September 18th, 2020
September 18th, 2020
HAMILTON — With spiking case counts, and huge lines at over-capacity testing centres, Ontarians can’t wait any longer for Doug Ford to get his act together and put forward a COVID-19 management plan for the second wave, said Leader of the Official Opposition Andrea Horwath.
“Parents are lining up with babies at testing centres for the whole day only to be turned away without getting a test. Students and staff are terrified to go into their schools. The infections in child care centres and long-term care homes are rising again. It should never have come to this,” said Horwath. “Doug Ford couldn’t find time in his busy campaign schedule to put together a second-wave plan, and now, again, the province is chasing a crisis instead of getting out in front of it. We can’t wait another second for a second-wave plan.”
Despite warnings about what was coming, the Ford government was far behind in responding to crises developing during the first wave — deadly outbreaks in long-term care homes, a dramatic lack of testing for weeks on end, and spread among migrant workers. Horwath said the lack of a plan is not for lack of available funding, since Ford is sitting on $6.7 billion earmarked for coping with the pandemic, most of it transferred from the federal government.
“This money could have prevented people from getting sick. Ford could have paid for more testing centres so little ones, coughing and feverish, didn’t have to spend eight hours in line at testing centres. He could have ensured that small businesses and the people who work there wouldn’t be worried right now that a second lock-down is on its way.”
Ford jumped outdoor gathering sizes from 10 to 100 overnight. He opened schools with no physical distancing requirements or caps on class sizes. He waited far too long to take over nursing homes where there wasn’t proper infection control, and seniors were dying of COVID-19, and is now returning control of those homes back the corporations that hurt seniors before. Experts and families alike say the rise in cases, as well as the hours-long lines at testing centres, were predictable.
“If I were premier, I would have spent the summer boosting resources for public health units across the province and preventing spread with testing, contact tracing and paid sick days for everyone,” said Horwath. “I’d be capping class sizes at no more than 15 and school busses at 50 per cent. I’d be staffing up long-term care with thousands of PSWs, and making their jobs full-time and better paid. I’d be shoring up hospitals now, and have a plan in place to support renters, workers and small businesses, like the NDP’s Save Main Street plan.”