Vital updates:
- Niagara Region Acting Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, has stated that Niagara is likely to move into the yellow “protect” or the orange “restrict” level in the province’s new framework. The framework now includes publicly-available metrics, which the GNCC has been requesting from the Government of Ontario for some time. The higher levels of restriction for businesses under the “protect” level would include:
- Limiting operating hours and closing establishments at midnight
- Liquor to be served or sold between 9am and 11pm only
- No consumption of liquor between 12am and 9am
- Contact information required for all seated patrons
- No more than six people seated together
- Volume of music to be limited to conversational level
- Safety plans to be prepared and provided upon request
- Face coverings required at sport and recreational facilities except when exercising
- Increase spacing between patrons to 3m for areas of a sport or recreational facility where there are weights/weight machines and exercise/fitness classes
- Recreational programs limited to 10 people per room indoors and 25 outdoors
- Require contact information for all patrons and attendance for team sports
- Require appointments for entry; one reservation for teams
- If Niagara is moved to the orange “restrict” level, the following additional restrictions would apply to businesses, over and above those required under the “protect” level:
- 50 person indoor capacity limit
- Limit operating hours, establishments close at 10 p.m.
- Liquor sold or served only between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- No consumption of liquor between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m.
- Require screening of patrons at businesses and/or mall entrances (e.g. a questionnaire)
- No more than four people may be seated together
- Closure of strip clubs
- Maximum 50 people at any event, sport or recreational venue (revoke CMOH approved plan) in all combined recreational fitness spaces or programs (not pools, rinks at arenas, community centres, and multi-purpose facilities)
- Limit duration of stay (e.g. 60 minutes) at sport and recreational facilities; exemption for sports
- No spectators at sporting venues or events permitted (exemption for parent/guardian supervision of children)
- Personal care services requiring removal of face coverings prohibited
- Change rooms & showers closed
- Bath houses, other adult venues, hot tubs, floating pools and sensory deprivation pods closed (some exceptions)
- The Ontario government is investing nearly $1 billion over six years to improve and expand broadband and cellular access across the province. The $680 million being announced today is on top of the $315 million to support Up to Speed: Ontario’s Broadband and Cellular Action Plan. This funding will be used for shovel-ready projects starting in 2019-20, will create jobs, and connect unserved and underserved communities during COVID-19 and beyond.
- The Atelier Collective has upped the ante for their second digital conference, held on November 12, with expanded programming to include two tracks: one for tenacious entrepreneurs who are looking to expand their business in a year of significant change and one for ambitious women in careers who are looking to climb and adapt to the new work environment. Click here to learn more.
Reading recommendations:
Talking About Mental Health with Your Employees — Without Overstepping, Deborah Grayson Riegel, Harvard Business Review
- It’s been called a “second pandemic” — the mental health implications of the global health crisis, political unrest, economic uncertainty, rising unemployment, social isolation, remote work, home schooling, and so much more. And while it can feel like the first pandemic has been with us long enough for employees to have accessed the necessary resources and strategies for handling their stress, the fact is, many of us are struggling more, not less. You may have checked in with your employees back in April when the crisis was acute, but you need to keep doing it.
- A second Trump term? Or a Biden presidency? What it means for Canada, Thomas Klassen, The Conversation
- After a surreal election campaign in the midst of a pandemic, we’re still not sure of the outcome — either Donald Trump won a second term, or Joe Biden will become the next president. Although pre-election polls showed Trump heading for certain defeat, he once again defied pollsters. Viewed by many as a referendum on Trump’s first term, and indeed on the man himself, the election was one of the most tumultuous in American history. The outcome is still not clear because ballots are still being counted in key battleground states.
Niagara Economic Summit Series 2020
Where are we now, how did we get here, and where do we go? This year’s summit, taking place between November 10 and November 24, brings experts and leaders together from across the country to identify where we are economically, what our future opportunities are, and how we can seize them. Find out more and get a calendar save-the-date here.
If you are showing symptoms, contact your health care provider, call the Public Health Info-Line at 905-688-8248, or chat to Public Health online. For testing, call 905-378-4647 ext. 42819 (4-CV19) for information on test centres in Niagara and to book an appointment.
Previous updates can be accessed here.
The GNCC is here to support you. Contact us with any questions you have.
