Premier Doug Ford’s visit to Simcoe County today didn't include a visit to local beaches, despite a personal invitation from Barrie’s mayor just under a month ago following Ford's pointed comments directed at the city.
On July 24, the premier called out the cities of Barrie and Orillia for what he referred to as “price gouging” and "disgusting" when asked about his thoughts on the municipalities increasing their parking fees at local beaches to dissuade out-of-towners from using them during the pandemic.
“I can’t stand when companies or governments take advantage of people in a crisis,” Ford said at the July 24 news conference. “People can barely put food on their tables, they can barely pay their rent, barely pay their mortgage. People are barely holding on by their fingertips and some municipal government wants to gouge you? It’s disgusting, in my opinion."
Those comments created a lot of waves in Barrie, leading to a sharp retort from Mayor Jeff Lehman.
"Perhaps the premier is not aware of the overcrowding problem on Barrie and Simcoe County beaches that has resulted partly from the province’s decision to proceed with a phased reopening," Lehman said at the time. "Otherwise, he would have understood that the parking prices are not an attempt to profit, but an attempt to deal with the lack of distancing and overcrowding we have seen, as well as help recoup some of the costs associated with these problems."
Lehman invited Ford to come and see the situation for himself and discuss the issue further.
However, Ford stood by his previous comments today during a stop in Oro-Medonte Township.
"My point was that a lot of small businesses are really hurting, a lot of restaurants. I fully understand the capacity issues," Ford told reporters. "There's always a way to work around it rather than charge $50 for parking. We want to work with all the municipalities like we have been and support them any way we can."
BarrieToday asked Ford if he had spoken to Lehman since he made his comments last month.
"I haven't spoken to the mayor, but he's doing a really good job," Ford said Thursday afternoon during another stop in Oro-Medonte Township at Molded Precision Components. "Everyone up here is doing a good job."
Barrie's parking rates were raised from $3 to $10 hourly, and from $20 to $50 for a maximum daily fee, with the hopes that it would prevent people from municipalities that were still in Stage 2 at the time from coming here to enjoy the waterfront.
When Barrie and Simcoe County became one of the first regions to enter Stage 3 in the provincial government’s COVID-19 reopening plan, with it came an increase of people hitting the city’s beaches, both big and small.
The premier was also asked by BarrieToday about his views on the local COVID case numbers, as well as across the province.
"The numbers are stable," Ford said. "The whole province is doing a good job. We want to be under 100 (new cases each day). That's the goal for the province to suppress the virus as best we can."
Earlier today, the province confirmed 76 new COVID cases, which is the lowest total since Aug. 11 when 57 new cases were reported by provincial health officials.
During the month of August, there have been 13 days with fewer than 100 new cases in Ontario.
