Ontario businesses can expect to see rent relief in the coming weeks.

That's according to an announcement by the provincial and federal governments made Friday, that more than $900 million of rental relief will be made available to Ontario small businesses for April, May and June.

The program, called the Ontario-Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program, will be administered through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, with the funds flowing through to landlords. Landlords will in turn be expected to pass on corresponding savings to tenants.

"To receive this support property owners will be required to reduce the rental cost of a small business tenant by 75 per cent for April, May and June, and commit to a moratorium on evictions," said Finance Minister Rod Phillips in the government's daily afternoon press conference.

"We think there will be hundreds of thousands of businesses that will be able to take advantage of this," he added.

Small businesses have been hit hard as all non-essential companies have been forced to close workplaces where people gather. Already the province is seeing small businesses like cafes and pizzerias have shut down. The premier acknowledged that it's important to sort out the issue as May rent is around the corner, and that the province will be contributing $241 million of the over $900 million in available funds.

But there wasn't immediate help for residential tenants, who don't have the option of deferring property taxes or mortgage payments like some homeowners do, given the pandemic crisis.

Premier Doug Ford indicated that it's still a matter for negotiation, and said that Ottawa should step up to take the lead and deliver funds, although rental policy is typically a matter of provincial responsibility. "Today, I'll ask the prime minister to work with us on a program to support residential tenants."

To that end, Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark wrote a letter to his federal counterpart requesting support.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, all levels of government have been collaborating closely with one another. In that spirit, I sent a letter to my colleague @HonAhmedHussen encouraging a federal lead residential rental relief program. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/cUoHff75lK

— Steve Clark (@SteveClarkPC) April 24, 2020

However, the premier added that those who can afford to pay rent should continue to do so, despite the pandemic.

The Ontario government announced the five long-term care homes where military personnel will assist, a request that was approved by the federal government yesterday. They are all in the Greater Toronto Area, which has been hard-hit by the virus.

Orchard Villa, Pickering
Altamont Care Community, Scarborough
Eatonville, Etobicoke
Hawthorne Place, North York
Holland Christian Homes’ Grace Manor, Brampton

"As conditions at long-term care homes across the province continue to be monitored and tracked daily, CAF support may be redeployed to other sites, as required," wrote premier's office spokesperson Ivana Yelich in a statement.

The government did not initially release the list when it announced the request on Wednesday.

Asked how the government came up with its list of five homes, Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton said it was primarily based on staffing need.

"Prime Minister, if you're listening, I need your help on long-term care. We need funding," Ford said, making the case that more funding would mean "better, more sustainable long-term care facilities."

So far there have been 574 COVID-19-related fatalities in Ontario's long-term care homes.

The premier also weighed in on how he's personally faring during the crisis, especially because his 95-year-old mother-in-law recently tested positive for COVID-19.

"I'm fine. I feel, knock on wood, healthy as a horse right now," the premier said, knocking his head. "It's not about our family. It's about the 78,000 families in long-term care and what they deal with, day-in, day-out." He added that it's also about people struggling to pay rent and health care workers.

At 1:00 p.m. the premier and his ministers also held a moment of silence to memorialize the victims of the mass killings in Nova Scotia.

The government will provide more answers next week on when Ontario can ease some of the public health measures that have been put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

"Early next week we will be releasing a framework for opening up Ontario's economy," the premier said Friday.

Ford has maintained that re-opening will be done in phases, and that it will begin with a "trickle" to prevent a second wave and losing the progress Ontario has seen so far. Saskatchewan released a five-phase plan yesterday, which will start on May 4. It was the first province in Canada to announce such a plan; according to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute, Ontarians have been more supportive of social distancing measures than Saskatchewanians.

Asked whether there would be regional variations that could see different measures in Northern Ontario, which has not been as hard hit, Ford expressed some resistance to the idea. "We just can't risk someone in Toronto going up north," he said, acknowledging that there are differences between urban and rural areas.

Health Minister Christine Elliott was asked about when elective surgeries could begin again, given that hospital capacity has not been as threatened by the coronavirus as originally thought. "When the chief medical officer of health tells us the peak has passed we'll be able to resume many issues, including the elective surgeries," she responded.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, the Black Legal Action Centre and Aboriginal Legal Services have written to the Solicitor General to "question the utility and the legality" of the decision to provide police with a database that includes the names, addresses, and dates of birth of those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The organizations expressed concern about the "extraordinary invasion of privacy" and warned there are risks on relying on data that is bound to be at least somewhat incomplete and out of date.

"It is difficult to understand how first responders will effectively use testing information that is both incomplete and out of date. Indeed, there is a real risk that using this database will create a false sense of security when first responders are interacting with individuals who have not been flagged, thus serving to create rather than mitigate danger," they wrote.

-with files from Jessica Smith Cross

Commercial rent relief, long-term care military personnel, and a framework for public health easing: Your COVID-19 roundup

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