Toronto Mayor John Tory Calls for Hope After Year of Upheaval at 2021 Retrospective – Toronto | The Canadian News

After a year plagued with challenges of pandemic proportions, the mayor of Canada’s largest city is asking its residents to remain hopeful and stay the course.

Sitting down with Global News recently for an end-of-the-year retrospective, John Tory says that while 2021 has been tough, the city is in a much better position than it was at this time last year.

In December 2020, Canada was preparing to receive its first shipments of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine from Pfizer.

“Businesses, generally at this time last year, were closed,” he recalled. “Everything was closed.”

However, Tory says she sees a way forward, and for that it’s crucial to vaccinate people.

According to data from the city of Toronto, more than 5.5 million doses of vaccines have been administered.

“Things are better now and will continue to improve if we work to get people vaccinated, if we work to support local businesses and if we work, most importantly, perhaps, in common sense when it comes to how we socialize, and with who we socialize “.

Tory officially declared an emergency in Toronto on March 23, 2020, in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, which was still largely shrouded in unknowns at the time.

While many are battling pandemic fatigue, new restrictions continue to be announced across the country. In Ontario, that has meant further constraints on industries that have already taken a significant hit.

When it comes to small businesses, Tory continues to encourage people across the city to stay close to home for their grocery and retail needs.

“Doing everything local, because those are the businesses on the main streets, in the subway, here in the center of the city, that have really had problems,” he said.

“They are the ones who do not have a large bank account to trust, or a large backing of any kind.”

On December 17, the city announced that it had fully reactivated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as a result of a projected increase in COVID-19 cases related to the Omicron variant.

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Tory told Global News that its efforts have focused on increasing the delivery of vaccines to residents, and the city has partnered with local health partners to do so.

Those partners, he said, include hospitals, community health organizations, pharmacies and doctor’s offices.

While the Mayor of Toronto was front and center in the fight against COVID-19, he, along with the city and police, faced significant criticism for his handling of camp evictions during the summer.

Global News asked Tory if it continues to support actions taken on the ground.

“We had 20,000 visits to homeless people in public parks, to tell them to come in,” he replied.

“We will offer you different options for indoor housing, but they reached a point – and the decision about it was not mine as mayor – the police make their own decisions about when to move to deal with situations, and the same with the ordinance officials.”

In the fall, Tory made headlines about her long-standing relationship with the Rogers family, when they moved in to resolve a boardroom dispute that had spread to the public realm.

He faced criticism because his role in the family control trust was unethical.

Tory, however, said he has no regrets about continuing in that capacity, saying he declared his position to the integrity commissioner before being elected mayor in 2014.

“I made a commitment, as he was nearing the end of his life, Mr. [Ted] Rogers, who would try to watch over and help his family in whatever way he could, “he replied.

“This is a large organization that involves tens of thousands of people in the city, who work for that organization and need to have secure jobs.”

Tory said that at the end of the day, his first commitment is to his job as mayor of Toronto. Now, on the cusp of a new year, one of his next big decisions will be whether to race again.