Juno News - The government needs to treat us like adults

00:00:00.000 Who would have guessed that Quebec Premier Francois Legault would be one of the first

00:00:09.720 Premiers to offer firm start dates for reopening the economy. But that's just what he did on Monday

00:00:15.840 when he said May 11th schools are going to start opening again. Elementary schools only and we're

00:00:21.680 only going to have 15 kids in class at a time. I don't know how they're going to figure out those

00:00:25.880 details but at least he's saying we're going to work towards it and he's offered that date. Good

00:00:30.820 on him for that because a lot of the statistics out there tell us we should probably be able to do

00:00:36.240 some sort of multi-phase opening beginning any day now. Rather tragically of course there has been

00:00:42.100 many long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec that have seen outbreaks. Absolutely horrendous

00:00:47.980 stories about the conditions. Heartbreaking for so many. I know people who have lost loved ones in

00:00:53.160 these long-term care facilities. It is a very tragic thing but at the same time that data tells us

00:00:58.840 when like in Ontario's case you've got 80 percent of the deceased from coronavirus who were residing

00:01:04.520 in long-term care facilities that well that is the trouble spot. So we really owe those people to

00:01:09.940 double down triple down on trying to protect them and care for our most vulnerable and yes the

00:01:14.380 generation that built this society to be what it is. But at the same time what that information also

00:01:19.820 tells us is that it should be safe for the rest of us to cautiously step out into society and to

00:01:25.660 start reopening various different sectors and industries. Taking those lessons that essential

00:01:31.360 services have learned Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, the liquor store and all these other places that have

00:01:36.760 remained open and do the physical distancing that they're doing that has seen that no there are no

00:01:41.280 mass outbreaks that have happened at say a Loblaws outlet since this all began in Canada. So there you go.

00:01:47.480 There are no signs that yes we should be doing this and yet there are some premieres that are holding out.

00:01:51.820 Alberta's premier Jason Kenney he was the first, one of the first actually, to say I got a plan.

00:01:56.540 Here's my five-point plan. Good on him for that. No start date though and Alberta is not as hard hit as

00:02:03.560 in Ontario and Quebec. Meanwhile Doug Ford on Monday he announced a very interesting plan, a pretty

00:02:09.100 comprehensive one for reopening society. Three phases and he talks about how you get to each phase.

00:02:14.360 Little problem though. No firm start date, not like Francois Legault has. Why not?

00:02:20.320 Let's move forward on all of this. Now they want to wait until there's certain metrics, a certain

00:02:23.920 number of days of constant decreasing cases. A lot of people are still saying we feel like our sector,

00:02:30.420 our industry, the line of work we're in, if we take these measures that say Loblaws is taken,

00:02:35.280 we can do this responsibly. There's a lot of businesses that say trust us, give us a chance,

00:02:41.040 give us a shot. Now Doug Ford says he wants to be able to do it as soon as possible but I think the

00:02:46.140 bottom line is if these business leaders, if the workers, if the people aren't pushing the government

00:02:51.200 to give them that opportunity to say trust us, treat us like adults, we can do it, well then they're not

00:02:56.840 going to feel the pressure and the pressure should be on all the premiers and the federal officials

00:03:01.780 that yes we want a reopening, we need a reopening, we want to save the most vulnerable, we want to

00:03:07.400 flatten the curve. But all of these problems that are coming from the spinoff effects of the economic

00:03:12.300 lockdown, the mental health crises, people losing their jobs, tragically some people will lose their

00:03:17.600 homes, we got to minimize that and we got to say treat us like adults. We can do this responsibly,

00:03:23.780 we can do this safely.

Juno News - April 30, 2020