HAMILTON — Twenty-four hours after Doug Ford said capacity limits are unnecessary he’s changed his mind. Official Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the new measures are not only late, but incomplete, and just the start of the work that needs to be done to blunt the Omicron wave and help people get to the other side.
 
Ford will still allow thousands of people to gather at sporting events or concerts in large venues; and he’s excluding any gathering that is faith-based from safety measures.
 
“People are scared for their loved ones, and this mixed messaging and flip-flopping is dangerous. I support capacity limits — which should have been done days ago — but it’s not the end of the changes we need to make to help people get through this wave. Allowing 10,000 people to go to a game, and putting people who attend faith-based events at a higher risk than anyone else, is wrong,” said Horwath. “Let’s do this right so we can blunt the impacts of Omicron, and support people to get to the other side.”

 

• The ONDP is proposing that worker and small business supports be put in place now for those that lose income.

• Horwath is calling for the rapid testing debacle to be cleaned up after a day of mile-long lines and families looking for tests going home empty-handed. Horwath wants tens of millions more rapid tests released.

• She’s also calling for a massive hiring blitz in health care. Hospitals are dramatically understaffed, and the remaining nurses and other frontline health care workers are burned out and exhausted. The hiring plan must include repealing Ford’s low-wage law (Bill 124) and giving health care workers the respect they’ve always deserved.

• And the ONDP calling for the booster plan to be fixed, as millions of Ontarians prepare to go online to book their booster all at the same time on Monday morning.