well good afternoon before I start I want to take a minute to remember and honor the victims on the second anniversary of the Toronto van attack in the face of this horrible tragedy we came together to support one another as a community and as Canadians standing strong and united in the face of a cowardly act of violence and as I look back on that dark day and the unprecedented times we face now the recent tragedy of Nova Scotia I can't help but think that same strength that same spirit will guide us through these difficult times my friends the days we may be dark but I can assure you we're doing everything in our power to defeat this deadly virus we're taking nothing for granted because we're facing an enemy that doesn't sleep doesn't rest doesn't take a break so we can't either last Thursday we delivered an action plan to protect their most vulnerable seniors in long-term care homes within 48 hours of launching that plan we conducted thousands of tests we delivered thousands of pieces of PPE and put expert boots on the ground from our hospitals and health care partners and I'm glad to hear that the federal government has approved our request for military personnel we have literally called in the troops and the cavalry is on its way we're in the process of working with the federal government as we speak we're carefully assessing resources they make available to us and we will deploy those resources to where they're needed most my friends we're fighting this virus on all fronts nothing is off the table that's why I asked Minister Smith and his team to develop a full strategy to protect all of our most vulnerable Ontarians and today I'm pleased to deliver our covet action plan for vulnerable people this plan builds on the actions we've already taken to protect staff and residents and group homes in homeless shelters and women's children and youth shelters and those serving vulnerable indigenous people we restricted non-essential visitors we provided emergency childcare to staff we've delivered a hundred and forty-eight million dollars in direct funding through the social services relief fund to help these organizations hire staff purchase PPE and build isolation capacity we provided 40 million dollars in targeted funding through the covet residential relief fund these funds were put in place starting in March to help homeless shelters group homes and other municipal services respond and prepare for covet 19 and we are further protecting these vulnerable populations by ramping up screening and implementing mandatory testing at any outbreak site including testing all transfers and new residents we're deploying personal protective equipment to all staff in all congregate settings we're conducting risk assessments starting with their homeless shelters and group homes we will limit staff to only work in one resident during this outbreak and provide extra training for staff so they know what to do in the event of an oat break my friends were all in on this fight and that means getting resources and support to where they're needed it means giving a helping hand and I want to take a moment to thank our frontline heroes thank you to all the dedicated and hardworking staff who are working and helping those in need in our shelters and group homes across the province together we are stronger and together we will conquer this virus thank you and God bless the people of Ontario now I'll hand it over to Minister Smith thanks very much premier and good afternoon I'm happy to be here today to provide an update on the work our government is doing to support our vulnerable populations but before I begin I want to thank the ministers and their teams who couldn't join us here today but work day and night to get this plan off the ground ministers Greg Rickford Silvia Jones Jill Dunlop Steve Clark and Lisa Thompson and of course Minister Elliot who is with us here today we know there are immediate pressures facing congregated residential settings outside of long-term care and we know homes serving those with developmental disabilities shelters for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking homeless shelters and children and youth residential settings are at higher risk for kovat 19 transmission that's why today our government is taking immediate action to build upon previous efforts to protect our most vulnerable clients in these homes and our indigenous residential settings both on and off reserve our vulnerable populations kovat 19 action plan includes a series of actions to be put in place over the next 48 hours and coming days that are targeted at enhancing screening and testing in these settings to stop the spread of kovat 19 over the next 48 hours a combination of enhanced screening and reduced exposure measures will stabilize outbreaks in many of these settings to start we will increase screening of both visitors staff and residents make the use of masks mandatory in high-risk settings and provide additional guidance and training in the use of PPE and in certain high-risk settings limit staff to working for just one employer next we will address the need to control infection manage outbreaks and limit the spread of the virus this includes enhanced testing contact tracing further limits on staff mobility enhanced guidance of PPE usage and conservation training and education on how to deal with an outbreak developing alternate plans to move clients or close locations and better supporting the provinces homeless shelters the third pillar of our plan will focus on maintaining staffing levels and managing staff shortages under our protection plan we will stabilize the workforce will protect capacity by leveraging workers with equivalent skills from other community agencies as we implement this plan we will continue to work across government and with our sector partners and agencies to explore additional measures that can be taken I want to once again take this opportunity to thank our partners in the social services sector I cannot put into words how much our government and the entire province appreciates you and the work that you're doing Ontario and Canada is 100% behind you cheering you on every single day thank you for everything that you're doing and to all Ontarians you're doing their part they're staying home to stop the spread or volunteering and donating where you can to support others thank you for everything you're doing and your sacrifices together we will conquer Kovach 19 thank you go to the phone line for questions first question first question comes from at least rushing from CBC please go ahead hi there premier premier we're looking at more than 500 deaths in long-term care homes so far today we heard from the Prime Minister today as well and said we need to do a better job for the people in these homes and that were failing them did you fail the residents in long-term care here in Ontario well when I think of the long-term care Lisa my heart breaks for the the people and the families can we do better in the system yeah the the system absolutely but we're focused 100% I'm making sure we help the most vulnerable people and Lisa when I when I see you know when I see the front page of the Toronto Sun and you see a loved one with her elderly parent and they put their hand up against the window that's heartbreaking you know I relate to it in our own family as I as I mentioned with my wife Carla and and were the the person that got on a cherry picker anyways that the system we can do better Thanks premier I just wanted to follow up on them though it did we fail the residents in long-term care in Ontario considering we're seeing more than 500 deaths today well I think the system needs to be changed and we're changing the system but right now our main focus is to make sure that we protect the people inside these long-term care homes next question next question comes from Siobhan Morris from News Talk 10:10 please go ahead hi premier my question is in a similar vein to Lisa is just based on the prime minister's comments this morning you talked about an acknowledgement that we need to do better for the people in long-term care how do we do better where is the system lacking and where are we falling short that needs to be improved well I think I should pass that over to the minister long long-term care thank you so I want to give you some context you know I'm a family doctor for almost 30 years my own family went through this my heart breaks for families that are affected by this and and the staff that is working so valiantly to fight against this virus our long-term care homes are truly on the front line of this war with kovat 19 and we've seen this across the world and long-term care homes and the vulnerable people in them are our beloved residents in long-term care impacted in the most terrible terrible way we began very early as soon as we became a ministry to look at staff issues to look at redevelopment we knew that this long-term care sector had been neglected for many many many years and we were taking action to change that and when the pandemic hit and then we acted quickly we acted quickly with active screening we were one of the first provinces to do that and then we went to essential visitors we were one of the first provinces to do that and then we we made sure we added better staffing support more infection control we issued emergency orders to allow for staffing flexibility and on and on and on up to our most recent action plan and now we're not afraid to ask for help our homes are struggling and we've called in the military we have used every tool that we had and we've created new tools and this virus it's a war against Kovan 19 and I thank everyone who is working valiantly to defend our most vulnerable people and I my heart goes out to everyone who's been affected by this yeah the the prime minister also said this morning I know you're talking about having called in the military he says that soldiers should not be taking care of people in long-term care and that is not a long-term solution so knowing that how can the people who have fam in these homes and who as you said are angry are worried how can we be assured that there is going to be a plan once the military needs to pull back once we're out of a pandemic and that's what we were in the process of doing and I was out regularly talking about our vision for long-term care where people would go to live not just to stay and talking about a modern 21st century long term care system that allowed people to be integrated with their communities and where the staff in our long-term care homes would also be treated with respect and dignity just like our long-term care residents and that's what we were in the process of doing and I think as a society we need to understand why there was no interest in that process that we had begun you know we have to take a look at our society and understand we have a moral imperative to improve our long-term care system and allow our residents and staff to be treated with respect and dignity next question next question comes from Colin de Mello from ctv news please go ahead hi there good afternoon I'm a premier and Minister for which and your government is planning to deploy these soldiers at five long-term care homes and those homes you mentioned yesterday can change at any time so there are currently 132 homes with an outbreak and nearly 20 long-term care homes have recorded 10 or more deaths how are you going to prioritize which home gets the military assistance and which home goes without what is the criteria here well they're just working out those those details Colin but I can tell you about the the military I'm just so proud of our Canadian Armed Forces and when I talk to general Vance you know he told me he said premier put me in the most difficult homes there are no matter what's going on in there and I sat back and I thought you know these these people are absolute champions our military are men and women that can go into these these homes and and jump into a crisis you know we aren't too proud to call in or Terry we've called in volunteers retired nurses public health officials hospital staff right across the board and I'm just so proud of our Canadian military and you'll have those details over the next day or so but they're they're going to be a big relief coming into the homes there's just like there were a big relief and Quebec in other regions I just wanted to ask you um just along the vein of the previous questions so as of today 516 residents and long-term care homes in our province have died that represents 7 out of every 10 Kovac 19 deaths in this province it's a staggering amount what do you say to the hundreds of families of people in long-term care who have lost loved ones and who might be feeling right now is this their province let them down what do you say to all of those people who may be watching or listening right now well my heart breaks for them you know as I saying calling our families going through it along with 70, 000 other other families that have a loved one in these homes and it's very difficult I recognize that the system is broken and we're gonna fix the system but in the meantime the number one crisis is making sure that we take care of these most vulnerable people in these homes and we're gonna do it I'm I'm pushing the system constantly constantly on all fronts and we said we'd do more testing we're doing more testing we ramped up the over 8, 000 close to 10, 000 every day we're gonna ramp up the 14, 000 we're gonna continue all hands on deck and we're gonna fix the system next question next question comes from Sean Jeffords from The Canadian Press please go ahead good afternoon premier four questions for you specifically about the use of the Canadian Forces members who are going to be coming into the homes the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario has said that they're puzzled by this move they think that there are additional health care workers out there who could step in and would be better suited to help perhaps than the Canadian Forces members in these situations I'm wondering if you can address that concern and what are these Canadian Forces members going to specifically be doing well I'll pass this over to the minister of long-term care but there they're going to be there to support the frontline health care workers in any capacity that they can we need people and if we have we need more nurses if the nurses by all means they contact us they'll be in a home immediately we need all hands on deck right now it's a critical time a critical situation that we're we're facing not just here around the country and around around the world but I'll pass this over to Minister long-term care so I am very very grateful to the Canadian Armed Forces to our military who will be coming to support our most affected long-term care homes to help our staff in their fight against kovat 19 give them the support that they need to care for our residents very vulnerable people need the support of our long-term care home staff and struggling for number of weeks now some homes in dire need of staff despite our best efforts allowing the acute care sector with hospital staff to come in along with home care staff along with the portals that we had created along with the federal portals and the the nursing volunteers it still was not enough and there was too much risk that our loved ones would not get the support they needed so that's why we reached out to the Canadian Armed Forces and they've heeded the call and we are very grateful also the province has extended a number of emergency orders today including the order of that restricts workers to one home I'm wondering and please correct me if I'm wrong about this but it does not appear that the government has included temp agency workers in that again that they are still exempt from that order I'm wondering why that is is that not defeat the purpose of that entire work at all it the agencies have been an important source of staffing we were coming into this pandemic with shortages in our long-term care homes of staff and that's why we had a study an expert panel put together to address what more we could do to improve the staffing in our long-term care homes and that was an ongoing effort so the staffing shortages preceded this the the agencies that provided staff were an important measure to make sure that our homes did not go without staff to support our long-term care residents it's a balance of risks but it was something that we had to take seriously given what we've seen in other countries next question next question comes from Robert Ben Z from the Toronto Star please go ahead [Music] – May 6 basically ensuring that all non-essential workplaces will remain shut we're here from a lot of industries like garden centers and you know KT entire stores things like that or during why they can't be open is it possible that those kinds of things will be opened before May 6 or are those going to stay closed for at least another two weeks as part of the pandemic closures well Robert you'll be hearing about that over the next day or two we'll be we'll be rolling that out so that's a really short answer I just does that mean that we'll be seeing just giving some hope to the ministers because for example the garden centers they are in agriculture industry and they you know they grow their things on barns and Niagara and other parts of the problems they're wondering about what's going to happen to all their products you know they're plants and they're not food per se but they are they are farmed farmed goods so you'll have some boxes for the next day or so yes we will definitely and I understand the situation they're in and our government's going to act on that next question next question comes from Randy Roth from a CHCH TV please go ahead premier Randy um I'm wondering given the the horrifying numbers of deaths that have taken place in long-term care facilities and the inherent lack of transparency in those in those facilities given that that families can can no longer go in and visit their family members um should we should you be sending teams from the local health units in to inspect every single long-term care facility in this to make sure that they are operating up to standards well past the sort of the minister of long-term care I know we've done a tremendous amount of inspections last year but I'll let her speak on that thank you so on top of the regular inspections annual inspections there were over 2, 800 inspections in our long-term care homes last year but above and beyond that the public health units are actually and have been going in to our long-term care homes to assess the situation and and evaluate it on a risk basis okay and I'd like to return to Ansan place if I may uh they claim that they have reached out to all of their partners recently asking for help in running their long-term care facility do either the minister's there the minister of long-term care of the Minister of Health are you aware of them reaching out to your ministry to ask for help I believe that we have been tracking them as as a concern and they are one of our priority homes next question next question comes from Travis Dane rash of Global News please go ahead either premier have to call in the military why does the government seem unwilling to say yes there may have been missteps early on there no response highlight what went wrong and take responsibility by saying how are you going to fix some of these families moving forward well I can tell you the system a lot of systems are broken down here and I've mentioned it before we're down here fixing the systems and this is pretty clear we can do better and our number one priority is to make sure we put the resources that are needed in these long-term care homes make no mistake about it Travis the the system we're gonna we're gonna fix many systems down here no matter its long-term care or just the way the government runs if it was you know just ontario that this is this virus is terrible it attacks the most vulnerable and it's that doesn't stay within the borders of Ontario you just have to look across the country and and look across North America in the world it's a terrible virus we we have to do a better job and at the end of the day the buck stops with me and we'll make sure we get it fixed but my number one priority is to make sure that we we get the people the help that they they need right now and that's what we're doing my second question is on a different topic considering the financial toll this crisis has taken and will continue to have on municipalities will you amend the Municipal Act to allow them to run operating deficits or are you prepared to bail out cities like Toronto so they won't have to hike taxes well Minister Clark is working on that right now he's in touch with the 444 municipalities small medium and large and we'll be sitting down with all of them again we're gonna ask the federal government for the support we have a certain capacity within any province not just our province and as my finance minister always says and I've said it before the federal government has a printing machine and we don't have that printing machine and I just want to thank the federal government they've stepped up huge for everyone across this country they've always been there we put a request in they step up so we'll be working with the federal government along with the municipalities and the province and I think between the three of us we can come up with a solution that works out well for for everyone last question last question comes from Sabrina Dungy from Queens Park today just go ahead oh thank you for taking my question I'm wondering if you can give us a sense of where you'd like to be in terms of staying and contact tracing before we open up start to open up parts of the economy again well our next year is fourteen thousand tests a day and we want to continue on with the the fourteen thousand test today and contact tracing equal to that we have to make sure we pick up the contact tracing alongside with the the testing but I'm really proud of our health table and dr.
Williams and everyone around that table we I was a little frustrated a few weeks ago and you know they did a great job and they picked it right up to nine ten thousand a day in fourteen thousand and by the end of the month so I want to thank them for doing a great job and we're gonna continue we aren't going to stop we're going to continue working day in day day out around the clock literally around the clock to make sure that we test as many people as possible especially in the high priority areas you and if I can follow up on a slightly different subject the officials said this week that they were turning Anaya to bringing back some of the postponed surgeries because hospitals haven't really been crushed with this way that has been expected can you can you tell us the timeline for re ramping up these surgeries and and what that could look like well well some surgeries take precedence for example o all passes over the Minister of Health that is something that we are considering right now at such time that we are able to start loosening some of the restrictions I know that many people have been waiting for surgeries particularly cancer surgery that we want to be able to start those as soon as we're able but as we know there are certain things that have to happen before we can do that one is to get the the testing up to the levels that we need that contact tracing the surveillance in the community in terms of testing asymptomatic people but especially getting the numbers of cases down we actually are continuing to see cases well over 500 on a daily basis we need to see that number go down because we are at the peak meaning that – we have hit the maximum numbers of cases we expect here in the province but we need to see those numbers go down before we can start getting into things like the surgeries that have been postponed opening up parts of the economy and open up parts of society so we still have some work to do but it is something that we are planning for already thank you.
