By Pepper Parr
April 6th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
The Premier drops the hammer on the province and puts us into a modified lockdown for 28 days starting last Saturday.
Why he didn’t make it immediate is hard to understand: is the situation is as dire as he maintains it is? Actually, it is worse.
The province has said – no more than five people meeting at a time and those five must be part of the same household. No patio dining – take out only.
The city administration has laid their rules on top of the provincial requirements.
City Hall
Starting Tuesday, April 6, 2021, City Hall, located at 426 Brant St., will be open to the public by appointment, for in-person commissioning services and marriage licences. Walk-ins are not permitted.
Please visit burlington.ca/commissioning, burlington.ca/marriage or call 905-335-7777 to book your appointment. Residents can also visit burlington.ca/onlineservices to access a variety of City services online.
Service Burlington is available to answer questions by phone during regular business hours, at 905-335-7777 and email at city@burlington.ca.
Burlington Transit
Burlington Transit will continue to run as scheduled including specialized transit and trips to vaccination clinics. The transit terminal at 430 John St. will remain open to provide PRESTO services including SPLIT passes. Presto services are available at Shoppers Drug Mart or online at prestocard.ca. Transit schedules are available online at myride.burlingtontransit.ca.
Halton Court Services – Provincial Offences Office
Court administration counter services at 4085 Palladium Way will remain open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday to Friday. Visitors to the courthouse must self-screen using the provincial e-screening application at http://covid-19.ontario.ca/courthouse-screening and wear a mask or face covering unless exempted from by the Mandatory Mask Bylaw.
Telephone payments are available at 905-637-1274, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Many online services are also available by email at burlingtoncourt@burlington.ca or by visiting haltoncourtservices.ca.
The play grounds will be empty.
Recreation Services and Facilities
City of Burlington facilities and recreation programming will close, and all indoor programs are cancelled as of Saturday, April 3, 2021. Recreation Services staff are contacting user groups, renters and individuals affected by these changes. User groups who provide childcare are exempt and can remain open as they are able to continue during the emergency brake as per the Provincial Guidelines.
An announcement will be made sometime this week with more detailed information for how this Provincial emergency brake impacts recreation services including
Residents are encouraged to remain active by accessing outdoor recreation opportunities such as walking/biking on trails or visiting parks and playgrounds. For a list of parks, playgrounds and trails, visit burlington.ca/outdoorplay. Options to stay active at home are available online at burlington.ca/activeathome.
Roads, Parks and Forestry
Services provided by the Roads, Parks and Forestry Department will continue as needed. Residents with questions or issues can email RPF@burlington.ca or call 905-333-6166.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward found this was “difficult news to receive and we’re not out of the woods yet, but we have come a long way from when this pandemic started. This four-week province-wide shutdown indicates how important it is we stay vigilant and do all we can, including wearing masks, staying physically apart where we can, connecting with others virtually or over the phone, and only being in close contact with those in our household. Better days are ahead, particularly with the Region of Halton’s vaccination centres open and administering vaccinations. We will continue strengthening our determination to see ourselves through the other side of this.”
Related news story:
Science made it critical that the lockdown be put in place.
It is encouraging to see the health regions and even cities taking matters into their own hands and enforcing a real shutdown, including schools, ignoring the fumbling and disorganized directions coming from the Province.
I think communications needs to get the language straight. Right now it resembles propaganda.
The Premiers “hammer”, as it is called here, is not in fact appearing anything like lock-down, or shutdown or even meaningfully restricted, except for restaurants, bars, and gyms, barbers and hair dressers. People don’t stay home – after all shopping is open, and that’s the signal. The latest policy really changes nothing.
Opening shopping centers at 20% really means to people that business is open, just might be crowded. People just go shopping – did you see the news about Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. or other malls around the GTA? Look around here at parking lots – hardly empty. See the lineups.
“Essential” businesses open at 50% really do sell a lot of things that are not essential. More shopping opportunity and people do not stay home, or always behave safely.
Look at the Halton data – reproduction rate went from less than one (1) a month ago to 1.3 just the other day. The incidence per 100K population went straight up from about 38 to 98 over the same period. The percent test positivity went from 2.3 to 3.8.
The cases per day curves are going up pretty much exponentially. from a Feb. 28 low of 33 to 119 today, April 6. We are sure not flattening any curve in sight.
Vaccination of everyone in Ontario is a very long way off. We need to fully vaccinate about 50 times more people this way than we have. We need to vaccinate about 7 times more people than we have to get to one time each.
Schools are starting to close in Toronto and Peel, and other regions are starting to pivot. Teachers continue to be afraid. Families are reported to falling ill together and in ICU.
The variants change the transmission dynamics everywhere and especially decisions on schools.
The idea that anything, schools included, is “safe”, cannot be made in a meaningful way because the virus transmission and variants change things in every couple of days, which is how the exponential action takes place.
The medical community is crying out for stay at home orders.
I learned today that cancer diagnosis procedures, such as colonoscopies, are being cancelled. This so-called “shutdown” is working for sure it seems in the health care system.
As I write this it appears the news is overtaking the Premier’s policy with a coming tsunami. Something looks to be coming and the longer we wait the higher it can go.
I would like to see a cutting of the government crap-speak about how safe and good things are in Ontario.
This is not public health based policy first.