Last week the Premier’s own health advisors said a stay-at-home order was necessary to bring the third wave under control. The government has again failed to act.
Ford’s continued failures are deliberate and a result of his government consistently siding with corporate interests whenever they conflict with human health.
Decisive action with economic support for working people is necessary.
Other countries, including socialist countries such as Vietnam, Cuba and China, have shown that it was and is possible to stop community spread of the disease, but only by taking swift and decisive action.
End workplace and school spread
- Amend employment standards legislation to require a minimum of 14 days of employer-paid sick leave per year.
- Enforce COVID-19 health advisories in workplaces, with penalties for employers who violate the advisories; set-up hotlines to report employer violations.
- Enforce the right of all workers – organized and unorganized – to refuse unsafe work.
- Where it is safe for schools to be open, the Province must provide the education funding necessary for school boards to be able to reduce class and cohort sizes, find additional public space for use by schools to allow for necessary physical distancing and resolve unsafe ventilation.
- Vaccinate essential workers and enact paid vaccination leave.
Stop making workers choose between livelihoods and their lives
- Stop all evictions, cancel rents, and ban foreclosures for the duration of the crisis.
- Immediately find safe housing for homeless Ontarians, which could include the use of the Province’s expropriation powers.
- Make EI non-contributory, and universal and immediately accessible to all workers including part- time and precarious workers and first-time job seekers, for the duration of unemployment at 90% of previous wages or 90% of an annual livable income.
- Introduce a guaranteed livable income program, to raise social assistance and disability payments to a living level well above the poverty line.
Take profit out of healthcare
- Put all Long-term care facilities under public ownership and operation, with funding for adequate and well-paid staff and sufficient protective equipment and procedures.
- Pharmaceutical companies, producers of medical equipment and supplies, and other health related businesses that are vital to public health should be put under public ownership and democratic control.
- Convert Canada’s $25 billion military budget to civilian spending for public healthcare, hospitals, beds, staff and equipment, medical research, testing for COVID-19, and for protection of workers’ jobs, wages and incomes, the sick, the elderly, and the poor.
