offices.
"These guidelines will help Ontario businesses adapt to the new reality we face, and keep workers and customers safe," Ford said.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton wouldn't say whether any of the new guidelines will be mandatory, but said he expects businesses to follow them.
"Employers are doing a good job. But we have to do better," he said.
The 58 new safety inspectors brings the province's total to about 500, McNaughton said. Some will focus on communicating the new safety guidelines, and others will focus on enforcing the existing emergency measures, he said. The inspectors can level $750 fines under provincial emergency measures.
"If you’re not doing a good job of promoting distancing, the inspectors will help you correct that. Eventually, if you're not doing a good enough job, you'll get fined," McNaughton said.
The NDP called for the province to issue enforceable rules instead of guidelines.
“Some employers will work hard to keep people as safe as they can when they re-open following the COVID-19 peak. And some absolutely will not,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said in a release. “Allowing individual employers to decide if their employees, customers and suppliers get to be adequately protected is a bad idea that will put people at risk, and hurt us all if it leads to a resurgence of COVID-19.”
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the government should also take this opportunity to help make businesses "greener and more inclusive."
Auto insurance
Ford sidestepped a question about whether the government should mandate auto insurance companies to lower their rates, but called on providers to do so voluntarily.
“A message to the insurance companies: lower your rates. People aren’t driving as much. That's my message to them," he said. "They have to lower their rates, because again, people aren't driving, the risks to the insurance companies are much lower, but you keep taking their cheques! Start lowering the rates for these people. We're hurting, but you need to pitch in too."
The NDP has called for a three-month, 50-per-cent discount on auto insurance, with deferred payments for people who have lost income as a result of the pandemic.
“If the Ford government wanted to give drivers a break, they could do it today. Instead, Ford continues to let insurers take drivers for a ride,” NDP auto insurance critic Tom Rakocevic said in a statement. “Drivers needs less talk and more action.”
Commercial rent
Despite placing a provincial ban on residential evictions during the pandemic, Ford declined to do the same for commercial tenants.
The province and the federal government have put a combined $900 million into commercial and residential rent relief, he said. "That should help a lot of people."
To receive that financial aid, property owners have to reduce rental costs of small business tenants for April to June by at least 75 per cent and commit to a moratorium on evictions for three months. One survey found just one in five small businesses expect to receive help from the program.
Del Duca said Ford should commit to a commercial eviction moratorium.
"We have heard from many small businesses that their landlords are not participating in the federal/provincial program. Worse, others are being pressured into bad agreements or bankruptcy," he said in a statement, noting that it would not directly cost the province any money.
Window visits
Ford called for an end to the city of Ottawa's ban on people visiting their loved ones through the windows of long-term care homes owned by the city.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ford said. “I don’t know who’s come up with this ridiculous idea, but they need to rethink it."
The premier, whose mother-in-law is in a long-term care home, said it was "heartbreaking" to think of people who can't see their loved ones during the pandemic.
"Put yourself in their shoes. When my family goes to visit my mother-in-law, do you know what I think? I think, thank God she's on the first floor," he said.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he has directed city staff to put an end to the ban by May 7.
1/2 I have directed City staff to work with OPH to come up with a way to reinstate window visits for family members with loved ones at our long term care homes.
— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) April 30, 2020
In the meantime, Ford encouraged people to ignore the directive.
“Go visit your loved ones, as far as I’m concerned. This is critical. And hopefully it won't be the last time you see them. I'd go to the window.”
Liberal calls to action
MPP Michael Coteau called on the Ford government to collect race-based data related to the pandemic.
“In the United States, we have tragically seen how Black and other minority communities are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. For instance, just across the border in Michigan, 33 percent of overall cases are African-Americans, as are 40 percent of the state’s deaths related to COVID-19. Yet, Black people make up only 14 percent of Michigan’s population,” Coteau wrote in a letter to the premier.
Toronto, Mississauga, Caledon, Brampton and York are collecting race-based data on a municipal level.
Ford has previously said he doesn't "believe in collecting race-based data."
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said the provincial government should establish a fund for independent journalism, noting that many smaller outlets that are not eligible for other government help have faced cutbacks and closures during the pandemic.
"Today, I am calling for an Ontario Independent Journalism Fund to aid these small publications and help them bridge to better times," Del Duca wrote in a letter to Ford. "Multicultural news outlets are important institutions that inform Ontarians of every background on current events."
Readmitting patients to long-term care
In a memo sent to hospitals and long-term care homes on Wednesday, the government told hospitals that residents may be returned to their original long-term care homes as long as the home is not in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak; the resident has tested negative and is transferred within 24 hours of testing negative for the virus; and the home ensures that the resident can self-isolate for 14 days.
A provincial directive had paused discharges from hospitals to long-term care since April 16. Hospital patients still cannot be discharged to a long-term care home they didn't live in to begin with.
Class action against long-term care provider
Diamond and Diamond has filed a $50-million class action lawsuit against Ontario private long-term care provider Revera. It's the second class action suit against a long-term care company in the province filed this week.
Neither suit has yet been certified as class action by a judge.
The Diamond and Diamond suit was filed on behalf of two men, Peter Masucci and Tonino Ricci, who both lost their mothers to COVID-19 while living in a Revera facility. They allege the home lacked proper sanitation and testing protocols, and did not adequately communicate safety measures during the outbreak.
Anyone who is living or has lived in a Revera home between Jan. 1 and "the end of the pandemic," or their families, can seek damages, the law firm said.
"There are more victims out there," Masucci said in a Diamond and Diamond release. "They simply didn't do enough for their staff, or in testing rollout or isolation of infected individuals."
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