Juno News - May 21, 2020


Why are we still in lockdown？


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

170.71019

Word Count

645

Sentence Count

36

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The other day Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that he would be starting a
00:00:09.040 commission, a committee to look in to long-term care facilities in Ontario.
00:00:13.520 Whether they're being managed right, whether things need to be done
00:00:16.800 differently. Because of course we know that the elderly are the most vulnerable
00:00:20.340 to the coronavirus and there have been some particular challenges at these
00:00:24.540 long-term care facilities. Well good on the Premier for doing this. Opposition
00:00:28.500 parties, they're upset. They say we need a public inquiry because that way the
00:00:32.340 government doesn't have control of it. All right six of one, half a dozen of the
00:00:36.000 other. Doug Ford says we know those inquiries they take like two years but I
00:00:39.480 want recommendations in two, three months. That's his argument. We can split hairs.
00:00:43.740 Over all of this, bottom line, they're gonna get some answers on this and
00:00:47.880 hopefully improve things. Fair enough. But what about the economy overall? What
00:00:53.760 about a committee? What about a commission? What about a panel of experts on that?
00:00:57.840 Why are we not seeing any province or the federal government really say we are
00:01:02.840 taking, jump-starting the economy seriously? We haven't heard those notes
00:01:07.200 sounded yet. We haven't heard them sounded enough or loud enough. Independent
00:01:11.720 Senator Doug Black from Alberta actually has proposed an economic
00:01:15.980 recovery council to the Prime Minister in an open letter to Justin Trudeau. So far
00:01:20.040 Trudeau has not taken him up on that offer, not even taken that ball run with it
00:01:23.940 and turn it into his own and create something. There's been no such committee or
00:01:27.600 panel convene. Nothing that is front and center to tell Canadians we have the top
00:01:33.000 business leaders and minds together to try and jump-start the economy once again.
00:01:37.860 Because every day there's bad news. The latest one, Canada Mortgage Housing
00:01:41.820 Corporation saying up to 20% of mortgages could be in arrears. Many Canadians could
00:01:48.060 soon lose their homes if things continue chugging along at the pace they're on.
00:01:53.100 This is a five alarm fire. It must be dealt with. We need to see the same urgency addressing
00:02:01.060 the economy as we do the long-term care facilities. And it's disappointing that no
00:02:05.980 Premier, not the federal government, they are failing to lead on this. It's like they
00:02:12.300 somehow think, well let's not move too fast, let's be cautious, steady as she goes. I don't think
00:02:18.300 that's the right attitude right now. Particularly since the original rationale and justification for
00:02:23.820 the lockdowns, which was to not overrun the ICUs and the medical systems, that's been accomplished.
00:02:29.900 So now the onus is on officials every day to say, we've accomplished our primary goal,
00:02:34.860 now can you explain to us why we are not working to aggressively reboot the economy? Look, you know
00:02:40.860 that I'm in support of all these distancing measures and that the new normal, well we're
00:02:44.540 going to be doing things differently than they were before. Enhanced hygiene will be a part of
00:02:48.380 our daily affairs. I'm not calling to go back to exactly the way things were before, but we see
00:02:54.460 that the job losses, the businesses closing, these are very real and we're all going to be sharing
00:02:59.420 in the pain. It's time to convene some sort of commission, panel, working group, send the signal
00:03:05.100 that businesses and getting back to business is a priority. I think the federal government was right
00:03:10.380 to appoint Perrin Beattie from the Canadian Chamber of Businesses to step forward and be one of the
00:03:15.740 individuals who was spearheading the production efforts to get manufacturers to retool their lines
00:03:21.100 to create masks and ventilators, much needed medical supplies. That was great when they did that. It
00:03:26.940 really sent an inspirational message across the country. Let's send that same inspirational message
00:03:32.140 message now when it comes to the economy as a whole.