Ontario update on Toronto and Peel’s Section 22 health orders

Last Friday, April 23, 2021, Toronto issued a similar Section 22 health order to Peel Region’s order issued on April 21, 2021.

RCC understands that both Toronto and Peel Public Health will be working with companies with complex work environments (such as distribution centres), and that health units will be focusing their investigations on outbreak cases at large companies. Focused investigations could mean that familial transmission, or other types of transmission vectors, such as a subset of employees who all carpool together, could count as ‘one’ case for the purposes of the five case closure limits. There will also be a more surgical approach to shutdowns, resulting in closures that could be specific to shifts or sections of the facility vs a mass shutdown.

Toronto’s order is upfront about the varying degrees of treatment for retailers. Three paths forward are directly built into the regulation, unlike the Peel regulation, which hides these same paths behind an exemption clause, stating “Other workplace premises exempted from closure by Peel Public Health”. The three closure paths in the Toronto order are:

• Full workplace closure to immediately occur and continue for a minimum period of 10 calendar days; or
• Partial workplace closure or shift or work area mass dismissal to immediately occur and continue for a minimum period of 10 calendar days; or
• Other significant interventions necessary to address circumstances at a specific workplace.

For more context on these orders, view the video from last Wednesday’s RCC Member Townhall meeting. At time 17:40 minutes in the video, Peel Public Health’s Dr. Kate Bingham, the Associate Medical Officer speaks to Peel’s health order and references Toronto’s order (which was not yet released).