TORONTO — An enforcement blitz that uncovered numerous violations of COVID-19 prevention protocols across big-box retailers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas will broaden its scope to include the rest of the province in the weeks ahead, the province's labour minister said Sunday.
Monte McNaughton said the initial wave of inspectors combing retailers for those eschewing masks and ignoring physical distancing guidelines found only 70 per cent of sites they visited were adhering to the public health measures intended to curb the spread of the virus. He called the results disappointing, pledging to expand the enforcement efforts to other parts of the province as well as additional industries at risk from COVID-19 outbreaks.
"We'll be expanding that in the days and weeks to come across the whole province," McNaughton said in a telephone interview. "We're going to continue targeting bad actors and we'll continue issuing fines and close them down if we have to."
The initial blitz involved 50 inspectors fanning out across Toronto, Hamilton and surrounding municipalities to observe the scene at multiple big-box retailers, which are among the businesses allowed to keep their doors open under Ontario's current stay-at-home order.
McNaughton said big-box stores would remain a key target during the provincewide expansion. The ministry issued a document late last week saying inspections would also involve workplaces which reported COVID-19 outbreaks and businesses focused on manufacturing, warehousing, distribution centres and food processing.
Word of the expansion comes amid growing pressure to quell soaring COVID-19 case counts across Ontario, which showed little sign of abating over the weekend.
The province reported 3,422 new cases of COVID-19 and another 69 deaths on Sunday, up more than 10 per cent from levels recorded the day before.
The bulk of the most recent diagnoses remain in Toronto and nearby Peel Region, where 1,035 and 585 new infections were identified in the past 24 hours.
Windsor-Essex County, York Region and Niagara logged another 254, 246 and 186 cases respectively.
Meanwhile, the City of Hamilton announced the province had told it to temporarily cease administering first doses of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to most people.
The city said only residents, staff and essential caregivers at long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes would continue to get their initial shots after Pfizer-BioNTech announced it was delaying international shipments of its vaccine while upgrading facilities in Europe.
Those who have already received an initial dose will receive their booster, it said.
A spokeswoman for the Minister of Health did not say how many regions received a similar directive or why first doses of the Moderna vaccine were also being paused.
And as the vaccine rollout continues at a slightly slower pace, McNaughton said he was hopeful the weekend enforcement blitz would help reign in numbers of new infections.
The inspectors visited 110 retailers on Saturday alone and found 31 violations of COVID-19 protocols, he said, noting that amounts to a compliance rate of just over 70 per cent.
They issued 11 formal warnings and 11 tickets, he added.
McNaughton said he'd hoped the compliance rate would be much higher.
"Every business, every supervisor and every worker out there has to do more today than at any point during this pandemic to keep people safe and to be vigilant," he said.
The blitz, which continued Sunday, is part of an array of measures the province unveiled in recent days to toughen its approach to COVID-19.
Ontario recently ordered people to only leave their homes for groceries, medical appointments, exercise and work that can't be completed remotely.
Stores selling non-essential goods have been forced to temporarily close and operate solely through e-commerce and curbside pickups.
The most common violations inspectors found big box stores contravening were linked to screening of customers and staff, masking protocols and physical distancing problems, McNaughton said.
The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development says it has conducted more than 34,000 COVID-19 related workplace inspections and halted unsafe work 55 times throughout the pandemic.
It is in the process of hiring an additional 100 health and safety inspectors and doubling the number of phone lines at the provincial Health and Safety Contact Centre, where violations can be reported.
Individuals found violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act can be fined up to $100,000 and imprisoned for as long as a year, while corporations can be fined up to $1.5 million per charge.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2021.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version carried an incorrect spelling of Monte McNaughton's first name.
