Ontario’s opposition parties have slammed the Ford government for not implementing more public health measures in schools, arguing the failure to take bolder action has made it uncertain whether classrooms will be safe for the scheduled return of students on Monday.
A surge of COVID-19 cases, fueled by the Omicron variant, has led other provinces including Quebec, B.C., and Nova Scotia to push back the resumption of classes after the holidays by up to a week.
Ontario is expected to announce whether it will follow suit on Thursday.
In a press conference Wednesday, Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said making that announcement just days before school is set to resume had created unnecessary anxiety among students, caregivers, and education workers.
“It’s a real tough consideration” whether to send his own daughters back on Monday given that case counts have more than doubled over the past week, Del Duca said.
“We find ourselves as parents back in a very familiar place where schools are scheduled to return in just a few days, and because of months and months of underfunding and lack of support… we are once again in a position of having a great deal of anxiety about what’s supposed to come next.”
Both Del Duca and Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath dodged questions over whether they believed students should return on Monday, but argued schools would be much safer if the Ford government had heeded their past calls for more aggressive action.
“It’s hard to say I would pick up the ball from where Doug Ford has left it and run in the same direction,” Horwath said at a media event Thursday. “I would have been spending the time over this holiday season to put some of those measures in place.”
Local health authorities in Northwestern Ontario have so far expressed confidence schools can safely reopen.
“At this point, based on the information I have, keeping schools open is best overall for the child,” said Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Northwestern Health Unit medical officer of health, on Wednesday. “We’re looking to the province for more guidance on this and expecting they’ll be providing us more information this week. Our assessment locally is that schools should continue to remain open.”
Closures have been found to have “significant negative impacts” on children, she noted, impacting physical activity levels, nutrition, and mental health.
Thunder Bay medical officer of health Dr. Janet DeMille made similar remarks earlier this week, but declined to comment on whether schools should reopen during an interview on Wednesday.
Both the Liberals and NDP have called for the COVID-19 vaccine to be added to the list of mandatory shots required to attend school under the Immunization of Schools Pupil Act (ISPA) for 12 to 17 year olds.
Both have also called on the government to offer vaccine clinics at schools to promote higher uptake.
“We could have a situation where vaccines for younger kids were mandatory and well out the door as soon as they were announced, but the government didn’t prepare,” Horwath said.
Ontario’s COVID-19 science table estimates being vaccinated with at least two doses now decreases the chance of catching COVID-19 by only 11.6 per cent, but it still lowers the risk of being hospitalized by 92.2 per cent, and ICU admission by 97 per cent.
The leaders also criticized Ford for not implementing other measures they called for earlier in the pandemic, including making rapid tests more accessible, providing N95 masks in schools, legislating more paid sick days, and spending more on ventilation improvements and special education workers.
“There’s a reason why Ontario is the province that had our kids out of school the most across the country,” Horwath said.
Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday an announcement on school reopening would come “in the next couple of days” following discussions at the cabinet table and with chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore, who is scheduled to make an announcement Thursday afternoon.
In comments on Dec. 21, Moore said he wanted to “assure parents that we’re on top of the data” and authorities had not seen “any significant impact” on children’s health related to the Omicron surge at that time.
Del Duca said while there are early hopes Omicron will prove less severe than previous variants, despite being more transmissible, governments should be cautious until firmer evidence emerges.
“I want to believe Omicron is not going to be as taxing on our health system as previous variants, we all want that,” he said. “But as a leader, the responsibility is to prepare for the worst-case scenario… I don’t think Doug Ford has learned that lesson.”
“For 20 or 21 months, every single leader who has estimated the unpredictability of COVID-19 has done so at great risk to the people they’re supposed to represent.”
