{"id":26366,"date":"2020-04-16T15:07:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26366"},"modified":"2020-04-23T17:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T21:44:54","slug":"breaking-emergency-orders-that-will-cost-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/breaking-emergency-orders-that-will-cost-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking emergency orders? That will cost you"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Individuals found to be flouting emergency orders during\nthe COVID-19 pandemic will now face hefty fines in the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the Town announced it would begin the strict\nenforcement of provincial emergency orders as well as levy fines against those\ntrespassing on municipal property \u2013 such as parks \u2013 closed in a bid to help\nflatten the curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Provincial guidelines, the Town will issue fines to\nthose who do not comply with the following emergency orders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No gatherings of more than five (5) people (inclusive of\ngatherings on private property but excluding family members who reside at the\nsame address).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trespassing in areas that are closed to the public\n(parks, tennis courts, skateboard parks, sports fields, baseball diamonds,\nbasketball courts, playgrounds, Sheppard\u2019s Bush and the dog park).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closure of non-essential businesses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price gouging on necessary goods such as hand sanitizers\nand household cleaners<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndividuals charged with an offence under the EMCPA\n(Emergency and Civil Protection Act) will face fines starting at $880,\u201d said\nthe Town in a statement. \u201cFailing to identify yourself upon the request of a\nMunicipal Law Enforcement Officer conducting an investigation under the EMCPA\nwill result in fines of $1,250. Fines could also carry punishments of up to\none-year imprisonment or a fine of up to $100,000 for an individual and up to\n$10,000,000 for a corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora reminds residents to continue to stay\nat home, limit the number of people you come into close contact with, stay at\nleast 6 feet apart from others when walking outside or in a grocery store and\nrefrain from having social gatherings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to other municipalities, Aurora was late to the\ngame in fining those who are not in compliance with the orders, but the Town\nmoved into action just in time for the Easter long weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe took an educational approach at first and we wanted\nto do warnings, educating people as we saw them,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas. \u201cThe\nworry is that we need to ensure that people adhere to the rules and the\nguidelines that have been set by the Town, by the Province, so we can start to\nflatten the curve on this pandemic. It is not a joke, it is not a game, and we\nneed everyone to realize how serious it is. We felt that with this long weekend\nwe needed to say, \u2018We\u2019re not going to be just warning anyone anymore. Now\nyou\u2019re going to be fined.\u2019 It is going to be strict enforcement and we needed\nto get the word out so people understand how serious this is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While parks are closed, the Mayor stresses that this does\nnot mean you can\u2019t use pathways through parks, as well as trails, for through\ntraffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs much as we encourage everyone to stay home, and I\nthink everyone should try as much as possible to stay home, we don\u2019t want to\nstop people from getting fresh air, going for a small walk, as long as they\nfollow the proper physical distancing protocols of two metres. As long as they\ndo that, they can go for a walk through the paths, through our trails that are\nstill open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they are misused, we will be put in that position where we absolutely will have to shut down everything. No one wants to do that. You hear it from the Prime Minister, the Premier and all the way down that no one wants to institute those kinds of measures, but if some continue not to listen and don\u2019t take this issue seriously, then those measures will have to be put in place. While I hope everyone does enjoy going out and getting some fresh air, I would remind everyone to try their best and try to stay indoors as much as possible and limit their exposure outside and only do what is necessary and get some fresh air when you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Individuals found to be flouting emergency orders during the COVID-19 pandemic will now face hefty fines in the Town of Aurora. On Thursday, the Town announced it would begin the strict enforcement of provincial emergency orders as well as levy fines against those trespassing on municipal property \u2013 such as parks \u2013 closed in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Rg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 13:34:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}