Provincial

The Official Opposition wants a list of long-term care facilities and other congregate care settings experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 to be posted publicly online.   The NDP’s call comes after at least 31 deaths were confirmed at a Pickering long-term care facility that was reporting only four deaths just days ago.   “This is a scary time for families with loved ...

Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce gave teachers, students and families the impression that at least 21,000 new iPads were on the way to give families in need access to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The truth is that school boards won’t get a single extra device.   “We’ve heard from boards all over the province that are inundated with ...

Doug Ford et Stephen Lecce ont laissé croire, tant aux enseignant·es qu’aux élèves et à leurs familles, qu’au moins 21 000 nouvelles tablettes iPad parviendraient très bientôt aux familles dans le besoin, afin de permettre aux élèves qui en font partie d’avoir accès à l’apprentissage en ligne pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Or, la vérité c’est que les conseils scolaires ne ...

The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) and its members working in long-term care facilities are relieved that the ruling of the Superior Ontario Court today orders four long-term care homes to immediately rectify several serious health and safety issues that have resulted in devastating COVID-19 outbreaks. “It is truly a huge relief to know that after exhausting all other avenues, the ...

On the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Ontario government is extending all emergency orders that have been put in place to-date under s.7.0.2 (4) of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act until May 6, 2020. This extension will help protect the health and well-being of people across the province and stop the spread of COVID-19. This Emergency ...

The Ontario government is making progress on the implementation of the COVID-19 Action Plan for Protecting Long-Term Care Homes to help stop and contain the spread of COVID-19 in the province’s long-term care homes. The government has introduced more aggressive testing, screening, and surveillance, deployed specialized teams from hospitals, public health and the home care sector, recruited additional frontline staff, and increased ...

NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath held a kitchen table chat by video conference with students in Ontario who are struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Horwath heard from Brandon Rheal Amyot in Orillia, Ali C. in Peterborough and Sarah Jonasson in Brantford. Amyot is currently studying Political Science and Media Studies at Lakehead University’s Orillia campus. They were already ...

The Ontario government is investing $20 million to advance medical research and develop tools and resources to combat COVID-19 and other infectious diseases through the Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund. The government is calling on all of the province’s world-class research institutions, postsecondary institutions, and non-profit scientific partners to take action in the development of innovative solutions to track and defeat COVID-19. The ...

The Ontario government is expanding the list of essential workers eligible to receive emergency child care. This will help additional frontline staff during the COVID-19 outbreak. An emergency order was issued which will offer support to those providing a variety of critical services including people who assist vulnerable communities, emergency response and law enforcement sector staff, more health and safety ...

The Ontario government has partnered with Rogers Communications and Apple to help meet the educational needs of students and families during the COVID-19 outbreak. iPad is being purchased and distributed by Ontario school boards, pre-equipped with free Rogers LTE wireless data. Apple is providing on-going support in French and English to teachers, parents and students, with a collection of resources to support ...

The Ontario government is enabling auto insurance companies to provide temporary insurance premium rebates to drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The province has amended a regulation under the Insurance Act to help ease the financial pressure on working people and families during this public health crisis. By amending this regulation, insurance companies would be able to provide auto insurance premium rebates to consumers for ...

To help stop the spread of COVID-19 among the province’s most vulnerable citizens and ensure frontline services can continue to be delivered in priority areas, the Ontario government has issued new temporary emergency orders under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. “Every day, incredible sacrifices are being made by frontline workers in every region of the province to care for ...

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced Tuesday, April 14, 2020 that it will defer setting new electricity prices for households and small businesses under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). The OEB is also leaving the winter time-of-use (TOU) periods and winter residential tier threshold in place beyond May 1, 2020, to provide greater price stability for consumers when they are ...

The Ontario government is taking steps to better detect, plan and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. In consultation with the Ontario Privacy Commissioner, the province is developing a new health data platform called the Pandemic Threat Response (PANTHR). This new platform will hold secure health data that will allow researchers to better support health system planning and responsiveness, including the ...

The Ontario government continues to ensure that patients, frontline health care workers and first responders have the critical equipment and supplies they need to protect themselves during the COVID-19 outbreak. Over the last five days, more than 13 million surgical and procedural masks, 200,000 N95 respirator masks, and 38 ventilators have been delivered to Ontario’s pandemic stockpile warehouses. Le gouvernement ...