Ontario now considering regional approach to reopening the province

by

TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is now considering a regional approach to reopening.

“The reality on the ground is different in every part of the province,” Ford said at Queen’s Park on Friday. “I am now comfortable with asking our officials to look at a regional approach for a staged reopening.”

“This will be one option we consider as we move into Stage 2.”

Ford said Ontario is able to consider a regional approach to reopening now that testing has ramped up across the province

“We are getting a much better picture of what each region is dealing with, with more testing that picture becomes more and more clear.”

Greater Toronto Area public health units have accounted for 65.6 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Ontario since the outset of the pandemic but that number has been trending steadily upwards in recent days and weeks and it is believed that more than three-quarters of active cases are now in the region.

The stark divide has prompted some officials in other parts of the province to call for a more regionalized approach that would allow for a quicker reopening in those areas.

The medical officers of health with Ontario's 34 public health units also advocated for such an approach in a letter sent to provincial officials earlier this week.

Earlier today, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he believes that Ontario should take a more regionalized approach to restarting the economy. He conceded that would likely mean the beginning of stage two of the province's reopening process would be pushed back a little longer in the Greater Toronto Area.

Tory said that he would support a region-by-region approach to reopening even if it means that many of the restrictions put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 will have to remain in effect in the GTA for a little longer.