Schools are  one of the largest gathering places of unvaccinated citizens in our country.  Let's keep education workers, families, children, and fundamentally, our province safe by continuing to provide free access to rapid testing so that we can be making responsible decisions. Recent reports have suggested that rapid testing costs could cost up to $80 per student in Ontario. But the question is, what is the greater toll on the health care system to not have this in place? What is the academic toll on students who are missing school, missing access to critical programming and mental health services if we do not put rapid testing in place to keep schools in operation?

I'm so incredibly disappointed in the Ford Government for ending the StaySafe Ambassador Program. This program was originally giving rapid COVID tests to local businesses but expanded to include community members called "Ambassadors" and they encouraged us to spread the word about rapid testing to keep our community safe.

We need to keep programs like the Stay Safe Ambassador program running so that all families can have free access to free rapid testing. This is how we prioritize mental and physical health, and how we can continue to keep our schools open. This is one way to keep our communities safe. Please bring back this program for our communities.