'Frustration is real' Ontario politicians agree on eliminating COVID-19 lockdowns

As businesses in Ontario fling open their doors, the province's major political parties seem to be on the same page on how to handle future waves of COVID-19 -- suggesting lockdowns could be a measure of the past.

The province entered the first phase of its economic reopening on Monday, allowing the majority of businesses to reopen with 50 per cent capacity for the next 21 days before the measures are gradually dialed back.

While the impact of the reopening has yet to be determined, Premier Doug Ford called it the "first step in returning to normal."

"All Ontarians are united in their desire to put this pandemic behind us and return to the life we knew before COVID-19,” the premier said in a statement.

The premier's political critics who have, in the past, called for circuit breaker measures to blunt previous waves of the pandemic now seem to agree with the government's position about moving beyond the pandemic.

"People are experiencing lockdown fatigue and the frustration is real," said the NDP's Catherine Fife at a news conference on Monday. "You can't hide from that, or pretend that it doesn't exist."

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca went further saying he doesn't want the province to endure another lockdown in the future.

"I didn't want the last lockdown, I haven't wanted any lockdown," Del Duca told reporters.

The political alignment, however, doesn't go much further as opposition parties at Queen's Park stress that the Progressive Conservative government isn't taking the steps necessary to avoid future economic restrictions.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, for example, says the province needs to manage both the economy and health system by expanding the number of sick days available to working Ontarians, and mandating N95 masks in vulnerable workplaces.

"If the premier wants to 'live with the virus' then the premier needs to take the steps necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus," Schreiner said.

The NDP is calling on the government to expand access to PCR testing, providing additional rapid antigen tests for businesses and for more investment in the province's 34 public health units.

"We can cope with COVID on a go-forward basis, but you cannot do that on the cheap," Fife said. "We have to support our communities, we have to support businesses and that is the approach that we would follow."

The Liberals repeated their calls for a "strengthened" proof of vaccination program to include three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine -- a request that has been flatly rejected by Ford.

But while opposition parties are stating their reluctance to move backwards, they're also cautioning the premier not to "randomly" pick a date for pandemic measures to end.

While the Ford government had initially set Mar. 28 as the date when most public health measures -- including mandatory masking in indoor public spaces -- would be lifted, critics say the government has to take its direction from public health officials.

"We will get to a point where, collectively, the numbers and the science will tell us that we can start to remove the mandates that we have in place, but we're just not there yet," Del Duca said.