Tackling COVID-19, avoiding lockdowns, and aiming for a recovery based on economic growth were among the priorities laid out in the Ontario government’s throne speech on Oct. 4. Read by Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the speech kicked off the fall session of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. It is the first throne speech in over three years from Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government. The speech touted the government’s stringent COVID-19 measures, including having “some of the highest vaccine thresholds for easing restrictions” in Canada, while assuring Ontarians to stay calm as the province enters a “new phase” of the pandemic in the coming winter months. “As Ontario’s vaccine coverage continues to climb every day, it moves us further into a new phase of the pandemic,” the speech said. “In this new phase, while cases may rise as people head indoors during the colder winter months, the Chief Medical Officer of …