Community News Update - April 19, 2024
Community News Update - November 30, 2020
Dear Community,
I hope that everyone has had a safe and restful weekend, as we continue to struggle with the difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we’ve seen another 1,746 reported cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, with 622 of those cases here in Toronto.
Our seven-day average now sits at 1,570 – which is a record high.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s important to emphasize time and time again just how important it is that we all follow the advice of our public health experts – and ensure that we’re washing our hands, maintaining a safe distance from those we do not reside with, and consistently wearing our masks when we’re in public.
These simple steps have saved and will save lives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been advocating strongly for smaller classrooms, and investments that will ensure safety in our education system. Sadly, we’ve seen little action to address these concerns, and today alone, of 1700+ COVID-19 positive tests – 102 were school-related.
One of the hardest-hit schools was right here in Toronto – with 19 positive cases found at Thorncliffe Park Public School.
In response to this – today we are calling on the Ford government to implement in-school COVID-19 testing in the hardest-hit neighbourhoods in our province. Places like Brampton, Mississauga, Etobicoke, York South, Thorncliffe Park, Weston, and Scarborough are seeing big spikes in cases – and one key point of transmission is in our schools.
This proposal would enable students to have easy access to testing – and would help greatly with contact tracing and slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Another emerging story this week is the fees that are being charged by delivery apps to restaurants – which are often as high as 30%. This is doing a great deal of damage to our local restaurants that have already been hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The response that has been proposed by the Liberal and Conservative parties at Queen’s Park has been confusing – with their proposed reductions to these rates only applying to businesses in the GTA and Peel. In reality, this is an issue that’s affecting businesses right across this province – and it’s our duty as a provincial legislature to legislate for everyone. So today, we are calling on the government to revise this proposal to protect all restaurants in Ontario and the jobs that they create.
In Solidarity,
Jill Andrew
