good afternoon we've been laser focused on stopping the spread at covet 19 and trying to get things back to normal and while fighting covet 19 has been top of mind for our government other important initiatives have not been forgotten our government is prepared for other risks and challenges facing our province we're ready we've been ready since the start of flooding season as the weather gets warmer flooding is top of mind for many and it's top of mind for us because we've all witnessed the devastation that flooding brings with it it destroys everything from schools and homes to roads and bridges last year at least 10 regions in Ontario declared a state of emergency due to flooding I toured many of these regions personally I saw firsthand what Mother Nature can do it can change your life in a matter of seconds because when it comes to your home when it comes to your community there's no greater threat and with everything happening this year it's more critical than ever that we're ready for this season and it's up to us to protect our own that's why our government has been hard at work preparing for this year's flood season in March we delivered our flooding strategy to protect people and property across the province during the spring flooding season we have a war room in Peterborough our flooding command center where we have teams monitoring water levels and water flows 24/7 in every waterway across the province surveillance flights have already begun in the far north where we monitor the ice breaks as they're happening this is the kind of real-time information that can save lives but despite our best efforts we can't stop the flooding but what we can do is be prepared so when we know water levels are rising we're ready to deploy our highly trained emergency personnel men and women like our heroic forest fighters who transition to emergency flood management including efforts like sandbagging these teams are on standby and ready to be deployed where they are needed and I want to reassure the people of Ontario if you and your family are imminent danger from flooding we'll be ready we're on standby to bring you to safety we're ready to help people evacuate we're working with our federal partners to ensure every option is on the table including emergency assistance from the Red Cross and military personnel and while we pray that it won't come to that we must be prepared and we are we will be ready docked we'll be ready to protect our own thank you and God bless the people of Ontario now I hand it over to ministry Aquabus key thank you bring me Ford last year the premier and I toured parts of the province that were devastated by severe flooding it was heartbreaking to see the damage to homes and communities it was a situation we vowed to be better prepared for in the future that's why on March the 9th ahead of this year's flood season we released a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy that outlines specific steps to help the people who Ontario better prepare for flooding events but this year we needed to prepare for more than just rising water due to the cove it 19 outbreak we had to ensure the proper measures were in place to protect the health and safety of emergency workers and communities and we have done just that since the beginning of the flooding season we have closely monitored ongoing risks across the province right now there's an overall low risk of flooding throughout southern Ontario with no reports of significant flooding as the spring thaw draws to a close among the Great Lakes water levels are very high and are expected to remain so for the next few months as a result we are working with communities to put plans in place in order to keep residents safe in the event that shorelines are over topped in northeastern Ontario there has been some minor flooding this week after the rain event of a couple of days ago we're monitoring the situation closely and ready to respond to any requests for assistance in the far north current projections show a moderate to high risk of flooding for the James and Hudson Bay coasts on Thursday my ministry launched surveillance flights to assess conditions in this area we will continue to closely monitor the flooding situation in the far north as the spring ice breakup occurs we will also continue collaborating with partner organizations and other levels of government to advance the important long term initiatives contained in our flood mitigation plan we know there's nothing we can do to prevent flooding we can only become better prepared for it and that is exactly what we've been doing because protecting the people of Ontario is our top priority thank you and I'll now turn it over to sub – Solicitor General Silvia Jones thank you Minister Jakubowski we are all aware that this year's flooding season is not business as usual for anyone and due to the added challenge of kovat 19 nevertheless Ontario is ready to respond to anything Mother Nature throws at us in the coming days and weeks as Minister Yakka busky explained Ontario has been closely monitoring and is prepared for any challenge during the spring flooding season each year we gain more experience and expertise and gather more data to help emergency partners better prepare communities for the threat of rising water while the kovat 90 no break adds a level of complexity to our efforts this year I want to assure communities that we are ready and we will be there for you when support is needed we are ready because of the work that has been undertaken throughout the year in close collaboration with our federal partners municipalities First Nations chiefs and councils and agencies such as the Canadian Red Cross one specific consideration related to kovat 19 is that First Nations leaders have expressed a strong preference to stay in their land for as long as it is safe to do so we respect those wishes and will remain in close contact with First Nations leaders to ensure that we are ready to respond if the community means escalate I want to thank the emergency personnel and partners for their diligence and professionalism because of their year-round efforts we stand ready to provide support and resources to communities that find themselves in harm's way thank you the phone line for questions just reminder one question one follow-up please first question first question comes from Salman Farooqi from The Canadian Press please go ahead hi there I'm here for and I wanted to ask you have these strong words for lockdown protesters last week but what's your reaction to see that they're back outside Queens Park today you've already said that they have endangered people around them by their gathering so what would happen if this happens week after week well you know something I said what I said last last week and it's yeah first of all I understand people are hurting out there and people want to get back to work and there's a lot of people hurting and I can I can appreciate it but what they're what they're doing is putting their lives in jeopardy as far as I'm concerned with congregating you know side by side and and I saw I get it and I'm not against any any protest we we live in our free society we believe in freedom the right to protest but what-what just burns me up more than anything more than them standing out there as I look out the window and and I see our Canadian flag being flown upside down and when I when I see our flag or Canadian flag being flown upside down that's the utmost disrespect to the men and women that are overseas fighting for our freedoms our Canadian military the the six families the lost loved ones in the in the crash lost last week the the 250 men and women that are in harm's way walking in the long term care homes and and saving people's lives and they they have the nerve to fly our Canadian flag upside down and disrespect the men and women of our Canadian Armed Forces and disrespect the people of Canada that we've all been united through this this you know challenge and that that's what really really burns me up if they want to fly our flag upside down they don't respect our country I'll be the first to help unpack their bags and they can get fine to a country that they want but don't be flying our Canadian flag upside down that means everything to the people of Canada and our men and women on the front lines well let's panda yep sorry man I also wanted to ask a question related to how Quebec Ramirez talked about top tackling the pandemic he's described it now as a two separate sort of fights one in the problems with long term care homes and one and the rest of the problem is that also how you see the situation in Ontario and how does that sort of affect how you approach opening up in the future well I agree with premier logo there's two different worlds right now we're fighting this virus one in long-term care homes and one in the public domain and the public domain everyone is on an incredible job everyone across our very province has been following the protocol from the chief medical officer and that's the reason we we see the trend going down and we just wanted to continue going down we need consistency for a couple weeks and then we can loosen things up a little bit we had a little glimmer of hope yesterday and will continue giving people hope in this province to try to make sure we get back to the new normal as quickly as possible and we're working together everyone's working and I just want to thank the people of Ontario for everything they're doing next question next question comes from Cara Verma from a CBC national news please go ahead thank you very much and good afternoon premier and ministers premier you said this week we all need just a little bit more patience as we're approaching reopening we're starting to see cases slowly starting to drop based on what dr.
Williams and the Command table is telling you can you paint a bit of a picture about what summer will look like for the average Ontarian and what's at stake if we don't get reopening er well first of all thanks for the question you know we're seeing a gradual downward slope in the public domain and the lower we get the the more we can open up and get as I say the new normal and get people back working getting people out in a boat and and that's really what it comes down to I wish I wish I had a magical clock I could tell you exactly the time but it'd be very frank I don't know the exact time or I'd be be very transparent with the people but as we're working together and as I get information I pass that information on to on to the people of Ontario but if we keep going the way we're going we're gonna get out of this lot sooner than we thought we might be able to get out a couple months ago but I again I appreciate everyone's cooperation follow-up and just to the point that the Canadian Press reporter made we're seeing also protests in Ottawa about individuals who are thing shut down the lockdown is there a concern that if the phased approach takes too long that we're going to start to see more and more people just ignoring the recommendations from the command table and again what is the risk if that starts to happen well you know I don't believe that's going to happen as long as people keep going by the protocol the chief medical officer is put out there we're going to get through this we've come such a long way we've all stuck together as a team and this isn't the time to separate the team we just have to keep moving forward and we'll get out of this hopefully sooner than later and we're doing everything we can as a province to make sure that happens next question next question comes from Erika and that's have dad from at City News just go ahead hi thank you my question is foreign minister Elliot it's just in regards to vaccinations school-based clinics are of course not available right now and that's how many parents are able to keep up to date with their kids vaccines and for younger kids parents are just understandably concerned about bringing their kids to clinics to get their shots so how concerned are you about a drop in vaccination rates and what if any measures are you taking to address that well it is something that continues to be very important as we've seen we don't have a covert 19 vaccine yet hopefully we will very soon but that's why we were last fall speaking to people about getting the flu vaccine that's something that is really important and what we're taking a look at in the healthcare system is first of all the number of cases that we're dealing with the number of people there are being admitted to hospital with Kovach 19 as we look at balancing that with getting things back to reopening elective surgeries getting people the cardiac and cancer surgeries that they need getting children vaccinated of course that's also very important so we're really it's it's a very careful balancing that we need to maintain to make sure that we will still have that capability in our hospitals should we need to admit more people with Kovac 19 but also wanting to get to those essential surgeries that people have been waiting for I know that's causing a lot of anxiety for a lot of people we are working on that plan right now but also having children vaccinated I think that's going to be even more important to the people of Ontario as they've seen what's happened with kovat 19 and how they can keep themselves safe at least from the flu hopefully soon there will be the vaccine for cope in 19 – this is a follow up are you working with health units at the moment to maybe set up the safe way for kids to be vaccinated are you actually just tracking unvaccinated children we are looking at that on a daily basis yes we are working with our public health units on all of those issues because public health units of course have the responsibility primary responsibility right now for helping with kovat 19 but they have many other responsibilities as well and the vaccination of children is absolutely one of them next question next question comes from James Murray from net News ledger please go ahead bring you forward thank you for taking my call thank you a liter of fuel is about 70 cents in Toronto about the same price in Winnipeg in Thunder Bay today it's 96 cents a litre in dried mix 94 cents a litre gas prices jumped by about 10 cents a liter in Thunder Bay this week transportation for northerners is already hard enough because intercity buses have stopped running starting today what can be done for Northern Ontario residents with these kind of gas price increases well we have our Minister of Energy Greg Rickford all over this it's totally unfair that you know you're you're paying ninety some odd cents and in Thunder Bay and Kannur in other places but in in you know urban areas you're paying 70 cents you know or the gas companies just trying to gouge people they well we're gonna get an explanation off the gas companies for this because it's unacceptable absolutely unacceptable people are paying you know twenty thirty percent more in Thunder Bay and Canora and other regions but we'll get down to the bottom of this I promise he we're already all over this and there's no better person than Minister Rickford on the energy file but he's he's on it I promise you follow up yes follow up across ontario for indigenous people sacred fires are an important part of syrup ceremony of grieving and of healing get under the fire ban we're being told that divisions people can't hold a sacred fire for their spiritual purposes can Ontario amend the fire ban for this purpose well I'm going to put you over to the minister that's in charge of that thank you very much excuse me for that question as you know on April 3rd we instituted the restricted fire zones and the banned across the cross those zones across the province however First Nations or indigenous peoples if they want me to have a fire for ceremonial purposes we would urge them to reach out to their district offices and they can work with them to to give them a permit for that purpose but I would ask them to reach out to their local district offices on that issue and they're aware that our officers are aware that those requests could be coming next question next question comes from Scott like that from CTV News please go ahead that's very much wondering as the province start eating the restrictions and allowing businesses reopen there are some concerns that businesses may not have enough customers sustainable revenue to operate in what you've described it the new normal so is Ontario planning to do anything to address the challenges for these businesses after they reopen and do you foresee offering more financial aid should businesses continue to struggle once they've opened their doors again well Scott everything is on the table what we've done is everything from lowering hydro costs to making sure that they have rent subsidy when they they go back making sure that we've lowered their their taxes by 8.
75% on small businesses but that doesn't stop I I understand these small businesses are hurting right now and they need our help and we'll do everything we can we've lowered WSIB premiums by 1.
2 billion dollars so there's anything that we can do we're gonna help kick-start the economy we're gonna help support them because they're the backbone of our economy small businesses we have to get people confidence in Ontario that the economy is going to move forward the same way it was before the the pandemic in us we were on absolutely just booming in in Ontario and leading North American and economic development job creation per capita anywhere in North America I'm I'm confident I'm confident with the people and the small business owners once we start rallying together we'll do Bell well very well it's not gonna happen overnight and but we'll make sure we support them any way we can so what no follow up thank you thank you next question next question comes from morgan campbell from global news please go ahead thank you the question for our the creamiest you know the process you you have one that they're unacceptable why not send by law or policing just to hand out fines premier to anybody not respecting physical distance thing to kind of get this now you know something is a great question Morgan but I can't do that there's no premier I have my soldier Solicitor General behind me we can't direct the police I have confidence in the police they they know what needs to be done on any circumstance but I'll leave that up to the the leadership of the the Toronto Police and by law officers here in here in Toronto do I think it's a little unfair people walking through the park with their little child in a stroller and they get a ticket and these people don't well I'll leave that up to our great police and by the way I want to thank our police are by law officers I think the world of them they're doing an incredible job and I'm sure they'll do the right thing thank you there's also concerns them with you know restrictions in terms of fishing seasons and the spring bear hunt there are some people who are concerned about how these restrictions can impact you know such as things as the bear season I guess there's about 20, 000 bear licenses sold to Ontario residents every year can you tell me a little bit about how Ontario is going to approach the hunting and the fishing seasons that are upcoming sure I'll pass this over the minister but your allow you're still allowed to fish out there but he's the expert when it comes to the bear hunt well thank you very much for that question and yes as the Premier's said the fishing seasons that are scheduled to open have opened on schedule and the the turkey hunt did as well and spring bear hunt opened yesterday May the first those seasons are opening as scheduled and but we have made sure that people understand that regardless of what activity they're taking that is taking place or what activity they prayer participating in that they must respect the protocols that have been laid out and and granted in some areas there are some restrictions to access some municipalities municipalities have closed access points within their borders so there is there is realities with respect to that but when the season went on last Saturday we were quite actually impressed we got reports from our conservation officers who were very pleased with the conduct of the public with last Saturday's opening so we expect the same thing to go on as other seasons do open people are quite aware of what the expectation is regarding social distancing so we want them to protect themselves and to protect others follow the guidelines follow the protocols other than that we've we clearly said in other forums that if things aren't respected we will have to revisit some of the decisions but as of now we're comfortable that people have been respecting the protocols thank you last question last question comes from Brian Lilly from the Toronto Sun please go ahead I'd like to answer your reaction to yesterday's announcement by Prime Minister Trudeau and several cabinet ministers regarding firearms Alberta premier Jason Kenney has said that what they've done is singled out law-abiding Canadians who purchased their property legally have owned these items faithfully for years and have committed no crimes he went on to say that money would be far better used to pursue the smugglers and drug that plague our society given that the feds are talking about six hundred million dollars and that's the opening bid to buy back these guns to enforce all of this what did you do with Ontario's portion of that six hundred million dollars to actually deal with the crime guns that are plaguing our society well good good question Brian first of all I want the people of Ontario to know that our government will not tolerate I'll tell you they will not tolerate any gun crime of money any time not now not ever and all that of all people myself and all our Solicitor General behind me we have zero tolerance for violent criminals and I've made it my mission as premier to target the thugs and the lowlifes that are out there terrorizing innocent people over the past two years we've invested heavily we've worked hand in hand with our law enforcement which we support and we absolutely love our law enforcement to tackle guns and gangs at its core that that's the problem and as law enforcement experts of highlight highlighted time and time again the only way to truly tackle gun violence is to crack down on the illegal guns being smuggled in daily at our borders put money at our borders our great you know people that serve the border security Canadian border security they're incredible give them the money and greatly increase the the legal ramifications for these convicted gun crimes I've said this over and over again that you know these people they get charged and what's frustrating to police officers they're back on the streets in a few days or if they get sentenced they get sentence with a gun crime for a year or two the problem is not the legal gun owners we need to target the smugglers and we need to throw the book at these gangsters out there terrorizing our streets and then the federal government has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to buy back illegally purchase guns from license legal licensed gun owners responsible legal licensed gun owners and I can't help but think that that money can be put in much better use hunting down the violent criminals and and stopping illegal guns at our borders and I'm here and ready to work with our federal government and our part and partner up with them and to work with them to stop the guns coming in from across the border and number one priority is you know let's really strengthen that the bail conditions let's strengthen that the sentences rather than give them these nasty criminals these gangbangers a slap on the risk and they laugh at our pleas let's start giving them some tough sentences throw the key away with these people if they get caught with guns don't give them a slap on the wrist and then try to point the finger at legal law-abiding gun owners and spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of harder than taxpayers money for not well for what do you think the gun violence is gonna is gonna go down in Toronto well I don't believe it's gonna go down in Toronto based on taking guns off legal gun owners what I do believe we'll drop the drop the crime and start throwing these guys in jails protecting our communities protecting our families and our kids from these gang bangers that's what's going to stop it thank you now thank thank you so much everyone have a great weekend stay safe safe healthy.
