COVID aid bill delayed, hydro cheaper, and playgrounds may have to be closed

Officials at all levels of government are grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed eight lives in Ontario, with three new cases in Ottawa bringing the city’s total to 27.

At the federal level, it appeared emergency aid legislation would be passed, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the bill would mean “getting you the support you need as quickly as possible.” But Parliament was soon suspended to allow the parties time to negotiate provisions that would grant unprecedented spending authority to Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Trudeau again urged Canadians to stay home. “If people do not respect the measures, we will put stricter measures in place,” he said.

Across Ontario, non-essential businesses prepared to close by midnight.

Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford announced hydro rates will be lowered for 45 days, with all time-ofuse pricing moved to off-peak rates.

Ontario is also considering closing playgrounds. Health Minister Christine Elliott said she was concerned to hear about people gathering in parks where groups of young children are playing together.

Ontario’s testing backlog, those cases marked “currently under investigation,” continued to grow, from 8,417 Monday to 10,074 on Tuesday. Officials say nearly half of the new cases were due to the virus spreading from person to person in the community.

In Ottawa, the three new cases include a man in his 50s with a history of travel to the U.S., a man in his 40s, and a woman in her 30s who had come in close contact with an infected person. All three are self-isolating.

Generally, statistics for official diagnoses should be viewed with caution. Testing doesn’t track down all cases because the mild symptoms most people have aren’t distinguishable from common colds, and because public health can’t test large numbers of people.

There are also three new cases in Kingston-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington: a man and a woman in their 70s with a history of travel to Singapore and a man in his 30s with a history of travel to the U.K. All are self-isolating.

Speaking to reporters, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, said it was taking up to seven days to receive test results. The province was ramping up efforts to get faster results. She also urged residents to use an enhanced self-assessment tool introduced Tuesday by Ontario’s Health Ministry.

On the municipal front, cities are struggling to keep infection from spreading. Ottawa and Gatineau mayors Jim Watson and Maxime

Pedneaud-Jobin called on residents to limit their interprovincial travels to essential trips only.

“This is not the time to go back and forth between your home and the cottage, to shop anywhere other than local businesses or to go to parks other than your neighbourhood park,” said Pedneaud-Jobin.

In Brockville, officials tried to block recreational-vehicle travellers returning to Canada from going to stores there after homeward-bound snowbirds settled overnight in the Walmart parking lot over the weekend and shopped in defiance of government self-isolation directives.