Toronto Mayor confirms planning is underway to 'eventually' reopen city

Toronto mayor John Tory announced that he has started planning how the city will be reopened 'eventually,' despite non-essential businesses being ordered to close for an additional 28 days. The city's MPP's extended the emergency order following a meeting in Queen's Park, according to CTV News.

The mayor said he would partake in a rather "lengthy" briefing on Toronto's "recovery plan" on Tuesday.

Tory explained in an interview with CP24 that it will be public health officials who have the final say on what businesses will be deemed essential and allowed to reopen. They will also determine in what order to reopen the city in an "orderly fashion" which may even come with a "celebratory aspect" to help bring the people out to shop and support businesses that are currently hurting.

"We are planning for it. I don't want people to think that means it will happen tomorrow afternoon because it won't but we are very conscious of the fact that people want this," said Tory. "That is why we are saying please stay home and please stay two metres apart from each other so the day can come sooner," he added.

The bulk of Toronto will likely remain on lockdown for a while however there a a number of countries that have started to slowly lift their COVID-19 restrictions to get things back to normal.

Austria has announced plans to reopen its malls and larger stores on May 1st and has already begun to let smaller store reopen. Certain child care facilities and schools have been allowed to reopen in Denmark but only for the elementary grades so far. Some shops have also reopened in Italy but not yet in the regions that have suffered the worst of the outbreak.

Mayor Tory confirmed that he's been speaking with offices in other parts of the world to get a sense of how municipalities are returning to public life.

"We are watching it happening because we do sort of have the advantage of those people being ahead of us on the calendar,” said Tory. “So how they are doing it and how it works but we are also going to see how it works in the context of the health aspects because we are very concerned that we don’t do it too soon and we don’t end up with a second wave hitting us right away and then we are back to the sort of lockdown again."

"I know everyone is getting antsy. I see it, I hear it, people want to get out there but what if we do that and all of a sudden this just comes back with a vengeance and bites us in the backside? I would rather be safe than sorry," said Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

On Monday Ford spoke with the press about a "glimmer of light" that has presented itself after there has been a dip in new cases however he said Ontarians will have to adhere to significant restrictions for "a little but longer."