The New Democrats blame Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government for WindsorEssex being back in lockdown
New Democrats say Premier Doug Ford's government could have avoided another lockdown in Windsor-Essex.
Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky says the province is sitting on $12-billion of unspent and unallocated COVID-19 funding that could have saved the region from the worst of the pandemic.
Gretzky says the money could have been used months ago for paid sick days, to control infection in long-term care homes, increase testing, and to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes in schools.
"Meanwhile in our area we have a health unit where the chief medical officer has come out and said they're on the verge of collapse, we have hospitals in outbreaks, schools in outbreaks that are now being closed," she says.
Gretzky says long-term care homes are turning away primary care givers due to lack of PPE and class sizes are as high as 29 at some area schools.
"They're not putting their money where their mouth is and there is no way to quantify the value of someone's life," she says. "The government needs to be spending that money."
Gretzky says waiting on a vaccine doesn't do anything for the public right now.
"We've already gone through one wave of COVID-19, they knew a second one was coming and they've known there were vaccines in development for a while now," she says. "They should have been proactive on that front as well."
Gretzky adds the province is holding onto the emergency funding to pay down a pending debt, but that will cost more money and lives in the long run.
Windsor-Essex will remain under the province's Grey Lockdown Level under the COVID-19 Response Framework for the next 28 days.