TORONTO — The Ontario government has declared a provincial emergency to fight the rise of COVID-19 cases that includes a shutdown of non-essential construction.
Premier Doug Ford made the announcement at a media conference this afternoon accompanied by Minister of Health Christine Elliott.
There was no definition of essential construction offered during the announcement, with a release indicating “non-essential construction is further restricted, including below-grade construction, exempting survey.”
Yesterday, Public Health recommended limits be placed for construction activity, but those limits would still allow for “essential construction” to continue. This would include health care as well as critical infrastructure and residential buildings.
“Despite our best efforts, COVID-19 is continuing to spread in our communities, our hospitals, our long-term care homes, and our workplaces. We are continuing to see concerning trends across the province, including a tragic number of deaths,” said Elliott. “We have made great strides in vaccinating tens of thousands of Ontarians, and we can’t let these efforts go to waste. Urgent action is required to break this deadly trend of transmission, ensure people stay home, and save lives.”
The measures came “in response to a doubling in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, the real and looming threat of the collapse of the province’s hospital system and alarming risks posed to long-term care homes as a result of high COVID-19 transmission rates,” stated the release.
The shutdown comes into effect between Tuesday, Jan. 12 and Thursday, Jan. 14, including the provincial declaration of emergency under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, orders under that Act, and amendments to regulations under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020.
Watch the Daily Commercial News for further information on the construction shutdown.
I am perplexed at this move. Construction sites have implemented stringent Covid-19 protocols to go with the other many safety protocols we follow on a daily basis. MOL registered construction sites deemed unessential should remain open as these are registered and can be visited by the MOL at any time for Covid 19 inspections. There are many fly by night sites that will continue as they are “Flying under the MOL Radar”. I assure you these sites do not have any protocols let alone ones that are monitored.
I think the Premier should be more concerned with limiting the travel in and out of our international airports. Or shut that down completely for a period until numbers stabilize and proper controls are put in place for allowing people to travel, safely!. If some of his ministers traveled over the holidays, it’s expected that many others have too! Alarming!!!!!!
It seems our government is “reacting”, instead of “acting” to this pandemic. When we experience fear, we tend to act in irrational ways. We need to step back and access the situation and make the decisions which will truly make the difference.
We need to start thinking.