UTTRI associated faculty Professor Tamer El-Diraby was quoted in an article about construction projects in Peel, weighing in on the Ontario government decision to continue allowing construction industry operation while many other non-essential business activities have been shut down due to COVID-19.
Professor El-Diraby states:
There are two sides to this whole decision making cycle. On one side is public health and the safety of people, on the other side, the economy. They [Ford] decided construction is one of the activities that should not stop. You have to remember that construction labourers are quite vulnerable in terms of their finances; many of them are living pay cheque to pay cheque.