Vaughan Business Action Plan in Response to COVID-19 Crisis
As part of its coordinated and continuing response to the COVID-19 crisis, City of Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua announced a new Vaughan Business Action Plan at a special online City Council meeting on March 17, 2020, designed to safeguard the local economy and protect businesses, consumers and all citizens.
“To all citizens, rest assured,” said Mayor Bevilacqua. “From the moment the COVID-19 challenge first emerged, I have been working closely with all levels of government to monitor the situation and to ensure we take meaningful action to protect citizens, businesses and our city employees. Our administration has also been responding to this situation as it evolves and, earlier today, I once again met with the city’s Emergency Management Team to discuss the city’s response efforts. We are working around the clock to implement measures that ensure the well-being of our community.”
Following an announcement earlier in the day by Premier Doug Ford, declaring a state of emergency in the Province of Ontario, Mayor Bevilacqua formally declared a state of emergency in the City of Vaughan and announced that, effective March 18, 2020, Vaughan City Hall and all other city facilities will close to the public until Monday, April 6, 2020. This is in addition to earlier announcements, which have closed Vaughan community centres and libraries, and cancelled city and library March Break camps and daycare programming to ensure the safety of the public.
The Vaughan Business Action Plan, in response to the current crisis, consists of five temporary key measures to safeguard the local economy by seeking to do the following:
- – Support the restocking of store shelves by suspending noise bylaws and weight restrictions on roads to assist with ensuring stores have the items people need.
– Allowing for 24-hour delivery of goods by suspending the current bylaws restricting the loading and unloading of commercial vehicles, transport trucks and other vehicles between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
– Suspending the weight and size of vehicles that can travel on certain roads throughout Vaughan to improve business ground transportation.
– Suspend the Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT) to support the travel and tourism industry, and,
– Maintain small business services by ensuring, where possible, small business and entrepreneurship frontline services are continued, either online or by phone.
All of these initiatives, city cancellations and disruption information are available at www.vaughan.ca.
“I want to thank all Vaughan staff, as well as our first responders, for their swift, efficient and coordinated efforts to keep our community safe,” said Mayor Bevilacqua. “These are times of uncertainty, but what is certain is that we will emerge stronger.”
