Ontario Construction News staff writer
Ontario is closing restaurants, theatres, gyms, returning schools to online learning and delaying non-urgent medical procedures at hospitals in response to record-high COVID-19 infections, the Premier announced Monday.
Eligible businesses that are required to close or reduce capacity will receive rebate payments for a portion of the property tax and energy costs they incur while subject to these measures. Those required to reduce capacity to 50 per cent, such as smaller retail stores, will receive a rebate payment equivalent to 50 per cent of their costs, while businesses required to close for indoor activities, such as restaurants and gyms, will receive a rebate payment equivalent to 100 per cent of their costs.
A full list of eligible business types will be made available when applications for the program open later this month.
The government is also exploring options for providing further targeted and necessary supports for businesses and workers impacted by restrictions.
In addition, hospitals will stop all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures in order to preserve critical care and human resource capacity.
All publicly funded and private schools will move to remote learning starting January 5 until at least January 17, subject to public health trends and operational considerations.
“Our public health experts tell us we could see hundreds of thousands of cases every day,” Premier Doug Ford said at a press conference, adding that this could mean hospitals end up thousands of beds short.
“If we don’t do everything possible to get this variant under control, the results could be catastrophic. It is a risk I cannot take,” he said.
Currently, about one per cent of Omicron cases in Ontario require hospital care.
However, the rapid rise of cases, which may soon number in the hundreds of thousands, could result in the province’s hospital capacity becoming overwhelmed if further action isn’t taken to curb transmission.
In response, the province will return to the modified version of Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopen effective Jan. 5 at 12:01 a.m. for at least 21 days (Jan. 26), subject to trends in public health and health system indicators.
These measures include:
- Reducing social gathering limits to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors.
- Limiting capacity at organized public events to five people indoors.
- Requiring businesses and organizations to ensure employees work remotely unless the nature of their work requires them to be on-site.
- Limiting capacity at indoor weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites and ceremonies to 50 per cent capacity of the particular room. Outdoor services are limited to the number of people that can maintain 2 metres of physical distance. Social gatherings associated with these services must adhere to the social gathering limits.
- Retail settings, including shopping malls, permitted at 50 per cent capacity.
- Closing indoor meeting and event spaces with limited exceptions but permitting outdoor spaces to remain open with restrictions.
- Closing indoor dining at restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments. Outdoor dining with restrictions, takeout, drive through and delivery is permitted.
- Restricting the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m.
- Closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries, zoos, science centres, landmarks, historic sites, botanical gardens and similar attractions, amusement parks and waterparks, tour and guide services and fairs, rural exhibitions, and festivals.
- Closing indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities including gyms, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are permitted to operate but with the number of spectators not to exceed 50 per cent occupancy and other requirements.