Reopening Ontario: A Flexible Response

As a result of ongoing conversations with the Ontario government between our industry and public health representatives, changes to the regulations are being made in advance of the January 31st, 2022 opening for the performing arts sector.

The changes are as follows:

• Allowing food or drink services at indoor sporting events, concert venues, theatres and cinemas, bingo halls and other gaming establishments, and horse racing tracks, car racing tracks and other similar venues. Individuals will be required to remain seated when consuming food or drink in these venues, limiting the number of close contacts while masks are removed. Masks will continue to be required when individuals are not eating or drinking.
• Removing the legal requirement to work from home except where necessary. The Chief Medical Officer of Health recommends that individuals who are able to work from home continue to do so, helping to limit mobility and reduce the number of daily contacts.
• Removing the requirement for most businesses to collect patron information for contact tracing. This is aligned with recent changes to the testing and case and contact management guidance and will allow businesses to focus their efforts on the enforcement of other public health measures in these settings, such as masking requirements. Public health units continue to have the ability to raise awareness of significant exposures warranting notification, such as through news releases.
• With regard to proof of vaccination: the strengthening of the province’s proof of vaccination requirements to go into effect in early January, which included requiring the use of the Verify Ontario app and QR codes in settings where proof of vaccination is required. Many settings that require proof-of-vaccination will be permitted to reopen on January 31st, 2022.

The team at OP will continue to provide updates as they become available. Consolidated regulations will be made available soon. Many thanks to our friends at CLMA for these updates and conversations. 

Read the regulations here: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r22025