Ford government has no plan; it’s just trying to fight fires

Watching COVID- 19 and the burden on governments to deal with an unprecedented situation doesn’t take away from my conviction that the Ford government just doesn’t have the chops to deal with it effectively.

There are administrations that plan and strategize. The rest just fight fires — and this one is doing just that. We’re already way past the point where they can just be reactive. After nine months, you would have thought they had a think tank or strategy group in place with expertise to evaluate, plan and deal with outbreaks and situations in long- term- care centres, a team that quickly goes into action.

Instead, we see an Ontario government basically stunned. They rely solely on medical experts to direct their efforts. That’s not really their role. They can tell you about what’s bad about the virus, how to stem contamination, and so on, but it’s not their job or expertise to develop strategies to deal with the whole thing.

In the meantime, the Ford government is a significant contributor to the problem of outbreaks. Stubbornly refusing to legislate paid sick days for workers, especially temp workers, we see the outbreaks at warehouses, including several Amazon warehouses around Peel.

These workers are afraid to lose their jobs and income if they don’t show up at work. It’s clear this is dangerous, but without paid sick days and protections at their jobs, they will go to work to feed their families.

Saving lives certainly depends on better management. The politicians had their chance, now they need to get out of the way and employ people with more experience and expertise to do the job. The Ford government has proven it is not up to the task.

Gareth Skipp, Toronto