At a Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, the City of Victoria will be exploring measures to mitigate the financial hardships and increase social distancing options amidst the global coronavirus pandemic.
The motion, filed by councillors Ben Isitt, Jeremy Loveday, and Sarah Potts, seeks to direct staff to develop an Action Plan that would identify what measures within municipal jurisdiction can be taken to reduce economic hardship caused to individuals and businesses who have been following public health officials’ directives during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Councillors are recommending the following measures:
- Repurposing underutilized facilities for emergency shelter for the unhoused, to allow for social distancing, proper care and recovery.
- Emergency regulations to restrict evictions of tenants who have suffered a loss of earnings due to quarantine, self-isolation, layoff or declining economic activity.
- Temporary deferral of fees, taxes and other payments owing to the city from those suffering hardship.
Victoria council will also consider advocating for emergency housing, income support for individuals, a moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, etc., more support for Indigenous communities, and a temporary deferral of payroll deduction remittances (like EI, CPP, Income Tax), to provincial and federal leaders.
The councillors’ motion also asks mayor Lisa Helps to write a letter outlining the above requests for action to Premier John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and indicate the city’s willingness to comply with any directives along those lines.
https://twitter.com/ben_isitt/status/1240011789896519680
This motion will be voted on at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, March 19th.
Earlier this week, the City of Victoria, District of Saanich, and Langford all announced program cancellations at recreation centres across Greater Victoria.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced the suspension of all K-12 schools indefinitely in light of COVID-19.
See all the latest updates about the global COVID-19 pandemic on Vancouver Island
According to the latest update, there are now 30 new cases of novel coronavirus in B.C., including seven on Vancouver Island, bringing the total number of cases to 103 in the province.
Six people are now in acute care in hospital, while everyone else is recovering at home in isolation, in stable condition.
Three people have died due to novel coronavirus, all of whom were residents at the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver. This brings the COVID-19 death toll to four in B.C. and across Canada.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government will be denying entry to Canada to people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents in Canada.
Designated exceptions to this rule include U.S. citizens, airline crews, diplomats, and people whose immediate families are Canadian.
Moreover international flights will now be restricted to international airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary.
The Prime Minister also stated that he is still working on a financial support package for individuals and small businesses. An update on this will be provided on Wednesday after a full Cabinet meeting this afternoon.
The House of Commons may also be reconvened in order to consider passing emergency measures.
The BCCDC has set up a 2019 novel coronavirus telephone information line at 1-833-784-4397 for those who have further questions about this disease.
Anyone concerned that they may have been exposed to, or are experiencing symptoms of the novel coronavirus, should contact their primary care provider, local public health office, or call 8-1-1.
As of the time of publication, the total number of COVID-19 patients worldwide has risen to 197,425.
Nearly 8,000 people have died from the illness and 81,691 have made a full recovery.
