Mississauga Mayor Crombie approves of province-wide lockdown
Published December 22, 2020 at 12:56 am
In a statement on Monday, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she approves of the province’s decision to move all of Ontario into lockdown starting on Saturday, December 26.
“This was an extremely difficult decision to make and I firmly believe this is the right course of action at this critical moment,” Crombie said.
“The reality is that the situation at our hospitals remains dire. Our COVID-19 daily numbers may be plateauing, but our hospitals are overburdened with COVID patients,” she added, mentioning that Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga has started cancelling elective surgeries and is continuing to transfer patients to neighbouring regions to make room for a surge in COVID-19 cases. “Now is the time to take action.”
The mayor believes the province-wide shutdown will help limit additional COVID-19 hospitalizations, spread in long-term care homes, and preventable deaths in Mississauga and all of Ontario.
While Mississauga and Peel were already under lockdown, the province-wide lockdown will introduce new restrictions — the closure of drive-in movie theatres and drive-in/drive-thru community events, hardware and pet stores limited to curbside pick up or delivery, and temporarily suspending in-class learning after the holidays for elementary and secondary school students.
Crombie also urged residents to support the city’s small and local businesses as the lockdown continues, namely by ordering pickup or purchasing gift cards.
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“Small businesses are hurting right now. That is why I would like to thank the Premier for announcing the new Ontario Small Business Support Grant, which will provide up to $20,000 to eligible small business owners,” she said.
“This is promising news for our small business community who have sacrificed and lost so much during this pandemic.”
On December 21, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that starting at 12:01 am on Dec. 26 (Boxing Day), the province will go into lockdown, with Southern Ontario slated to experience a 28-day (at minimum) shutdown.
“The number of daily cases continues to rise putting our hospitals and long-term care homes at risk,” said Ford.
“We need to stop the spread of this deadly virus. That’s why, on the advice of Dr. Williams and other health experts, we are taking the difficult but necessary decision to shutdown the province and ask people to stay home. Nothing is more important right now than the health and safety of all Ontarians.”
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