In a week that saw the provincial government pull the “emergency brake” for Ontario followed by a more restrictive stay-at-home order, Vic Fedeli says it’s a pivotal moment in the pandemic.
“I view this as planting a flag in the ground today. This is like D Day for us. We’re not playing defence anymore, we’re playing offence now,” the MPP for Nipissing said in an interview with MyNorthBayNow.com.
Earlier in the week, North Bay city council agreed to advocate the higher levels of government for more vaccine supply to the region. The motion suggested unused vaccines from southern Ontario hot spots be shipped to northern regions, which Fedeli says is not practical.
“When you open a case of vaccines, they need to be used. You can’t just ship them to someone else,” Fedeli said, adding the federal government is to blame for low vaccine numbers.
As for his government’s focus on the southern Ontario hot spots, Fedeli says it is done so for the entire province.
“If you’ve got a problem at the distribution centres and the supply chains which happen to be in southern Ontario, if one of those facilities goes into shutdown, our food supply will be affected here. The shelves in our grocery stores will be empty,” he said. “You can’t just think ‘what about me? What about my area?’ You need to think ‘how do we make sure we have food in our area?’.”
“If we don’t take care of the bigger problem, we’re going to pay the price here in North Bay,” Fedeli stated.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued a stay-at-home order which began Thursday, forbidding any non-essential trips out of the home. It also included restrictions on all businesses, including big box stores for the first time.
During the region’s last lockdown, which lasted nearly three months, Fedeli said the government had “struck a balance” with big box stores when questioned about why there were no restrictions on their sale of non-essential items.
“Over the last couple of months, we spent time talking with the big box stores and told them that they need to consult with us so we have a better understanding of how this should be done,” Fedeli said. “I think this time around, we were prepared to be able to move things around and shift things around. They had time to consider what to do because we consulted with them over the last couple of months.”
For small businesses who are affected by the latest round of restrictions, Fedeli says anyone who applied for the Small Business Support Grant in the winter will receive more money within the month. New applicants for the program will not be accepted.
Ontario has reported record numbers in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations this week, while also reporting a daily-high 105,000 vaccine doses given on Thursday.
Fedeli says during the 28-day stay-at-home order, the provincial government intends on vaccinating 40 percent of Ontarians.
