April 2, 2020

Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report April 2, 2020

Quotation of the day

“A surge is coming.”

Premier Doug Ford delivers an ominous warning, saying "there's very little separating what we will face here in Ontario from the devastation we've seen in Italy and Spain."

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The house will reconvene on Tuesday, April 14, at 1 p.m.

Broader business shutdown in the pipeline Premier Doug Ford is trimming the list of 74 "essential" businesses and services allowed to operate under the state of emergency.

It will be pared down in the "next day or two" with an eye to slowing the spread of COVID-19, Ford told reporters at Wednesday's briefing. The premier has maintained the list, criticized by some as too long, is in flux.

"We're going to be adjusting that list," he said, but didn't offer specifics. Ford again warned the construction industry to follow new health and safety guidelines or risk closure, noting three sites have already been shut down by labour ministry inspectors.

That morning, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's medical officer of health, urged a broader shutdown of non-essential businesses and services.

De Villa also put to work the latest directive from Ontario's top doc, which empowers local public health units to take more "aggressive" measures to keep coronavirus patients isolated. She ordered mandatory home quarantine for Torontonians with COVID-19 and anyone who has had close contact with an infected person.

"We must do more given the ongoing and increasing incidence of community transmission across the province," chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams said in a memo to his local counterparts Wednesday. (According to provincial data, 16 per cent of confirmed COVID-19 cases involve patients with no recent travel history or close contact with a confirmed case.)

Dr. Williams is "strongly recommending" they invoke Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act. It allows local medical health officers to issue broad written orders directing people to take any action "in respect of a communicable disease."

Tories cagey over modelling projections Dr. De Villa announced her tougher restrictions after being briefed on provincial modelling data, which is under wraps for now.

The province hopes to publicly release its first virus projection model next week, Dr. Williams said, when more information will be available to back it up.

The model will reveal whether Ontario is on an “Italy-type projection or a South Korea-type projection, or somewhere in between," he said.

Pressed by reporters earlier in the day, Premier Doug Ford said "there's a few different models" and he's wary releasing them could "create a panic."

"Those models can drastically, drastically change," Ford said. "If we pick one model over another, it sends really two different messages."

Whatever secret forecasts the premier has glimpsed seemed to prompt his most dire warning to Ontarians yet. Ford said "a surge is coming" and the "next two weeks are absolutely critical" but wouldn't say exactly what he was basing that on, besides advice from Williams.

A model released by the University of Toronto last month projected that in an “Italy scenario,” Ontario could start running out of ventilators and ICU beds by early April.

Privacy watchdog gets more teeth in PC’s mini-budget bill Ontario's privacy watchdog is lauding changes in last week’s mini-budget bill that bolster data governance in the province.

Bill 188, the spring fiscal plan that passed last week, doled out headline-grabbing financial aid related to the COVID-19 crisis, but also quietly overhauled freedom of information and health privacy laws.

"The provisions here are good, I think for the most part they're really positive, but I'm hard pressed to say that they're connected to the pandemic response," information and privacy commissioner Brian Beamish told Queen's Park Today by phone Tuesday.

The changes empower the commissioner to levy fines for privacy violations and establish rules for third-party organizations that can collect and use data.

Beamish noted his office will be "carefully" scrutinizing the regulatory details to ensure Ontarians' privacy is protected and to quash the potential for "commercialization of health data."

"This is where the details of the regulation are going to be crucial," Beamish said. "It all depends on risk, who is going to use [the data], and what they're going to use it for."

The government is drafting a new standard for "de-identification" — the process of stripping personal identifiers from data sets — that will guide the collection and use of information.

"If you're talking about a company that wants to take data and sell it to a pharmaceutical company, there the risk is high," Beamish said, adding that regulations must be "rigorous" so that “re-identification” is not easy.

New law lays out rules for third party data collection and use Bill 188 allows the government to designate any entity as an "extra-ministerial data integration unit."

Organizations outside the public sector, including non-profits, private firms and even Sidewalk Labs, could be authorized to both collect personal data from Ontarians with their permission and obtain data from the province, but rules and penalties surrounding this will be managed by Beamish’s office.

"As long as the government is careful about who they designate, I think this is quite workable," he said.

Consumer electronic service providers, such as medical apps, will also fall under the watchdog's purview.

"The principle is good, that people should be able to access their health data through apps, but the safeguards around that — what the companies can do with that information, what they can collect — will be left to regulation … We're really going to have to scrutinize carefully," he said.

The public can take "comfort that there will be really good rules in place to make sure that's not abused," he added.

Beamish can now slap fines to prevent "a person from deriving, directly or indirectly, any economic benefit as a result of a contravention."

Ontario is the first province in Canada to enshrine administrative penalties for breaching privacy law, something the other federal and provincial commissioners have been pushing for. (Specific administrative fines will be determined via regulation; the fines for convictions under the health privacy act have been doubled.)

The bill also enables Beamish’s office to better track who is accessing medical records, in order to catch health-care workers who may be snooping.

Today’s events

April 2 at 1 p.m. – Toronto Premier Doug Ford is expected to hold his daily COVID-19 press briefing at Queen's Park.

April 2 at 3 p.m. – Toronto Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams and associate chief medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe will provide their regular update on the pandemic response.

Topics of conversation

● As of Wednesday morning, Ontario has logged 2,392 cases of COVID-19, 426 more than the day prior, an almost 22-per-cent increase. Roughly 30 per cent of patients (689 total) have been cleared, while 1.5 per cent (37) have died. ○ Health Minister Christine Elliott conceded the province's data reflects "historic" cases from as long as 10 days ago. She expects the test backlog to be cleared in the "next day or two," at which point the impact of social distancing measures would start to show and "tell us where we are in terms of flattening the curve." ○ As of Wednesday, there were around 3,100 cases awaiting results, down from nearly 11,000 last week, as lab capacity ramps up and test kit reinforcements arrive. ○ Ontario also reported a dozen outbreaks in long-term care homes, but reports from the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and CBC show that number is at least double.

● Pop-up pandemic hospitals are being set up in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec in anticipation of an influx of COVID-19 patients. Per the Globe, Burlington's Joseph Brant Hospital is the first to build a temporary 93-bed treatment centre.

● Mask on, mask off: Premier Doug Ford weighed in on the great debate after chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams took flak on social media for advising against face masks in long-term care homes, unless there's already an outbreak. ○ "Are you safer with a mask? Absolutely you're safer," Ford said, adding he won't override Williams' recommendations.

● Meanwhile, the Ontario Hospital Association is pleading for Ottawa and the province “to work unceasingly” to procure more personal protective equipment (PPE) for health and long-term care workers. In an open letter, association CEO Anthony Dale said Ontario hospitals are at a “critical juncture” thanks to a low supply of PPE, especially masks, and called on the premier to clearly state when reinforcements will arrive.

● Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has written to Finance Minister Rod Phillips urging him to force home and auto insurance companies to give a 75 per cent break on premiums amid the coronavirus crisis.

● The Beer Store is partially reviving its recycling program for empties as of April 6. Meanwhile, LCBO employees are being offered face shields for protection after at least two employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

● Meet Christopher Desloges, the sign language interpreter who's become a regular fixture at the premier's daily press conferences. ○ Ford sang Desloges’ praises Wednesday. "This gentleman shows up, never complains, never says a word. My friend, you're a champion, you're a rock star, helping people in the deaf community, and it's so important, the role you're playing." ○ Yesterday was Desloges' last cameo on camera, but he will still be working behind the scenes at Queen's Park. "We're trying to make sure that all deaf Ontarians have access" to the information they need to stay safe from COVID-19, he said.

News briefs

Police can card Ontarians written up for breaching emergency orders ● Ontarians must now identify themselves to police and bylaw officers charging them for violating emergency orders, such as gathering in groups larger than six or price gouging for necessities. No ID? That could set offenders back $750, or $1,000 for obstruction.

Funding announcements

New $50M fund opens for businesses switching to producing medical supplies

● Billed as the "Ontario Together" fund, the PCs are putting up $50 million to support businesses that have retooled to produce much-needed medical supplies, including gowns, coveralls, masks, face shields, testing equipment and ventilators.

Queen's Park Today is written by Sabrina Nanji, reporting from the Queen's Park press gallery.

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