The legislature may not be sitting – but Ontario Liberals are hard at work holding the government accountable. Here’s what we would have asked if Question Period was held today.
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Question for the Premier of Ontario: We know that the Ontario government will be announcing its plan to re-open our provincial economy over the coming weeks. Medical experts have told us there are two keys to success: broad-based testing of the general population and effective contact tracing and isolation of positive cases.
Can Premier Ford please provide a detailed and transparent explanation as to why Ontario has yet to hit its daily capacity for testing, even though he expressed his “impatience” about this situation several weeks ago?
Supplementary: So far, Ontario has lagged badly behind other provinces in terms of using our full daily testing capacity, and we have yet to receive any clear sense of why we have failed while others have not. This is not good enough and we need clear answers to serious questions.
Are Ontario’s community labs being fully utilized in the fight against COVID-19? If not, why not?
Can Premier Ford outline exactly what steps he is taking to make sure we hit our daily testing capacity?
Question for the Premier of Ontario: We have seen many examples of other places around the world that have grappled with COVID-19 and have been able to reduce restrictions successfully. South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are all examples of how this has been done.
Can Premier Ford explain if he believes it’s safe to re-open Ontario’s economy if we are not able to do enough testing to guarantee our safety?
Supplementary: The government has been saying one thing – international medical experts have been singing a different tune. Can Premier Ford explain why other provinces (like British Columbia) and states (like New York) are so far ahead of Ontario in contact tracing and testing?
Question for the Premier of Ontario: Over the weekend the government dumped data that shows the state of long-term homes in Ontario is far worse than ever previously revealed. The Toronto Star showed that Ontario has consistently been underreporting the number of COVID-19 related deaths. When did the government know the fatality count was higher than the numbers they were publicly releasing – and why did they not come clean with Ontarians then?
Supplementary: British Columbia took action on restricting the number of homes a PSW can work in a month ago. The province’s order in council on this took effect just last Wednesday. Can the government explain why they did not move faster to protect our seniors?