Town of Lincoln offering COVID relief fund
The Town of Lincoln invites social service agencies or community groups and organizations that directly offer sport, recreation or culture programs and services to Lincoln residents to apply for a one-time COVID-19 relief fund.
The fund will assist groups who are experiencing:
- Financial setbacks due to lower registration numbers and/or reduced participant capacity
- Costs associated with PPE
- Reduced ability to fund-raise
The fund will assist groups and organizations through recovery from COVID-19.
The application deadline is June 1, 2021.
For more information and for funding eligibility requirements visit the town’s Grant Opportunities page.
Bank of Canada to hold current rate until inflation objective is sustainably achieved
The Bank of Canada today held its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of ¼ percent, with the Bank Rate at ½ percent and the deposit rate at ¼ percent. The Bank continues to provide extraordinary forward guidance on the path for the overnight rate, reinforced and supplemented by the Bank’s quantitative easing (QE) program. Effective the week of April 26, weekly net purchases of Government of Canada bonds will be adjusted to a target of $3 billion. This adjustment to the amount of incremental stimulus being added each week reflects the progress made in the economic recovery.
Niagara Medical Officer of Health offers new COVID-19 briefing
Inflation up 2.2% year-over-year
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.2% on a year-over-year basis in March, up from a 1.1% gain in February. A significant proportion of this increase was attributable to a steep decline in prices in March 2020, as the monthly CPI rose 0.5% in March 2021. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.1% in March. Excluding energy, the CPI rose 1.1% on a year-over-year basis.
As Canada marked the end of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, price growth in March 2021 was accentuated by what is known as base-year effects, originating in March 2020. The broad decline in prices in spring 2020, when headline CPI growth slowed to 0.9% in March 2020, had an upward impact on consumer inflation in March 2021. As the upward impact of these temporary base-year effects will influence the 12-month movement over the next few months, the historical movements affecting current growth trends will be examined.
Canadian alcoholic beverage sales see first decline in six years
Sale of standard drinks per week per person over the legal drinking age, 2019/2020
Statistics Canada reported that Canadians over the legal drinking age bought the equivalent of 9.5 standard alcoholic beverages a week in 2019/2020, totalling 3,084 million litres. This was down 0.3% from a year earlier and the first decrease in volume in six years. Beer remained the alcoholic beverage of choice for Canadians, but it continued to lose market share to wine, spirits and ciders and coolers.
Retail sales data show that alcohol sales for March 2020 were up 17.5% from the previous month and up 19.2% compared with sales in March 2019. Liquor authorities confirmed this surge in sales. Many of them reported that their customers were stockpiling alcohol in the last two weeks of March 2020 because of the uncertainty about potential closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail sales data also show an increase in alcohol sales for the 10-month period from April 2020 to January 2021. If this trend continues, sales for the year ending March 2021—the first full year of alcohol sales that reflect pandemic-related purchasing habits—will have increased significantly from the year before.
Canadian Chamber of Commerce calls for focus on healing investment scars
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Policy, Dr. Trevin Stratton, issued the following statement regarding today’s Monetary Policy Report and interest rate announcement:
This week’s federal budget addressed some economic scars, such as the focus on lasting effects in the labour market. However, it will also be important that we address any long-term investment scars. To do so, our growth drivers will need to shift from public spending to private investment to propel recovery and help get our finances under control. According to today’s economic outlook, our business investment is projected to remain relatively flat during recovery, contributing 0.5 percentage points to growth this year and 0.7 percentage points in 2022 and 2023.
Click here to read the full statement.
Reading recommendations
Canada’s annual inflation jumped in March due to plunge in prices last year
Canadian Press/CBC News
Statistics Canada says the annual pace of inflation jumped higher in March due in large part to a plunge in prices a year ago, at the start of the pandemic.
The agency says the consumer price index in March was up 2.2 per cent compared with a year ago.
The increase compared with a 1.1 per cent year-over-year increase in February, which was then a pandemic-era high.
Biden talks with Trudeau about sending more COVID-19 vaccine doses to Canada
Alexander Panetta, CBC News
Canada could be getting another batch of vaccines from the United States, President Joe Biden indicated Wednesday, as his country’s vaccination process gallops ahead.
The U.S. has already loosened its tight controls on vaccine supply and allowed 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to be shipped to Canada. Another 2.5 million doses to be shipped to Mexico under a loan agreement.
Biden hinted that more may be coming.
He said he spoke for a half hour by phone Wednesday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and said Canada was one of the countries that could see more imports from the U.S.
Forget bubbles, Canada has a housing affordability crisis: Frances Donald
Gabriel Friedman, Financial Post
Canada is in the throes of a painful third wave of coronavirus pandemic, but with the vaccination campaign picking up speed, economists are starting to look ahead.
This week on Down to Business, Frances Donald, global chief economist at Manuflife Investment Management, spoke about a recent report she authored on the economic outlook for Canada.Donald said that the economy may emerge from the pandemic in decent shape, but that Canada still needs to address structural problems that are holding it back, such as the lack of affordable housing, or the lack of childcare.
She also said that it’s important for the Canadian government to examine how it thinks about debt: With historically low interest rates, it’s important to invest in infrastructure and other services that can propel the economy in the years ahead.
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 21)
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: 142,949
Total doses administered in Niagara since yesterday: 4,164
| 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.
