TORONTO — The Ontario government has voted against a series of Opposition motions aimed at supporting essential workers, including one that sought to create a provincial paid sick-leave program.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath presented the motions – which required unanimous consent of the legislature to pass – during a session today.
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She called on Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives to pass the sick-leave motion, but the government voted against the measure.
Government House Paul Calandra says he anticipates the federal government will announce further enhancements to their sick-day program today.
The province has thus far rejected calls for a provincial program saying it would be needless overlap of the federal supports.
Advocates have been calling on the province to bring in paid sick leave for months, saying it would help support essential workers during the pandemic.
The NDP also presented a motion to implement a full shutdown of non-essential businesses with high rates of COVID-19 and another to further roll back some pandemic enforcement powers granted to police Friday.
Those motions were also rejected by the government.
Science experts question new provincial rules in Ontario, lack of paid sick leave
02:09 Science experts question new provincial rules in Ontario, lack of paid sick leave 04:29 Medical students call for paid sick leave in letter to Ford government 01:18 Unifor, Canadian Medical Association presidents on the importance of paid sick leaveOntario reported 4,447 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 19 more deaths linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said there were 1,299 new cases in Toronto, 926 in Peel Region, and 577 in York Region. She also said there were 233 cases in Ottawa and 227 in Hamilton.
The data is based on nearly 42,900 tests completed.
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The Ministry of Health reported that 2,202 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19, although it noted that more than 10 per cent of hospitals did not submit data.
There are 755 people in intensive care units and 516 on a ventilator.
Ontario says 66,897 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the province since Sunday's report for a total of 3,904,778 given out so far.
