Professional Engineer, problem solver, & community volunteer at #ParkHP #Toronto. Proponent of science-based policy making, independent of political partisanship.
Section 22 of Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act gives medical officers of health the authority to close a workplace for a specified period:
The evidence is clear that transmission is mostly occurring in indoor workplaces. Consequently, these new orders should help decelerate the spread of Covid.
Physically distant outdoor activities, on the other hand, should be encouraged not restricted, since they are relatively low risk. Furthermore, the rest of Ontario including T.O. needs to follow the lead of the region of Peel and close immediately workplaces where there have been Covid outbreaks. This action combined with other effective measures, such as paid sick leave, workplace health inspections, more testing and vaccinations will put an end to Ontario’s third wave. As always take care and stay safe.
Focus on indoor workplace transmissions
Update:
First the bad news, the public tennis courts in High Park are closed. The good news is that T.O. Public Health today announced it will close workplaces to manage Covid 19 outbreaks.
Hope everyone is doing well. Edgardo the owner of Aztec’s Mine brought to my attention that he has witnessed car bicycle collisions at the corner of Bloor St. West and Parkview Gardens. Where the vehicle driver turning right on Parkview likely doesn’t see the cyclist riding West on the Bloor bike lane. Fortunately, he hasn’t seen any injuries yet, but said he sees close calls everyday. His theory is that since cyclists are traveling downhill, in this stretch of the bike lane, in some cases they might be traveling at a higher velocity than usual thus catching the driver turning right by surprise. At any rate the cyclists on the bike lane have the right of way in this intersection. So perhaps it might be helpful to have a sign reminding drivers that cyclists and pedestrians have the right of way in this corner.
Bloor St. West and Parkview Gardens
Update: signs have been installed on the intersections of Bloor West – Parkview Gardens and Bloor West – Ellis Park. However, I am concerned that the signs may not be visible enough to drivers. If you agree and would like more visible signs please contact 311@toronto.ca I already did, and more pressure helps. For example, the signs might be more effective if they were on the traffic island, thus closer and more visible to the drivers turning right. Also, it might be helpful for the signs to clearly state, “Yield to bikes.”
In both Ulm and T.O. these projects originated thanks to very creative people who have a passion to assist others. The key difference is that the City of Ulm supported this project while our Mayor and Council not only did not support this visionary solution, they believe that taking to court someone who has made a positive difference in people’s lives during this pandemic is a good idea.
If you do not believe that, ask yourselves which Councillor right now is tweeting their support for Khaleel Seivwright the brilliant person behind this wonderful design? Also, which Councillor is going on record stating that this legal action should stop and instead the City should collaborate with the Toronto Tiny Shelters project? No one is and that is very disappointing.
The argument that Tiny Shelters are unsafe because they are made of wood is weak, since they are equipped with flame resistant materials, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Also, many homes in T.O. are made of wood. And Ulm’s sleep pods are also made of wood. Furthermore, the contention that Toronto Tiny Shelters is not following requirements is just as feeble. Governments can always make exemptions to bylaws and regulations when it is in the interest of the public, such as providing emergency shelter for the homeless during a pandemic. To those that argue that Tiny Shelters are not the answer to the complicated problem of homelessness take note that there is no one answer to this issue and Tiny Shelters as an emergency measure can save lives. The actual problem is we do not have leaders in Council who accept that often the best solutions to our problems come from members of the public, like Khaleel Seivwright.
To manage a crisis such as a pandemic both leadership and vision are required. By not supporting Toronto Tiny Shelters this Council has shown a lack of both. However, to end on a positive note Khaleel Seivwright and his team deserve our support. Please visit their website, thank you, and stay safe.
While the recent Covid news cycle focused on new travel restrictions and delays in receiving vaccines, under the radar was a January report by an expert panel that recommended the implementation of rapid Covid testing in the following places:
schools
work settings, and
communal living facilities e.g. Long-Term Care (LTC)
Here is the full report from the Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel:
Priority strategies to optimize testing and screening for COVID-19 in Canada: Report
While new travel restrictions due to Covid variants are important, and so is having our population inoculated, there is still the problem of community transmission that was never properly addressed in Toronto and for that matter, Ontario. In fact, the UK variant is already in Ontario. And a new more contagious variant could result in more deaths. So, using rapid Covid testing in places that are at high risk for community transmission is a must.
Let me be perfectly clear, there is no excuse for not having widespread rapid testing already in place today in Ontario. Nova Scotia has been using rapid testing effectively months ago.
Furthermore, while it is encouraging to see some Canadian workplaces, such as Canada Post, recently embrace rapid Covid testing, a quick jurisdictional review shows that several international companies implemented Covid testing for their workers back in the spring, last year. For example, Canadian employers are way behind in Covid testing compared to a company in Manila that started testing their employees back in May 2020.
To those that believe that the accuracy of rapid Covid tests or Covid tests in general presents a problem note that scientifically no test is free from false positives or false negatives. And rapid Covid tests have been used effectively in Taiwan to beat Covid. Look where Taiwan is today (practically Covid zero) and look where we are today in Ontario and Canada, enough said.
To say that Ontario and Canada have been late in implementing widespread Covid testing is quite an understatement. So, it is time to drop our partisanship. If you are Conservative stop defending the Premier of Ontario. If you are Liberal stop defending the Prime Minister of Canada. They did not react with the focus and urgency that a crisis requires, and we need to hold them accountable. So, I may not have too much faith in our current political leaders, but I do have faith in you and our community. And I know we will demand better from now on, and pressure elected officials to put in place the necessary Covid testing in places where there is a high risk of transmission. Otherwise, due to more contagious variants, we could be facing a third wave that is even worse than the second wave. Stay safe.
Not every Canadian who gets on a plane is like Rod Phillips, the minister who went on a Caribbean vacation to only find himself upon his return like Luca Brasi in TheGodfather: “swimming with the fishes”. The reality is that few countries are currently allowing international travelers into their borders. Several countries around the globe are only allowing their citizens to return or visit family. Consequently, airports around the world look like ghost towns, flights are rescheduled or cancelled daily. Pearson airport has never looked lonelier.
Some countries were starting to reopen their borders when suddenly the “it’s mutated” scene from the 2011 film Contagion became reality, and new more contagious strains of Covid started appearing around the globe. The new strains will likely put a stop to these reopening plans.
Yet, Premier Ford created a fictional enemy “the irresponsible partying international traveler” that is bringing new Covid strains to Canada. Several airlines already required all passengers to provide negative Covid test results before boarding, even before Minister Garneau announced requirements to provide negative tests. And several countries either test and or quarantine passengers upon arrival. And unlike Canada, they send people to quarantine facilities for three weeks with a tracking wristband, not their homes for two weeks with the ArriveCAN app. And now with the new strains, there probably will be more stringent testing requirements and longer quarantine periods for travelers worldwide. It seems that one of the only “partying international travelers” was his former Finance Minister.
While it makes sense to test passengers upon arrival and perhaps even consider longer quarantine periods for travelers, let’s not lose sight of the fact, that the main problem we have in Ontario is still local transmission. Shutting down Pearson will not address the root cause. Pearson is a ghost town these days anyway.
Hardly anyone is flying, so why blame international travelers?
How many times have we heard the tune “Shoppers Drug Mart employee test positive for Covid-19 in the Junction”? What are we supposed to do with this information other than sharing it on Facebook hoping your friends who shop at that location are notified. But even if they are informed questions are raised. Which employee tested positive? Because if it was an employee solely moving boxes in storage the clients may not have much to worry about, but if it was someone working as cashier many clients would have been exposed. In summary, the problem with this scenario is that it is aspirational contact tracing. And it fails to answer a key question: how did that employee contract the virus?
Ideally, everyone who was in the building between the hours the employee worked should be notified of potential exposure. The Covid Alert app could help, but it would require that the employee who tested positive and those exposed have the app running on their smartphones. And since its adoption is voluntary and requires a newer smartphone not everyone has it. Hence this remarkable app should be seen as one of many ways to combat the pandemic and not a silver bullet.
As a Canadian who grew up abroad and has backpacked around our beautiful globe, I tend to ask myself: what else are other countries doing to solve this problem, which by now has affected every corner of the earth.
Quick Response (QR) codes are effectively being used for contact tracing by businesses in Asia, Europe, and Oceania:
Based on the above study, QR code contact tracing solutions work best when managed by service providers for a specific transaction, for example, a movie night. So when you enter the theatre you would present your tickets and scan a QR code with your smartphone. Cineplex will not get your contact details, all they will see is a randomly generated identification code e.g. UserElVez has entered the theatre. Employees would scan the QR code when their shift begins. So, If Employee007 who later tests positive was working when UserElVez was in the theatre UserElVez would be automatically and confidentially notified of potential exposure. Naturally, all clients and employees who were in the theatre at the same time as Employee007 would also be notified. Since the movie is 2 hours long the system would automatically know when UserElVez left the building.
Finding out how Employee007 contracted Covid might be best left to contact tracing professionals working for local public health units. However, notifying who may have been exposed by Employee007 at work to Covid can be automatically done by QR code systems, thus allowing contact tracers who are already overworked to focus on other critical matters.
QR code contact tracing is far superior to pen and paper which restaurants in T.O. were using in the summer for contact tracing since pen and paper can easily lead to privacy breaches. It is positive to see many local businesses adopt QR code solutions, but to be truly effective widespread adoption is needed. Here is a situation where local governments can take the lead and encourage the use of QR code contact tracing.
QR code contact tracing is more effective and secure than pen and pencil.
These numbers build a strong case that current sick leave policies are woefully inadequate especially during a pandemic. Certainly, having only 3 unpaid job-protected sick days (the Ontario minimum) is not sufficient in times of Covid, because behavioural psychology demonstrates that we are good at fooling ourselves into thinking that potential Covid symptoms might be just the start of a cold if the alternative is no pay or worse job loss. There is always pressure to work while sick.
On the positive side, Ontario has effective parental leave policies that ensure employees are paid and their jobs are protected. Parental leave works well because the government covers the cost through employment insurance. A new paid pandemic leave programme could be modelled after parental leave policies. If we have parental leave why not pandemic leave?
To effectively reduce contagion in the workplace Ontario should implement a pandemic leave program that pays employees and protects their jobs when:
They test positive for Covid,
They are exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid or they have Covid symptoms and they are in isolation awaiting test results, or
They need to stay home to take care of their children during school closures due to the pandemic.
Ontario needs paid pandemic leave, anything less, and sick employees will go to work, and contagion will continue. Some will argue that paid pandemic leave will be costly. My answer is that nobody argued that D-day was costly or that liberating Holland would burden us Canadians with debt. Despite all that is wrong we should remain hopeful that just like our foreparents overcame great obstacles, we will too.
Without adequate testing, tracing, and hospitals in crisis we are left with no alternative but stronger restrictions. However, before pondering what additional restrictions must be implemented, we have to step back and ask ourselves, why didn’t the current restrictions mitigate the second wave?
This is a complicated question to answer since we do not have all the data on how contagion spreads in Toronto. Nonetheless, we do know that several businesses have either:
Potentially broken the law by remaining open, or
Have bent the law by finding creative ways to brand themselves as essential.
The law of unintended consequences teaches us that if we close all stores, except those that sell food, hardware, and PPE, eventually every store in T.O. will be selling bananas, hammers, and face masks in an effort to stay in business. So there must be more effective ways to encourage people to stay home than the 50 shades of grey “lockdown”.
Voluntary measures, such as encouraging people to work from home were not particularly effective in the first wave. Mandatory restrictions did not stop a second wave. But what did work well were the school closures that helped put an end to the first wave. Not only because having people spend significant time indoors in classrooms presents a Covid outbreak risk, but because closing schools also force parents to stay home. The moment children don’t go to school, parents are forced to have a conversation with their employers to either work from home or go on leave to take care of them, especially if they have younger children. I realize that some unethical employers will simply lay-off their workers, but frankly, maybe these employers should not be receiving government assistance and the focus of governments should be to bail out our workers.
Closing schools may be the most effective way to encourage people to stay home. So, close schools to make parents stay home, keep our children and educators safe, and potentially put an end to this deadly second wave. Let’s buy some time and save lives now that vaccines are on their way.
The frustration of businesses that had to close in-store shopping when Toronto went into the “Grey-lockdown zone”, while their competitor big box stores remained open, is completely understandable. Premier Ford rationalized that it would be difficult for these big stores to close their toy departments and only sell groceries. While I completely disagree with the Premier (room dividers were invented centuries ago) and agree with businesses that were forced to close that there is an unfairness to these measures, the key problem is that we still haven’t flattened the curve.
Let’s face reality, at the beginning of the pandemic we had a contact tracing system in Ontario that relied on fax machines and manual entry. The new system is better, but we are way behind Korea and Taiwan who have taken contact tracing to a state of the art. This means until a significant amount of our population has been vaccinated our best remedy is asking businesses to close their doors to save lives and protect public health.
Recently, Canadian Appliance Source (CAS) wanted to remain open to customers shopping at their stores, but lost a decision, in part because the judge correctly noted that they are not a hardware store and therefore not exempt from the lockdown. Below is an insightful statement from this case:
Cdn Appliance made forceful arguments that as an appliance supplier, it is an essential service business; visualize: who’s to say that during a pandemic that a washing machine that cleans clothes or a refrigerator that preserves food is less essential than a hammer? https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2020/2020onsc7665/2020onsc7665.html
Last spring, during the height of the first wave our washer-dryer unit broke down and the repair person said it was cheaper to buy a new one. I called CAS and fortunately was able to order a new unit and have it installed in just a couple of days. CAS is right in saying that an appliance is no less essential than hardware. Having a working washer-dryer unit means we can stay home, not go out to the laundromat, and thus avoid potential exposure to the virus. It is not ideal to buy online or over the phone. Certainly, I would have liked to have seen the unit in person first, but these certainly aren’t ideal times. The court case exposed the contradictions in the recent “lockdown”. However, since hammers and washing machines can both be bought over the phone or online, shouldn’t hardware stores close their doors too?
This second wave is worse than the first one. So we have to ask ourselves if a business can sell their products and services over the phone or online then maybe that business must be closed to in-store shopping during this second surge. The big-box stores have the IT infrastructure to sell by phone and online. They also have the means to afford a temporary closure of their stores. Big box stores must close their doors too.
If a refrigerator that preserves food is just as essential as duct tape, why are hardware stores open and appliance stores closed?
First, let me begin by saying I agree with councillor Joe Cressy’s recent statement, “Housing should be used for just that: housing.” Therefore it follows that housing should not be only used for hoteling nor should it be solely used for investment. Clearly, the core issue is that housing for several years has become unaffordable for a multitude of Toronto residents. The causes of this phenomenon are complicated, but foreign investment, low interest rates, and short-term rentals are key factors. Consequently, I doubt that Toronto’s well-intentioned new vacant home tax will do much to address the problem of affordability. For more information please read: https://www.680news.com/2020/12/16/toronto-vacant-home-tax-vote-in-favour-city-council/
Canadian real estate law has so many loopholes that for all practical purposes foreign investment in real estate is allowed. Note that many countries do not allow foreign ownership of real estate properties, such as New Zealand. Other countries allow foreign ownership of condominium units, but not land, such as the Phillippines. Not surprisingly, in the Phillippines often it is more affordable for locals to buy land as opposed to a small condo, since in the condo market locals have to compete with foreign buyers. The problem that foreign investment in real estate creates is that it often leaves locals out of their own market. For more information please read: https://financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/foreigners-are-banned-from-buying-property-in-new-zealand-canada-should-do-the-same
However, banning foreign investment into real estate might not be enough. For instance, despite banning foreign ownership in real estate, New Zealand still has a housing affordability problem in part due to low-interest rates. Toronto is in a similar boat, because as long as we have low-interest rates it will be more attractive for investors to invest in housing as opposed to other markets. And it is far from certain that a vacant home tax will help when investors can borrow a million dollars for less than 2.5% interest in a market that substantially increases in value year after year. They will make more money flipping homes than renting them. While raising interest rates might discourage house flipping and increase the number of rental units, it likely would adversely affect homeowners already struggling to pay their mortgages. For more information please read: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/kiwi-housing-frenzy-exposes-perils-of-ultra-low-interest-rates
Short-term rentals such as Airbnb raise rental prices. Ontario’s temporary ban on short-term rentals during the pandemic resulted in record drops in rental prices. While it is a seemingly reasonable argument that we should be able to rent out our homes even for a short-term there is a stronger argument that we cannot run a hotelling business unless we are in fact a hotel. And the common good, in this case, lower rental prices takes precedence over hotelling businesses. For more information please read: https://www.blogto.com/city/2020/12/toronto-enforcing-new-rules-airbnbs/
Toronto has a housing crisis. There are people living in parks, streets, and tents. We have both the moral authority and an ethical responsibilty to take action. Collaboration from all levels of government is needed to tackle this complicated problem. There isn’t a magic bullet solution to this crisis. However, a good start would be a ban on short-term rentals, and an end to foreign investment into real estate. A permanent ban on short-term rentals can be done literally tomorrow. While all the loopholes that still allow foreign investment in Canadian real estate must be closed.
High Park Engineer 