On June 30, 2020, the Toronto City Council voted in favour of a temporary bylaw making non-medical masks and face coverings mandatory in indoor public spaces to help limit the spread of COVID-19. The bylaw will go into effect on July 7, 2020, while masks are mandatory on Toronto public transit as of July 2, 2020.
Exceptions to the mandatory mask requirement will be made for individuals who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons and for children under two years old. Fines for violating the bylaw are expected to be in the range of $750-$1,000, although Mayor John Tory has stated the City will not be aggressively enforcing the bylaw. The Toronto bylaw will remain in place at least until a city council meeting on September 30, 2020, when the order could be extended if deemed necessary.
Prior to this announcement, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health region was the only region in Ontario to have issued a mandatory mask or face covering order.
On June 29, 2020, mayors from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area issued a joint statement calling for the Ontario government to issue a mandatory face covering measure for indoor settings for the province’s large municipalities. However, Premier Doug Ford has stated that the Ontario government is not considering a provincial order to mandate wearing masks due to the difficulty in enforcing such an order.
On June 25, 2020, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti brought forward a motion at the York Regional Council (“YRC”) to make wearing masks mandatory in York Region in all indoor spaces, and in crowded outdoor spaces where physical distancing is not possible. The proposal could be implemented through a bylaw under the Municipal Act or as an order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. For now, the motion remains a proposal and has not yet been adopted as a law or government order. The YRC has already adopted a proposal for mandatory masks on York Region Transit, which will come into effect on July 2, 2020.
Meanwhile, a mandatory mask policy for Peel Region is expected to be presented before the Peel Regional Council in July.
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