'Main Street has been devastated': Your Ontario COVID-19 roundup

Cases

The province announced 88 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and two additional deaths.

Most of the new cases were in Toronto (23), Peel (22) and Ottawa (16).

Among the new cases were one resident and two workers at long-term care homes, where there are 12 active outbreaks.

Evictions

The NDP is calling on the Ford government to extend the ban on commercial evictions, which is set to expire at the end of the month.

“Main Street has been devastated by the pandemic, and the Ford government has done little to help when they needed it most. We’ve already seen too many businesses forced to lay off workers and shut their doors forever,” said MPP Catherine Fife, her party's economic development critic, in a press release.

“The driving force of Ontario’s economic recovery will be small businesses. We need to protect them from shutting down and give them the breathing room they need to start re-hiring workers and start growing again,” said Fife.

“The pandemic is not over and businesses are not even close to being out of the woods. It makes no economic sense to make small businesses vulnerable to eviction right now. Instead, the Ford government should be offering more direct support, including rent relief, to save Main Street and protect jobs."

Meanwhile, Ford was asked at his daily press conference what his government would do to protect the thousands of people who are facing eviction now that the ban on residential evictions has been lifted.

Ford didn't offer any help, but said he'd like landlords and tenants to communicate with each other.

"Well, we’ve always said from the beginning we’d like a discussion between the tenant and the landlord, and try to work things out," he said.

He also pointed to recently passed legislation that critics have said will make it easier for landlords to evict tenants. Ford pointed out that it makes it harder for landlords to repeatedly evict tenants by falsely claiming they need the unit for personal use.

"I’ll always protect the tenants, that's my number one priority, but I also have to be fair to the — especially the small — landlords that we've heard a lot of stories about, the mom and pop landlords per se, that might be renting their basement out and relying on that money to pay their mortgage," he said. "So, it’s just, it's absolutely critical that you know we try to work things out and communicate with each other, and if you have a job then pay your rent. That's all I'm asking."

Meanwhile, the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA) has written to the Landlord and Tenant Board to express its concerns that the new rules of procedure will be challenging for tenants and ultimately result in mass homelessness.

Service Ontario lines

The NDP is also calling on the Ford government to reverse its cut to Service Ontario outlets, to allow them to decrease long lines by adding more hours.

MPP Tom Rakocevic, his party's critic for government and consumer services, said NDP MPPs have been getting calls from concerned constituents.

“People continue to contact my office and the offices of my fellow NDP MPPs, expressing frustration about long waits and crowded line-ups at Service Ontario centres around Ontario,” Rakocevic said. “During the pandemic, we have heard from seniors that having to wait in a long and crowded line-up makes for a stressful and risky experience."