{"id":29740,"date":"2021-07-30T00:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T04:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29740"},"modified":"2021-07-30T00:33:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T04:33:08","slug":"state-of-emergency-lifted-nearly-18-months-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/state-of-emergency-lifted-nearly-18-months-on\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Emergency lifted nearly 18-months on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After nearly a year-and-a-half, the Town of Aurora has lifted the State of Emergency declared in March of 2020 at the outset of the global pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas announced the move on Tuesday, July 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a huge milestone for our community, signalling the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel,\u201d he said. \u201cI declared the State of Emergency to give our staff and organization the agility and flexibility to address the unprecedented nature of the challenges posed by the pandemic. I am thrilled that with high vaccination rates in our community, resulting in a drop in case numbers and reduced stress on our health care system, we are able to make this next step towards a state of new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move to rescind the emergency orders comes just over a month after questions were raised around the Council table on just how long it would be in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are unprecedented times that call for extraordinary measures,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas at the outset of the declaration. \u201cThe Town acknowledges that this is a fluid situation that we are continuously monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, 18 months later, the situation was less fluid and Councillor Rachel Gilliland questioned how much longer these emergency measures will be in effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am curious as to our State of Emergency and whether or not you have considered when to be lifting the State of Emergency in Aurora before moving forward, as we are more vaccinated now than obviously ever before,\u201d she asked at the last Council meeting before their summer recess. \u201cAre you considering some sort of preparedness or steps to lift the State of Emergency here as we move along in this vaccination process?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas didn\u2019t have a particular date in his response, but indicated he is reluctant for Aurora to lift the State of Emergency on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe GTHA Mayors and Chairs have had conversations in this regard and I will keep everyone up to date,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re debating on what we\u2019re going to do moving forward. We would like to do something in combination with the whole area. I will keep everyone informed as we move forward and let everyone know once we decide to make a decision on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to more questions from Councillor Gilliland who pointed out not every municipality in the group has declared a State of Emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo we have a plan in place, or is there something written in our emergency preparedness or a process and the boxes we check to say, \u2018Okay, I think it is time to lift the State of Emergency in Aurora?\u2019\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replied the Mayor: \u201cYes, and we\u2019re having those discussions currently. Once we decide whether we\u2019re going to lift the State of Emergency, I will let Council know once it is made public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After nearly a year-and-a-half, the Town of Aurora has lifted the State of Emergency declared in March of 2020 at the outset of the global pandemic. Mayor Tom Mrakas announced the move on Tuesday, July 27. \u201cThis is a huge milestone for our community, signalling the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel,\u201d he […]<\/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-29740","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\/p3D2k4-7JG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 23:55:50","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\/29740","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=29740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}