A large swath of Ontario will move to Stage 3 of the province’s reopening plan on July 17, with the exception of the Greater Toronto Area and other parts of southern Ontario, which will remain in Stage 2 for now.
The province’s plan will allow for activities such as indoor dining in restaurants, live performing arts shows and the reopening of movie theatres and playgrounds — albeit with significant health and safety measures in place, including physical distancing, enhanced cleaning protocols and Plexiglas barriers.
“Every corner of our province is getting back to work,” Premier Doug Ford said at a Monday news conference.
“Today, we are ready to take the next step.”
Ontario health officials are holding a news conference at 3 p.m. ET. You can watch it live in the player above.
The province says it will allow indoor gatherings of up to 50 people in Stage 3 and outdoor gatherings of up to 100 people. However, according to the plan, physical distancing remains a requirement for all people who are not from the same household or established social circle.
Work colleagues, including performers and crews, do not count toward gathering limits, according to the province.
The following public health units will remain in Stage 2 for the time being:
Durham Region Health Department.
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit.
Halton Region Public Health.
Hamilton Public Health Services.
Lambton Public Health.
Niagara Region Public Health.
Peel Public Health.
Toronto Public Health.
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
York Region Public Health.
“These regions entered Stage 2 later on, so we need just a little more time,” Ford said. “I want the people in these regions to know we won’t leave anyone behind.
“We will keep working until every part of this province gets to Stage 3.”
WATCH | Premier Doug Ford outlines what Stage 3 of reopening in Ontario will look like:
Dine-in restaurants, bars, movie theatres and gyms are among the businesses allowed to reopen in parts of Ontario on Friday, according to Premier Doug Ford. 3:25
The plan also says that people gathering inside for religious services, weddings or funerals can continue to fill up to 30 per cent of a room’s capacity in Stage 3.
It also dictates that sport facilities and gyms can reopen but notes that physical distancing still must be maintained, “except if playing a team sport or as needed for personal training.”
Amusement parks and water parks are not being allowed to reopen in Stage 3 at the moment.
Health measures still in place in Stage 3
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday that health measures such as wearing face coverings, hand washing and physical distancing remain key to ensuring that Ontarians can “safely enjoy the loosening of restrictions.
“We expect the province will remain in Stage 3 for the foreseeable future,” Elliott said.
She also said that health officials will be monitoring for any COVID-19 outbreaks and can tighten restrictions if there are flare-ups.
The health minister also said social circles for people in Ontario will remain capped at 10 for now. The province can gradually expand them, but “just not right yet,” she said.
Finance Minister Rod Phillips said Ontario is in a “strong position” to reopen right now, especially compared to areas in some other countries being hard hit by COVID-19.
“We’re in this position because we have made the choice to act responsibly and treat each other with respect,” he said.
He said that respect is key in Stage 3 to “avoid taking a step backwards.”
116 new cases reported Monday
The loosening of restrictions comes as the spread of COVID-19 continues to slow in Ontario, with new daily case numbers having steadily declined over the last five weeks.
Ontario reported 116 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 today.
In a series of tweets this morning, Elliott noted that 29 of Ontario’s 34 public health units reported five or fewer additional cases today, while 21 of those 29 confirmed no new cases at all. There are currently fewer than 1,500 active cases provincewide.
Further, the number of patients in Ontario hospitals with infections of the novel coronavirus also continues to fall, she said. There were five times as many people being treated in hospital for COVID-19 at the beginning of June than there are now.
“Having seen a continued decline in the number of new [COVID-19] cases as the province entered Stage 2, and with hospitalizations being at all-time lows, today we’re providing details about Stage 3 of our plan to continue the safe and gradual reopening the province,” Elliott wrote.
Twenty-four public health units entered Stage 2 on June 12, and seven more on June 19. Toronto and Peel, the province’s most populous health units, then proceeded into Stage 2 five days after that. The move included reopening patios and hair salons.
The president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association is already expressing some hesitations at the prospect of entering the third phase.
“Given that hospitals continue to act as the anchor of Ontario’s response to COVID-19, [the OHA] will be giving this announcement some serious scrutiny,” Anthony Dale wrote on Twitter.
“We can’t have hallway health care in a pandemic.”
Nearly 89% of confirmed cases resolved
The additional cases of COVID-19 reported today mean that Ontario has now seen a total of 36,839 infections of the novel coronavirus since the outbreak began in late January.
Of those, 88.7 per cent are considered resolved by the Ministry of Health.
The province’s official death toll from the illness grew by three in today’s report and now sits at 2,722. A CBC News count based on data provided directly by public health units, however, puts the real toll at 2,756 as of yesterday evening.
About three quarters of all deaths were residents in long-term care homes. Health officials are currently tracking ongoing outbreaks in 23 facilities.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s network of about 30 community, commercial and hospital labs processed some 20,896 test samples for the virus since the last update. Another 7,837 are in the queue waiting to be completed.
You can read the province’s plan for Stage 3 here:
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
