Good morning Davenport, 

As you have no doubt seen, the COVID-19 pandemic continues its exponential growth in our city and province, with cases doubling in just the past two weeks alone. Modelling released by the provincial COVID Science Advisory Table confirmed what independent experts have been saying for weeks - the current restrictions are not enough to curb the spread of the virus, and with current trends our hospitals and Intensive Care Units could be overwhelmed in just a few weeks. 

Tuesday afternoon, the Ontario government declared a provincial State of Emergency under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMPCA). A new stay-at-home order will also come into effect as of 12:01am on Thursday, January 14, requiring everyone to remain at home with exceptions for permitted purposes or activities, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services, for exercise or for work where the work cannot be done remotely. In addition to limiting outings for these purposes, all businesses must ensure that any employee who can work from home, does work from home.

I know there are many outstanding questions about what these orders mean and how they will be enforced. My team and I are working to review the information the government has provided and will be following up with them as needed. You can check for updates from the government as at ontario.ca/alert.

The Official Opposition expressed our concern that the measures announced by Ford fall short of what’s needed to get a handle on this pandemic - and that means more illness and more lives lost unnecessarily. Ford failed to deliver the paid sick days or the immediate eviction ban that experts and the NDP have been calling for. Schools will remain closed, with none of the changes needed to re-open safely. Vulnerable residents and staff in Long Term Care homes will continue to get sick, and more will die. Big box stores will continue to operate with minor changes and our small local businesses will be squeezed further with no new supports. 

I will keep fighting for these measures so that we can save lives and see people through this terrible pandemic. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write in and advocate for better from this government. I am receiving hundreds of emails daily and we are doing our best to respond, get answers to your questions and take your ideas and concerns forward to the government.

Please read on for more updates on the restrictions, stay home and stay safe.

Thank you,


Marit Stiles, MPP
Davenport
MStiles-CO@ndp.on.ca // 416-535-3158

Public Health Restrictions

The following additional public health measures took effect January 13, 2021 at 12:01 a.m.: 

• Outdoor organized public gatherings and social gatherings are further restricted to a limit of five people with limited exceptions. 

• Individuals are required to wear a mask or face covering in the indoor areas of businesses or organizations that are open. Wearing a mask or face covering is now recommended outdoors when you can't physically distance more than two metres.  

• All non-essential retail stores, including hardware stores, alcohol retailers, and those offering curbside pickup or delivery, must open no earlier than 7 a.m. and close no later than 8 p.m. The restricted hours of operation do not apply to stores that primarily sell food, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores, and restaurants for takeout or delivery.

• Non-essential construction is further restricted, including below-grade construction, exempting survey.

New Measures

Schools

Schools will remain closed in Toronto until February 10, 2021, except for select Special Education classes as determined by school boards. Masking in Grades 1-3 and outdoors will be required upon any resumption of classes. 

I continue to call for broad, asymptomatic in-school testing and capping class sizes as part of any plan to return to schools. 

Child Care

Child care centres for non-school aged children will remain open, and emergency child care is available for eligible essential workers while schools are closed.

Evictions

After initially only saying they will “explore options” to prevent residential evictions, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing confirmed that the government will issue an order to freeze residential evictions in the coming days. An NDP motion to stop residential evictions was passed unanimously before the holidays, but Ford continues to delay issuing the order.

Supports for small business

No new supports were offered today for struggling small businesses. Despite heavy promotion, the promised Ontario Small Business Support Grant has still not been opened for applications. I spoke out about this over the weekend on behalf of Davenport small businesses.

Enforcement

The province will provide authority to all provincial offences officers, including the Ontario Provincial Police, local police forces, bylaw officers, and provincial workplace inspectors to issue tickets to individuals who do not comply with the stay-at-home-order, or those not wearing a mask or face covering indoors in places open to the public, subject to limited exceptions, as well as retail operators and companies who do not enforce requirements under orders under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act (ROA) or EMPCA. Those who decide not to abide by orders will be subject to a set fine and/or prosecution under both the ROA and EMCPA as applicable.

I will be monitoring this closely, as these new enforcement measures are aggressive. While we all need to do our part to follow public health orders, we know that racialised people are disproportionately impacted by this virus, and by over-policing. 

Stay Safe