Though Premier Ford frequently said in public statements that he was deferring to the expertise and advice of Dr. David Williams and other public health experts, the auditor general stresses that Ford and his Progressive Conservative colleagues were actually making the judgment calls. “The ultimate decision-making power for responding to COVID‑19 (such as the approval of new expenditure for specific COVID‑19 initiatives) lay with the premier and the cabinet,” her report says.
That meant the province made some decisions that “ran contrary to expert advice,” the report says. On the Thursday before March break, for instance, Ford told families to go ahead with their vacation plans even though health experts in Canada and around the world were warning against travel. The next day, Williams urged Ontarians to avoid non-essential travel.
In another example, the Health Command Table had been presented on May 19 with analysis and evidence “showing the limited value of asymptomatic testing where no known COVID‑19 exposure exists,” Lysyk’s report says. Yet five days later, the AG report notes, the Ford government announced that anyone could be tested for COVID-19, whether they had symptoms or not, “using laboratory resources and slowing how quickly symptomatic individuals could be tested.”
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