Toronto Mayor John Tory asks Premier Doug Ford to make masks mandatory in restaurants and bars for Stage 3 reopening

Thestar.com
July 20, 2020
Nicholas Keung

The city of Toronto is asking the province to implement additional safety measures for the Stage 3 reopening of bars and restaurants in the city, including mandatory masks for all patrons and staff.

In a letter to Premier Doug Ford released Sunday, Mayor John Tory cited the resurgence of COVID-19 cases resulting from the reopening of bars in Quebec and Alberta, as well as many American states and South Korea.

“We have seen in other jurisdictions that further reopening can lead to increased outbreaks of COVID-19 and growing case count numbers. We do not want to go in that direction,” Tory said in the three-page letter. “I firmly believe that for the good of the province and our city, we must continue to move forward safely but we also must do everything we can to continue to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Since Friday, 24 of Ontario’s 34 public health units have already entered Stage 3 of the province’s reopening. However, the Toronto and Hamilton areas, Windsor-Essex and the Niagara Region have remained in the more restrictive Stage 2.

Ontario’s Stage 3 reopening allows for indoor bar and restaurant seating with restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus. All customers must be seated when eating and drinking and tables have to be six feet apart or separated by Plexiglas/other barrier.

Buffet style services are also banned while dancing, singing (including karaoke) and music performances are restricted.

Tory said he has consulted Toronto public health and legal department, as well as licensing and standards staff, on how best to strengthen the provincial rules to better prepare and protect the city’s residents when regulations are relaxed in the city in the next stage.

Here are what they have recommended for restaurants and bars offering indoor seating in Stage 3:

• Patrons be seated at all times unless entering, exiting, travelling to and from the washroom, or paying;
• Operators must maintain a client log for at least 30 days with a name and contact information for one person, minimum, in each party along with the date, check in and check out times, and table number;
• Premises be subject to additional capacity restrictions that limit occupancy to ensure that physical distancing can be easily maintained by all patrons;
• Early closure times (e.g. midnight last call) be imposed for at least an initial period of time;
• Owners to implement COVID-19 screening protocols for staff, such as completion of a screening questionnaire, prior to the commencement of their shifts and;
• Mandatory face covering requirements for staff and patrons.

“While many of these measures are already Toronto Public Health guidelines and recommendations, they are not included in the province’s legal regulation,” Tory pointed out. “I believe ensuring these are requirements rather than recommendations will help ensure compliance and ultimately, protect the health of our residents.”

The Ford administration welcomed the city’s advice but is noncommittal to incorporating the recommended changes in the province’s Stage 3 reopening order.

“As we have from the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to work with our municipal and public health partners to review and assess public health guidelines as we safely reopen the province,” said a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott.

Toronto Public Health Chair Joe Cressy said indoor crowded settings with prolonged close contact are a problematic source of transmission, especially in bars where patrons’ ability to abide by the safety measures can be compromised under the influence of alcohol.

“COVID-19 isn’t disappearing anytime soon. We need to live with this virus circulating and we need to take a cautious and measured approach,” Cressy told the Star. “We cannot risk all the progress we have made by reopening too soon.”

The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association, which represents 12,000 members including 4,000 restaurants and bars in the province, welcomed the city’s recommendation to safeguard public health.

“It is a tough call. Our objective is for the industry and governments to progressively increase seating capacity in a restaurant. We need to accomplish this by demonstrating we are able to achieve a safe operation,” said Tony Elenis, the association’s president and CEO. “This is what can make or break any restaurants.”

While most premises have already adopted some of these additional measures recommended by the city on their own, Elenis said the system needs flexibility depending on the set-up of the businesses because what works for large restaurants may not apply to a pizzeria or a mom-and-pop shop.

“We need to continue monitoring and reducing (the six-feet) distancing so we can bring in more people when we can demonstrate it’s safe to do so,” he said. “Our biggest obstacle is to create trust and competence for consumers to come and visit a restaurant.”

In underscoring the importance of limiting patrons and distancing, Tory cited evidence that showed 10 per cent of cases are accounting for about 80 per cent of COVID-19 transmission.

“It takes only one case (perhaps asymptomatic) in a bar to infect many people,” said Tory. “The key potential mitigating measures are to maintain distancing at all times … and cap numbers in the space.”