TORONTO — Mike Schreiner made the following statement regarding the Premier’s response to the pandemic:
“As we head into the holidays, our worst fears for the pandemic’s strain on our hospitals and health care workers seem to be coming true.
Current modelling shows that by the end of January hospital ICUs could be flooded by COVID-19 patients.
Are we prepared to see patients in the parking lots? Or having to choose between which patients get a hospital bed or a ventilator? Ontario is not immune to the horrors seen in other countries.
This is why I have been repeatedly calling on the Premier to act decisively and urgently.
I understand the toll lockdown restrictions take on small business owners, workers and families. This is why the government needs to step in and help alleviate the impact.
I continue to call on the Government to immediately:
- increase supports for small businesses with a direct support model of up to $15,000 per business in lockdown areas.
- call now for an extended winter break and improve ventilation and reduce class sizes in schools
- institute paid sick leave
- make the pandemic pay increase for PSWs permanent
- reinstate the moratorium on residential evictions in hot spots and implement a rent support program for people who cannot make rent due to the pandemic.
We can help Ontarians weather this storm, there’s still time. But the Premier needs to act now.”