'Virus won't respect borders': Newmarket mayor urges transparency with data for reopening

Premier Ford has said he will work with each mayor to decide which communities should have modified stage 2 restrictions lifted and which need them extended

Newmarkettoday.ca
November 2, 2020

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said he would like to see the data supporting the "surgical approach" that Premier Doug Ford says he'll take when reopening restaurants, bars and gyms in COVID-19 hotspots like York Region.

Ford said individual communities with infection rates under control could move out of modified stage 2 restrictions, rather than waiting for numbers across their entire region to improve.

Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa have been in modified stage 2 since Oct. 10, while York Region entered the 28-day restriction period on Oct. 19 that shut down indoor dining, closed fitness centres and casinos, and limited gatherings.

Ford said he will work with local mayors to decide which communities should have restrictions lifted and which need them extended.

"We're working on coming up with a safe plan with collaboration with all the local mayors and local health teams and then we'll make a decision before this 28 days runs out," Ford said.

Taylor said he has concerns about an approach where, hypothetically, Newmarket might be able to return to stage 3, but other parts of the region would not. But if there is solid public health data backing up such an approach, he would support it.

"I am open to any conversation. These are unusual times after all, and we have to be open-minded. We never want to see businesses suffering when there wasn't an evidence-based need for it," the mayor said.

"I am concerned that the virus won't respect borders and that people will be going from one town to another to dine (at restaurants with indoor dining). But that doesn't mean there aren't ways to do it."

For the mayor, it is vital that such a plan be approved by public health experts.

When he gets a chance to speak to the premier, Taylor said his first question would be what criteria will be used to judge the readiness of individual communities to return to stage 3. He would need this decision to be much more transparent than the one that returned York Region to stage 2.

"It's not even fully clear to me what data they are already using to decide which regions are in modified stage 2 or in stage 3," he said.  "That doesn't mean I think they don't have data that drives their decisions, but I don't know that it is crystal clear to everyone else. It would be helpful if it was."