Ontario enters second phase of reopening the province, as Caledon works on recovery plan

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

The Ontario government is taking a regional approach as it moves into the second stage of reopening the province.

Announced on Monday (June 8), the second phase includes lifting more restrictions to residents and communities, based on testing and numbers of confirmed cases within their region. 

As of Friday, social gatherings will be extended from five to 10 people, while people are being encouraged to continue practicing physical distancing. Places of worship will be allowed to open their doors to the public, with only 30 per cent capacity and attendance to keep one another safe. 

A list of public health agencies have been given the go ahead to move forward into phase 2, including Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, but not Peel Region. 

“Entering Stage 2 means parts of the province will see more people back on the job and an opportunity to get back together with friends and family,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Although this is extremely encouraging, I urge everyone to exercise caution and continue to follow public health advice as we are not out of the woods yet.”

Services that are able to reopen with the safety measures advised by public health include: outdoor dining services such as patios and bars, personal care services such as hair salons, tattoo parlours and barber shops, shopping malls under certain restrictions, tour services, water recreational facilities, beaches and camping grounds, drive-in theatres and drive through venues. Events such as weddings and funerals have been opened up to allow for greater attendance, with a limit of 10 people. 

With going forward in a regional approach, these openings will apply to only those regions that meet the criteria advised by Public Health and have been found safe to move forward with Stage 2. 

As Caledon is a part of Peel Region, the Town of Caledon continues to work on their recovery plan for the Caledon community. 

Staff at the Town have been working tirelessly in collecting information from the public on their needs and what is to be done to adapt to our ‘new normal'. To accomplish this, the Town has developed a variety of new committees to engage in different parts of the recovery process in Caledon. 

“There's been a number of groups that have been formed in order to address and to provide a framework for recovery,” said CAO Carey Herd at the Town Council meeting on June 9. 

A team of staff have grouped as the Service Recovery Team, who are committed to providing and giving back to the community. A Service Recovery Plan has been developed, with an objective that promotes the health and safety of not only staff at the Town, but the public while the province goes through each phase of reopening.

The Service Recovery Plan correlates with the provincial phases of reopening process, by using a similarly phased approach. 

The Community Recovery Team includes members of staff within the Town who are developing plans to support Caledon's economic and social recovery. As presented by Herd, the objectives include identifying and analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 both economically and socially, recovery actions comparable to other municipalities, available support from other orders by the government or other communities, and identify and review options regarding policies, programs, partnerships etc. 

“People are looking at what can the Town do to help with the economic recovery, as well as the social recovery and expectations over what the community and what the Town supplies,” said Herd. “Mayor Thompson and I have had lots of conversations about what is the new normal and what expectations (are), and what services will be provided to the community. This team is really in place to start identifying what those needs may be.”

The third team, led by Recreations Manager, Heather Savage, is the Caledon Community Connections Team, which includes representatives from Service Caledon, Caledon Recreation Department, the Mayor's Office and the Caledon Public Library. 

The CCCT, which was developed back in April, identifies and targets gaps in resident services and trends in the needs from the community, and engages with local non-profit organizations to 

“The intent of this group is to connect community needs during the pandemic,” said Savage. “We noticed there was an overwhelming response to the pandemic. The residents, business owners, they either wanted information, or they wanted to donate, there's a lot of generous people in our community.”

An environmental scan was done of all the local non-profits and community groups, as well as all services and clubs in Caledon. Out of the 213 groups that were contacted, 80 replied. This survey included 83 per cent have adapted, 55 per cent are prepared to endure financial hardship due to COVID-19 and 18 per cent don't have enough employees. 

“Even though we are not in Phase 2, we are preparing for what that may look like,” said Herd. 

For more information, please visit Caledon.ca.