Navigating Toronto’s changing health, safety rules

One of the biggest challenges of COVID-19 has been to ensure the health and safety of employees, customers and partners, said Hutch Morton, senior vice president of J.E. Russell Produce Ltd. at the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto.

“This has meant a thorough review of every aspect of the day-to-day operations to minimize the risks associated with the spread of COVID-19 — everything from the most basic HR training requirements, down to changes that have limited the access of customers to see, feel and taste products,” Morton said.

Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit have helped ensure income replacement and continuity with changing situations in an employee’s work availability.

“Most importantly of all has been the effort to ensure that workers can stay away from work if they have COVID-19 symptoms or have been advised to do so by public health authorities,” he said.

There are mandatory mask rules, even for companies that don’t pack products, said Steve Moffat, vice president of finance at North American Produce Buyers.

While lockdowns eased in June and restaurants saw more activity through October, a full lockdown returned Dec. 26 in Toronto, he said.

At Moffat’s company, they’re meeting with customers and growers with video conferencing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

“We’re not flying somewhere to meet,” Moffat said.

The April 12-16 Canadian Produce Marketing Association Fresh Week conference will be the first time Moffat’s company will be a virtual exhibitor.

“It’s easier to be on time for meetings when it’s on our computer,” he said with a laugh.

The government gave the Ontario Food Terminal Board the authority to enforce its COVID-19 safety measures, which were strict and required a lot of extra efforts in the spring of 2020, said Bruce Nicholas, general manager, secretary and treasurer of the board.

The market has strict protocol on screening those who come inside, asking questions, taking temperatures and restricting people from coming indoors when the Toronto area is at higher levels of lockdown.

The terminal usually doesn’t receive government funding, despite its operations falling under the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It runs on fees charged to market users.

However, the government did give the board money for COVID-19 supplies, as the need for extra screening and masks came in the middle of the fiscal year, Nicholas said.

“In the coming year, we’ll have to pay for it ourselves,” he said.

There hasn’t been a COVID-19 outbreak at the terminal yet.

“We’ve averaged one a week, where someone’s wife or brother gets it and the employee gets it. Through our screening process, we find out someone has a fever, and they’re sent home for testing and isolated 10 days. Those who’ve had close contact with someone who has COVID-19 have to stay away for 14 days,” Nicholas said.

“Overall, I think we’ve done quite well.”

On an individual business level, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has helped employers who’ve seen a drop in revenue due to COVID-19, enabling employers to rehire workers, prevent layoffs and ease back into more normal operations. P