Toronto sets January date for city workers to return to the office, amid rising COVID-19 cases, Omicron uncertainty
Mayor John Tory said Thursday he does not want to push back the return date to the office until we know more about the coronavirus pandemic and the extent of the risk to those who return to work.
“If at this time we have to delay this date, we’ll postpone it and look at different options to make sure that is the sensible thing to do,” he said.
“But at the moment we don’t know the extent of the risk to those returning to work. And we do know that many, many people are working from home.
“And we are going to work to figure out how to make sure that it is as safe as possible for people to go back to work in the office.”
He was speaking as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Toronto climbed to 15.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday the prime minister’s decision not to have an international conference of governments in Ottawa to determine how we should combat a pandemic wasn’t a good call.
And Premier Ford said he’ll consider an emergency meeting with federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu to talk about how this pandemic is affecting Ontarians in southern Ontario, which is more vulnerable to COVID-19.
“This is a problem with the federal government and they need to take leadership role in dealing with this crisis,” Tory told reporters during question period. “They need to work with Ontario and they need to work with the provinces to figure out who the resources for this will be and there is no reason why there can’t be a big international meeting together so we can learn from each other.”
Tory said he and Ford have spoken on the phone in the last few days, and they’ve discussed the importance of having a national government of the day in Ottawa to help coordinate response to this crisis.
“I can assure any member of the public that I am fully