FORD RIPS PM OVER BORDERS

CALLS FOR MANDATORY TESTING

OT TAWA • Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday blasted the Trudeau government for what he called a failure to secure the border during the pandemic, saying COVID-positive international travellers have forced the province back into lockdown.

“We’ve continually — and I’m going to repeat this, continually — asked the federal government to secure our borders,” Ford said.

The premier said 63,000 people are arriving every week at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport alone, with no testing in place to ensure tracking of the virus.

The comments aimed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked Ford’s most full-throated attack yet on the federal government, as COVID-19 cases in Ontario climb sharply. Ford implemented a province-wide lockdown on Monday, beginning on Boxing Day and lasting until Jan. 23 in southern Ontario. Restrictions in northern Ontario will remain until Jan. 9.

Ford called on Ottawa to begin enforcing mandatory testing for all travellers arriving in Canada, saying it would be a much-needed measure to monitor incoming cases. He said the Ontario government will institute COVID-19 tests at Pearson airport with the help of the airport authority.

“This is critical,” Ford said. “And if they don’t want to help us, well, we’ll be doing checks on the side of the road as people exit because we’re not putting people at risk here at Ontario."

Ford said the new wave of lockdowns come amid fears over a new strain of COVID-19 discovered recently in the U.K., which he said adds new urgency to Ontario’s rising case rate. Late Sunday, the federal government announced it was banning all incoming passenger flights from the U.K. for 72 hours.

The closure came after months of gradual easing up on who is allowed into Canada, after the near-total shutdown of entries back in March.

First, a tight list of essential workers were allowed in. Then that list was expanded to allow more workers, such as agricultural labourers.

Then the federal government expanded the list of eligible family members able to join or visit relatives in Canada, and has since expanded that list.

Most incoming travellers are required to quarantine for 14 days and are screened for symptoms of COVID-19. If they violate quarantine, they can face heavy financial fines or jail time.

Ford compared the border to a leaky roof; international flights need to be monitored closely to keep a handle on the spread of the new strain, he said.

“There will be a tremendous risk over the holidays of people flooding in across the border.”

In the past few weeks, Ontario has seen a 70 per cent increase in hospitalizations and an 80 per cent increase in admissions to the intensive care unit. The province reported 2,123 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 17 more deaths related to the virus.

Several observers and opposition Ontario politicians condemned the Ford government for what they described as an effort by the premier to deflect criticism after failing to curb the virus. Ford has drawn criticism in some corners for declining to enforce stricter lockdowns, which fell short of the standards laid out in some provincial health models.

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo suggested Ford should have introduced more heavy-handed restrictions like those in Australia, where new case counts have been lower than in Canada, but where lockdowns were more draconian.

“If you had acted Australian we wouldn't be where we are now,” she said on Twitter.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he was “blindsided” by Ontario's decision to enforce a provincewide lockdown, saying he is in “fundamental disagreement” with the premier over the blanket restrictions.

Ottawa, unlike the Greater Toronto Area, has had a relatively low level of new cases in recent weeks, and has largely avoided the worst of the pandemic since the early spring.

Ford justified the provincewide restrictions, saying it was necessary as a way to curb travel between provinces or between cities, which he said has caused COVID-19 cases to spike.

The measures call for all non-essential businesses to close, and essential businesses that remain open will have strict capacity limits. Students will temporarily move to remote learning.