TORONTO -- Mayor John Tory says it is “absolutely imperative” that the public is given “clearly understood criteria” for how the province will decide to move forward with restarting Ontario’s economy.
As part of the first stage of the Ford government’s plan to reopen Ontario, businesses across Toronto and the province, including retail stores with street entrances, will open their doors to customers on Tuesday for the first time since Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in March.
Tory said that while he believes the city is ready for this major milestone, the public needs to have a clear understanding of exactly how the province is making decisions to move forward with reopening Ontario.
“I think what will open tomorrow will be manageable… then we can see how the numbers go and that is the thing that is really important is to see what happens when we do have this modest reopening and keep a very close eye on that before we decide to rush into further reopenings,” Tory said.
The mayor said the province’s criteria for reopening more businesses will need to be clearly communicated to the public.
“We need to know what are the top five things that our governments... are using as criteria for saying it is time to do more,” Tory said.
“I think if we don't have that, then the public will be more anxious than they perhaps need to be.”
Pools could reopen in ‘the next few weeks’
Over the past few months, the mayor has fielded many questions from Torontonians who are eager to know when more restrictions will be lifted and additional facilities will be open to the public, including city pools.
Tory said his best guess for pools is sometime in the next few weeks.
“I have asked the question a couple of times and nobody seems to say pools are particularly dangerous. In other words, there is no one that suggests that in the water the virus transmits itself,” he said.
“My guess is we are going to be looking at some kind of an opening of pools... sometime in the next few weeks as we gradually reopen the community centres and the places where those pools are located.”
Tory promises to bring back fireworks
Tory also vowed to keep another summer tradition going this year despite the pandemic.
He said while the city had to skip the annual Victoria Day fireworks this weekend to keep crowds from gathering, he wants to bring fireworks back to the city at some point this summer.
“I'm still looking for a way to do some fireworks on Canada Day where you might do it in a place that would be very visible to most Torontonians without them having to be in a crowd scene,” he said.
“If we have to fireworks on the August Civic holiday this year... then that is what we will do but we are going to do it safely… Tell the kids it is coming up soon, that there has bit of a change in schedule this year.”
