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Summary

Ontario Fined 5 Big Box Stores On Saturday Amid A Province-Wide Inspection Blitz

Doug Ford promised he'd come down on big box stores 'like an 800 lb gorilla.'
Ontario's Big Box Store Inspection Blitz Started Strong With 5 Fines On Saturday
Chandra Ramsurrun | Dreamstime
Staff Writer

We didn't have to wait long to see Ontario's big box store inspection blitz start getting results.

Doug Ford announced five days ago that the province would be ramping up inspections on workplaces — and big box stores in particular — and the Ministry of Labour, Training, and Skills Development has already started handing out fines.

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5 Big box stores fined on Saturday

According to a tweet from Monte McNaughton, the province's minister of labour, training, and skills development, Ontario inspected 110 big box stores on Saturday. 

Officers are there to make sure retailers are adhering to social distancing rules, enforcing proper mask usage, and keeping their stores at a reduced capacity, as per provincial guidelines.

According to CTV News, McNaughton said that 31 stores were in violation of COVID-19 rules, which led to 11 tickets and 11 formal warnings.

Five big box stores were fined on Saturday, McNaughton said, although he didn't name any of the offenders.

The Ministry was continuing their inspections on Sunday as well, according to his tweet.

Ontario is currently in the middle of a provincewide lockdown, and last week Doug Ford announced he would crack down on Big Box stores not following the rules "like an 800 lb gorilla."

TorontoCanadaNewsNews
  • Cormac O'Brien
    Cormac O'Brien was an Associate Editor at Narcity Canada, covering all things exciting and trending about Canada. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Journalism from the University of Victoria, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the campus newspaper and was awarded the BCYNA Community News Scholarship for his writing. He was also the producer and co-host of Now On Narcity, Narcity's flagship podcast.

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