Niagara-on-the-Lake voted Canada’s Most Beautiful and Sustainable Events Destination
During yesterday’s virtual Earth Day event, “Earth Day for Event People,” hosted by the Sustainable Events Forum, Niagara-on-the-Lake was voted Canada’s most beautiful and sustainable events destination.
Following its nomination as one of Canada’s Top 10 most beautiful and sustainable events destinations by the Sustainable Events Forum, Niagara-on-the-Lake, along with fellow nominees St. John’s, Charlottetown, Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Banff, Vancouver, Victoria, Whitehorse, was assigned a champion to represent the Town and highlight the many ways it exhibits beauty and sustainability.
Click here to read more (PDF link).
Ontario invests $15 million in rapid training programs
The Ontario government is providing $15 million to accelerate the development of rapid training programs and help people retrain and upgrade their skills to succeed in their current careers or find new employment. In partnership with industry, employers and other organizations, the province is inviting postsecondary institutions to design more micro-credentials that will prepare Ontarians for the in-demand jobs of today and tomorrow.
Postsecondary institutions will have eight weeks to submit proposals for funding under the Ontario Micro-Credentials Challenge Fund. Successful applicants will be notified by Summer 2021, and each institution and their partners will have until December 2021 to begin enrolment.
Government of Canada secures Pfizer vaccine supplies beyond 2021
Today, the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, announced that Canada has secured COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer for 2022 and 2023, with options to extend into 2024.
The agreement guarantees access to 65 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, with access to up to 120 million more if all options are exercised. In addition to providing booster vaccine doses, the agreement provides flexibility to procure future COVID-19 vaccine formulations from Pfizer, such as those to protect against variants of concern and vaccines developed for children.
Highest-risk individuals with health conditions and an essential caregiver can book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment
As we work toward protecting the most vulnerable members in our community against COVID-19, Niagara residents who meet the highest-risk health conditions criteria, as well as their essential caregiver, can book a vaccine appointment by calling the provincial call centre at 1-833-943-3900 (TTY 1-866-797-0007).
Click here to review the criteria and for more information.
Canada Joins U.S. in establishing Net-Zero Producers Forum
Today, the Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., announced Canada will join the United States in establishing a new Net-Zero Producers Forum, a platform for oil and gas–producing countries to discuss how the sector can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Today’s decision to join the Net-Zero Producers Forum follows yesterday’s announcement by the Government of Canada to increase its Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and move forward on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Grimsby joins Partners for Climate Protection
At Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, (April 19, 2021) Town of Grimsby Council unanimously passed a resolution to join the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and ICLEI Canada Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program.
The Partner for Climate Protection program has been designed to support municipal government commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) at the corporate and community level.
Government of Canada suspends flights from India and Pakistan
The Public Health Agency of Canada has been monitoring case data, and through mandatory testing upon entry into Canada, has detected a disproportionately high number of cases among individuals travelling on flights originating from India and Pakistan. Given this high number of cases, the Government of Canada has taken additional measures:
- Transport Canada has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) to suspend all commercial and private passenger flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days, effective 23:30 EDT April 22, 2021.
- The Minister of Transport will amend the Interim Order Respecting Certain Requirements for Civil Aviation Due to COVID-19, which means for passengers who depart India or Pakistan to Canada after 23:30 EDT April 22, 2021, via an indirect route, they will need to obtain a negative COVID-19 pre-departure test from a third country before continuing their journey to Canada.
- These measures will help manage the elevated risk of imported cases of COVID-19 and variants of concern into Canada during a time of increasing pressure on our health care system.
Reading recommendations
Public health measures tighten in several provinces
CBC News
Several provinces are tightening public health measures today to curb rising COVID-19 infections, with British Columbia officials set to announce new provincial travel restrictions and two Ontario hot spots poised to see workplace closure orders to control outbreaks come into effect.
In Ontario, which is similarly dealing with rising cases, Toronto and Peel Region could begin today to order the temporary closure of some businesses to control workplace COVID-19 outbreaks.
The orders from the top doctors in both regions were expected to come into effect today, a measure they both said was designed to protect tens of thousands of essential workers from the virus.
Both regions said the orders would close businesses with recent outbreaks of five or more linked cases in the past two weeks. The shutdowns will last for 10 days and workers will have to self-isolate during that time.
India’s giant second wave is a disaster for it and the world
The Economist
April 14th was a big day in India. Hindus and Sikhs gathered to mark the new year. Many Muslims celebrated the first day of Ramadan at late-night feasts with friends and family. In Haridwar, a temple town that this year hosts the Kumbh Mela, an intermittent Hindu festival that is the world’s biggest religious gathering, between 1m and 3m people shoved and jostled to take a ritual dip in the Ganges. And across the country, the number of people testing positive for covid-19 for the first time surpassed 200,000 in a single day. It has continued to surge since, reaching 315,000 just one week later—the highest daily figure in any country at any point during the pandemic. Deaths, too, are beginning to soar, and suspicions abound that the grisly official toll is itself a massive underestimate. Makeshift pyres are being constructed on pavements outside crematoriums to deal with the influx of bodies.
6 leadership paradoxes for the post-pandemic era
Paul Leinwand, Mahadeva Matt Mani, Blair Sheppard, Harvard Business Review
The pandemic has accelerated a trend that has been unfolding over the last decade. As the world has grown more digital and complex, the range of decisions that leaders need to make has broadened, spanning from big picture strategic thinking to careful execution, to advancing technology roadmaps and upskilling and engaging employees. And decision-making criteria too have expanded, increasingly focusing on ESG considerations in addition to narrowly defined profit expectations. The past year has been particularly intense, pushing leaders to make decisions for which they had no previous experience — and do so quickly.
Niagara COVID status tracker (April 11 – April 17)
Niagara’s most up-to-date COVID statistics, measured against the targets for the various stages of the Ontario COVID-19 Response Framework, are presented below. This does not predict government policy, but is offered to give you an idea of where Niagara is situated and how likely a relaxation (or further restrictions) may be. These data are the most recent published by Niagara Region. The Grey-Lockdown level does not have its own metrics, but is triggered when the COVID-specific measurements in a Red-Control region have continued to deteriorate.
The Province of Ontario is currently under a stay-at-home order. The COVID-19 Response Framework does not apply during this order. Click here to review the restrictions currently in place.
▲: Metric has increased since last published measurement
▼: Metric has decreased since last published measurement
— : Metric has not changed since last published measurement
| December 18 | December 25 | January 1 | January 8 | January 15 | January 22 | January 29 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reproductive number | 1.4 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| New cases per 100,000 | 101.2 | 267.3 | 469.8 | 575.8 | 507.1 | 295.5 | 250.6 |
| New cases per day (not including outbreaks) | 60.7 | 178.7 | 311.7 | 376.9 | 325.4 | 182.7 | 145.7 |
| Percent of hospital beds occupied | 97% | 95.2% | 98.2% | 103.2% | 104.5% | 103.6% | 106% |
| Percent of intensive care beds occupied | 78.8% | 77.3% | 87.9% | 87.9% | 90.9% | 89.4% | 93.9% |
| Percentage of positive tests | 6.1% | 15.6% | 28.1% | 28.6% | 26.6% | 21.2% | 16.2% |
Definitions:
- Weekly Incidence Rate: the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per week
- Percent Positivity: the number of positive COVID-19 tests as a percentage of all COVID-19 tests performed
- Rt: the reproductive rate, or the number of people infected by each case of the virus
Niagara COVID vaccination tracker (April 23)
Niagara’s most up-to-date vaccination numbers are presented below, along with comparison data from Ontario, Canada, and G7 countries.
Total doses administered in Niagara: 152,504
Total doses administered in Niagara since yesterday: 4,641
| Percentage of population with one dose | Percentage of population fully vaccinated | |
|---|---|---|
| Niagara | 82.7% | 78.2% |
| Ontario | 84.6% | 79.1% |
| Canada | 84.7% | 78.6% |
| United States | 75% | 64% |
| United Kingdom | 78% | 72% |
| Germany | 76% | 74% |
| France | 80% | 77% |
| Italy | 83% | 76% |
| Japan | 80% | 79% |
| World | 63% | 53% |
Data are drawn from Niagara Region, the Government of Ontario, and Oxford University’s Our World in Data project.
