TORONTO - Ontario hasn't seen the last of inspectors who fanned out across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas this weekend and uncovered dozens of COVID-19-related violations at big-box stores.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says the province will expand and continue its blitz, which is meant to get the virus under control.
McNaughton says 50 inspectors visited 110 retailers on Saturday alone and found 31 violations of COVID-19 prevention protocols.
They issued 11 formal warnings and 11 tickets and found 70 per cent of the retailers they visited were in compliance with COVID-19 rules.
The Minister spoke to NEWSTALK 1010 Sunday afternoon about the three biggest issues inspectors found: "We found three problems, really that we came across a number of times - screening of customers and workers, masking issues and socially distancing problems - so those were the three big things that our inspectors found."
McNaughton offered few details about the expanded blitz, but says it will take place across the province in the days and weeks to come.
"We have hundreds of inspectors out on the ground every single day, into workplaces. 50 this weekend in big box stores across the GTHA, but other - hundreds of them are out in other types of workplaces like factories and agri-food businesses and distribution centres for example," said the Minister.
He also noted that inspectors will be visiting "every type of business", including construction job sites, manufacturing facilities and warehouses, adding that businesses have to be "more vigilant today than at any point during this pandemic".
"We want them to pull up their socks and do a better job."
The Ministry of Labour is expected to release more results about this weekend's big-box store blitz on Monday.
With files from Heather Seaman