Doug Ford’s rhetoric falls short of the reality of COVID-19

When it comes to Doug Ford and COVID-19, the trick is measuring the gap between rhetoric and reality. On Tuesday, the chasm between his words and his government’s actions yawned as wide as ever.

The Ontario premier, speaking right after public health officials sketched a truly alarming picture of the state of the pandemic, was appropriately sombre.

New cases are skyrocketing; deaths in long-term-care are on track to exceed the carnage of the first wave; a virulent new strain of the disease threatens to send the caseload into orbit; hospitals may soon be forced to make wrenching decisions about who to save and who they must let die. “The system is on the brink of collapse,” warned the premier.

In response, Ontario announced a new state of emergency that includes a dramatic-sounding “stay-at-home” order that will go into effect on Thursday.

But look closer at what the province is actually doing. More to the point, look at what it’s not doing despite the sky-is-falling projections for the next few weeks of the pandemic.

It’s not ordering non-essential retailers to close their doors, as it did in the first lockdown. One of the reasons the streets were so empty last spring was there was nowhere to go. This time, retailers are just being told to close for curbside shopping by 8 p.m., hardly a big restriction on them and a reason for shoppers to venture out.

It’s extending school closures in the five hardest-hit regions for another three weeks, until Feb. 10. But it’s not ordering other businesses, like non-essential manufacturers, to close even for even a brief “circuit breaker” period that might interrupt the relentless spread of COVID-19.

Instead, it’s just telling employers to make sure anyone who can work at home does just that. And it’s requiring that masks be worn inside businesses that do remain open (and outside if people can’t stay two metres apart).

It’s not ordering municipalities to close such things as libraries, playgrounds and skating rinks. That was part of the first lockdown, but it’s nowhere to be found in this plan even though public health officials are painting an even direr picture of the pandemic than they did 10 months ago.

Most importantly, the government is not putting in place any significant new measures that would make it easier for people to do the right thing and stay home as much as possible.

Public health officials were absolutely clear on Tuesday that such measures should be part of any new plan if it’s to have a good chance of slowing the spread of COVID-19. Asked directly whether a plan without such supports will work, Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, the top official briefing on new projections of the disease, said flatly: “I don’t believe that it will.”

The most important “support” in this context comes down to one key measure: paid sick leave to make sure that the vast army of low-paid workers in sectors like transportation, warehousing and light manufacturing can actually stay home when they’re sick or fear they might be.

We’ve known for months that the virus isn’t spreading just because some lazy or irresponsible people insist on flouting the rules and throwing house parties.

No, the much bigger reason is that many people have jobs that simply can’t be done from home offices. They have to travel, usually on public transportation, to their factories or warehouses. Far too often, they don’t have decent benefits and risk not being paid if they don’t show up for work. So off to work they go, even if they don’t feel well, with tragically predictable results.

Not surprisingly, the second wave of COVID-19 took off in regions where many of these people live, and has now spread across the province.

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Despite all this, the Ford government won’t budge on bringing in paid sick leave, even for the duration of the pandemic. Once again on Tuesday the premier pointed to a federal program that provides for two weeks of paid leave, but public health officials are now openly saying that program is inadequate and the province must step up.

Ford’s refusal to act on this front shows that his rhetoric about “doing everything in our power” to fight COVID-19 falls far short of the reality. His government could be doing more, and it should.