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Volume 50 No. 20
BEACHMETRO.COM
January 11, 2022
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Frustrations grow amid closures, restrictions Reopening of schools next week far from certain; local small businesses in need of support By Alan Shackleton
FROM SCHOOL closures to business lockdowns to long lines of people standing in the cold waiting to be vaccinated, local residents, store and restaurant owners, and politicians are all frustrated by the impact the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is having. “As soon as the presence of Omicron was announced by South African scientists (in late November of last year), the provincial government could and should have got to work,” Beaches-East York MPP Rima Berns-McGown, of the opposition NDP, told Beach Metro Community News. “The Ontario government should have got to work ramping up its booster and first/second shot vaccination program, working to ensure every Ontarian had free and ample access to RATs (Rapid Antigen Tests), ensuring there would be N95 masks available for everyone, and making schools safe via small-
er classes and better ventilation,” she said. “Instead, we got excuses and massive line-ups at LCBOs and in malls for the insufficient numbers of RATs they did have available – line-ups that stoked the spread of the infection right before the holidays, at the worst possible time.” As case numbers of COVID-19, and especially cases of Omicron, began to surge late last month, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said at a press conference on the afternoon of Dec. 30 that the province would be changing the way testing would be done, shortening the amount of isolation time for those testing positive and that schools across the province would be opening classrooms to in-person learning on Wednesday, Jan. 5. Four days later, on Jan. 3, Premier Doug Ford announced schools would not be opening until Jan. 17 at the earliest and students were being returned to online learning. He also announced restrictions on
PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Residents stand in line on Saturday morning outside a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Secord Elementary School. businesses and number of people allowed to gather at events were being put back in place to stop the spread of Omicron. Those restrictions included the closing of indoor dining or drinking at restaurants and pubs, the closing of gyms and 50 per cent capacity limits at retail
stores. Paul Bieksa, Executive Director of The Beach BIA, said small businesses are being severely impacted by these latest restrictions and are looking to both the provincial and federal governments for help. “Small businesses have been
hit especially hard and should see more direct financial supports,” he told Beach Metro Community News. “Capacity restrictions pose a unique challenge to small business owners with naturally smaller footContinued on Page 2
Report calls for reducing size of Dentonia Park golf course A PLAN to half the size of the cityowned Dentonia Park Golf Course in southwest Scarborough in order to provide more parkland or other community uses will not be getting the support of the local councillor. In a brief statement sent to Beach Metro Community News late last week, Scarborough Southwest Councillor Gary Crawford said he would be working to keep the par-three golf course northeast of Danforth and Victoria Park avenues, which is one of five municipal
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munity parkland. “Dentonia Park is identified as a unique opportunity to renew the golf offering while also addressing local parkland needs,” reads the report from the General Manager, Parks Forestry and Recreation and the Chief Procurement Officer, Purchasing and Materials Management. “This report recommends initiating a master planning process at Dentonia Park to better achieve golf outcomes and Parks, Forestry
and Recreation strategic goals. Dentonia Park would continue to operate as an 18-hole par-3 course until the master plan is completed and budget is identified to advance any suggested alterations. Following the completion of the master planning process, Dentonia Park would be redeveloped to deliver an improved golf offering and new local parkland,” the report reads. The city owns four other golf courses along with Dentonia Park, and the report going to the com-
mittee on Jan. 11 is part of an overall Review of City of Toronto Golf Courses. The other courses owned by the city are Tam O’Shanter in northwest Scarborough, Don Valley near Yonge Street and Hwy. 401, Scarlett Woods near Jane Street and Eglinton Avenue, and Humber Valley in Etobicoke. Depending on the decision made at the Jan. 11 committee, the report will then be considered at the Toronto City Council meeting on Feb. 2.
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courses owned by the City of Toronto, at its current 18 holes. Crawford said he would be working with other area councillors “to retain Dentonia as a key affordable 18-hole golf destination for Scarborough and the East End.” A report will be going before the city’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 11, recommending the Dentonia Park course be reduced in size to nine holes and that remaining portions of the site would become com-
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