Minister’s Introduction

From day one, as a government, we have recognized the need to meet the people of Ontario where they are to better serve them and their businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Ontario, Canada and the world. Everyone has responded quickly to this unprecedented crisis and our government is no exception. We took immediate action to protect the people of Ontario and we continue to do what is necessary to help keep them healthy and safe.

Along the way, we’ve learned some valuable lessons about how government can work better for communities, for people and for their businesses. While we work diligently to ensure that the people of Ontario have continued access to the vital and critical services they rely on, we are also discovering new ways to connect people with them. Some of the most promising solutions came from secure digital technology, which met the public’s needs with unprecedented speed and convenience.

For example:

• Since its launch, the Ontario Together procurement web portal has helped convert more than 19,000 leads for emergency supplies into purchases of more than $877 million in critical supplies for frontline staf. This includes more than 29 million gowns, more than 439 million gloves, 148 million masks and over 14 million face shields.

• A new website, Ontario.ca/COVID19, has been visited over 19 million times. The website is helping to ease public anxiety by providing access to clear, easy-to-understand guidance about COVID-19, including access to the self-assessment tool that has enabled over four million people to get evaluated for testing and directed to the nearest Assessment Centre.

• The COVID-19 exposure notifcation application was rapidly developed in partnership with the federal government and volunteers from Shopify and BlackBerry. Since its launch on July 31st, there have been over 4.5 million downloads.