The premier of Ontario announced Monday that the province will be scrapping all capacity limits and vaccine passport mandates on March 1.
Capacity limits will begin to lift on Thursday, four days ahead of the province’s previous re-opening schedule, Doug Ford said a press conference at Queen’s Park on Monday’s morning.
“Given how well Ontario has done in the Omicron wave we are able to fast track our reopening plan,” he said.
The following capacity limits will be in place Thursday:
- Indoor capacity at sports arenas, concert venues, and theatres will be increased to 50 per cent and gatherings of 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors will be allowed
- Social gathering limits will increase to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors
- Organized public event limits will increase to 50 people indoors, with no limit outdoors
- No capacity limits at restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas, meeting and event spaces, or casinos
- Fifty per cent of the usual seating capacity allowed at sports and concert venues
- Indoor capacity limits will increase to 25 per cent in the remaining higher-risk settings that include nightclubs, bathhouses and sex clubs
- Unlimited capacity for indoor weddings, funerals or religious services, to the number of people who can maintain two metres physical distance. No capacity limits if proof of vaccination is used.
On March 1, if public health indicators continue to improve, all capacity limits will be removed, and proof of vaccination will no longer be required to enter businesses, the Office of the Premier said in a media release.
The premier said mask mandates will continue to stay in place until further notice, and booster shot eligibility will be expanded on Friday to children ages 12-17.
The vaccine passport mandate came into effect in September 2021, with Ontarians having to show a government official vaccination certificate proving they had two doses of an approve vaccine against COVID-19 to enter non-essential businesses.
The vaccine passports triggered a backlash across the country, coming to a head at the end of January as the ‘freedom convoy’ protested the mandate in Ottawa, and at other locations, as well.
Ford on Monday made sure to address these protests at Queen’s Park, saying that these plans were in the works before demonstrations against vaccine passports took place.
“Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa, or Windsor, but despite it,” Ford said in the conference.
But not all are happy with the vaccine mandate lifting so soon.
“This seems to be more about politics, more about Doug Ford caving to the occupiers in Ottawa and more about him trying to be the good guy before the election than it is about the public safety and the good of all of us,” said Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath at a press conference.
Horwath said she believes vaccine passports continue to be the best way to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
A recent Abacus poll showed that over 60 per cent of Ontarians agree, and believe people should continue to get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the next one to two years.
Ontario Green Party leader Mike Shreiner said the government needs to be more clear in their path towards reopening, so that the province stops going back and forth between lockdowns and reopenings.
“I urge the Premier to provide clarity to the public by setting clear, evidence-based targets that will help Ontario get to a place where we can open safely and stay open,” he said in an a statement that was emailed to Humber News on Monday.