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Month: August 2021

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‘The hearing went on without us’: Legal clinics warn that emailed eviction hearing notices aren’t reaching tenants

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

When Angelica Donato was first notified about an eviction hearing against her at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board, the notice was delivered by mail, for a date this summer that was eventually postponed during the province’s COVID-era eviction halt.

But when the case was rescheduled for a virtual hearing in early September, Donato said that notice never arrived — claiming it was delivered by email to a misspelled address.

Although her landlord appeared before the tribunal, Donato said she only learned about the new hearing date after an eviction was granted.

“The hearing went on without us,” she said. And Donato isn’t alone.

In recent weeks, legal clinics across the province have been sounding alarms about the shift to digital operations by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) during the pandemic — including problems with hearing notices being sent by email.

“It’s not just the tenants that are saying they didn’t get notice,” said Julius Mlynarski, director of South Etobicoke Community Legal Services, who is helping Donato.

“We are not getting notice … we’re not sitting there lying about it, or trying to make up excuses,” he said. At his clinic alone, there have been two cases in recent weeks. From colleagues at other clinics, he’s been told of nearly 15 cases in mid-to-late October.

Since Ontario’s eviction moratorium lifted at the end of July, the board has been working through its backlog of pre-pandemic cases. But they’ve started to cross that threshold recently, with Tribunals Ontario confirming late last month that they were scheduling LTB hearings before the end of December in cases where landlords applied to evict their tenants in March.

While Premier Doug Ford pledged that no one would lose their home for missing rent during COVID-19, the board processed 668 applications to evict tenants for unpaid rent from March 17 to 31; 1,407 applications in April; 1,711 in May; 1,415 in June and 1,414 in July — plus 1,708 in August, after the moratorium ended. Those applications aren’t guaranteed to result in eviction orders, but are the first step in that process.

Dozens of legal clinics across the province recently endorsed a report laying out issues with the LTB’s current operations. It calls on the board to stop relying on email to deliver notices of hearings — unless it’s specifically requested and all contact information is confirmed to be correct — and to halt any proceedings where one party doesn’t show up, unless the board could be satisfied that the missing person knew their hearing was happening and had reliable means to access it.

“These are legal proceedings,” said Yodit Edemariam, director of legal services at the Rexdale Community Legal Clinic. “People have a fundamental right in a society to access those proceedings, to defend themselves and to participate fully.”

In addition to missing notices, Edemariam said there were cases where people were getting their notices shortly before a hearing was due to take place, which jeopardized their ability to seek legal advice or submit evidence to the board.

A missed, or nearly missed, notice could be as simple as an email landing in a junk filter, said Andrew Hwang, supervisory duty council with the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. But the consequences could be severe, if tenants were facing evictions during the pandemic, said Edemariam.

As for Donato, she’s currently waiting for a review hearing, and pursuing a motion to void the eviction order because the money she owed at the time of the hearing was paid off — through the Toronto Housing Stabilization Fund, which she qualified for as a social assistance recipient.

Her landlord, Charles Gerditschke, said that Donato should have known about the hearing whether she received her formal notice of hearing or not, because he provided his evidence to her.

In response to an inquiry from the Star about missed or nearly missed hearing notices, Tribunals Ontario said it sends a notice of hearing by regular mail to all parties two to three weeks before a hearing, and by email in cases where they have addresses on file.

Asked about Donato’s case, the agency did not comment on whether her notice was sent to a misspelled address, but said anyone who didn’t receive their notice “may wish to contact their local regional office” to request a copy or ask about their next steps.

The recent report endorsed by the group of legal clinics called on the LTB to use courier instead of mail or email for notices of hearings, orders and other time-sensitive documents, claiming that mail delivery in many Ontario communities had been “significantly delayed.”

Each time someone missed their notice of hearing, Mlynarski said, it triggered reviews, and potentially new hearings — which he argued was contrary to efforts to work through the board’s backlog efficiently.

Even if emailing the notices meant working faster, Edemariam urged other priorities to prevail: “Efficiency can not come at the expense of real access to justice.”

Victoria Gibson is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering affordable housing. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email:

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Who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first? Federal panel suggests long-term care and people over 80

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

OTTAWA—Residents and staff of long-term-care homes and Canadians over 80 should get the first shots of limited early supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to revised recommendations issued by a federal advisory panel.

The national advisory committee on immunization, an external body, narrowed its preliminary advice to provinces because it is now clear Canada will get a limited supply of 6 million doses — enough to inoculate just 3 million people — in the first three months of 2021.

It recommends priority access should go to people living or working in long-term-care homes for seniors; to elderly Canadians over 70, starting with those over 80 (and working downward in five-year increments); followed by health-care workers and personal support workers in direct contact with patients; then by adults in Indigenous communities where infection can have disproportionate consequences.

The final call will be made by each province and territory which is responsible for health care, including the delivery of vaccines.

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the four “key population” categories “were informed by an assumption that we’d get 6 million doses” and it will allow provinces to plan the “sequencing” of a vaccine rollout.

“As a ballpark, these four groups of people, as things are rolled out, should be covered by the initial doses,” she said.

Health Canada has not yet approved any vaccine for distribution, but says it could authorize Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate within the next week, with approval for Moderna’s vaccine candidate expected soon too.

Pfizer is closest to regulatory approval in Canada, and so provincial governments are scrambling to get ready to put in place the “ultracold” chain of supply for handling the vaccines.

At Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford named the rest of the members of his vaccine distribution task force led by retired Gen. Rick Hillier, welcomed them, and again complained his government still is awaiting “answers” from Ottawa.

“We still need answers. The answers of what type of vaccine we’re getting and when we’re getting it. And along with how much are we getting? And that’s going to make, I know, Gen. Hillier’s job a little easier, even though it will be the most largest and complicated logistical distribution of anything we’ve seen in this country in many, many years.

“And it’s our job to make sure to distribute it in a timely fashion, and when I say timely, I mean almost immediately, and it’s who is getting it first and where we’re going to deliver it, and what locations.”

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the federal government continues to have “extremely collaborative” negotiations with premiers over how the limited initial shipments of vaccines should be divvied up.

But Hajdu refused to say what position the Liberal government is taking in those negotiations, or to state whether allotments should be determined by each province’s share of the population, or by some other measurement, for example by its share of high-risk individuals, or by the state of the COVID-19 outbreak in each province. The federal government will also hold back a supply for populations it is responsible for including military members and their families and for unforeseen emergency purposes.

Hajdu said the Trudeau government will “support” the provinces in whatever they need to distribute vaccines, and will ramp up its communications and advertising in social media and traditional media to encourage public confidence in immunization.

Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine candidates employ novel messenger RNA technology, using bits of the genetic code of the coronavirus, to trigger an immune response in people who get the vaccine. Both are a two-dose vaccination, with the prime or first injection followed by a second dose from 21 to 28 days later.

Both companies have reported preliminary results from phase three clinical trials that show a high degree of efficacy — up to 95 per cent effective — with minimal side effects.

Each requires specialized freezers for storage and handling; Pfizer’s vaccine needs “ultracold” minus 80C freezers and has stringent requirements to be used within days of thawing, whereas Moderna’s needs cold minus 20C freezers, and is stable for up to 30 days in a regular refrigerator.

Canada had initially ordered 20 million doses from Pfizer with an option to buy up to 56 million additional doses; and 20 million doses from Moderna, with options to purchase 36 million more.

On Friday, after headlines splashed that Pfizer had revised downward its anticipated production schedule for 2020, federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced Canada had exercised its option to purchase an additional 20 million doses from Moderna, for a total of 40 million.

In a statement to the Star, Pfizer said it had publicly flagged its revised 2020 production schedule in early November and does not expect the changes to reduce the amount of vaccine supply destined for Canada.

Christina Antoniou, Pfizer Canada’s director of corporate affairs, said, “based on current projections we expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.”

The challenge of scaling up production of a new vaccine, including the raw material supply chain took longer than expected, as did the later-than-expected outcome of the clinical trial which required the company “to focus additional efforts on clinical trial production,” said Antoniou.

She said modifications to Pfizer’s full-scale production lines in the U.S. and Europe are now complete and “finished doses are being made at a rapid pace.”

“We are continuing to work with urgency in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada and Provincial/Territorial public health decision makers, to bring the vaccine to Canada, pending regulatory approval, and to support the government’s COVID-19 vaccine immunization plan in Canada.”

Hajdu criticized Conservative MP Derek Sloan for sponsoring a petition by an anti-vaccine group Vaccine Choice Canada that she said is “full of misinformation.”

“It’s full of unscientific information and it is extremely fear-driven. And it’s unfortunate to see politicians utilize their power to provide misinformation to Canadians when what Canadians need is clear, concise, science-based evidence, evidence-based information.

“Vaccine hesitancy is real,” said Hajdu.

Asked what percentage of the Canadian population should ultimately be vaccinated for a campaign to be successful, Tam could not say.

“Nobody actually knows the level of vaccine coverage to achieve what might be called community immunity or herd immunity. We have an assumption that you would probably need about 60 to 70 per cent of people to be vaccinated, but we do not know that actually for sure.”

Canadians generally have a high uptake for childhood vaccinations “in the 80 per cent plus range.”

Ottawa has purchased enough vaccine doses “for all Canadians who want to be vaccinated to receive the vaccine. So that is the actual goal, as many Canadians as fast as possible for safe and effective vaccine.”

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Tiny Township firefighters grow moustaches, raise $19,000 for men’s health

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Firefighters in Tiny Township joined forces and helped raise funds and awareness for men’s mental health during November.

Thirty members of the local fire department — which has around 90 firefighters in total — decided to grow moustaches and fundraise for Movember, one of the leading men’s mental health charities.

“This year, with COVID-19 being a prevalent issue for everybody, this seemed like a community rallying point; something people could get behind and participate in,” said Steffen Walma, a firefighter at Station 2 in Wyevale and Tiny Township’s deputy mayor.

Firefighters in Tiny Township have participated in the campaign in the past, but it had always been an individual station effort. 

This year, Walma pitched the idea of a joint effort and encouraged everyone in the department to participate.

“I tried to rally everybody. They took up the torch and it went crazy from there,” said Walma.

The 30 fundraisers came from across the department’s five fire halls and over the course of the month. Walma led the way with $2,410. Samantha Barnett was a close second, raising $2,030, despite not being able to grow a moustache. She set fitness goals and raised money that way. 

“I never imagined that we would raise as much as we did. It is a testament to our firefighters and a testament to the community,” said Walma.

The Balm Beach Bar and Smokehouse chipped in and donated 10 per cent of sales from the month to the cause. 

Movember’s connection to mental health and suicide prevention is what resonates with firefighters.

“The driver from the fire service perspective has been post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the stigma that if you are a firefighter you have to be manly,” said Walma. “On top of the fundraising, we are also trying to make men’s health a priority and break that stigma, so that guys who need help seek it.”

In Canada, three out of four people who die by suicide are men, according to the website. By raising awareness, the campaign hopes to reduce the rate of male suicides by 25 per cent over the next 10 years.

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Expanded program will give all New Tecumseth residents access to bus stops

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Residents who live in Tottenham and the town’s rural areas who don’t drive will soon have a way to hop on the County of Simcoe’s LINX bus that travels between Alliston and Bradford.

At its Nov. 30 meeting, council approved a budget recommendation to make changes to the Community Transportation Program, which subsidizes the cost of taking a taxi to certain locations in town for seniors and people with mobility issues.

The program will be opened up to all residents of New Tecumseth who need to go to and from any bus stop within town, from Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Council has also agreed to include banks as another eligible destination for seniors.

Other eligible locations for these users include medical appointments, grocery shopping, the 54 Plus Seniors Centre, and service trips for the Community Living Associations for South Simcoe and Children’s Treatment Network.

The program currently costs the town $35,600 annually to run.

A person using the service has to pay $3 out of pocket for each in-town trip and $5 for trips between communities.

The town expects to provide 300 trips per year to the LINX stops. At $16 per trip, this will add an additional $4,800 to the annual operating cost of the program.

This was one of several changes council has made to the draft budget since it was first presented last month.

The most significant addition was to move forward with building the new administration centre at the former Alliston Union property at 25 Albert St. W. Another $2.5 million was added to the budget, which brings the total cost of the building to $19.3 million when factoring in spending from prior years.

Other additions include $20,000 to pay for maintenance and repairs at the Tottenham Food Bank to allow the building to meet COVID-19 health regulations, $10,000 for the South Simcoe Arts Council, $40,000 in dedicated annual funding for the Gibson Centre, and a one-time grant of $40,000 to the Alliston Out of the Cold program.

The proposed levy increase has risen slightly from 1.95 per cent to 2.28 per cent. The special levy to build up the asset replacement reserve remains unchanged at 0.5 per cent.

For the owner of an average assessed home worth $452,695, the increase works out to about $63.

The proposed increase to the water and wastewater rates remains unchanged at four per cent.

Council will vote to ratify the budget Dec. 14.

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NDP, Liberals makes free COVID-19 vaccine promise on B.C. election trail

Aug 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

VANCOUVER—The NDP and the B.C. Liberals are promising to make the vaccine available for free to anyone who wants it in British Columbia.

John Horgan, who is scheduled to release his party’s platform today, announced the plan to make the available once it is approved and available at an online town hall meeting on Monday evening with other NDP candidates.

Shortly after, Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said on Twitter a “life-saving vaccine” should be made available to everyone for free in matching the NDP promise.

Earlier, Wilkinson resurrected a previous party plan to build a 10-lane bridge over the Fraser River to replace the aging Massey Tunnel if the Liberals are elected on Oct. 24.

The NDP government cancelled the former Liberal government’s bridge proposal shortly after taking office in 2017 and has indicated support for a twin-tunnel instead.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau is promising improved mental health services, promising to spend $1 billion to ensure services are more completely covered by B.C.’s medical services plan.

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‘It’s been pretty brutal’: First month back at school tough on mental health, students say

Aug 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Andrew Fuller was thriving at school.

The third-year York University student, who had been dealing with depression, said for the first time in years, he felt like he really had control over his studies.

“I went through the whole school year for the first time totally going to all my classes and staying motivated the whole year,” he said.

But once schools turned to online models of learning in March, his progress came to a halt. Fuller said he found himself unmotivated, falling into old patterns due to the lack of routine.

This semester has been even more challenging.

“It’s been pretty brutal, honestly. The school online component has been strange; there’s not much consistency … some classes are completely synchronous and live, and some of them are completely asynchronous,” he said. “It’s been very difficult just because I’m someone that needs structure.”

In a about mental health amid the pandemic, Meagan MacKenzie, an assistant professor of psychology at McMaster University, cited a routine schedule as one potential mitigating strategy for those dealing with depression, adding that “it takes away that feeling of uncertainty that we might have in this pandemic situation.”

Fuller said even small activities scheduled into his week, like being able to work out of a coffee shop or having in-person discussions in a university tutorial, have been helpful in the past.

“Not being able to do that now is also kind of obstructing me,” he added. “It’s not easy for me to work at home. I don’t find that I can focus very well.”

On Oct. 6, the Ontario government announced an investment of $19.25 million into mental health initiatives for post-secondary students, which includes a mental health helpline, an online application, a knowledge exchange hub and grants for mental health workers and services.

“Our government is ensuring post-secondary students have the right mental health services and supports that they need during these unprecedented times,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a news release. “Targeted investments like this one, is another example of how we continue to build a comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions system, so every Ontarian feels supported so they can maintain their mental wellness.”

Fuller, who has been advocating for more accessible mental health services for students, said this is a good step.

andrewfullerAndrew Fuller is in his third year at York University. – Andrew Fuller photo

For many students navigating high school this year, their new COVID-19 schedule has also been difficult to manage.

Sevin Davies, a Grade 10 student from Beamsville, said the new quadmester model adopted by school boards across the province has added an extra element of stress to the year, as he and his peers are now learning the same subject for six hours each day and will finish the credit for that course within only a few weeks. 

“It can get frustrating and tough sometimes,” he said.

Davies, along with two of his Grade 10 peers, Duncan McDonald and Adia Binfield, are currently raising funds for children’s mental health, as part of , which supports local mental health foundation, . The group is  this year.

“It’s very real that kids suffer from mental health too, so if they see someone like them that’s speaking out about it, they’re more likely to go and try to find help,” Binfield said.

McDonald added that another aspect of back-to-school that has been challenging for him and his peers is the lack of social time with friends.

“Lunch times are staggered and you really don’t see any of your friends all day because you’re six feet apart from anyone in the school,” he said. “It’s very difficult in a social environment like a school, to have no social contact. And just have six hours of school with no friends, really.”

Davies said the campaign is especially timely as kids are back in school and dealing with a lot of mental stressors. 

“Mental illnesses have been completely through the roof and fundraising has been really hard, but the mental illness doesn’t stop. People still need help,” Davies said. “So we need to find a way to raise money.”

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As Canada prepares for COVID-19 vaccines, ultra-low-temperature freezers are selling out fast

Aug 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Business, Paul Greco admits, has been booming.

In the month or so since Pfizer announced the world’s first successful , sales of the ultra-low-temperature freezers needed to store it have taken off.

“We basically sold as many in the two weeks after Pfizer’s announcement as we would all year. We’re sold out and waiting for our next shipment,” said Greco, president of Schomberg-based 360 Medical, the Canadian distributor of Haier Biomedical, a Chinese manufacturer of medical devices.

Normally, says Greco, his company would sell 40 or 45 over the course of a year. Those ULT freezers the Pfizer vaccine requires, which go as low as -90C, cost roughly $8,500 apiece for three cubic feet — about the size of a hotel fridge.

His next shipment, from Haier’s factory in Qingdao, China, is expected to arrive by the end of the month, with another 48 of the freezers.

Ordinarily, they’d already be here, waiting to be shipped out to buyers like hospitals or local public health units. But getting cargo shipped pretty much anywhere in the world right now isn’t easy. You can thank COVID for that, said Greco.

“Nobody was shipping anything from March through May. Now everyone’s trying to clear the backlog in every single industry at once. It usually takes 30 days to get things from the factory door to our warehouse. Now it’s taking 45 to 60,” said Greco, who estimates his company controls five to 10 per cent of the Canadian market.

Still, he doesn’t worry about his customers — or those of his competitors — getting their hands on freezers and fridges for storing vaccines.

“COVID is such a big priority for the federal government right now, that if they needed to, I could see them asking the Royal Canadian Air Force to send a plane over to pick stuff up if it came to that. I’m sure everyone will get the freezers and fridges they need,” said Greco.

Alex Esmon, a senior director at U.S.-based medical equipment maker Thermo Fisher, says Canadian customers have continued to snap up the company’s ULT freezers, as well as fridges for storing vaccines.

“Some institutions are preparing for every eventuality, so they’ll get a fridge, a minus-20 freezer and a ULT freezer too,” said Esmon. The Thermo Fisher ULT freezers range from a $6,000, one-cubic-foot mini-fridge the size of a vaccine-shipping container, to a standup fridge worth $14,000.

Thermo Fisher’s two factories, in Ohio and North Carolina, have been up and running all year, said Esmon.

“Because we’re essential, we’ve been able to stay open this whole time and continue producing for our customers, and still keeping our staff safe,” said Esmon.

Despite the high demand, Esmon doesn’t anticipate any issues supplying Canadian customers.

“We’re trying not to be one of the bottlenecks,” Esmon said.

Fraser Johnson, a supply chain and logistics professor at Western University’s Ivey School of business, agreed that medical supplies — especially anything related to COVID vaccines — are a priority for governments around the world right now. But other manufacturers are struggling to get their products shipped on time, particularly from factories in Southeast Asia to North America and Europe, Johnson said.

“It’s everything. Consumer products, car parts. It’s all coming over at once. The price of shipping containers has doubled since August,” said Johnson.

For large retailers or manufacturers, the situation is less tricky, because they often have long-term contracts with shipping companies. If they don’t, they can flex their buying power, Johnson said.

“For the Walmarts of the world, this isn’t as big of an issue, because they’ve got more relationships, and because of their scale, they have more leverage. But if you’re a small company and call up a shipping broker to say ‘I’ve got one shipping container that I need sent,’ you’re going to have a much harder time,” said Johnson.

For now, Pfizer itself is shipping its vaccine from points as close as possible to the sites where it will be used. During international flights, and until it reaches those “points of use,” it will be stored in what the company is calling thermal shippers, basically a box filled with dry ice.

From there, the vaccine can be stored in the shippers for up to 15 days by adding more dry ice; the vaccine can also be stored in ULT freezers for up to six months. For up to five days, the vaccine can be stored in refrigerators.

With files from Alex Boyd

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Tiny Township to extend permit parking season, increase fines to $90

Aug 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Parking illegally in Tiny Township is going to cost you a lot more money next year.

Tiny Township council approved a series of amendments to parking regulations during a Nov. 30 committee of the whole meeting. 

Beginning next year, permit parking will be extended and run from April 15 to Oct. 15. 

“Each year we are seeing more and more parking-related beach issues in the spring and in the fall,” said Steve Harvey, chief municipal law enforcement officer. “The biggest impact has been in the fall, where we have seen cars coming in and flooding the shoreline.”

This amendment will see permit parking in the township extended by one month in the fall and one month in the winter. In the past, permits were only required from May 15 to Sept. 15.

Council has also decided to increase the fines issued to those who park illegally. In 2020, an illegally parked car was issued a $60 ticket ($50 if it was paid early). Beginning in 2021, those fines will increase to $90 and $75.

“We were hearing that people were seeing (the fine) as the cost of parking for the day,” said Harvey.

By increasing the fine, the township is hoping to decrease the number of vehicles that illegally park at local beaches.

Parking boundaries in the township have also been extended. Next year, a permit will be required to park at Tee Pee Point Park and Corrie Hamelin Park.

“Parking has never traditionally been an issue on the eastern shore until this year — we’ve seen a lot more of it,” said Harvey. 

Permits will be required for parking at both parks and along the road near those parks.

This summer, bylaw officers started ticketing vehicles a second time if the vehicle hadn’t been removed within three hours of the first ticket being written. Vehicles that still hadn’t moved after a second ticket were towed away. This policy will continue to be in effect.

Property owners in Tiny Township are allowed two parking permits. The first permit is free, while the second is $30.

The township also sells 175 non-resident permits every year for $100 each.

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Rosie DiManno: Delays, flip-flops and bad decisions on COVID-19 testing are costing us dearly

Aug 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

“It goes up your nose.”

Well of course it does, the swab. Who doesn’t know that by now?

With not a client in sight, we were forced to get nosy with the pharmacist at this Shoppers Drug Mart on Danforth Ave. as she fielded inquiries over the phone, jotting down bookings for testing. Nor was there a lineup at three other outlets visited on Friday, as Shoppers launched the service at 60 of its stores across Ontario, though only 43 were up and running according to a company spokesperson.

There is confusion, given that the province did a quick U-turn this week — inside of 24 hours — on its testing directive, flipping from whoever-wants-it to only the symptomatic, at the province’s 151 assessment centres.

The pharmacies that came online Friday are intended to test, by appointment, only people who have no symptoms, including those who might need proof of negative results before they can visit family members in long-term care homes and those with confirmed exposures to the coronavirus-afflicted and positive-determined environments.

It is hoped that culling the asymptomatic from the herd will ease the tremendous burden on labs that actually do the sample processing, with the goal of 50,000 a day, although present capacity is 40,000. And, crucially, prioritizing those at high-risk.

The usefulness of asymptomatic testing is limited, primarily because it’s just a snapshot of a specific time — you might test negative today but positive a day later. It’s also true that small numbers of people unaware they were infected have seeded huge swaths of new cases. But as the Star’s Kate Allen , targeted testing data of asymptomatic individuals compiled over the summer, targeting high-risk settings such as long-term care homes, farms and factories, yielded few new cases.

The more-testing mantra to which Ontario has cleaved since the pandemic struck globally is not particularly efficient, when applied broadly and generically, as experts have been warning for months; low-value outcomes for limited public spending resources.

However, for that kind of catchment undertaking, some dentists are wondering why they haven’t been deployed to the task, since they’re in people’s mouths all the time.

“It hasn’t been for any lack of trying or contacting people in the government,” says Dr. George Christodoulou, co-CEO of Altima Healthcare group, one of Canada’s largest dental medical groups, with 50 offices in Ontario. “I’ve tried to lobby all three levels of government and get nothing back except an automatic email reply.”

Christodoulou points out that there are more than 5,000 dentists practising in the province and about 14,000 dental hygienists. “Typically we work in teams. With one dentist and two hygienists, we see more than 20 patients a day. That’s 100,000 patients a day that can be tested.

“Ideally, it would be part of a regular visit,” Christodoulou continues. “Appointments are made, procedures are followed. The protocols are there so that when a patient comes to our office, they’re escorted in. We have the PPE, we already minimize contact. It’s the same as the oral cancer screening we do for some of our patients. It would only take an extra minute or two.

“So, you’d be coming in for your cleaning or your filling and part of that exam would also include a nasopharyngeal screening or the antibody antigen procedure, especially the saliva ones.

“Who’s better trained to handle saliva than dentists?”

Yet a spokesperson for the Ontario Dental Association counters that it’s not as simple as Christodoulou suggests. “We’re certainly aware of the idea of COVID-19 testing in dental offices but the main priority for most dentists so far has been getting through the backlog of patients they weren’t able to treat for 12 weeks during the shutdown,” Maggie Blood tells the Star via email.

Blood says many dentists are still struggling to obtain the more protective N95 masks, and “won’t have enough of a supply to do COVID-19 testing as well as treat patients.”

The ODA has asked the Ministry of Health repeatedly to designate dentists as front-line medical staff so they can access provincial stockpiles of personal protective equipment.

“That being said, we’ll be watching with interest how the rollout for testing at pharmacies goes.”

While Ontario is reactively slapdash in attempts to curtail the predicted surge of COVID-19 — on Friday that bars and restaurants will henceforth stop serving alcohol after 11 p.m., although there’s no empirical evidence that these establishments have been connected to a surge, and strip clubs ordered to pack up their G-strings, close down their fleshy emporiums — Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly called out the feds for failing to get their rapid-result saliva-based testing act together.

Instead of waiting in a long queue at assessment centres to get a swab shoved up one’s nose, then waiting days for the findings, saliva-based tests can produce results in minutes. Yet Health Canada has taken an exactingly cautious approach in evaluating the efficacy. Health Minister Patty Hajdu has doubled down on resistance, reiterating last week that saliva tests will not be approved until everyone is absolutely satisfied they won’t actually endanger the lives of Canadians because they are inaccurate or offer a false sense of security.

False sense of security, you may recall, is what was posited by leading health authorities in this country who originally disapproved of masking for the general public — and now they’re mandated in Toronto for indoor public spaces.

Three Toronto hospitals, as of this week, began offering saliva tests for some groups of eligible patients, although they’re still recommended as a primary option and samples still need to be sent to a lab for analysis, which could result in longer turnaround times than the swabs. Which rather defeats the purpose.

Meanwhile, British Columbia last week introduced a new saline gargle test — swish and spit — for students from kindergarten to Grade 12. And Edmonton’s International Airport has joined a saliva trial program — devices that will light up green or red, within one minute, indicating if the traveller is virus-free. They do not need to be administered by medical professionals.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration last month gave emergency-use authorization for a fifth saliva-based test developed by the Yale School of Public Health that requires minimal processing and allegedly much of the accuracy of nasal swab results.

There is another alternative, for the anxious asymptomatic but it comes at a high cost: A company is offering at-home testing, saying its employees will travel anywhere in the GTA for the purpose, charging $399 per person, plus a fee of $329 for every additional person in the household. Doctors have slammed the scheme as “pandemic profiteering.”

But we don’t know, do we, how dire the situation will become in the second wave months ahead — 409 new positives Friday in Ontario, 236 in Toronto.

So here’s the backwards-glance global timeline tweeted out by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

One case to one million cases: 90 days

One million to 5 million: 48 days

5 million to 10 million: 38 days

10 million to 20 million: 44 days

20 million to 30 million: 37 days.

The numbers explode, even as the time span contracts.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

zwigdjj

Ontario closes strip clubs, cuts hours for bars and restaurants as COVID-19 surge continues

Aug 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Ontario is closing strip clubs and clamping down on bars and restaurants as COVID-19 cases continue to climb, with 409 new infections reported Friday.

The measures take effect Saturday, with bars and restaurants ordered to stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m. and to shut their doors by midnight, except for takeout and delivery. Staff are also not allowed to drink on the premises after midnight.

“I don’t think it’s the end of the world that people stop drinking at 11 and close at 12,” Premier Doug Ford told a news conference. “We just can’t have these places open until 3 in the morning.”

Health Minister Christine Elliott said outbreak clusters in the establishments, particularly among people in the 20-39 age group that accounts for the majority of new infections, are driving the growth of COVID-19, along with private social gatherings. Some of the transmission has been between staff members.

“It is evident that despite the tremendous efforts of Ontarians, further action is required to prevent the spread of the virus,” Elliott said.

The announcement came as infections have been rising for five weeks amid growing calls from health experts for the province to take firm action to prevent the need for lockdowns later should cases get further out of hand.

“They have been more reactive than proactive,” said Wilfrid Laurier University epidemiologist Todd Coleman, a former public health official with the health unit in Middlesex-London.

In the last seven days, 2,828 Ontarians have tested positive for the virus, up 41 per cent from the previous seven-day period.

Mayor John Tory asked the province to limit bar hours and alcohol sales in July before the region moved to Stage 3 reopenings, fearing people would let their guard down.

“Some modest change to the hours of these establishments, as much as they’re having business challenges, is an appropriate thing to do as part of a tool box of measures you can take to stop these numbers from going the wrong way,” Tory said on CP24.

In Toronto, strip clubs have been the source of documented outbreaks, most recently with seven cases connected to Club Paradise on Bloor St. W. and previously at the Brass Rail on Yonge St., where some patrons gave false names for contact tracing purposes.

Half of the 409 new cases reported in Ontario on Friday were in Toronto, while the 6,351 new infections recorded across the province so far this month are more than double the tally from the entire month of August.

Toronto accounted for 204 infections — up from 151 the previous day — while Peel had 66 and Ottawa 40, making the three areas responsible for 75 per cent of new cases, the Ministry of Health reported based on reports from health units at 4 p.m. the previous day.

It was the second day in a row the province reported 409 cases as a September surge continued with students back in school and Ford now limiting eligibility for tests at assessment centres to alleviate long lines and long waits for test results.

“We have to be nimble,” Ford said of the change in policy, which steers most people without symptoms to pharmacies for testing by appointment. Another 18 will be open in Niagara and southwestern Ontario starting Tuesday.

That leaves assessment centres mainly for people with symptoms or who have had close contact with a confirmed case, those who are part of a public health investigation as part of an outbreak or who have been notified of an exposure by the COVID Alert smartphone app, and those who are in contact with people in long-term care.

Elliott said the province is adding 139 critical care beds and 1,349 hospital beds across the province to get ready for a second wave, as well as extending MRI and CT hours to help ease waits that built up when procedures were cancelled in case hospitals were overwhelmed in the first wave. Almost $284 million is earmarked to clear a backlog of surgeries and a centralized waiting list is being created for operating rooms to maximize their use.

Regional health units in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area accounted for 329 or 80 per cent of the new cases Friday and 12 of the 34 health units across the province had no new cases, a proportion about one-third lower than a month ago as the virus spreads more widely.

There were 29 new infections reported among students, teachers and staff in schools. Twenty more schools reported outbreaks, bringing the total to 198.

The number of patients in hospital for COVID-19 fell slightly to 88, with 25 patients requiring intensive care. Thirteen ICU patients were on ventilators, an increase of two from the previous day.

Labs across the province processed 41,865 tests Thursday on the way to a goal of 50,000 daily in early October, with officials hoping to double that capacity in the coming months.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro and David Rider

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: