The federal government will begin talking to Canadian provinces later today about the guidelines and requirements for a gradual reopening of the economy, prime minister Justin Trudeau said during his daily briefing this morning.
Trudeau noted that he will be speaking with provincial premiers to discuss what steps each locale needs to take in order to begin the reopening process. He stressed that the reopening will not be one-size-fits-all; given the wide geographical reach of the country and the variance in outbreak patterns and severity, each province will have different standards for reopening safely.
“Over the coming weeks, you will here more talks about reopening,” Trudeau said. “But you need to know we are not out of the woods. It’s absolutely critical that everyone continues to follow local public health instructions as we move forward. For now, these instructions are the same for all Canadians, no matter where you live, you should be staying home as much as you can.”
Trudeau said Canadian authorities have been studying the cases in countries like South Korea, Japan and Singapore for their approaches to reopening - or, in some cases, to not locking down in the first place - since the beginning of the crisis. As such, Canada has seen the potential risks of improperly assessing COVID’s threat seen by some countries - while also seeing what works best in each scenario.
“We’ve seen the challenges to opening the economy, so we must be very careful,” he said. “Every place can have different approaches, so if you see one province open, you should continue to follow the rules that apply to the region where you are at. If not, there’s a real risk of losing the progress of all the work we’ve done so far.”
The plan, Trudeau said, is to come up with a set of “elements” for each province and jurisdiction to conditionally reopen part of the economy. Such elements may include contact tracing, an adequate level of COVID testing, as well as a set of guidelines to ensure public safety in workplaces that will vary greatly from industry to industry. Ultimately, it will be up for the provinces and municipalities to determine what those workplace safety guidelines will look like in each specific locale.
“We need to be grounded on the principles of not allowing the further spread of COVID-19,” Trudeau said. “And that, if surges happen, that they can be managed and controlled rapidly…
“I think we all understand the gains we have made in controlling the spread of COVID-19 to this point have come because people are being very diligent across the country about about not going out unless it’s essential. Because of that success, we can now talk about gradually and carefully opening up economic activity in certain sectors. But we have to be very, very careful.”
