Today Doug Ford delivered an unconvincing message which should cause deep worry to all Ontarians.

While COVID-19 begins to recede and the world begins to reopen, it is quite apparent from Ford's vague non-timeline that he plans to make sure Ontario is dead last in starting its economy again.

With the conditions for 200 allowable new cases per day, he creates a scenario where Ontario companies may not be in operation until the fall. This massive moving of the goal-posts flies against a disease with an increasing body of medical evidence that suggests that testing positive is inevitable for a large segment of the population to begin with.

COVID-19 is a nasty killer. It has robbed many of our most vulnerable of their lives, and challenges our medical professionals to reach new levels of heroism every day. But it has consumed the Premier's Office to the extent that Ford now speaks of reopening as if it were an inconvenience, rather than a necessity.

Every week that Ontario stays closed delivers another financial body-blow to millions of Ontario citizens. Soon, this policy will start having its own medical repercusions.

When a US company - which has been re-opened - places an order with an Ontario supplier, but that supplier is still closed, do you think they will wait patiently for Ontario to come down to an arbitrary number of cases per day? Not likely. They will find a new supplier.

This pandemic will be in our midst for years. There may never be a vaccine, and there may never be some government "all clear." The sooner that those who are low-risk learn to live with it the better. This will involve changes in our routines, social distancing and work place measures. But work we must.

The time for hiding under our beds is over.