Free rapid COVID-19 testing kits are now available to businesses

Visit gncc.ca/workplace-self-screening-kits to learn more and reserve kits for your organization.

Government of Canada launches Ask the Experts campaign to encourage vaccine uptake

Today, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, announced the launch of the Ask the Experts advertising campaign. This campaign features short videos by trusted experts answering some of the most common questions people have about the COVID-19 vaccines. These videos will encourage vaccine uptake by providing people across Canada with credible COVID-19 vaccine information so they can make informed choices.

These experts are answering some common questions that Canadians have. To make sure that Canadians have the information they need to make informed decisions about their health, the government has created the Ask the Experts campaign so Canadians can hear directly from healthcare professionals and other experts about what vaccination means and does.

The GNCC believes that mass vaccination is our quickest and best route to ending the pandemic and economic recovery, and encourages all eligible people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Ontario supporting the identification and commemoration of Indian Residential School burial sites

The Ontario government is providing $10 million to help support the identification, investigation, protection and commemoration of Indian Residential School burial sites across the province. The funding will also ensure that culturally appropriate, trauma-informed mental health supports are available for Indian Residential School survivors, their families and Indigenous communities.

Across Canada, over 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities and sent to Indian Residential Schools between 1870 and 1996. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, there were 18 Indian Residential Schools in Ontario; the last of these closed in 1991, with some sites since repurposed, abandoned or destroyed.

Roughly 8,000 of Canada’s estimated 80,000 Indian Residential School Survivors lived in Ontario at the time of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) estimated that at least 426 children who attended Indian Residential Schools in Ontario are known to have died, while an unknown number are still missing.

Ontario helping youth explore careers in the skilled trades

The Ontario government is investing almost $4 million through Support Ontario Youth to help up to 2,100 young people access training and networking opportunities to become future electricians, plumbers, millwrights, automotive service technicians and horticulture technicians. This funding will help deliver 70 one-day boot camps in communities that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic to provide youth with hands-on training, resume writing help and introductions to prospective employers in the industrial, construction, motive power and service sectors.

Youth from more than 25 communities across Ontario, including Ottawa, London, Hamilton, Chatham and Sault Ste. Marie will gain experience working with tools, writing resumes and interviewing.

To be considered for the boot camp, applicants must fill out a 17-question questionnaire through Support Ontario Youth’s website. A software program called “talent sorter” will determine their compatibility with their selected trade. Students and adults interested in attending a boot camp can apply on the Safe Ontario Youth website at https://www.supportontarioyouth.ca/

Town of Pelham receives top municipal award for work on by-election

On Tuesday, June 15, 2021, the Town of Pelham, collaboratively with three other municipalities, was named the recipient of this year’s E.A. Danby Award for its role in developing, sharing, and executing safe and successful practices during last year’s by-election.

The E.A. Danby Award is a tiered awards program based on the size of the municipality. Along with members from the City of Ottawa, the City of Windsor, and the City of Cambridge, Pelham staff developed protocols and procedures for running a by-election during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of note, the working group members from the four municipalities and the leaders of their respective by-elections were all women.

The by-election in 2020 was the first in Pelham since 2011, and despite being held during the peak of the pandemic and among stringent public health measures, 2020 saw an increase in voter turnout.

Niagara Medical Officer of Health offers COVID-19 briefing

Brock researchers awarded more than $2.3M in federal NSERC and SSHRC grants

Brock University has been awarded $1.4 million in grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and $923,911 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Reading Recommendations

A statistical portrait of Canada’s diverse LGBTQ2+ communities

Statistics Canada

Canada is home to approximately one million people who are LGBTQ2+, accounting for 4% of the total population aged 15 and older in 2018.

Although much has been accomplished since the beginning of the new millennium, including the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005, and protecting gender expression and identity in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code in 2017, concerns remain, given the spike in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ2+ Canadians in 2019.

Pride Season brings together members of diverse communities who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit, or those who identify with another non-binary gender or minority sexual identity (LGBTQ2+) and allies in celebrating one of Canada’s greatest strengths that is diversity and inclusion. To mark Pride Season, we are painting a demographic and social profile of Canada’s diverse LGBTQ2+ communities based on published analyses. Much of the data in this release focus on LGB Canadians (lesbian, gay, bisexual), since Statistics Canada has been collecting detailed information on these communities since 2003.

U.S., Canada set to discuss lifting of border restrictions -sources

Reuters

U.S. and Canadian officials are set to meet Tuesday to discuss how to eventually lift pandemic-related border restrictions between the two countries, but no immediate action is expected, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Monday.

U.S. and Canadian business leaders have voiced increasing concern about the ban on non-essential travel at land borders because of COVID-19 that was imposed in March 2020 and has been renewed on a monthly basis since. The measures, which also apply to the U.S.-Mexico border, do not affect trade or other essential travel.