Last week, the Toronto Star revealed that workers who were forced to work in deemed-essential manufacturing jobs died in larger numbers from COVID than any other sector, more than even our embattled health care workers. Under this government’s watch, hundreds of vulnerable workers in Ontario were dying while making things like floor tiles, bubble gum and jerry cans.

Throughout the pandemic, Speaker, I have asked the member opposite to provide clarity on what criteria defines “essential,” and they’ve failed to answer. But surely, the Premier of this province would know something as critical as the meaning of “essential work,” based upon which a policy, a major policy of life and death, was determined.

My question is simple: Premier, please define what is “essential work.”