Schools, Camps and Day Cares
Today, Premier Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, announced that schools will remain closed for the rest of this school year. The government unveiled an expanded seven-point summer learning program.
The government also indicated that summer overnight camps will not be allowed to open but activity day camps may open in July and August with strict health and safety guidelines, subject to continued progress on COVID-19 trends.
Licensed child-care centres, other than those for emergency child care, will remain closed during Stage 1 of the Framework for the Reopening the Province. However, the Minster indicated today that a “gradual reopening” is expected when Stage 2 begins, subject to new safety protocols.
You can read the news release here.
Independent Commission into Long-Term Care
Earlier today, Minister Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care announced that the government will be launching an independent Commission into Ontario’s long-term care system beginning in September. In the upcoming months, the government will finalize details of the Commission including “terms of reference, membership, leadership of the Commission and reporting timelines”. You can read the full statement here.
The NDP Official Opposition Leader, Andrea Horwath is calling on the government to launch a full, independent public inquiry under the province’s Public Inquiries Act.
Extension of Emergency Orders
The Ontario government has extended all emergency orders that were due to expire today, until May 29, 2020. The complete list of the emergency orders can be found here.
The province issued one exemption to the emergency order related to gatherings to allow Ontarians to attend drive-in religious gatherings. The drive-in religious gatherings must adhere to the following conditions:
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- Keep vehicles two metres or more apart
- Only members of the same household can be in one vehicle
- People will not be able to leave their vehicles
- No more than five people can conduct the service at one time from outside a motor vehicle and they must stay at least two metres apart.
- More information can be found here.
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