Ford government rejects NDP motion seeking to create provincial paid sick-leave program TORONTO Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
Getting audio file . This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy. Full Disclaimer
The Ontario government has voted against a series of Opposition motions aimed at supporting essential workers, including one that sought to create a provincial paid sick-leave program.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath presented the motions – which required unanimous consent of the legislature to pass – during a session today.
She called on Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives to pass the sick-leave motion, but the government voted against the measure.
TORONTO Ontario s health minister pushed back in Question Period on Monday amid suggestions that politics may have played a role in the selection of which areas of the province are prioritized for COVID-19 vaccine access. Liberal MPP John Fraser pointed to several areas based on the first three letters of a postal code deemed hot spots but data showed were low on the list of COVID-19 case rates and hospitalization rates. For example, a postal code region in Kanata, a riding of a government minister, is deemed a hot spot despite lower rates of hospitalization and death than some 300 other neighbourhoods in Ontario, Fraser said.
TORONTO Toronto could see about 2,500 COVID-19 cases per day by the end of April if the current rate of transmission remains the same, the city’s top doctor said Monday. In a presentation to Toronto’s Board of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa said that the third wave of the pandemic is “wreaking havoc” on the city. “All together this says that right now, what we can anticipate of this third wave, is likely going to be worse than we have seen thus far over the course of the pandemic,” the medical officer of health said. “As I ve mentioned already now a couple of times, this is due to increased transmission, and increased severity associated with that B.1.1.7. variant of concern, which is now the dominant strain.”
TORONTO Many people have not been driving their vehicles as much during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they still require maintenance to keep them running smoothly. Some drivers who want to avoid waiting rooms at dealerships and repair shops now have a new option for some services - mobile mechanics. “Driving to body shops during this time of COVID is not really something we want to be doing, said Jeff Bernstein of Toronto who decided to use a mobile service to change the oil in his van and swap his winter tires for summer ones. Bernstein has used https://estimates.getweel.com/ before the pandemic, but now he said it just makes that much more sense to have the services of mobile mechanics who can install a windshield or check your brakes without you having to leave home.