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.

Public Health Agency of Canada releases guidelines for vaccinated individuals

Canada releases National Issues Report on Climate Change Adaptation

The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources, and the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, today announced the release of Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues Report, a national perspective on how climate change is impacting our environment, economy and many aspects of our daily lives — and how we are adapting to these impacts.

Key findings show that Canadian communities of all sizes are experiencing the impacts of climate change on their infrastructure, health, culture and economies, threatening Canada’s ecosystems and the vital services they provide, including access to freshwater. As these impacts will persist and intensify over time, urgent action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to climate change through adaptation.

Pelham receives Community Transportation Grant funding

The Niagara municipality of Pelham has received $210,199.76 in funding from the Ontario Community Transportation Grant for 2023-2025. The municipality had previously received $500,000 for 2018-2023. The funding was part of a $14-million funding extension package given to 38 communities providing transportation services in unserved and underserved regions. The funding announced today will extend support for transportation services including bus service, on-demand shared rides and door-to-door transportation services supported by the program for two additional years.

Indigenous Intellectual Property Program grants applications are now open

Today, the Honourable François-Phillipe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the opening of the 2021 Indigenous Intellectual Property Program grants application process to provide greater opportunities for Indigenous peoples, including community organizations and Indigenous businesses, to build their intellectual property (IP) awareness and capacity, encourage use and participate in the development and implementation of related policies and programs in Canada and abroad. The application process for the 2021 Indigenous Intellectual Property Program grants will close on September 8, 2021.

Niagara-on-the-Lake partners with HONK to offer contactless parking payments

Effective July 5, 2021, drivers will have two touch-free ways to pay for parking in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Heritage District (PDF link): (1) scan their phone on a HonkTAP (QR Code) smart station for a fast guest checkout experience, or (2) download the free HonkAPP from the App Store or Google Play.

Honk is already in use in Niagara municipalities such as St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, and Welland.

Reading Recommendations

‘It’s turmoil’: Why the global bike shortage isn’t ending soon

The Globe & Mail

Welcome to the Global Bike Boom, unlike any before it. By and large, retailers ran out of inventory a year ago. Their shop floors are still often bare. Shipments are delayed – or worse, cancelled. What they can get their hands on, there’s already a buyer lined up.

No doubt, the bike industry is raking in money. But it’s been a stressful – and competitive – 15 months as manufacturers jostle for parts and factory space, while retailers try desperately to replenish their stock, right in the prime season for moving product.

It’s an extreme version of what’s happening in other industries – from vehicles and dishwashers to couches and lumber – in which supply chains are buckling under a COVID-19 pandemic combination of raging consumer demand, production hiccups and shipping delays.

Women entrepreneurs create fake male assistants to navigate gender biases

CBC News

In a 2003 experiment, business professors Frank Flynn and Cameron Anderson, now of Stanford University and Berkeley University respectively, showed a case study on a noted female entrepreneur to a group of university students. Flynn explained the experiment to author Sheryl Sandberg in her book Lean In. He and Anderson assigned the name “Heidi” to one half of the copies and “Howard” to the other.

Respondents rated both “candidates” competent. But while they said Howard seemed like a nice guy who’d be a good colleague, Heidi was seen as selfish and aggressive.

Karen Hughes, a professor of entrepreneurship and management in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, said that jives with what research shows about the different ways men and women are perceived in situations requiring negotiation.

“Men can enact certain types of behaviour in negotiation, that women simply can’t. They’re not able to do it, and not be sanctioned for it,” said Hughes, who studies gender in the workplace.