Peel mayors disagree over speed of reopening process

The mayor of Mississauga is encouraging the provincial government to stick to its original timeline for reopening the economy. It’s an opinion that stands in stark contrast to her counterpart in neighbouring Brampton.

“While we all want to go back to life as normal as soon as possible, I am encouraging the province to continue its cautious approach,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie.

“I think we’re on the right track, and what’s more important than opening before or on a specific date is opening when the data and health trends say it is safe to do so. Let’s not tie ourselves to dates, but trends.”

The comments come one day after Brampton’s mayor encouraged the Ford government to speed up the reopening process.

“The pace of the reopening, it could be faster,” said Mayor Patrick Brown during a press briefing on Wednesday. “We’ve lost two small businesses in Brampton alone this month. We have got restaurants that are at half capacity, we’ve got small businesses that are continuing to be extremely strained in terms of capacity limits. Given the hospital picture I simply don’t see a basis for that.”

The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 has dropped significantly over the past month in both Brampton and Mississauga. But Crombie says her city’s Trillium health care network isn’t ready for a faster reopening.

“Over the course of this pandemic, no other hospital in the province has seen more COVID-19 patients. That means that other hospitals will be able to bring back services online and deal with the backlog of non-urgent surgeries faster than Trillium can,” said Crombie.

Ontario’s current reopening plan saw restaurants, gyms and theatres resume at partial capacity on Jan. 31. The roadmap calls for further loosening of restrictions on Feb. 21 and March 14.

Peel’s top doctor is also among those who are preaching caution.

“While the Omicron wave may have peaked, transmission does still remain high and the threat is far from over,” said Dr. Lawrence Loh, Medical Officer of Health for Peel Region.

Crombie believes her city’s progress is directly tied to the province’s cautious approach and wants to see the Ford government stay the course.

“I have advocated that this be the last lockdown on business that we should see during this.”