Juno News - We need to reopen the economy now

00:00:00.000 When the facts change, your game plan should change as well. This applies to many things in

00:00:11.240 life. It especially applies to the reopening plans that various premiers across the country

00:00:16.380 are currently grappling with. We've seen a number of plans introduced across different

00:00:21.300 provinces over the past couple weeks. Some of them have hard and fast dates of when they're

00:00:25.500 going to reopen. Some of them don't. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he announced a plan last Monday.

00:00:30.560 There were no dates, and a lot of people were upset with that. They said, we will reopen when

00:00:35.780 there have been two weeks of declining cases. I thought, oh, okay, that seems kind of reasonable.

00:00:41.140 Then on Friday, Doug Ford said, well, hold on, we're actually going to allow a selective reopening

00:00:45.520 on Monday, this coming Monday. Well, that's actually pretty good news because they looked at the

00:00:50.620 situation, and they realized the facts had changed, so they were willing to slightly revise

00:00:56.040 the plans. That's what we're going to have to do moving forward because we are learning

00:00:59.560 two different things right now. We're learning a whole lot of things, but two things I want to

00:01:03.600 bring up in particular. One is that the coronavirus in Canada is not as bad as the models projected it

00:01:09.760 would be, not as bad as many people, myself included, feared it would be when it first came here in late

00:01:15.020 January, early February. That is great news. It's cold comfort to those who have lost loved ones from

00:01:19.980 this, but it's great news more largely that, you know, the number is not as big as it could have

00:01:25.160 been. The second thing that tells us though, and the other thing we're learning, is that every day

00:01:29.920 the secondary harms get worse. The number of people who could die because of delayed surgeries for other

00:01:35.600 ailments, the jobs lost, the business is closed. It is absolutely vital that we reopen as soon as is

00:01:42.320 possible, as soon as is safe. So do not just stick to the plans because we've set a date. If we can open

00:01:48.380 something earlier, we must. It is absolutely vital that we do not lose a day, even an hour of letting

00:01:55.900 businesses, letting the economy, letting our regular life somewhat resume, yes, with physical distancing

00:02:01.820 place, with enhanced public hygiene. But we need to push for this because right now there is so much on the line.

00:02:07.900 And we have to stay here.

00:02:12.480 And here is another one behind us.

Juno News - May 04, 2020