The path out of the pandemic: COVID-19 exit strategies for the GTA at the ballot box
As Election Day nears, CTV News Toronto is taking a deeper look into the issues that matter most to local voters, breaking down the party promises as they apply to battleground: GTA.
THE ISSUE
Amid the hum of the Union Station concourse, Ryan Thornton snaps a photo of the paper vaccination receipt on his lap—the ink, still fresh.
The 33-year-old utility worker has just received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, waiting out the required 15 minutes in the aftercare area.
“I’m just doing it so I can try to continue a normal life,” Thornton says of the shot. “Go to my kids’ sports, go to hockey arenas.”
He’s not sure yet whether he’ll be required to show his proof of vaccination to his own employer, but is vexed that some workers will be required to get immunized to keep their careers.
“There’s a lot of people who are going to lose their jobs if they are not vaccinated, how do you support a family?” Thornton says. “I feel like it should be everyone’s choice.”
THE BACKGROUND
As various COVID-19 vaccination requirements come into effect across the country, the federal political parties are pitching their own versions of what Canada’s path out of the pandemic will look like. Proof of immunization for federally regulated workers and industries is part of the plan for some; for others, the focus has shifted to border control, research and investment, and emergency preparedness.
THE LIBERAL PROMISE
“Canadians need to keep getting vaccinated,” Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau maintained along the campaign trail, pledging to implement mandatory COVID-19 immunization for travellers on planes, trains, and cruise ships—as well as for federal public servants.
A re-elected Liberal government would also provide $1 billion to support provincial vaccine certificates for use in non-essential businesses and public spaces and would table legislation to protect businesses and organizations requiring vaccination from lawsuits.
The federal Liberals would also invest $100 million to study the long-term health impacts of COVID-19, and $9-billion to train and better pay thousands of new personal support workers.
THE CONSERVATIVE PROMISE
Unlike the Liberals, the federal Tories insist vaccines should not be required for travellers and federal civil servants—maintaining that rapid COVID-19 testing should be offered as an alternative.
“It’s about having an approach of respect, and having to work with people to overcome any concerns about vaccination,” leader Erin O’Toole said Sept. 6 on the campaign trail.
The Conservatives would require rapid testing at all border entry points and close the border to travellers from hotspots where new variants are detected. The party would also accelerate Health Canada approvals for rapid tests, make at-home rapid tests readily available to Canadians and implement a national rapid screening program for businesses and public institutions.
O’Toole is also promising to ramp up Canadian vaccine research and production, increase domestic production of critical supplies and personal protective equipment and implement an emergency preparedness plan to prevent future pandemics.
THE NDP PROMISE
“We want to make it easier to get vaccinated by providing more awareness and promoting folks to get vaccinated,” New Democrat Party leader Jagmeet Singh explained Sept. 5.
Singh’s party would require mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and support discipline, including termination, for those who refused.
The NDP would also support an international travel-focused vaccine passport that could also be used domestically, expand domestic manufacturing capacity for vaccines and personal protective equipment, establish a Crown corporation in charge of vaccine production and support the lifting of COVID-19 vaccine patents.
THE GREEN PROMISE
If elected the federal Green Party would require COVID-19 vaccines for federally regulated workers and would implement a Canada-wide vaccine passport system. It would also build a publicly-owned vaccine production facility in Canada.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Triple murder or manslaughter? Sudbury jury deliberating fate of man responsible for fatal firebombing
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.