Here are today’s new developments:
- The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which is due to expire soon for many, will be extended. Details of what that will look expected out later this week.
- In Ontario, a new slate of regions were green lit to proceed to Stage Two, which permits the reopening of businesses like restaurants, salons and shopping malls. Toronto, the Peel region and the Windsor-Essex region, where cases of COVID-19 are higher, are not yet allowed to move to Stage Two. The government has drawn fire for failing to take any action in Windsor-Essex, where there has been a surge of COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant workers in Essex County. Windsor’s mayor has asked Ford for mandated testing of migrant workers. We have been urging them to get a grip on these outbreaks through more financial support and supplies, and concrete directives on PPE, sanitation and bunkhouses.
- Close to 400,000 frontline workers in Ontario have not received the pandemic pay Doug Ford promised them two months ago. For many weeks,we have been pressing the government to ensure workers receive their much-deserved raise immediately, and for those top-ups to be retroactive to the start of the pandemic.
What I'm pushing for:
- Andrea Horwath is demanding that Doug Ford revoke the operating licenses for all eight retirement homes owned by the group responsible for Rosslyn Retirement Residence, where seniors have faced harrowing conditions, and 14 residents died of COVID-19. 63 residents and 20 staff were infected.
- Gilles Bisson said it's unfair to Ontarians for the Ford government to move some of its decision-making regarding the province's economic recovery behind closed doors. "“The membership of the COVID-19 command table is being kept secret by Doug Ford” said Bisson. “The list of high-risk red long-term care homes is being kept secret by Doug Ford. Now the list of people, organizations and sectors that will have any standing at all in the recovery plan is being dragged behind closed doors," Gilles said in a press release.
- We have proposed two crucial changes to legislation the Government will introduce to protect only some businesses from eviction during the pandemic, excluding numerous others. Those crucial changes are including all businesses in the protection against eviction – not just a select few – and making that protection retroactive to mid-March.