John Tory Says Ontario's Step 3 Needs To End 'Cautiously' So There Isn't Another Lockdown
Tory says there is "no definitive time," yet.
Mayor John Tory says there is "no definitive time" for when restrictions will loosen in Ontario, but he did confirm that discussions are ongoing during an interview with Breakfast Television on Thursday morning.
"Well there's discussions that are ongoing, and I've talked to the premier a couple of times about it because you know we're all aware of the fact that we need to have consistent rules and policies that apply across all sectors of the economy and that includes our friends in the restaurant business who have had really big struggles for the last number of months," said Tory.
Tory explained that the province needs to take the time to "get this right" and "appropriately" and "cautiously" lift restrictions to avoid going back into a lockdown and losing the province's progress.
"We have made such progress and the last thing we want is to put ourselves in a position where restrictions could be lifted only to find if it wasn't done the right way that we'd have to go back to a lockdown of some kind."
Tory also acknowledged complaints that restrictions in the past were put into place without enough warning for businesses.
"I have heard [...] that they want to make sure when they make the announcement, they also give time, because it's been a complaint registered before that when some of these changes have taken place people in different kinds of business haven't had enough notice so that they can prepare their inventory, get staff and so on, and this is not a simple proposition these days."
"I can just say that they are working hard to get it done as soon as possible, but again, everything is being done in a responsible way, both from the standpoint of public health but also from the standpoint of recognizing the realities of business."
According to CTV, step three of the reopening plan could end as early as next week.