COVID-19 numbers
The province reported another 1,487 cases of COVID-19 on Monday. This follows a record-setting 1,581 cases reported on Saturday. There were another 10 deaths on Monday, adding to 49 deaths over the weekend.
As cases have crept up, so has the seven-day average. The current average is 1,443 cases, up from 1,106 a week ago and 919 two weeks ago.
Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, noted that the number of people in hospital is also up by 21 from the previous day to a total of 500. There are currently 125 people in ICU — that's seven more than the previous day.
Ontario Health Coalition calls for investigation
The Ontario Health Coalition is asking the province's Integrity Commissioner to investigate the close ties between the Progressive Conservative Party and the long-term care lobby — but that appears to be something that's outside of his mandate.
The advocacy group held a press conference Monday, alleging the PC government is rushing through legislation to give people, businesses and government immunity from most lawsuits stemming from COVID-19 transmission as a favour to the industry. That legislation, Bill 218, the Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020, passed third reading later in the day.
The group detailed connections between the party and for-profit long-term care providers, including staffers who've gone on to work in the industry and vice versa, and three former PC premiers' involvement in the sector. It also broke down political donations to the Progressive Conservatives — and the other major Ontario political parties.
"It is our position that the political donations received by the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and its MPPs, and the close relationships they have with the long-term care home industry represents a conflict of interest that needs to be investigated," the coalition says. "As a result of this conflict of interest these MPPs should recuse themselves from any vote on Bill 218, Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020 as this Bill in its current form directly benefits the long-term care home industry."
However, the Integrity Commissioner doesn't accept complaints about MPPs to be received from the public as <a href="http://www.oico.on.ca/home/mpp-integrity/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it wasn't given the legislative mandate to do so</a>.
Long-term care 
Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton faced some heat from opposition parties on Monday after suggesting that local medical officers of health "have the ability to take other measures that they see necessary in the areas that they’re in" as long-term care homes across the province battle an increase in the number of resident and staff cases.
Reports circulated on Saturday of an outbreak at Rockcliffe Care Community, which <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-rockcliffe-care-community-1.5802395" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CBC</a> said resulted in seven resident deaths and 136 resident and 66 staff infections.
In response to a reporter's question, Fullerton argued that lessons had been learned from the first wave in long-term care, noting that 92 per cent of homes have no resident cases. She said rapid tests are coming, but not fast enough, and added that public health units can enact measures under the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
"The medical officers of health ... can actually respond fast," she said. "Our measures take somewhat longer ... if there’s a mechanism that is more in COVID-time, then I believe that medical officers of health have that ability and should address that as they see necessary."
She said visitor restrictions are happening in some cases, but didn't elaborate further on what specific measures she was referring to.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she was "disgusted" by Fullerton's response.
"It looks like she’s preparing to scapegoat public health departments as a result of the government's failures," Horwath told reporters, criticizing the government for moving too slowly on addressing the issues in long-term care.
Liberal MPP John Fraser accused the minister of "shirking her responsibility."
"It’s her responsibility, she’s the minister of long-term care," he said, adding that the government needs to do more to address overcrowding in homes.
Premier Doug Ford defended the minister, saying "she doesn’t believe in passing the buck."
"Maybe she has ideas, I’ll talk to her again today about it," he said, adding that the sector needs rapid testing to be in place.
A repeat request
Fraser is once again asking the government to have representatives from its COVID-19 command table appear before the legislative committee reviewing emergency orders.
"Last week’s revelations that your government ignored Public Heath Ontario’s advice when developing the framework and thresholds for the COVID-19 public health response, underscores the need for Ontarians to hear directly from your COVID-19 Command Table at the next meeting of the Select Committee on Emergency Management Oversight," Fraser wrote in a Nov. 15 letter to Ford.
The Liberal MPP for Ottawa South was referring to the bombshell story in the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/11/11/ontario-rejected-its-own-public-health-agencys-advice-when-it-launched-its-colour-coded-plan-for-covid-19-restrictions.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Toronto Star</a> about the province's colour-coded framework for COVID-19 restrictions. The article revealed that the government set thresholds for weekly cases per 100,000 people and positivity rates for the red "control" zone that were four times higher than what Public Health Ontario had recommended. The government ultimately announced on Friday it was <a href="https://www.qpbriefing.com/2020/11/13/premier-u-turns-on-covid-frameworks-thresholds-as-experts-warn-about-the-inevitability-of-a-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reducing the thresholds.</a>
"When dealing with this pandemic, Ontarians deserve open communication and transparency from their government. Right now, there are many unanswered questions about the advice your government is being given, when it was given and the evidence that underpins your government’s action," wrote Fraser, adding that several health-focused groups and professionals have been calling on the government to introduce stricter measures.
"They fear that if this advice is not taken, once again elective surgeries will be cancelled or postponed and access to non-COVID ICU care will be rationed," he said.
Fraser noted that the premier could ask some of the experts he is taking advice from to appear before the committee "to answer questions and update Ontarians directly through a public hearing."
The committee meets on Nov. 19. Fraser made a similar request in an Oct. 18 letter, but Solicitor General Sylvia Jones updated the committee at its Oct. 22 meeting.
Averting a "generational catastrophe"
<img class="alignleft wp-image-381099 size-medium" src="https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-10.50.19-AM-405x225.png" alt="" width="405" height="225" srcset="https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-10.50.19-AM-405x225.png 405w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-10.50.19-AM-843x469.png 843w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-10.50.19-AM-768x428.png 768w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-10.50.19-AM.png 1128w" sizes="(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" />Prachi Srivastava, an associate professor focusing on education and international development at Western University, said a $3.2 billion school reopening plan during COVID-19, which was proposed by the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/07/27/opening-ontario-schools-safely-amid-covid-could-require-up-to-32-billion-funding-for-staff-cleaning-supplies-say-liberals-staff-union.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ontario Liberals</a> in July, was "a bit of a bargain."
The plan accounted for more teachers to lower class sizes to 15 students, special education professionals to "help close learning gaps" and support for additional health and safety measures.
"I would argue that this is a bargain in terms of thinking about what we need to move forward and how we can really rebuild our systems and our societies so that we are looking at the effects of this not just this year and next year, but for the generation that follows us," Srivastava said during the first day of People for Education's 2020 virtual summit on the future of public education.
Srivastava, who has been working on the "global education emergency" caused by COVID-19 and led a high-level policy brief in advance of the upcoming G20 summit, said while many advocated for smaller class sizes as a public health measure, having fewer students in a class is also "really important for more personalized instruction, for the type of immediate care and immediate resourcing that our children will need."
She cited an early modelling study that estimates a "$10.6 trillion global lifetime earning loss due to just four months of school closures." In Canada, 2020 high school, college and university-level graduates could lose up to $23,000-$44,000 in income over the next five years, she said.
These losses, she said, could result in a six per cent drop in GDP for high-income countries like Canada.
"This is huge, and the learning earning life opportunity and social welfare costs of COVID-19 education disruption are going to be severe and it will further destabilize marginalized groups," Srivastava said.
She said society needs to "act swiftly and with urgency" to prevent what many leaders are referring to as a "generational catastrophe" when it comes to disrupted learning as a result of COVID-19.
One way to do this is to boost investment in education, she said, arguing that while government's often cite "resource constraints," investing in what's needed now will provide for better outcomes in the future.
Srivastava said while provinces need to plan for immediate interruptions to classes and schools due to the current COVID-19 case counts, they also need to plan for the rest of this year and the following school year.
"We need to understand that children for example entering Grade 4 in 2021 September would have been disrupted since Grade 2," she said.
Adapting the school curriculum for the next couple of years is another step, she said.
"Some of this might include supplemental education programming ... how do we actually reach that? What is a new calendar for the school year? Should we think about holding off on automatic promotion?" she mused.
Srivastava also stressed the importance of prioritizing communities and groups "most affected" by COVID-19.
"Racialized groups, lower income groups, we know are actually most affected, so what are those high-risk schools, where are those high-risk communities, how do we prioritize them?" she said.
Government launches new procurement agency
<img class="alignright wp-image-381096 size-medium" src="https://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM-405x222.png" alt="" width="405" height="222" srcset="https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM-405x222.png 405w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM-843x462.png 843w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM-768x421.png 768w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM-1536x841.png 1536w, https://old.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-16-at-1.10.29-PM.png 1902w" sizes="(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" />The provincial government is launched a centralized procurement agency dubbed "Supply Ontario," which Premier Ford said will save the province money.
"Buying in bulk just makes sense," said Ford, noting that this is what the new agency is being set up to do. He noted that it was "unacceptable" for the province to have 7,000 different entities involved in procurement.
The launch of this new agency came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The government's experience of sourcing PPE and critical supplies and equipment (CSE) shed light on the fragmented nature of Ontario's supply chain system," the government said in a press release, adding that the agency would help in "stabilizing access" to things like personal protective equipment and supporting job growth by sourcing more Ontario-made items.
Ford also said the government signed a contract with PRIMED Medical Products, which will produce 50 million surgical masks annually for the next five years.
COVID-19 vaccine
Commenting on the news of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/moderna-vaccine-test-coronavirus-1.5803266" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine</a> candidate appearing to be 94.5 per cent effective, Health Minister Christine Elliott said "it’s great that there is some promising news right now." Pfizer Inc. also recently announced that preliminary results for its vaccine showed it to be more than 90 per cent effective.
Ford said distributing vaccines is going to be a huge "logistical operation" as the Pfizer vaccine would need to be stored at a temperature colder than -75 degrees Celsius.
Elliott said a team at the health ministry that includes both logistical experts and ethicists is working on a distribution plan for when a vaccine becomes available.
Poppy legislation support
Ontario opposition parties said they plan to support Progressive Conservative legislation aimed at prohibiting employers from stopping staff from wearing a poppy during Remembrance Week.
Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries Lisa MacLeod restated her government's intent to table such legislation after Premier Ford announced it last week. It came after Whole Foods <a href="https://www.qpbriefing.com/2020/11/06/in-brief-poppies-and-valour-games/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prevented its employees from wearing a poppy</a>, a policy that the company later walked back after a deluge of criticism.
Horwath called it a "shameful situation," adding that Ontario shouldn't need to legislate something like this. She said her party would support the legislation "as long as it’s fair and truthful," accusing the government of burying unrelated items in legislation it tables.
Fraser, speaking on behalf of the Liberals, said it's good to move forward with such legislation despite the issue being resolved. He added that supporting it is the "right thing to do."
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said that he supports such legislation "in principle."
-With files from Jessica Smith Cross

Your Ontario COVID-19 roundup: Averting a ‘generational catastrophe’ in schools

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