well good afternoon over the past few weeks we've all been through a lot in the face of truly unprecedented challenges in the face of our darkest days we've pulled together we've been patient we've learned to cope with a new reality we've looked out for each other by staying home and physical distancing for that I want to thank you I want to thank each and every person who's worked with us to get us through this crisis we still have a ways to go but because of you because of our collective efforts we're making progress we're reopening more and more of our province as it becomes safe to do so yesterday our garden centers and our nurseries were able to open their doors to customers just in time for Mother's Day today our hardware stores and safety supply stores will also be able to open their doors on Monday retail stores with the street entrance will be able to provide curbside pickup and delivery we're carefully and cautiously getting people back to work safety will always guide every decision we make you've put our your trust in us and we're putting our trust in you because we're all in this together so with Victoria Day around the corner we have more good news to share today as of Monday May the 11th we will begin opening our provincial parks and conservation reserves for day use these places will be open for walking hiking bird-watching and biking people will be able once again enjoy the outdoors in one of our many beautiful parks conservation reserves our province has to offer but please take note that access will be limited for now camping playgrounds and beaches will continue to be closed public health measures must be followed at all times including practicing physical distancing avoiding social gatherings and staying home if you're sick we're trusting people to be responsible and take this seriously so they can enjoy themselves while staying safe and healthy before I pass things over to Minister Urich I want to take a moment to wish all of our amazing mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day now in these dark days more than ever the mums out there all the wonderful caring mothers you are our rocks every day without fail you're there putting everyone else before yourself giving comfort support and love to all of us during a time when we need it most and I know that the quarantine I know that this period has been especially challenging for you every day you put on a brave face you get up every morning and you put your families and loved ones first and for everything you do thank you so please everyone I have one request let's make tomorrow the most special the most incredible Mother's Day weekend thank you and God bless all the amazing moms and God bless the people of Ontario now on by Minister Yura cup thank you very much premier I also want to thank Ontarians who are stepping up and doing their part to help slow the spread of kovat 19 because of these efforts we are now able to take steps to reopen Ontario's parks with the warm weather just around the corner I know that many Ontarians are looking forward to spending more time outdoors after being cooped up inside for so many weeks this Monday May 11th over 500 Ontario parks and conservation reserves will open and their remaining 115 parks will be open on Friday May 15th I want to remind everyone you will be able to walk hike and bike but for now there will be no access to beaches facilities camping or group activities but I want to be clear visitors to the park must continue with physical distance e we also ask that you stay local Ontarians should still be reducing the amount of unnecessary travel to other areas of the province so if you're planning to visit a provincial park please only visit the one that is closest to your community while staff are working as hard as they can to get provincial parks ready to open they will not have washrooms or drinkable water right away it's important that you come to the park prepared with hand sanitizer extra water and other supplies just in case before planning you dare your date trip to one of our parks please visit Ontario parks comm for details about what's available over the next several weeks Ontario park staff will be conducting critical maintenance and other Park start up procedures so that more recreational activities and facilities will be available when it is safe to do so in the meantime I encourage everyone to enjoy all the beauty Ontario has to offer safely and responsibly thank you well they want to be before I start I just want to thank the folks for for giving me this great t-shirt and this says everything about both thanking credible frontline health care workers and other frontline essential service workers that have helped us get through this and because of their great work we were able to get more testing done and I want to personally thank our health teams across the province for doing an incredible job we hit a new target a new record actually it was over 19, 000 pests I think it was nineteen thousand two hundred so we're close to 20, 000 pests and I just want to sincerely thank everyone for really stepping it up and getting these tests done or just an amazing amazing group so so thank you for that we'll take questions okay we'll go to the phone line now just a reminder one question one follow-up first question your first question comes from Jessica Smith with Queens Park briefing please go ahead hi Jessica I think so much premier the public wasn't told about coping 19 outbreak at Maple Lodge from me talking plant and brampton for a couple of weeks and that folks at peel public health told me they don't see the need to inform the public about that outbreak but those outbreaks immediately do you think the public should be informed quickly when I workplace outbreak occurs I think we should be especially any food plants you know it's unfortunate and maple large farms is a great great company but I think every food company has a responsibility to tell the people and to follow up on that you know Public Health also told me it isn't their job to inform the public about workplace output Oh cakes instead they let the company tell their story from their private business perspective do you think it should be the companies or the public health units who are important people when this happen well I think it should be transparent I think public health in and the company should just come forward and it's gonna be out there they have hundreds of employees it's gonna be out there so get ahead of it and be transparent and tell them what you're going to do to correct the problem these are reputable companies and we have some great great companies that's that would be my advice next question your next question comes from Randy back with the HDH TV please go ahead hi Randy hi premier my question is actually for Minister Elliot Minister I'm not I want to ask you about the pharmacies only dispensing a month's worth of prescription drugs at a time and the added expense that that has had put on seniors and some of our most vulnerable I asked you about this a couple of times and you told me that there would be good news coming for these people that do you have any news for them we are working on a solution because I know this has been a problem for many particularly seniors where they're taking more than one medication this adds up to a significant extra financial burden each month so we expect very shortly to have a solution to assist them knowing that they do have this burden and also we are being told that the issues with respect to shortages of some of the drugs we expect will be not as much of a problem by the end of June so we are looking for a solution to help seniors with those extra payments until we get to that point at which point we will then be able to start resuming the three-month prescription refills so we will have an answer very shortly for people well as a follow-up will you be retroactive Lee I'm helping people financially that have better paid extra fees we're looking at every solution right now we're looking at what we are able to do by virtue of existing legislation and what we can put in place but we want to make this as helpful as we can be to those seniors who have been put to those extra expenses these past several months next question your next question comes from Carrie Verma with BBC national news please go ahead hi there premier travelling around Toronto you see wild variation that kind of luck measures businesses are putting a place for frontline workers some have face masks other has base shields some of Plexiglas barriers and we're continuing to hear from workers and businesses are concerned about the lack of personal protective equipment so why are we continuing a real from the economy when there is such difficulty getting max and face shield and will labor inspectors actually be physically going into doors to ensure safety well yes the labor inspectors will be doing their job and inspecting the the stores and especially the big-box stores you know they probably have more contacts overseas on buying mass than then we do but in saying that it goes back to what I said before this is a worldwide crisis everywhere in the world and I was on the phone with Malaysia this week as I'm on the phone over in Asia and in China with the Consul General and likewise with Malaysia and I'm searching everywhere in the world but we will never ever be put in this position again we have a couple good news is we have a couple large companies very very large or worldwide companies wanting to open up facilities in Ontario after hearing our message and I encourage any of these large companies when this is over get ramped up because I don't want to be relying on other areas of the world for us we have the ingenuity and the engineering might in the manufacturing might and we really have come a long way one of the areas that we feel that we saw a little bit of shortage now we're ramping up again is the gowns so we have a lot of companies making gowns and the washable one so they can be reused you know up to 75 times but things that things are going to be different moving forward and we're going to continue ramping up so we have the large companies we have some great entrepreneurs that are going to be buying you know the n95 equipment that make mass they're bringing our coming over they're gonna bring over equipment for surgical mass but again it's it's constant I'm on on this every single day I'm hunting for more PPE and premier use segwayed excellently smite follow up the federal government suspended shipments of eight million and ninety five maps made in China that failed to meet specifications how big of a loss is that for Ontario and should Canada not be relying on foreign outsourcing for such critical equipment do you know how many of those masks were actually destined for the province maybe this might be a better question also for the Minister appellate well it's 40 percent of anything that comes in from the federal government its proportion based on your population so we were expecting 40 percent but I understand planes are coming in on a daily basis now but this goes back to my point again and I mentioned the Prime Minister have mentioned to the Premier's every single call were on as a country we should never ever be put in this position again and as he small companies ramp up and the large companies and and we slowly start getting through this we can't jump ship on these companies if it costs us a couple extra pennies to have security and good security for our people pay the extra couple cents to keep these manufacturing companies open especially the large ones that are going to be putting tens of millions of dollars of investment right here in Ontario we have the volume across the country we're we're a massive province alone the volume that we go through so they can justify opening a facility here but we're really gonna push this that once we get ramped up we're gonna start supporting these companies no matter if its face shields the gloves and 95 surgical masks I feel like I'm I'm an expert on this PPE now looking into the materials and and everything possible we're doing to make sure that we have our own supply next question your next question comes from Omar Mosley with the Toronto Star please glad everywhere hi premier we're not taking my question thank you wanted to get your reaction to a story that was on the front page of the star today that found that it was that the different outcomes in for-profit nursing homes compared to nonprofits and municipal run facilities finding that residents were twice as likely to get infected and to die in for-profit nursing homes compared to nonprofit and then the numbers get even higher when you compare the residents outcome four times more likely to die in for-profit homes when compared to the municipal run homes so I wanted I wanted to get your reaction does this concern you and with the province consider looking into this launching an investigation to find out why there's that disparity between the nonprofit as office and rotten home well good good question Omar and I'll tell you everything's gonna be reviewed after we get through this right now we're putting out the fires and they think it's over 160 homes been affected out of 626 homes in total and we have to look at the ones a 626 in total and the ones that haven't been infected because the majority of them haven't been infected and find out what they're doing right and find out what the other ones did wrong but we're gonna do a complete review top the bottom and make sure this doesn't happen again but it's happening again it's happening all around the world it just gets into these long-term care homes and it goes through there like an Australian bush fire it's terrible and we're doing everything we can to protect the people there I guess the follow-up would be in terms of saying after we get through this you know many people don't know how long this pandemic is gonna last can you give me any clarity on what kind of timeline it would be like to look into this specific issue well I'll tell you what we were doing we're constantly enhancing measures there we're constantly making the system change since the beginning of this pandemic compared to when we started versus now every single day we're we're improving the system but we have a long long ways to go and we we know that we're gonna make sure that we make the appropriate changes we're going to be consulting with the industry stakeholders a wide range of different people to make sure we have the best long-term care homes and but in saying all that I need help from the federal government it's going to be a massive undertaking and we need we need their air support and I think there should be a federal program right across the country because it wasn't just Ontario that got hit right across the country got hit and especially Quebec next question your next question comes from still man Farooqi with the Canadian Press please go ahead premier for today we've already heard some concerns from child care providers about whether they'll be eligible for the funding of your government met this morning and I wanted to ask if your government is going to ensure that every child capability that needs and will get adequate funding to stay at blue well yes we're gonna do everything we can everything's on the table at a good conversation this morning with the Minister of Education where we were talking about that specific area the the childcare and we're going to continue communicating again with the stakeholders and and people that use childcare but we're gonna make sure that we leave the door open also we saw some promising numbers today about 719 including the lowest kress rate we've seen since March and lower numbers and hospitals and intensive care I guess you talked about how that progress is gonna affect the next steps in reopening especially after we've already talked about it on provincial parks opening soon I'll hand this over to the Minister of Health thank you well they certainly are very encouraging signs that we saw today and I know this is being followed by our public health team at the command table I'm watching a daily as well we need to make sure that we continue to have a lowering of numbers as dr.
Williams has said though this isn't going to be a big step down it's going to be a gradual lessening in the number of cases and that's what we're seeing even with heightened test results over 19, 000 tests done yesterday so it's something that we're going to continue to focus on we need to see these numbers keep coming down as we gradually open more and more parts of our economy and that's why with the announcement with respect to the provincial parks and conservation areas that is allowing people to be out more but it's still going to be really important to practice social distancing and all of the other measures that we've put in place to make sure those numbers come down and stay down for good next question your next question comes from Scott Lightfoot with CTV News please go ahead in premier ask one of your government and out the school support staff now have the option of going to help out places like hospitals and long-term care home if they're going to start going into these areas which having continued to be affected by cope at 19 over the next few weeks she parents be seeing that as a sign that in all likelihood schools will not be reopening for the rest of the school year well I know next week we'll be we'll be announcing that we just want to look at the numbers again have an in-depth conversation late last night with the Minister of Education and and this morning and he'll be making announcement next next week on that so what a follow your announcement today I'm not sure whether you want to take it or minister jerec but the parks and conservation areas that are going to be open will they be patrolled to ensure that people are following social distancing group regulations and also staying away from the places that are still closed I mean that's a lot of physical ground to cover and if so who's going to be doing the patrolling is this now a job for conservation officers or will this be police or by law I'll pass out over the minister thanks very much for that question and we're pretty excited to get these parks open and there'll be staff on hand to observe and to ensure that social distancing is being followed but I just want to remind people that it is a wide range of area and we believe in in personal responsibility and the fact that these we'll be able to self distance themselves and just make sure that when they do go out and I reiterate take your hand sanitizer take some water and other supplies you may need but please follow social distancing but there will be folks out there parks parks staff to be monitoring to ensuring that people are following social distance distancing and making sure that garbage is picked up and their safety available throughout our parks next question your next question comes from morgan campbell with global news please go ahead just further to Scott's question the minister or the medical officer of Health has expressed some some major concern about people not respecting physical distancing so was he did anyone speak to him about this decision to open these parks and get his blessings to do so yeah thanks very much every decision we are making is in consultation with the chief medical officer or health and we've been having ongoing discussions with them and he approved the plan that we put forward that was announced today to open up 500 parks this Monday and the 115 parks next Friday to ensure that people couldn't hike walk or bike but we did support us and keeping them camping closed the beach is closed and our facilities closed at this point and having no group activities so again reiterate to people please practice physical distancing while you're out there and bring along the supplies you may need such as water hand sanitizers etc so what Thank You Minister this questions for the Minister of Health I hoping that you could provide a little more information about the testing process in long-term care home on I'm hearing of one home in particular that they went in and tested all staff members but that the testing started at the management level and started to and worked its way down there's concerns that the managers in that home received who are not in close contacts with allegedly not in close contact with residents their test results back prior to personal support workers so I'm wondering how those tests are how those tests are conducted and is it in alphabetical order or numerical order maybe from a health card can you provide some information on that there isn't any strict protocol on on the way in which it's done and who is tested first in each long-term care home we are just requiring that every resident and every staff member be tested we're well on our way to having that completed in very short time and we've seen with 19, 000 tests conducted yesterday that this is proceeding quite quickly so we haven't dictated a way in which it has to be done some of the testing is being done as you know by groups of paramedics who are going into long-term care homes we also have other groups that are going in public health officials and others so while all we want is to see that everyone has been tested to make sure that this very vulnerable population is going to be cared for that any COBIT is identified and that if people are positive for Cova that they are either hospitalized if that's what they need or they're put into cell phones isolation within the homes next question your next question comes from Camille theorizing with French CBC Radio Canada please go ahead hello my question is for Prime Minister Ford on Sunday to me yeah he called me Prime Minister and I just said now yet thank you sorry yeah yes or use it my question on Sunday as the Toronto Transit Commission is making its Richard to its service because of the pandemic and there are some transit advocacy groups who have a cold on the prevents provincial government to provide emergency funding to public transit to keep train buses running for Canadians and also for essential workers who rely on 20 to get to work is it something your government is looking at doing giving an emergency funding well as you as you we we have we have two different systems we have Metrolinx run by the province then we have the TTC I'm using Toronto for example in the other cities they have their transit system but where we have everything on the table right now we're gonna support them any way we can but when we open up the economy fully people are going to be using transit we want to make sure we have the the safest transit system anywhere so we'll be taking precautions and working with the Toronto Transit Commission along with other transit authorities across this province to make sure that that happens okay great thank you thank you this will be the last question your final question comes from James Murray with net news ledger please go ahead good afternoon premier thank you for taking my question good afternoon thank you last Saturday we talked in gas prices dropped five cents a litre afterward they're back up again so we still have work to do – we live in northwestern Ontario we're faced with challenges geography were the size of France and population were the size of the suburb of Toronto yes so as the province starts to open up one of the areas of elective surgery openings at the hospitals and how people are going to get there a lot of those people use the inner city bus lines to travel the major centers this includes our huge indigenous population across the north yes on Thursday night I talked to Minister of Health federally Patti has you she says there's money out there federally to support the inner community bus company but it has to flow through the problem what can be done to support inner city bus transportation in northwestern Ontario to maintain those services now and then post pandemic well I'm not familiar with an exact program that's going to be supporting transit across the the province but I will mention ask the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister next time we're on the phone if the Federal Minister is saying that then show me the money and then we'll deal with it from there but it's absolutely critical I have to mention you have some great representatives in the North like Greg Rickford I'll tell you you should see all the ministers from the north at our cabinet table I'll tell you they have a loud loud voice no matter if it's Greg Rickford up in Kenora or Ross Romano in the zoo or Vic Fedeli in North Bay they have a very loud voice about making sure they protect the people of the north and they're doing a great great job at that but we'll make sure that we we address those those issues and take care of the indigenous community along with other larger is like Thunder Bay for example follow-up thank you yes I'm going to shift gears on you a little bit here in Thunder Bay and across northwestern Ontario we're getting gangs of gun-toting thugs coming up from southern Ontario with their illegal drugs the OPP are stopping some of these thugs and seizing drugs and money so are the Thunder Bay police but in Thunder Bay people are dying at the hands of these criminals that are coming up from southern Ontario they are shooting people they're hurting people that are hot shopping people with lethal doses of fentanyl what can be done to help the police up here in the north well I know the Solicitor General is in constant communication with all the chiefs across the the province along with a commissioner of the OPP putting a strategy together to tackle the guns and gangs but it's not as just one step process once we tackle the the guns and gangs and as you say the thugs and I agree with that and they try to intimidate the young kids out there and it's it's my job and our job as a government to protect our kids and I'm gonna do everything we can to protect them and protect families from these thugs do you know what we need to do we need to change the the bail conditions we need to make sure that when they get charged they don't get a slap on the wrist and they're they're out in a short time that's what frustrates the police more than anything once we catch these thugs the federal government has to change the laws and start toughening up on the sentences you know some suddenly horrific crimes I've seen and all of a sudden they're they're out in six months and some cases they get bill and they're out the next day and I you know I sympathize for the police but a good announcements coming very shortly for the OPP over the next week you'll hear some a great announcement and by the way I want to thank our police they're absolutely true champions out there every single day protecting communities across this province and they're absolutely heroes along with I always get all the emergency folks together along with our firefighters and our paramedics first responders are amazing people thank you for all the work you do okay thank you everybody thank you and have a great Mother's Day everyone.
