The fight against COVID continues. As of Sunday, 17 schools across Ontario were closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks. In addition, two cases of the new Omicron variant were confirmed in the Ottawa area.
Timmins MPP Gilles Bisson believes more preventative measures should have been in place to help lessen the blow on schools. He also said that federal and provincial officials have been reading and reacting well to new variants.
“Where we messed up, we should have reduced class sizes way back when, even on a temporary basis,” he said. “Class sizes should be smaller generally, but during this pandemic we should have reduced class sizes. This government didn’t want to do that for its own reasons.”
He noted that the landscape has changed in dealing with COVID.
“Part of what’s going on here is because all of these kids under 12 were not vaccinated up until recently,” Bisson said. “And you put them in a large class size, you put them in the school yard, you put them in the school together then you know they’re going to get infections. It’s not the kids’ fault it’s just where they are.
“I think we could have done a much better job on how to contain this in schools by reducing class sizes, making sure we have space between the kids, masks, all of those things, we probably would have been in better shape. But it’s done now, so we got to do the best we can.”
He said schools should have had preventative measures in place similar to businesses.
“We’ve been raising it since the beginning because every public health official was telling you that you have to be two metres apart, you have to wear a mask,” Bisson said. “If you walk into a restaurant in Timmins, or a bar, or a store, or whatever it might be, you have to be two metres apart. But yet we’re putting kids together less than two metres apart in classrooms, where there is more risk of a contagion. It just doesn’t make any sense for a lot of people to be held to conditions, but not others.
“We tried to push it in that direction, but unfortunately it didn’t go there.”
On a brighter note, Bisson said the federal and provincial governments continue to work well together as the COVID battlefield changes.
“I think the feds read the cards well when they saw what was coming out of the southern African continent,” he explained. “The unfortunate part is that a lot of those people have already travelled and the contagion has moved along. At least they’ve done what we have to do now to make things less than they could be.
“And in the end, there is a certain amount of co-operation between the federal and provincial branches of the government and the opposition in governments in order to try to do the right things.”
He said co-operation is vital to beat the pandemic.
“What’s clear is this thing is mutating over and over again and the world is extremely connected,” Bisson said. “People who left South Africa went through airports in Paris, Frankford, and at Heathrow Airport. They’ve been in contact with others who are travelling around the world as well. This thing is going to travel around and it’s scary.
“That’s why we need to control it with all the precautions that we can by making sure we do the things that public health officials tell us to do — wash your hands, where masks, all of those things — and try as much as we can to stay safe.”
He urges everyone to be patient and keep fighting the good fight against COVID.
“Nobody likes this,” Bisson said. ‘Nobody likes wearing masks. Nobody likes being vaccinated. Nobody likes any of this. But it’s what we must do in order to get to the other side.
“The good news is most Ontarians are going in that direction and others are coming along.”
