Opinion: The province should look to New York state, Alberta and France which are all moving more decisively
Reopening locked-down economies is not easy. Because governments did the locking down, governments are key to the reopening. How Ontario’s government manages it, given the province’s demographic and economic weight, will have consequences across the country. Ontarians and Canadians could do better if Ontario followed the example of other jurisdictions and published a clearer and more comprehensive reopening plan.
Along with criteria such as a declining number of new cases and hospital capacity, New York’s conditions for reopening include requirements both for the availability of tests and for having sufficiently large contact tracing teams up and running within a region. The state stepped up testing weeks ago — including antibodies testing, which is only just getting underway in Canada. So far it has conducted more than twice as many tests per capita as Ontario.
COVID-19 hit France much harder than Ontario. But with France’s per capita rate of new cases now a quarter of Ontario’s, it has been lifting its lockdown. On May 11, shops, parks, small museums and libraries and some schools reopened in many parts of the country. Markets and malls could also reopen, subject to local authorities’ approval.
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