COVID-19 vaccine bookings to open for all children aged five to eleven

As of 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, children aged five to 11 across Ontario will be eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through a variety of channels including the COVID-19 vaccination portal and contact centre, directly through public health units using their own booking system, participating pharmacies which individuals can find on Ontario’s website using the pharmacy locator, and select primary care providers.

To book an appointment online, children must be turning five years old by the end of 2021 (born in 2016).

Parents, caregivers and children with questions about the vaccine are encouraged to call the Provincial Vaccine Confidence Line that can be accessed by calling the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre at 1-833-943-3900, or visit COVID-19 Vaccine Consult Service to book a confidential phone appointment with a SickKids clinician.

Vaccination is one of the most effective ways to help protect ourselves, and our families and communities against COVID-19. Learn more here.

Auditor General finds Ontario Government “deliberately ignored” right to be heard on significant environmental issues, kept public in the dark

Some Ontario ministries – including the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks – deliberately avoided consulting the public on environmentally significant decisions in 2020/21, bypassing the Environmental Bill of Rights, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in her Annual Report of Environment Audits.

“The Environment Ministry’s actions amount to undermining the Environmental Bill of Rights, a law that we would expect the Ministry to be championing,” Lysyk said, “This has been consistent over the last three years.”

The Auditor General concluded that the Government of Ontario spent millions of dollars managing hazardous spills but did not bill polluters, is in danger of running out of landfill space, is making little effort to protect at-risk species, and had left the public in the dark as a result of poor reporting.

Click here to download a summary of the Auditor General’s report (PDF link).

Financial experts find fear of financial shock is low, but cyber risks remain a concern

The Bank of Canada conducts the Financial System Survey (FSS) twice a year to solicit the opinions of senior experts who specialize in risk management of the financial system.

Respondents believe the risk of a shock that could impair the financial system is low. However, this risk is viewed as slightly higher in the medium term than in the short term because of the prospect of rising interest rates, inflation, and geopolitical tensions.

Cyber risks remain the top risk that organizations face. Asset pricing risks—the potential for asset price corrections—are the second most frequently cited. These top risks faced by organizations are also relevant for the financial system as a whole, as highlighted in the Bank of Canada’s 2021 Financial System Review.

Overall, the prolonged period of low interest rates over the past decade has worsened respondents’ abilities to meet their profit or return goals. As a result, asset managers, pension funds and insurers have increased their exposures to riskier assets and may have taken on more leverage.

Click here for more information.

Uber enters booming cannabis market with orders in Ontario

Uber Technologies Inc. will allow users in Ontario, Canada, to place orders for cannabis on its Uber Eats app, marking the ride-hailing giant’s foray into the booming business, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

Uber Eats will list cannabis retailer Tokyo Smoke on its marketplace on Monday, following which customers can place orders from the Uber Eats app and then pick it up at their nearest Tokyo Smoke store, the spokesperson said.

With more than three years into Canada’s legalisation of recreational cannabis, the country is trying to fix its ailing pot market, where illegal producers still control a large share of total annual sales.

Cannabis sales in Canada will total $4 billion in 2021 and are forecast to grow to $6.7 billion in 2026, according to data from industry research firm BDS Analytics.

Click here for more information.

Second Career program to be expanded in spring

The Second Career program provides financial support to laid-off and unemployed workers. By Spring 2022, the Second Career program will begin supporting unemployed individuals with little or no work experience, those who are self-employed and those in the gig economy.

The government is also proposing to extend the temporary, refundable Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit to 2022, which was originally introduced in the 2021 Ontario Budget to help workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic get back into the workforce. The extension would provide an estimated $275 million in additional support to about 240,000 people, or $1,150 on average, to help Ontario workers continue to upgrade their skills.

Click here for more information.

Reading Recommendations

Workers want a flexible future at work. What do employers want?

CBC News

Across Canada, employers are trying to map out what’s best for their organizations in a post-pandemic era, in terms of how they’ll structure their working arrangements going forward and how that will affect employees.

Yet employers are under pressure to embrace a more flexible future, and it seems some larger organizations are listening.

At Microsoft Canada, there’s an expectation the future will be different for its more than 4,000 Canadian employees.

“We believe extreme flexibility and hybrid work will define the post-pandemic workplace,” Microsoft spokesperson Lisa Gibson told CBC News via email.

Gibson said Microsoft was equipped for remote work before COVID-19 and some of its staff did work outside the office occasionally. But she said the pandemic saw “the overwhelming majority” work from home full-time.

As the pandemic eases and the company fully reopens its operations, the majority of staff will be able to work from home at least half the time — and they won’t need managerial approval to do so.

Niagara COVID-19 statistics tracker

GNCC and Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber launch NiagaraMyWay

The Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce (GNCC) and the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce are partnering on a new campaign designed to encourage people to shop locally.

The multi-media initiative is asking Niagara residents to shop locally and share their experiences on social media with the hashtag #NiagaraMyWay. It is a unique and self-personalizing hashtag that invites people to participate and will trigger a personal response among users to fill in their own Niagara experiences. It will ultimately paint a broad mosaic of what Niagara means to different people, and help build a sense of community where people are encouraged to shop locally.

The campaign is being launched October 14^th with a series of social media ads, which will be followed in subsequent weeks with advertising in local Niagara newspapers and radio. Ads will also appear in select Toronto media outlets over the course of the three-month campaign.

Businesses interested in participating in #NiagaraMyWay and seeing their organization featured,  are encouraged to register their company at GNCC’s website https://gncc.ca/niagaramyway/ or with the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber https://www.chambernotl.com/shop-local.

Participation is free.

Read the media release here.

Ontario raises capacity limits for arenas, meeting spaces, theatres, and some other venues

The Government of Ontario, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, is cautiously lifting capacity limits in select indoor and outdoor settings where proof of vaccination is required, as well as certain outdoor settings that have a capacity below 20,000.

Effective Saturday, October 9, 2021, at 12:01 a.m., capacity limits have been lifted to allow 100 per cent capacity in the following settings:

• Concert venues, theatres and cinemas;
• Spectator areas of facilities for sports and recreational fitness (would not include gyms, personal training);
• Meeting and event spaces (indoor meeting and event spaces will still need to limit capacity to the number that can maintain physical distancing);
• Horseracing tracks, car racing tracks, and other similar venues; and
• Commercial film and television productions with studio audiences.

This announcement was made late on October 8th (and thus was not featured in that day’s Daily Update).

No mention of raising capacity limits for other venues or businesses has been made. The GNCC has asked for an evidence-based review of capacity limits for all businesses.

Click here for more information.

Niagara mourns Councillor Sandie Bellows

Regional Councillor Sandie Bellows passed away on the evening of October 10th.

Councillor Bellows dedicated her life to the people of Niagara and was a fierce victims’ rights advocate. This advocacy saw her serve as a keynote speaker for many government and law enforcement agencies, including conferences for the Ontario and Canadian Police Chiefs, hostage negotiators, and American law enforcement agencies. In recognition of her work in this area, Councillor Bellows was invited by Prime Minister Harper to the Victims Bill of Rights ceremony in 2015.

Click here to read the full statement by Regional Chair Jim Bradley.

Reading Recommendations

Canada’s overworked healthcare sector braces for staff shortages as vaccine mandates loom

Reuters

Canada’s health and long-term care industries are bracing for staff shortages and layoffs, as deadlines for vaccine mandates loom across the country, with unions pushing federal and provincial governments to soften hard-line stances.

For hospitals and nursing homes, a shortage of workers would strain the already overburdened workforce dealing with nearly two years of the pandemic. The uncertainty sparked by vaccine mandates underscores the challenges on the road to recovery.

Devon Greyson, assistant professor of public health at the University of British Columbia, said officials are steering into uncharted waters with mass vaccine mandates, and it’s not clear how workers will respond.

“A shortage of workers can mean people’s health and well being. It’s scary,” Greyson said.

Cannabis has been legal almost 3 years, yet retailers say banks are shutting them out

CBC News

Nearly three years after Canada legalized cannabis, many retailers in B.C. say they still struggle to find access to basic financial services from banks.

International pressure and decades of stigma around cannabis still plague the fledgling industry, forcing shop owners to dig into their savings to open their small businesses and limiting the sector’s growth, industry experts told CBC News.

The Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers (ACCRES) says 50 of its 52 members in B.C. have been denied access at traditional banks, and have turned to local credit unions instead.

“We’re not even talking about loans or credit cards,” said Jaclynn Pehota, executive director of ACCRES.

“We’re talking about very basic financial services like a chequing account. My members are still struggling, three years post-cannabis legalization in Canada.”

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.

Last updated: October 2, 2021

Click here for definitions of terms used in this table.