Ontario establishes tourism economic recovery task force
The Ontario government has announced the new Tourism Economic Recovery Ministerial Task Force. It will be chaired by former Niagara West-Glanbrook M.P.P. and Cabinet minister Tim Hudak, and give expert advice and recommendations on how to help the province’s $36-billion tourism industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mandate of the voluntary task force includes providing strategies and advice that will help position Ontario and its local communities as destinations of choice for travel, as well as identifying products and experiences that enhance destination development. It will also offer a forum for sector partners and leaders to share ideas, collaborate, and provide advice and information to the minister on approaches to support the economic recovery of Ontario’s tourism industry.
The tourism sector supports more than 400,000 jobs provincewide. Travellers to Ontario from both the United States and overseas countries were down 84 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019. Ontario’s hotel industry saw record lows in occupancy and revenue per available room in 2020, while tourism-related employment in Ontario declined by 13 per cent compared to 2019.
The task force will deliver a report with its recommendations to the minister in spring 2021.
St. Catharines to hire diversity, equity, and inclusion staff member
On Monday, City Council unanimously approved the establishment of a full-time permanent diversity, equity and inclusion staff position for the City of St. Catharines. The position, which was approved on International Women’s Day, will enhance the ongoing work to increase diversity and inclusion in City operations, and the community at large.
The new position builds on numerous diversity initiatives, including the signing of the Leadership Accord on Gender Diversity and the work of the City’s LGBTQ2+, Anti-Racism, and Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committees. Acting as a liaison for these committees the new position will allow these committees to better utilize the diverse skill sets and abilities of City staff in their efforts, while providing specialized expertise in the area to advance corporate equity and inclusion initiatives.
The GNCC welcomes this decision, which was part of its advocacy platform in the 2018 municipal elections, the Niagara Prosperity Plan. Niagara’s employers need more access to talent, and equity-seeking people often possess the skills needed. They are unlikely to permanently settle in a community in which they feel unwelcome, however, and the GNCC encourages all efforts to make Niagara more inclusive and diverse.
Ontario pharmacies and primary care settings to begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations
As vaccine supply increases, the Ontario government is expanding the delivery channels available to administer COVID-19 vaccines to include pharmacies and primary care settings. As of Friday, March 12, over 325 pharmacies will be offering the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine to eligible Ontarians aged 60-64, by appointment only, in three public health unit regions: Toronto, Windsor-Essex, and Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. The vaccine rollout will be expanded to more pharmacies in other regions of the province as supply increases.
To ramp up capacity for vaccination, the province is also working with primary care professionals to offer vaccinations in primary care settings and community locations, such as physician offices, in collaboration with public health units. This initiative will begin in Hamilton, Toronto, Guelph, Peterborough, Simcoe-Muskoka, and Peel as of Saturday March 13, 2021.
Bank of Canada will hold current level of policy 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 is maintaining its extraordinary forward guidance, reinforced and supplemented by its quantitative easing (QE) program, which continues at its current pace of at least $4 billion per week.
The global economy is recovering from the economic effects of COVID-19, albeit with ongoing unevenness across regions and sectors. The US economic recovery appears to be gaining momentum as virus infections decline and fiscal support boosts incomes and consumption. New fiscal stimulus will increase US consumption and output growth further. Global yield curves have steepened, largely reflecting the improved US growth outlook, but global financial conditions remain highly accommodative. Oil and other commodity prices have risen. The Canadian dollar has been relatively stable against the US dollar, but has appreciated against most other currencies.
Despite the stronger near-term outlook, there is still considerable economic slack and a great deal of uncertainty about the evolution of the virus and the path of economic growth. The labour market is a long way from recovery, with employment still well below pre-COVID levels. Low-wage workers, young people and women have borne the brunt of the job losses. The spread of more transmissible variants of the virus poses the largest downside risk to activity, as localized outbreaks and restrictions could restrain growth and add choppiness to the recovery.
CPI inflation is near the bottom of the 1-3 percent target band but is likely to move temporarily to around the top of the band in the next few months. The expected rise in CPI inflation reflects base-year effects from deep price declines in some goods and services at the outset of the crisis a year ago, combined with higher gasoline prices pushed up by the recent run-up in oil prices. CPI inflation is then expected to moderate as base-year effects dissipate and excess capacity continues to exert downward pressure. Measures of core inflation currently range from 1.3 to 2 percent.
While economic prospects have improved, the Governing Council of the Bank of Canada judges that the recovery continues to require extraordinary monetary policy support.
The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is April 21, 2021.
Ontario provides $255 million to help emergency shelters combat pandemic
The Ontario government is providing $255 million to help municipalities and Indigenous program partners respond to an increase in COVID-19 cases in some emergency shelters and help keep vulnerable people safe. The new funding will protect homeless shelter staff and residents, and help prevent more people from becoming homeless.
Municipal service managers and Indigenous program partners can use the social services relief funding to acquire motel and hotel spaces to support physical distancing of shelter residents, hire more shelter staff, purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies, and add to rent and utility banks to help prevent more people from becoming homeless.
St. Catharines reimposes three-hour limit for on-street parking and surface lots
The City of St. Catharines will begin enforcing the three-hour time limit for on-street parking and surface lots starting Wednesday, March 17.
The move comes as the City continues to offer free parking at on-street spaces, lots and garages in support of local businesses. Ongoing free parking has seen some individuals who would typically park in garages downtown for extended periods moving to on-street spaces and surface lots, causing a reduction in turnover at these spaces and in turn reducing the amount of available parking for patrons accessing businesses.
Those wishing to park for periods longer than three hours can still park free of charge at the Ontario Street and Carlisle Street Garages. Parking at on-street spaces, surface lots and garages will remain free until April 30, 2021.
Ahead of the reintroduction of time limits the City will undertake an education campaign to ensure downtown visitors are aware of the change.
Reading recommendations
House sends stimulus bill to Biden, checks to U.S. pockets
, Bloomberg News
President Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill cleared its final congressional hurdle Wednesday, with the House passing the bill on an 220 to 211 vote, sending it to the president for his signature.
The vote caps a nearly two-month sprint from the time Biden first unveiled his American Rescue Plan through tough negotiations in the Senate to its final approval largely in the form it was first proposed. Biden plans to sign the legislation on Friday.
The bill is a major political victory for the new president, displaying his influence over a Democratic Party in control of Congress by the thinest of margins. At the same time, the partisan divide over the bill foreshadows the difficulty Biden will have in enacting the multi-trillion dollar, longer-term economic program he wants later this year.
Most Americans will be receiving direct payments of US$1,400, with checks going out within days.
Women were successful big-game hunters
Vivek Venkataraman, The Conversation
Archeological evidence from Peru has revealed that some ancient big-game hunters were, in fact, women, challenging what science writer James Gorman wrote was “one of the most widely held tenets about ancient hunters and gatherers — that males hunted and females gathered.”
“Man the Hunter” is a narrative of human origins developed by early 20th-century anthropologists armed with their imaginations and a handful of fossils. They viewed hunting — done by men — as the prime driver of human evolution, bestowing upon our early ancestors bipedalism, big brains, tools and a lust for violence. In this narrative, hunting also gave rise to the nuclear family, as women waited at home for men to bring home the meat.
In fact, that theory died a well-deserved death decades ago.
Niagara COVID status tracker
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 drawn daily from 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.
| 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
