Whereas the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads through infectious aerosols that remain suspended in the air after being transmitted by an infected person;
Whereas Ontario has not implemented adequate safety measures to prevent airborne pandemics despite the experiences of the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics;
Whereas the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers has already provided core recommendations for safer indoor air to the Ontario government;
Whereas people who are immunocompromised, Indigenous, Black, racialized, disabled, low-income, homeless, living or working in long-term care, frontline workers, migrant workers, and people facing other kinds of marginalization are at the most risk of death and long-term health consequences that result from infection during airborne pandemics;
Whereas Ontario already has the technology to make indoor air safer using a combination of ventilation, filtration, upper room UV, and air quality testing;
Whereas the cost of implementing those technologies would be a fraction of the costs that small businesses, everyday Ontarians, and the Ontario government were forced to pay during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas making indoor air safer would substantially reduce the likelihood of Ontario’s education system or small businesses being compelled to lockdown during future pandemics;
Whereas future airborne pandemics are inevitable;
Therefore, we the undersigned petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to pass the Advisory Committee to Protect Ontario’s People and Economy from Airborne Pandemics Act.