• As the province engages with public health experts and frontline partners on what additional measures may be necessary to break trends in increased cases and hospitalizations, the Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and local medical officers of health, is moving six public health regions to new levels per the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework. Based on the latest data, the following public health regions will move from their current level in the framework to the following levels effective Monday, December 21, 2020 at 12:01 a.m. with Peel Public Health and Toronto Public Health remaining in lockdown until at least January 4, 2021:
  • Grey-Lockdown
    • City of Hamilton Public Health Services
  • Red-Control
    • Brant County Health Unit
    • Niagara Region Public Health
  • Orange-Restrict
    • Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health
  • Yellow-Protect
    • Timiskaming Health Unit
  • Green-Prevent
    • Public Health Sudbury & Districts

  All other public health regions will remain at their current level. Please visit Ontario.ca/covidresponse for the full list of public health region classifications.

• Premier Ford is expected to announce additional restrictions on Monday at 1 p.m. The Premier may be considering a province-wide lockdown of three weeks, or one applied to southern Ontario from Boxing Day, and a mandatory work-from-home order until January 11th. Quebec is closing all non-essential businesses and issuing a mandatory work-from-home order for nearly all office employees until Jan. 11 and asking all schools to go online-only for the first week that classes resume in the new year. Insiders indicate that the Premier is considering this option for Ontario. The Ontario Hospital Association, including the Niagara Health System, is calling for new four-week lockdowns in all areas where the weekly incidence rate is 40 cases per 100,000 people or more, which would include Niagara, currently at 66.
• Today, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, announced that the government has concluded the necessary regulatory changes to raise the maximum wage subsidy rate to 75 per cent for the period beginning Sunday, December 20, 2020, until March 13, 2021. The wage subsidy is now more flexible and targeted, allowing employers to access the maximum subsidy rate based on a single month’s revenue decline instead of having to demonstrate three months’ decline, giving employers support that better reflects their current or evolving needs.
• For employers with non-unionized employees, the government is extending regulatory changes brought forward under the Employment Standards Act to July 3, 2021. The regulation’s changes include putting non-unionized employees on job-protected leave during the COVID-19 outbreak any time their hours of work are temporarily reduced by their employer due to the pandemic to prevent temporary layoffs from becoming permanent. Under the Act, temporary layoffs become terminations when they exceed the permitted period. Previously set to expire on January 2, 2021, the extension of this amendment ensures that workers remain employed while providing relief to employers. To support the hospitality industry and other hard-hit industries, the government is creating a special industry regulation allowing employers to negotiate alternative arrangements with unions for putting termination and severance pay into trust for laid-off employees.
• The Ontario government is providing $77 million to help people who were laid off due to the impact of COVID-19 find in-demand jobs in their local communities. This funding is being provided through the redesigned Second Career grant program and will help more than 2,750 job seekers with up to $28,000 for tuition, training materials and living expenses. Enhancements will focus on training initiatives with a duration of 52 weeks or less, helping more people get trained quicker and get back to work faster. These changes will also remove existing caps on the funding amount available to cover tuition at a wider range of institutions.
• The Supporting Local Restaurants Act, 2020 will come into effect tomorrow, December 19, at 12:01 a.m. Food delivery companies will be required to limit the rates they charge to 20% for each transaction with no more than 15% for commission for food delivery services. The cap applies in areas where indoor dining is prohibited, to help restaurants stay in business and continue contributing to their communities. If indoor dining is prohibited in new regions, the cap will also apply in those locations. Food delivery companies found to be in noncompliance could be hit with fines of up to $10 million. Restaurants and food delivery company employees or contractors may file online complaints if they are charged fees that exceed the cap or if their compensation or payments are reduced.
• At its meeting held Thursday, Dec. 17, Niagara Region Council approved an operating budget increase for water and wastewater services, and waste management. Rate budget increases of 2.0 per cent for water and wastewater services combined and 4.5 per cent for waste management were adopted for 2021.
• Retail sales edged up 0.4% to $54.6 billion in October, marking the sixth consecutive monthly increase since the record decline in April. The sales growth was led by motor vehicle and parts dealers. Year over year, sales of new passenger cars declined 23.2%, while new trucks, an aggregate group which includes light trucks, heavy trucks and buses, increased 4.1% from October 2019. Core retail sales—which excludes gasoline stations and motor vehicle and parts dealers—edged up 0.3%, on higher sales at sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores (+11.8%), furniture and home furnishings stores (+6.6%), as well as building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (+2.9%). Retail sales increased in 6 of 11 subsectors, representing 50.9% of retail trade. In volume terms, sales edged up 0.2% in October. On an unadjusted basis, retail e-commerce sales reached $3.1 billion in October, accounting for 5.2% of total retail trade. The share of e-commerce sales out of total retail sales fell 0.3 percentage points from September, but was up 1.8 percentage points year over year. When adjusted for basic seasonal effects, retail e-commerce declined 5.0%.
• Premier Ford has declared Santa to be an essential service, reassuring Ontario’s children “that Santa is still coming this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic. As Premier,” he continued, “I have requested that the Lieutenant Governor issue a proclamation designating Santa Claus as an essential service provider and authorized to deliver toys, treats and good cheer to the children of Ontario. The Elves’ Toy Workshop is also proclaimed an essential manufacturing business and authorized to supply Santa Claus with toys and gifts. Finally, Santa’s Reindeer, including Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph, are proclaimed essential transportation service providers and permitted to pull Santa’s sleigh across every part of Ontario.”

Reading recommendations:

• America and Europe clamp down on big tech, The Economist

Five years ago antitrust was a backwater. In America complacent trustbusters had failed to spot the rise of big tech firms. In the European Union they noticed it, but didn’t do much. But the competition cops have at last sprung. On December 15th the EU unveiled two draft digital-services laws that would create a sweeping supervisory apparatus to control Silicon Valley. In America the federal government has just launched antitrust cases against Google and Facebook. These moves mark the biggest shift in competition policy in a generation, so you might expect investors to be worried that big tech firms are under serious threat. Instead, their reaction has been Olympian indifference.