“How are you doing?”

That’s is the question we are or should be asking each other more times than not these days. Now more than ever, with the emotional and mental health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to stick around on that phone or zoom call long enough to really listen to the response of our loved ones and community – especially essential workers keeping our communities moving during these challenging times. 

Our mental health is critical. If you are feeling particularly low and experiencing extended periods of depressive feelings or anxiousness please do not be too hard on yourself. However, it is important to connect with a loved one to share how you are feeling. If your ability to communicate with others is particularly difficult because you are living alone or you cannot stay connected virtually and those feelings begin to worsen, do schedule an appointment with your family doctor, a counsellor, or a walk-in clinic. You do not have to deal with these feelings alone and contrary to what some of us may have been told as children, what happens in the four walls of your home shouldn’t always stay there. Sometimes it’s necessary to let it out so you can get support.

There are several things our provincial government should be implementing immediately to help guarantee the piece of mind of our community members. One of the priorities is providing every essential worker who needs it with Paid Sick Days. 

Our communities need Paid Sick Days so that people do not have to make the emotionally draining and potentially life-threatening decision of going to work sick – possibly even with COVID-19 – because they are afraid of losing a day’s pay or worse yet, their job. We cannot forget that most of the essential workers we hear every politician, including me, referring to as “frontline health care heroes” are Black and other people of colour and are predominantly women. What does this say about the Doug Ford  government when it refuses to give Paid Sick Days to hard working Ontarians but will happily increase the salaries of wealthy CEOs and abuse their powers through Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) making ‘backroom deals’ with developers that make them richer while our communities feel the financial squeeze even tighter?

We, the Ontario NDP Official Opposition, have a bill tabled in the Legislature that demands Paid Sick Days and all the Doug Ford Conservative government has to do is call MPPs back to Queen’s Park immediately and help us make this bill law so that our people do not have to also worry about facing homelessness during the pandemic when they are sick. 

We are not the only ones demanding Paid Sick Days for all workers. Public health experts have also called for this, stating that Paid Sick Days will help prevent community spread and allow workers the ability to heal at home.

It is time the Doug Ford government stop sitting on billions of dollars they currently have of unallocated, unspent COVID-19 funds they should be spending to help fight COVID-19 and save lives. The government is supposed to support the physical and mental health of each person in Ontario and Paid Sick Days is one way to ease the burden too many families are facing.  According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the Ontario government has spent less per person on the pandemic than Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC .

Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s refusal to invest money into our communities and  his and his Minister of Labour,’s refusal to guarantee Paid Sick Days has and will continue to cost our community lives.

(Dr. Jill Andrew is the Ontario NDP MPP for Toronto-St.Paul’s and is also a founding member of the Ontario NDP Black Caucus. )