Ontario Construction News staff writer
Toronto and Peel Region are issuing orders to force businesses with five or more cases of COVID-19 to shut down.
All employees impacted by a closure will be required to self-isolate and cannot work anywhere else during the closure period.
“With rapid and wider spread of variants as observed in our data, the updated Section 22 Order provisions are necessary to quickly stop spread, protect our healthcare system and save lives,” reads a release from Peel Public Health. “Workplace exposures in Peel Region continue to drive the region’s high case counts of COVID-19. Expedited closure will also allow Peel Public Health to investigate workplace exposures without risk of continued spread.”
The public health agencies are asking all employers who are directed to close under the order to provide paid sick leave for impacted employees, though this is not an official order.
“In the absence of legislated paid sick days, we also call on all employers impacted by expedited closure to provide paid leave for all employees impacted by COVID-19 or these new safety measures, and to consider moving as many operations as possible virtually to reduce risk,” Peel Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh said.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton issued a statement following the federal budget, saying he will continue pushing for changes to the sick leave program.
“We’ve been advocating to the federal government to improve the program. We saw the budget yesterday, more than $100 billion in new spending, and ours and other province’s calls to improve the sick leave program, that wasn’t in the budget,” McNaughton said.
McNaughton also said the province would assist in helping any workers forced to isolate at home due to the new measure.
“We’ll be working with local public health to make sure these workers are looked after,” he said.
As of April 15, Toronto Public Health had publicly identified 26 workplace outbreaks of coronavirus, all with more than five known active cases.
On Tuesday, Peel’s COVID-19 tracker listed a total of 402 workplace outbreaks to date, including 11 at construction sites. There are currently 30 active outbreaks at businesses.
Closures will last 10 days if it is found that those infected “could have reasonably acquired their infection at work” or if “no obvious source” for transmission is identified outside of the workplace.
“Workplaces that remain open continue to be a major driver of COVID-19 cases in Peel, as they have been throughout the course of our emergency response,” Loh said.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says the order is good news for workers.
“I fully support focusing attention on the areas that are seeing the most #COVID19 transmission. We have had over 400 workplace outbreaks in Peel. No business is more important than public health & employee safety,” he said.
Orders will be issued through Section 22 of Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act, which grants local medical officers certain authority when faced with public health crises.
Workplaces such as health care, first responders and emergency child care, will be exempted.
“This Section 22 order is meant to help slam the brakes on workplace outbreaks that we know are moving much faster due to the variants of concern,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a statement.
“I urge all employers to follow the public health advice to stop outbreaks and protect their employees including against the financial consequences of illness.”
In a statement, Toronto Public Health (TPH) said the Section 22 necessary tool to break the chains of transmission within Toronto workplaces where COVID-19 is determined to be spreading.
Workplaces or portions of workplaces, where five or more confirmed cases are identified within a 14-day period and where cases could reasonably have been acquired through infection in the workplace will be forced to close for a minimum of 10 days.
The Order will be available on the City of Toronto website, when issued, by Friday April 23, 2021.
The COVID-19 situation is serious with case counts that are the highest they have been since the beginning of the pandemic, the statement read, advising employers that continue to be open to:
- re-evaluate their operations to determine whether every possible person who can work remotely is currently doing so.
- have a safety plan.
- ensure to keep distance between employees, screen employees daily and immediately report more than two cases in their workplace.
“Workplaces that are open provide an opportunity for COVID-19 to spread. Given that the majority of our cases are now as a result of variants of concern, which transmit faster, this order will support Toronto Public Health’s investigators to help workplaces immediately reduce the risk of spread and manage workplace outbreaks quickly,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health, Toronto Public Health.