Too soon to write off school year, Ford says

But classrooms will remain shut well into May, premier says

Premier Doug Ford is not yet ready to cancel the school year.

Nor is he prepared to reopen the Ontario economy anytime soon.

Schools have been closed since March 23 due to COVID -19, but the premier stressed it’s still too early to writeoff the academic year.

“We can see things loosening up a bit. People want hope,” he told Bill Carroll at CFRA 580 Radio in Ottawa on Wednesday.

The premier, who is set to soon reveal a plan for slowly reopening the Ontario economy, conceded “it will probably be later on” that students are back in classrooms, adding Education Minister Stephen Lecce would announce plans within days.

But he suggested Lecce isn’t yet ready to scrap a school year scheduled to conclude June 25.

“I don’t think it will be the final decision, but it will give people a little more certainty on where we’re going,” said Ford.

Ford added that he will look to Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer of health, for his advice on when the coast is clear. Williams said the main consideration is the level of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.

“If we still have widespread community transmission, we’re going to be leery to do that and I think some parents would be leery,” he said.

A review by the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests patients under 18 are a “very small percentage” of COVID-19 cases and studies suggest children are “very rarely the source of infection for others in the household,” said associate medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe.

Ford, meanwhile, threw cold water on any hopes of a wide open Ontario economy by the Victoria Day long weekend.

“Can we start opening up a trickle of the economy? I’ve got to be very, very clear: there’s never going to be one date that we just open up the economy,” the premier said.