We need to reopen the economy now
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188.53069
Summary
When the facts change, your game plan should change as well. This applies to many things in life, and especially applies to the reopening plans that various premiers across the country are currently grappling with. We ve seen a number of plans introduced across different provinces over the past couple weeks. Some have hard and fast dates of when they re going to reopen. Some don t.
Transcript
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When the facts change, your game plan should change as well. This applies to many things in
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life. It especially applies to the reopening plans that various premiers across the country
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are currently grappling with. We've seen a number of plans introduced across different
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provinces over the past couple weeks. Some of them have hard and fast dates of when they're
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going to reopen. Some of them don't. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he announced a plan last Monday.
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There were no dates, and a lot of people were upset with that. They said, we will reopen when
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there have been two weeks of declining cases. I thought, oh, okay, that seems kind of reasonable.
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Then on Friday, Doug Ford said, well, hold on, we're actually going to allow a selective reopening
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on Monday, this coming Monday. Well, that's actually pretty good news because they looked at the
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situation, and they realized the facts had changed, so they were willing to slightly revise
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the plans. That's what we're going to have to do moving forward because we are learning
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two different things right now. We're learning a whole lot of things, but two things I want to
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bring up in particular. One is that the coronavirus in Canada is not as bad as the models projected it
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would be, not as bad as many people, myself included, feared it would be when it first came here in late
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January, early February. That is great news. It's cold comfort to those who have lost loved ones from
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this, but it's great news more largely that, you know, the number is not as big as it could have
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been. The second thing that tells us though, and the other thing we're learning, is that every day
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the secondary harms get worse. The number of people who could die because of delayed surgeries for other
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ailments, the jobs lost, the business is closed. It is absolutely vital that we reopen as soon as is
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possible, as soon as is safe. So do not just stick to the plans because we've set a date. If we can open
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something earlier, we must. It is absolutely vital that we do not lose a day, even an hour of letting
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businesses, letting the economy, letting our regular life somewhat resume, yes, with physical distancing
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place, with enhanced public hygiene. But we need to push for this because right now there is so much on the line.