This week, as advocates across Ontario continue to fight to have every worker receive 10 paid sick days amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Doug Ford had a message of his own: that his government would not "duplicate" federal support efforts.
Ford was referring to the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, which has its own specific eligibility criteria. Those in favour of paid sick days have argued those two supports do not achieve the same goal.
Regarding the Ontario government's announcement on Jan. 12 through which Ford declared a state of emergency and issued a stay-at-home order without addressing paid sick days for those who can't afford to stay home, here's what advocates have been saying:
Deena Ladd is the executive director of the Workers' Action Centre.
- Christopher Katsarov photo
“For Premier Ford to suggest that the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit is a replacement for paid sick days is sorely out of touch with the reality of the workers who’ve kept our society running under lockdown."
— Deena Ladd, executive director of the Workers’ Action Centre
TORONTO, ON- MARCH 22 - Veronica Zaragoza worked as a cleaner for 10 years and experiences abusive working conditions — now she helps other cleaners with similar problems. in Toronto. March 22, 2020. Steve Russell/Toronto Star
- Steve Russell/Toronto Star
"Many workers from my community are doing the jobs that no one wants to do, cleaning grocery stores and medical buildings at night, and being paid very low wage with absolutely no paid sick days. Most of these cleaners are like me, racialized, immigrant workers, and some are undocumented and extremely vulnerable to labour exploitation ... We need access to protections like paid sick days, regardless of our immigration status ... COVID-19 is spreading through our community not because we are irresponsible, but because we are being exposed at work and denied the protections that could save our lives.”
— Veronica Zaragoza, advocate and former cleaner
CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn calls on the provincial government to fix long-term care as the second wave of COVID-19 hits during a rally Thursday morning in Gore Park. The rally by the CUPE Ontario and Ontario Health Coalition in Hamilton called on the government to improve wages for workers on the front line to the $26 instituted in British Columbia, hire more long-term care workers like Quebec where 10,000 were hired this summer and institute a minimum number of hours of care per patient. "OUr members have had to be there holding people's hands (through the pandemic). It's very emotional for our members," said Hahn.
- John Rennison photo
“We could be seeing up to 40,000 cases a day in the province by mid-February and Doug Ford just failed to announce what we truly need ... Every expert has made it clear that we need paid sick leave, especially during an infection disease emergency. It’s unconscionable that this government is yet again failing to take the advice and to keep us safe.”
— Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario
Patty Coates, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, speaks at the protest. October 26, 2020
- Steve Somerville/Metroland
“Health experts have said loud and clear: paid sick days save lives. It is appalling that Ford’s government continues to refuse to act on this common-sense advice ... Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a disconnect between stay-at-home orders and the provision of adequate government protections for workers. We are well past the time for action ..."
— Patty Coates, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour
Dr. Doris Grinspun
- RNAO photo
"They absolutely need to move forward with paid sick days for (essential) workers who, through no fault of their own, are spreading the virus because the conditions in which they live don't allow them the fantasyland that we think everybody has."
— Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
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