Province Almost Ready to Open More Businesses

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 13:23

Premier Ford says on Thursday they will announce more low risk workplaces, seasonal businesses and essential services that can open.

ONTARIO - Premier Doug Ford announced today they are extending the State of Emergency in Ontario to June 2nd.

Ford says they will be making the formal request to the House this afternoon. He says we do have reasons to be hopeful.

"This extension will continue to enforce important health measures and while we have made significant progress, we still have a long way to go. On Sunday we saw the lowest daily number of new cases since March 31st. Our hospitals have added over 5,000 Acute Care Beds, we continue to ramp up testing, if we stay the course, we will soon be ready to take the next steps."

Ford says they are talking to business owners and job creators.

"There input is helping us inform the next steps, and the barriers we need to remove to ensure we can succeed in this new environment. We know have over 80 workplace safety guidelines to help our employers keep their staff and customers safe. We are building a solid foundation for the cautious reopening of our Province."

Ford says he is confident we can move forward and he says they will be sharing more good news on Thursday.

"More good news about getting people back to work, more good news about opening workplaces, getting pay checks out the door, more good news about slowly getting back to normal. On Thursday we will share more details about the next state of reopening our Province. We will be reopening more low risk workplaces, seasonal businesses and essential services."

Ford was also asked today about opening dog groomers and Seasonal RV and Trailer Parks.

"Well I can give them optimism, but I just can't tell you until Thursday. I have been getting the same calls about the campers and trailers and what I'm hearing is, it's not fair, your letting cottagers going up north, but as far as they are concerned, that is their cottage, the trailer, the camper. We will have some positive news coming out very shortly on that, because it is about fairness and we have to fair to the people who own the trailers and the campers as well."

You can listen to Ford's statement below.