In this edition:
Transport Canada to suspend random COVID testing at airports, U.S. lifts COVID-19 test requirement
Niagara unemployment drops further while labour force shrinks
Mask mandate to remain in place at Niagara Health
Pelham GO-VAXX Clinics extended for summer
Transport Canada to suspend random COVID testing at airports, U.S. lifts COVID-19 test requirement
The Government of Canada has announced that mandatory randomized testing will be temporarily suspended at all airports between Saturday, June 11 and Thursday, June 30, 2022. Unvaccinated travellers will still be tested on-site. As of July 1, all testing, including for unvaccinated travellers, will be performed off-site.
The GNCC is asking for the revocation of all extraordinary measures at airports and border crossings. Express your support with our Scrap the App campaign.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
A senior administration official says the mandate expires Sunday.
The official says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined the mandate is no longer necessary.
Niagara unemployment drops further while labour force shrinks
The local unemployment rate hit 5.0% in May, down again from 5.2% in April. The region is now below both the Canadian (5.1%) and Ontario (5.4%) averages. National employment rose by 40,000 (+0.2%) in May.
The size of the local labour force shrank from 245,500 in April to 243,600 in May, and the ranks of the employed fell from 232,600 to 231,400. The labour force comprises all those working and actively seeking work, whereas employment counts only those currently working.
In the Hamilton-Niagara peninsula, there were 31,550 unfilled jobs in Q4 2021. This number is now likely higher given the national increase from 915,000 in Q4 2021 to 1,013,000 in March, 2022.
The national employment increase was driven by gains in full-time work among young and core-aged women. The increase was spread across several industries, led by wholesale and retail trade, and was concentrated in Alberta.
Click here to access Statistics Canada’s interactive labour force survey app.
Mask mandate to remain in place at Niagara Health
Although provincial masking mandates will change on Saturday, June 11, Niagara Health will continue to require everyone who comes into any hospital site to continue to wear a face mask, including when visiting at a patient’s bedside.
There are no changes to visitor guidelines, which must be followed.
Pelham GO-VAXX Clinics extended for summer
The GO-VAXX Mobile Vaccination Clinic will continue to operate regular walk-in vaccination clinics at the Meridian Community Centre, in the Town of Pelham, over the next three months.
All GO-VAXX buses are providing an mRNA COVID19 vaccine for first, second, third (booster doses) for adults and youth ages 12 and up, as well as the pediatric Pfizer COVID19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, 4th dose boosters to eligible persons are also offered.
Click here to access dates and times.
Reading Recommendations
World’s biggest fertilizer producer warns of severe food crisis on horizon because of Russia, Ukraine war
Financial Post
The head of Nutrien Ltd., the world’s largest crop nutrient producer, predicts a severe food crisis in the next few years in which tens of millions of people in the poorest countries will face hunger largely because of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are key growing regions and account for a significant portion of the world’s potash, a type of fertilizer that boosts crop yield and helps plants withstand stress such as extreme temperatures. The conflict in Ukraine has already disrupted exports of food and fertilizer from the region, and is delaying planned expansions, all of which will contribute to a food crisis.
“Governments — the U.S government, Canadian government — are I think growing as concerned about this as the conflict itself,” Ken Seitz, interim chief executive of Saskatoon-based Nutrien, said. “It’s the idea that, first of all, Putin is holding the world hostage using food.”
On Thursday, Nutrien announced it was ramping up potash production at its six mines in Saskatchewan to reach 18 million tonnes a year by 2025 to help make up the shortfall.
Economics Needs More Socioeconomic Diversity
Harvard Business Review
It is well known that the field of economics has a race and gender problem, with treasury secretary (and former Fed chair) Janet Yellen, Fed chair Jerome Powell, and former Fed chair Ben Bernanke among the many senior figures advocating for change. But economics has another diversity problem that’s been largely overlooked: socioeconomic background. In new research, we find that economics is the least socioeconomically diverse of any academic discipline in the U.S.
This would be a concern in any discipline, but it is especially problematic in economics. Economists in academia and government influence policy and public debate on a huge range of issues — inequality, unemployment, inflation, access to education and health care, the welfare system, and poverty, to name but a few — many of which disproportionately affect people who are not at the higher end of the income distribution. We know that people’s backgrounds can influence their contextual knowledge of economic issues, their choice of questions to investigate, and their values. But without many economists from less socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds, what kinds of perspectives, questions, and answers are we missing?
Through the Daily Updates, the GNCC aims to deliver important business news in a timely manner. We disseminate all news and information we feel will be important to businesses. Inclusion in the Daily Update is not an endorsement by the GNCC.
