Statement from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

QUEEN’S PARK — On the day that COVID-19 infections hit the highest-ever daily count in Ontario, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it’s clear Doug Ford’s incomplete, weeks-late so-called plan isn’t working — and she urged the government to make the investments needed to try to get ahead of the second wave, now.

“The Ford government is doing the bare minimum in order to save a buck, and it’s not working,” said Horwath. “Parents are worried about their kids as COVID-19 cases climb in schools, families are worried about their grandparents as COVID-19 reignites in long-term care homes, and tens of thousands of people are waiting anxiously in self-isolation for their test results because of a backlog. It’s clear Doug Ford’s late, incomplete, so-called plan for the second wave isn’t working.”

Horwath said today’s “pillar” of Ford’s late, vague, incomplete and penny-pinching plan is many millions of dollars short. COVID-19 is already back in long-term care homes and hospitals, and already costing families their loved ones. Staffing is at an all-time low. Yet Ford has introduced just a temporary incentive, committing to spend no more than 0.1 per cent of the $6.7 billion in COVID-19 response money he’s been sitting on.

“To save money, Ford has been dragging his feet and avoiding action when he should have been capping class sizes at 15; giving public health more resources to test, expand lab capacity and contact trace; staffing up long-term care homes with full-time jobs that are permanently better paying; and bringing in paid sick days to keep folks with symptoms at home. Instead, the government is scrambling to chase this crisis as Ontario slides backwards in the fight against COVID-19.

“We shouldn’t need to slide back into Stage 2. But this government is currently doing nothing to prevent that.”