Deaths of almost 25,000 Canadians attributed to COVID-19 from March 2020 to June 2021
From March 2020 to the beginning of June 2021, there were an estimated 23,547 excess deaths in Canada, or 6.7% more deaths than what would be expected were there no pandemic, after accounting for changes in the population, such as aging. Over this same period, 24,910 deaths were directly attributed to COVID-19. While COVID-19 deaths were still observed, significant excess mortality has not been observed nationally for the total population using the provisional death data since February 2021.
Click here for more information.
Ontario launches Request for Qualifications to offer high-speed internet in under-served areas
Today, the province launched a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) as part of a new competitive bidding process to connect more than 300,000 homes and businesses in unserved and underserved areas.
Under the new and innovative procurement process, qualified internet service providers (ISP) will later bid – through a series of reverse auctions in defined geographic areas – for opportunities to provide connectivity across Ontario.
Click here for more information.
Lincoln and Grimsby formally approve shared fire services
The Town of Lincoln and the Town of Grimsby have approved by-laws to move forward with a pilot project for the provision of shared fire protection services, to deliver fire protection services jointly to both communities. The implementation of shared fire services allows both municipalities to maximize their collective resources without each having to pay the full cost of such and will serve to preserve the volunteer fire service model.
The GNCC has urged municipal governments to streamline and reduce costs through integration and shared services for many years, and is pleased at this development.
Click here for more information.
Welland seeks input on official plan
The City of Welland invites public comment on the updates to the Official Plan. A survey is available on the City’s engagement site, YourChannel, until early October. Questions in the survey look at topics such as familiarity with the Official Plan, future vision, placemaking, and priorities. In addition, a scheduled virtual Official Plan visioning workshop takes place Wednesday, September 29.
Click here for more information.
St. Catharines Digital Main Street program goes city-wide
The City of St. Catharines is relaunching Digital Main Street for a third year, offering one-on-one support to small businesses in expanding their reach into an increasingly important digital marketplace. The program, made possible by to a $83,862 grant from Digital Main Street’s Ontario Grants Program (OGP), will see the City’s Digital Service Squad extending its support across the whole community, in addition to providing the opportunity for receipt of a $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant. The grants — administrated by the Ontario BIA Association with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade — support brick-and-mortar businesses in adopting new technologies to expand their online reach.
Click here for more information.
Niagara Health vaccination clinic to be closed Sunday, Sept. 12
Niagara Health’s vaccination clinic at the St. Catharines Site will be closed Sunday, Sept. 12 due to low bookings.
Regular operations, including booked and walk-in appointments, will resume Monday, Sept. 13. Make an appointment online for same-day and future bookings. Walk-ins for first, second (until 3:30 p.m.) and third doses (until 3 p.m.) are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis of the Pfizer vaccine.
To ensure maximum protection against COVID-19 and the Delta variant, individuals should get vaccinated as soon as they can and book their second dose as soon as they are eligible. All vaccines approved by Health Canada are safe and effective in protecting against COVID-19 and its variants. Mixing vaccines is safe, effective and enables more Ontarians to receive their second dose sooner.
Click here for more information.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines here.
The Election Section
Niagara federal vote projections
Seats (Projection)
| Niagara Centre | Niagara Falls | Niagara West | St. Catharines | Canada (338canada) | Canada (CBC) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloc Quebecois | 7% (32 seats) | 6.8% (31 seats) | ||||
| Conservative Party | 30% | 38% | 46% | 32% | 31.4% (126 seats) | 31% (119 seats) |
| Green Party | 3% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 3.5% | 3.4% (2 seats) | 3.5% (1 seat) |
| Liberal Party | 35% | 31% | 29% | 36% | 31.9% (148 seats) | 31.5% (155 seats) |
| New Democratic Party | 24% | 21% | 14% | 23% | 19.3% (31 seats) | 19.1% (32 seats) |
| People's Party | 7.6% | 6% | 6.5% | 5.8% | 6% (0 seats) | 7% (0 seats) |
| Christian Heritage | - | - | 1.1% | - | - | - |
Data are provided by 338canada.com and the CBC using an aggregate of polls. Projections are updated daily. Click here for more information and margins of error.
Download the Canadian Chamber’s policy tracker, which summarizes party commitments made to date.
Niagara’s Prosperity Matters: Build infrastructure that supports commerce
Businesses will only reach new customers if they can get their products to market. Getting there requires high-quality infrastructure with sufficient capacity to carry goods across different modes of transportation.
The GNCC is calling on all parties to finance the National Trade Corridors Fund with $5 billion per year in total. This measure will enable more provinces, territories and municipalities to receive infrastructure funding to move goods domestically and abroad.
Click here to read more about the GNCC’s Niagara Prosperity Plan.
Canada’s main parties jump aboard spending bandwagon as election nears
Reuters
With less than two weeks before Canadians vote in a federal election, the race is too close to call. But what is certain is that for the first time in recent memory, no matter which party wins, the government spending taps will be wide open.
The ruling Liberals and the rival Conservatives are both promising tens of billions of dollars in investments if they triumph in the Sept. 20 vote. Canada’s two main parties say the spending is needed to battle the effects of a fourth wave of COVID-19 and kick-start an economic recovery.
Here are 5 ways the feds could fix Canada’s housing crisis
BNN Bloomberg
Housing has been a hot topic in the campaign for Canada’s 44th parliament.
Every major party platform offers proposals for reining in what has become a nationwide affordability crisis. However, experts say the most effective potential solutions have either received scant attention from the federal platforms, or have failed to be included at all. Five of them are broken down in detail below.
Reading Recommendations
Average cost for COVID-19 ICU patients estimated at more than $50,000: report
The average cost of treating a COVID-19 patient who needs intensive care in Canada is estimated at more than $50,000, compared with $8,400 for someone who’s had a heart attack, a new report says.
Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows the average cost for patients being treated for the virus is more than $23,000, which is four times higher than a patient with influenza.
Ann Chapman, interim director of health spending and primary care at CIHI, said the report reinforces the economic consequences of a serious illness, though it does not include the cost for doctors.
Tiff Macklem charts Bank of Canada’s path out of pandemic stimulus
Financial Post
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has begun the delicate work of extricating the central bank from the bond market.
Macklem used a speech on Thursday to chart an end to the Bank of Canada’s first use of quantitative easing (QE), a relatively aggressive approach to keeping interest rates low that involves central banks using their unique ability to create money to purchase financial assets.
The Bank of Canada deployed QE to fight the COVID-19 recession, and has so far acquired more than $330 billion of Government of Canada debt since the end of March 2020. Central bankers dislike becoming active players in private markets, but without their intervention, the cost of borrowing money to invest probably would drift higher, slowing the recovery.
Niagara COVID-19 statistics tracker
These data show the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in Niagara. The Province of Ontario is now using a provincewide approach to reopening, and these data no longer have any influence on Niagara’s restrictions. Lower numbers are better in all metrics.
| 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% |
Last updated: September 4, 2021
Click here for definitions of terms used in this table.
On September 8, there were 14 patients admitted to Niagara Health with COVID-19, of which 13 were unvaccinated, 0 were partially vaccinated, and 1 was fully vaccinated. There were 5 patients with COVID-19 in a Niagara Health Intensive Care Unit.
Over the last 28 days, a Niagara resident vaccinated with 1 dose was 3.7 times more likely to contract COVID-19, and an unvaccinated person was 8.4 times more likely.
Data are drawn from Niagara Region Public Health and Niagara Health.
Niagara COVID vaccination tracker
Niagara’s most up-to-date vaccination numbers are presented below, along with comparison data from Ontario, Canada, and G7 countries.
| 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% |
Total doses administered in Niagara: 673,534
New daily doses administered to Niagara residents: 1,348
Last updated: September 9, 2021
Data are drawn from Niagara Region, the Government of Ontario, and Oxford University’s Our World in Data project.
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.
Information on government grants, resources, and programs, policies, forms, and posters for download and use, are available here. The GNCC is here to support you. Contact us with any questions you have.
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.
