Over the past few months, we’ve all been working together to stop the spread of COVID-19. While this has been an unprecedented time for everyone, our collective response has showcased the resiliency and dedication of our community.

Announced this week, as part of the Province’s Stage 2 plan, more businesses, services, recreational and outdoor facilities will be able to reopen across our region. We are in a great position to move forward based on our low case numbers, local hospitals sustaining adequate capacity, 90 per cent of new COVID-19 cases and close contacts being reached by Public Health within one day and adherence to physical distancing and public health measures within our community.

This is an important step forward for our local economy and our entire community. I look forward to seeing businesses open up and get back to work and our residents enjoy the many recreational facilities and outdoor amenities that make Halton a great place to live.

This is truly a collective effort to get us to this stage. Thank you to our residents, our public health team, essential workers and those who continue to fight COVID-19 on the frontline. Your efforts and hard work have helped to flatten the curve, keep us safe and move our region forward. All of us have worked tirelessly together to protect the safety and health of our community and we should all be proud of these efforts.

To help residents and businesses navigate next steps, we have launched a new webpage on halton.ca that includes information on what is reopening and guidance for residents and businesses on public health measures that must be in place. This webpage will be updated regularly with guidance documents and updates on the status of where Halton Region is within the province’s reopening plan.

As always, please continue to visit halton.ca/COVID19 to get the latest information on COVID-19 in our community and public health direction. As we begin to return to a “new normal” and additional restrictions are eased, please remember that we are still all in this together. We all need to continue following public health direction, ensure workplace health and safety guidance is followed and each of us make responsible choices to protect ourselves, our loved ones and community.

Thank you again for everything that you are doing and continue to do to stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep Halton a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire.