Ontario’s Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy addressed the local business community, and discussed various topics during the event including rebounding after the pandemic.
Many health officials are warning of a fourth wave because of the highly contagious Delta variant, causing concern among business owners in Thunder Bay and across Ontario.
Bethlenfalvy explains that growing vaccine numbers are the key way to combat any future lockdowns.
“Job number one is to continue the path of the vaccinations because you can see, that’s really helping businesses and helping us get to stage three, and allowed for 50 per cent re-opening indoors for a lot of businesses,” explains the Minister. “The amount of supports we’ve given businesses, we’ve really handed out a lot of money to bridge to this reopened economy, and so we’re just going to continue down that path.”
Also mentioned was the increased pay for PSW workers in the province. Premier Doug Ford has mentioned earlier that this would be a permanent increase.
Bethlenfavly was asked about the Premier’s comments, stressing how crucial the pay increase has been for these workers over the pandemic.
“The three dollar pay that has been extended has been very important, and we’re looking at training, we’re looking at retention, we’re looking at a whole list of issues.”
The Minister did not specify whether or not the increase would be permanent.
