Politicians and health-care workers across Canada offered gestures of support to Toronto on Friday, in an effort to quell fears of a further economic setback from the new suspected cases of SARS.
Just as the city geared up to spend $5.5-million to lure tourists back to the city — and to hear details of the post-SARS recovery packages from provincial and federal governments — five new suspected cases of the disease were announced.
Federal leadership candidate John Manley spoke to Toronto media on Friday at a hotel near the airport.
"What we need is as soon as possible to determine whether in fact we have other SARS cases," he said, following a meeting with representatives of the Canadian film and television industry.
"We have to demonstrate that we're dealing with them in the appropriate way as quickly as possible and . . . to reassure people that this is not something that you catch on the street or in a hotel or a restaurant, that . . . you have to go to extraordinary lengths to contact it," he said.
At the Bymark restaurant on Toronto's Wellington St., a dozen major investors from Canada and the U.S. met with Ontario's Enterprise Minister, Jim Flaherty, who was promoting the province as a prime spot for doing business.
The investors — representatives of CoreNet who scout out sites for potential business investments and plant operations — initially scheduled a conference in Toronto last month.
They were forced to cancel because the city was in the heart of its severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis.
Toronto hotels estimate they lost $125-million worth of business because four major conventions were cancelled, and business and holiday travellers decided not to visit Toronto.
"This time [the investors] were not concerned," Mr. Flaherty told globeandmail.com.
"They recognize that there's no evidence of community transmission in those cases; they know that SARS has been managed well and brought under control, and that it's business as usual."
Investor confidence was shaken by SARS, but the visit by CoreNet representatives is a sign that "we're rebuilding," Mr. Flaherty said.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses also decided to move its week-long Biennial Convention slated for the first week of June to Toronto.
"We're showing our solidarity with the city's health care workers and people in the tourism industry, Kathleen Connors, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses told globeandmail.com.
The convention was originally to be held at St. John's, Nfld., but had to be relocated because of ongoing labour disputes at the airport in St. John's.
"We chose to come to Toronto because we wanted to clearly indicate that we're confident in the public health care system in place in Toronto," Ms. Connors said.
"These new cases do not change our resolve to stand with nurses in the front-lines of Toronto hospitals."
But in a news conference on Friday morning, Mayor Mel Lastman appeared less confident and more flustered.
"We had [SARS] all wrapped up in 60 days . . . and now suddenly last night I get a call that there's another case, and this morning I find out there's four," he said.
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