

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Mayor John Tory is appealing to the city’s employers to ensure that that they are “extending extraordinary accommodation to their employees” amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has brought city life to standstill.

Tory, who remains in self isolation as a precaution after returning from a trade mission in the United Kingdom, made a direct appeal to Toronto’s employers in a video message posted to Twitter on Sunday.

In it, he said that employers should be extending “maximum accommodation” to their employees, up to and including a commitment to “keep them whole” during a time that they may have to miss work to care for their school-aged children.

“Over the coming weeks my focus will, as it has been, continue to be on making sure that all governments are doing everything they can together to help people get through this,” he said. “Here at the city I have made it clear that we need to be doing everything we can to help people who can work from home, work from home and on behalf of all Toronto residents I would appeal to all the city’s employers to make sure they are doing the same thing, to make sure they are doing the right thing for their employees by extending extraordinary accommodation in extraordinary circumstances.”

There have been 145 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario so far, including 42 that were announced on Sunday alone.

Amid the rising number of cases, Ontario officials have taken the extraordinary step of closing schools and a number of childcare centres for two weeks and warning residents practice “social distancing” where possible.

Numerous public buildings have also been shut down in Toronto, including recreation centres, arenas and library branches.

In the video appeal, Tory said that he is also asking "landlords to offer accommodation to tenants," particularly in the case of small businesses who are "experiencing hardship and may require extraordinary help in extraordinary circumstances."

I am also asking landlords to offer accommodation to tenants. I am speaking in particular about small business tenants, many of whom will be experiencing hardship and may require extraordinary help in extraordinary circumstances. pic.twitter.com/OMirZL6rta

— John Tory (@JohnTory) March 15, 2020