By Sneh Duggal and Jessica Smith Cross
Not "in crisis"
Deputy Premier Christine Elliott raised eyebrows for saying that Ontario's hospitals aren't in crisis right now — but they are in Alberta, where intensive care units have had to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-edmonton-hospital-double-bunking-covid-patients-as-virus-strains-icu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">double-bunk patients</a>, jeopardizing their care.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The health minister was asked about growing ICU numbers &amp; hospitalizations, her response: “Ontario isn’t in a crisis right now. You wanna speak about who is in crisis? Have you taken a look at Alberta?” Hospitalizations in Ontario have increased 63% in 4 wks. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#onpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/2Kep4jbk0Q">pic.twitter.com/2Kep4jbk0Q</a>
&mdash; Tina Yazdani (@TinaYazdani) <a href="https://twitter.com/TinaYazdani/status/1334196145741041666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Wednesday afternoon, Ford was asked about those comments and to weigh in on Premier Jason Kenney's handling of the pandemic.
"Well, I'm not gonna pass judgment on Premier Kenney. Number one full disclosure, he's a friend. He's a great ally. And I think he's a great premier. Everyone has their decisions to make, his province is much different than ours. It's probably one quarter the size of ours," said Ford. "The numbers will speak for themselves — if they're going up and, you know, maybe it wasn't the right decision, or going down, maybe it was the right decision."
However, ICU admissions are increasing in Ontario as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Hospitalizations/ICU for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ontario?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ontario</a> 
Hospitalizations non-ICU: 473 
ICU non-ventilated: 77 
ICU+ventilator: 106 
= Total hospitalized: 656<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID%E3%83%BC19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVIDー19</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19Ontario?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19Ontario</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#onpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/081TMjvMz4">pic.twitter.com/081TMjvMz4</a>
— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) <a href="https://twitter.com/jkwan_md/status/1334151557181550599?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
At the premier's press conference Elliott stood by her earlier comment.
"I know Scarborough General Hospital is having a difficult time, is having to not do the number of volumes of tests and procedures and surgeries that were postponed during wave one, I believe William Osler is also in the same situation and there are other hospitals, but to say that they're in crisis — that is not the case," she said. "Alberta is in crisis, when you have to have double cohorts in a single intensive care room, that's a crisis, we're not at that stage in Ontario."
Elliott's comments didn't go over well with opposition MPPs.
NDP co-deputy leader Sara Singh said Ontario should be looking to other provinces on how it can improve things at home.
"I think it's really unfortunate that the minister and frankly the government chooses which provinces it's going to compare itself to," she said.
"Just saying that, 'Oh we're better off than one province because they're doing worse,' simply is just very insensitive and really doesn't bode well for those families who've lost loved ones in long-term care and are struggling with this government's response," she said.
Liberal MPP John Fraser also criticized Elliott's comment, saying he was surprised to hear her make such a comparison.
"It's not a valid argument because the hospital association is expressing concern, doctors are expressing concern, you need to be able to better manage this," he said. Because we compare ourselves to some other jurisdiction doesn't mean that we're doing a good job, it doesn't mean we're doing all the things that we need to do."
"What are they going to do next, compare us to South Dakota?" he asked, referring to a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/us/south-dakota-covid-surge/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hard-hit state</a>.
Windsor-Essex 
After the province sent 24 contact tracers to Windsor-Essex following the region's medical officer of health warning that public health and acute care capacity is "<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/covid-19-windsor-essex-dec-1-1.5823160" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on the verge of collapsing</a>" due to several outbreaks, the NDP said it's not enough.
"It's always too little, too late," Singh told reporters after question period, adding that investments should have been made earlier. "We had all summer to prepare for what we knew was the second wave."
"The crisis is getting worse and worse, we're seeing record high numbers every single day," she said.
Green leader Mike Schreiner said if the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit needs additional resources, "those investments should be made now."
"We have seen that when we don't have proper investments in place, such as in Toronto where they were unable to do contact tracing, the virus can get out of control, and we want to prevent that as much as possible," he said.
On term limits
Ford suggested Wednesday he'll be retired before 2028 rolls around.
The premier was asked about a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2020/11/30/bonnie-lysyk-criticized-ontarios-response-to-covid-19-behind-the-scenes-her-staff-have-complaints-of-their-own.html?utm_source=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">column</a> in the Toronto Star that detailed complaints from staff in the auditor general's office over being pressured to work in-person during the pandemic, despite employees' safety concerns and advice from public health officials to stay home.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk was appointed to a 10-year term and while Ford said he's not going to interfere with her office, he said a decade is too long.
And not just for her.
"I'll even speak for myself, I think 10 years is too long for a premier, to be very frank with you," he said. "You need to have fresh blood in there and, and moving things along after a certain period of time."
QP Briefing will remember that quote if Ford decides to run for re-election in the late 2020s.
Meanwhile, the legislature voted on Nov. 30 to extend Ombudsman Paul Dubé's and Integrity Commissioner David Wake's terms for another five years. Speaker Ted Arnott gave the two glowing reviews in a statement, saying "Dubé has performed his role with the twin attributes of vigour and fairness" and “Justice Wake has been an outstanding Integrity Commissioner, who has provided excellent guidance and advice to Ontario’s legislators."
Getting high-needs patients out of hospital by boosting home care
The Ontario government is spending $115 million to transition 850 patients with complex needs from hospitals across the province to their homes with extra supports.
The new High Intensity Supports at Home program will provide 484,000 nursing and therapy visits, and approximately 1.4 million personal support worker hours for those patients, the province said in a news release.
"These are patients who no longer need to be hospitalized, and who can receive the extra support they need in the comfort and safety of their own home," said Ford. "Thanks to modern medical advances and technology, we can provide them with up to 11 hours of care at home, we can provide them with nursing services, personal support services, Meals on Wheels, housekeeping, and transportation to medical appointments."
The province is also spending $14.5 million on virtual care capacity for Ontario Health Teams and home and community care service providers.
Big box stores
Ford also defended his government's decision to keep big box stores open and selling just about everything, while forcing small shops in lockdown regions to close their doors.
He summed up the rationale from the chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams and his various advisors.
"But what the health table's trying to do is limit the amount of visits that you're out there," said Ford. "So I'll give you an example, if you're going to one of the big box retailers it's kind of a one-stop shop. And I know it's not fair, believe me ... but it really limits people from going out and making four or five, six stops on the way home to pick stuff up."
That didn't go over well with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business which has been advocating for the province to reopen small businesses at reduced capacity.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If there is any actual evidence that shopping at a busy big box store is safer than a quiet small business (even when visiting more than one), I wish the Premier would share it. <a href="https://t.co/ZunpznHomk">https://t.co/ZunpznHomk</a>
&mdash; Dan Kelly (@CFIB) <a href="https://twitter.com/CFIB/status/1334214112738414598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But Ford said the health advice will come first.
"You know, I'm, I'm a business person. I don't want to close these down," he said. "But health trumps my personal belief of doing something. If I didn't listen to health throughout this whole pandemic, we'd be in so deep would be under the water. Big time. And I always, always will listen to [Williams]. I promise you that I always will listen to him. Do we try to push him? A little bit? Yeah, we do. But that's healthy, you have to do that."
New COVID-19 school dashboard
An associate professor focusing on education and international development at Western University has launched a new dashboard showing school-related cases and demographic data of affected schools.
Prachi Srivastava, who has been working on the "global education emergency" caused by COVID-19, launched the <a href="http://covid19schooldashboard.com/">dashboard</a> a little over a week ago and said it’s aimed at providing “some understanding of what the school populations are like in the schools that are affected.”
The provincial government's dashboard includes a summary of COVID-19 cases among students and staff in publicly-funded schools and the number of recent cases at individual schools.
<img class="alignleft wp-image-381880 size-medium" src="https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-405x197.png" sizes="(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" srcset="https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-405x197.png 405w, https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-843x409.png 843w, https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-768x373.png 768w, https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-1536x745.png 1536w, https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-30-at-5.50.08-PM-2048x994.png 2048w" alt="" width="405" height="197" />Srivastava said she linked Ministry of Education data on both school-related COVID-19 cases and school demographics, including the percentages of low-income households, parents with some university education, families whose first language is not English or French and immigrants from a non-English or non-French country.
“I'm not making causal inferences and I don't want people to start making assumptions because we just simply don't know,” Srivastava said, adding that she thinks it’s too early to start analyzing the data.
The dashboard, she said, will allow for questions to be asked that can help researchers or the government “understand equity impacts of (COVID-19) on our school communities.”
This includes “finding out what does it mean if a school has the same number of cases, but the makeup of that school is entirely different — 50 per cent low income versus 10 per cent low income, 15 per cent kids with university education parents versus 90 per cent kids with university education parents,” she said.
Srivastava said she hopes policymakers can use the data and “really pinpoint interventions in areas that we can see need them more.” She noted that while some boards have already allocated additional resources to high-risk schools, there might be a need in the future to identify communities that were hard hit and “start putting in extra resources into those schools” without taking away resources from other schools.
Annie Kidder, executive director of advocacy group People for Education, said it's important to connect different types of data when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Understanding, yes, where there is COVID, understanding where people are more likely to be choosing learning online rather than face-to-face, and all of the interconnections with demographics and socioeconomics is incredibly important because it should have an impact on policy, on the kinds of supports that are provided and planning going forward," said Kidder, adding that she thinks including data in the new dashboard on the percentage of families choosing online versus in-person learning would be helpful.
The dashboard, she said, demonstrates that cross-sector policy is key when it comes to responding to COVID-19.
"Right now it’s still problematic in Ontario and across Canada that our policy creation and our work tends to be very siloed," she said, adding that this is why she’s been calling for the government to create a cross-sector task force to address issues related to COVID-19 and schools.
If the data uncovers any relationships, then the next steps could include figuring out whether some communities need “different kinds of support or more targeted supports, or do we need to reach out to families in those communities to understand what they need, what would help in terms of a crisis like this?” she said.

In brief: ’10 years is too long for a premier,’ premier says

Read this for free.