Toronto names 11 businesses affected by Section 22 closures, including a car dealership, a McDonald’s location and a meat boutique

Thestar.com
April 27, 2021
Jacob Lorinc

More than a dozen workplaces have been ordered to close in Toronto and Peel Region as health authorities say they’re working on a “case-by-case basis” to determine whether or not a business with five or more COVID-19 cases should be shuttered.

Since Friday, the regions have moved to temporarily close 13 businesses under a Section 22 order that gives Toronto and Peel Region the authority to shutter any workplace that reports five or more cases of COVID-19 over a two-week period.

On Monday, Toronto ordered the full closure of Classic Fire Protection Inc., High Park Nissan, a McDonald’s location, and Meat & Co. Boutique Inc.

It also ordered partial closures of Heroux Devtek Magtron in Scarborough, Reliance Construction Toronto, Rex Pak Limited in Scarborough, Deciem Inc. in Etobicoke, Scepter Canada Inc. in Scarborough, The Butcher Shoppe in Etobicoke and Trend Line Furniture Limited in North York.

On Saturday Peel Region announced that two Amazon warehouses would be partially closed.

The measures go further than what the Ontario government has been willing to impose on businesses to crack down on workplace spread. But several exemptions still allow some businesses to continue operating, depending on the sector or the nature of the outbreak.

Dr. Lawrence Loh, medical officer of health in Peel, says the cases have to be “reasonably acquired” in the workplace in order for the business to be shuttered.

“If they haven’t been closed yet, it’s because there’s work underway for us to determine if the cases are linked to the workplace or if they were associated with the workplace through some other means, such as a worker who acquired it at home, for example, or through another close contact outside the workplace,” Loh said.

Although Peel has issued only the two partial-closure orders since Friday, regional data shows 15 active workplace outbreaks in Peel with five or more cases over the past two weeks.

Those outbreaks range in size and in sector, the data shows, with the largest being an outbreak that has so far infected 33 workers at a manufacturer in Mississauga since the outbreak began on April 12. Other outbreaks have popped up in retail shops, distributors, transportation services, food processors and corporate offices. (Peel does not identify the names of businesses with workplace outbreaks.)

In Toronto, the city has so far announced just the 11 closures, although the city has reported 53 active workplace outbreaks, including a public health laboratory, a manufacturer of military-grade night vision systems and a car dealership.

Loh said Peel’s public health unit identified 11 workplaces to investigate under its Section 22 order on Friday. Four of the workplaces had proactively closed before an order was invoked, and at least one was excluded from the order because Peel’s investigators determined the cases were not linked, Loh said.

Several workplaces are still under investigation for possible closure.

“It’s not like a workplace is automatically shut down if it reaches five cases,” Loh told the Star on Monday. “It just means we’re expediting our investigation and getting ready to order a closure should we have concerns under the (Section 22) provisions.”

Exemptions to Section 22 are made for health care, first responders, emergency child care, education and “critical infrastructure.”

Loh says the health unit’s investigators, sent to the workplaces to determine if a closure order is needed, must take into account “the broad context” of the situation and consider how the business is handling the outbreak, as well as how widely it’s spreading within the location.

“These workplaces are large and complex. Sometimes there are a few cases in one area and it’s contained to a certain shift or section,” said Loh.

Peel investigators ordered partial-closures, rather than full closures, of one Amazon warehouse in Brampton and one in Bolton on Saturday, noting that the outbreaks were contained within certain teams of workers and not widespread.

Gagandeep Kaur, a labour organizer with the Warehouse Workers Centre, says the Amazon employees she spoke with are “confused” by the partial closures, and unsure of how many cases were transmitted in the building and whether or not the right employees have been notified to self-isolate.

“They feel left out in the dark by the employer and public health units,” Kaur said.

In both Peel Region and Toronto, manufacturing and warehousing have been especially hard hit by outbreaks. In Peel, where roughly half the population is made up of essential workers, manufacturing represents more than a third of the region’s total number of workplace outbreaks.

The virus has spread like wildfire through the region, taking nearly 700 lives since the pandemic began. That includes a teenage girl from Brampton, Emily Victoria Viegas, 13, who died Thursday in the family’s Brampton apartment.

Following unanswered calls for the province to shutter non-essential businesses, the two regions announced the crackdown on workplaces with active outbreaks early last week, as public health experts called for increased measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, especially among the province’s essential workers.

Only the “truly” essential workplaces should remain open, Ontario’s science advisory table said in a press release last week, noting that further closures and paid sick leave for essential workers will be critical to stop the spread of the virus.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health chief, told reporters on Monday that her staff has been busy issuing closure orders to several businesses.

“Our investigators are working with the workplaces to figure out what’s happening, where the transmission is occurring, and if there’s a particular area affected,” she said. “The point here is to provide the most focused application of public health tools in order to address the spread of the virus.”