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1 in 4 Canadians say they can’t afford the holidays amid COVID-19: report

Nov 1, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Well into the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, one quarter of Canadians have reported they won’t be celebrating the holidays this year, according to a released by Credit Canada. 

The survey, conducted by Angus Reid in late October, revealed that 24 per cent of people across the country will not be partaking in any celebrations this year and that 21 per cent do not think they will have consistent income over the next six months. 

Further, 44 per cent of those surveyed said they don’t think they will be able to accumulate savings over the next 12 months.

“While the holiday season is undoubtedly going to look different this year, it’s not all doom and gloom, and in fact these numbers aren’t that shocking given the trying times we’re in,” Keith Emery, a CEO of Credit Canada, said. 

Shannon Lee Simmons, a Toronto-based financial planner and finance expert, agreed.

“I think that it’s absolutely something that is expected this year,” she said. “Some people have completely lost their income and they are on government programs and not entirely sure what their industries are going to look like, so of course those people are feeling the pinch in a huge way. Holiday spending is going to look absolutely different for them in a way that they probably never expected.”

She added that a recent found that Canadians are spending less in general on the holidays this year, all across the board.

“For people who didn’t lose their jobs, who could work remotely, whose industries are still relatively intact, I’m also seeing on the front lines that they’re feeling the pinch because they’re trying to prioritize other savings,” she said. “I think everyone is nervous about the uncertainty of the future.”

Simmons outlined some tips for families to get through the holiday season:

Get creative

Simmons said there are a host of ideas that families can partake in that are inexpensive or free, such as planning activities to do around the house, hosting your own holiday concert in the living room, or participating in any community events that emerge in your neighbourhood, such as a festive scavenger hunt.

“It’s just about making sure that we’re taking time to make it special,” she added.

Simmons said one idea that has been circulating this year is making a “favourites list” for every member of the family and then spending one day for each person over the holidays, doing their favourite things.

Be OK with spending less

Simmons said this is a year when it’s more acceptable for families to kick back and release themselves from the regular holiday pressures and stress that come with gift exchanges, parties and gatherings — and so they should.

“This is an interesting year because there’s none of that pressure this year so there’s no events, there’s no Christmas party, there’s no … endless hosting guests — there’s no events that usually cost money and add to some of that stress,” she said. “And that’s totally OK. I think that it gives people a moment to pause.”

Remove automatic credit card credentials online

Any online accounts that have your credit card data stored and allow you to click and purchase items within seconds, may not be the best idea for those wanting to save during this time of year, Simmons said.

She added that with more people at home and working remotely, online shopping has increased dramatically for many of her clients. And with credit card information stored and ready to go, it’s easy to make unnecessary purchases.

“Give yourself a 24-hour embargo and then if you still think that that was the right thing to do then go ahead and do it,” she advised.

Prioritize emergency accounts (if possible)

For those who do have an income and can save a little bit over the holidays, Simmons recommends putting aside some emergency funds, in order to start off 2021 on the right foot — and have a bit of a contingency plan amid an uncertain future.

“I think everyone wants to have a good January and I think that the holidays is real critical piece to how you feel about stuff in January,” she said.

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‘It’s an ongoing battle in here’: COVID-19 has halted building-wide spraying for bedbugs in Toronto’s community housing. Tenants feel helpless

Oct 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

In a seniors housing building in east-end Toronto, 69-year-old Maureen Clohessy has taped over her power outlets, hoping to keep bedbugs out of the bachelor unit she’s called home for three years.

Each day, she watches for the scuttling critters, her eyes scanning from her plugs to her ceiling in an apartment on the seventh floor. The building at 828 Kingston Road is known as Glen Stewart Acres, and it’s one of several senior-specific buildings operated by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

Like other community housing buildings in Toronto, Glen Stewart Acres has battled pests from bedbugs to rodents and cockroaches. The housing operator saw a leap of 17.4 per cent in demands for pest treatments across all their buildings last year. Clohessy’s building was supposed to be treated top-to-bottom this spring. But then the pandemic hit — and the process was put indefinitely on hold.

“Currently, I have no nests,” Clohessy said, with some relief. But she described a neighbour down the hall walking around with bedbugs clinging to their clothes. Knowing the pests had reached a level where a full building treatment was warranted, but didn’t happen, has left tenants feeling helpless, she said.

“It’s nerve wracking,” she added. “You’re looking every day. It’s like you’re on a mission.”

Community housing said it has received fewer requests for pest control this year than last, which spokesperson Bruce Malloch said is believed to be connected to tenants fearing potential exposure to COVID-19 — though he also reported an uptick in requests after the province moved into Stage 3.

Some tenants who previously made requests to deal with pests had asked for treatment to be moved to another date for safety reasons, Malloch added.

A report submitted for a July meeting of TCHC’s board showed demand for 2,199 pest treatments in April of this year, at the start of the pandemic, versus the 5,141 requests in April last year.

Clohessy acknowledged that during COVID-19 there were residents who were reluctant to ask for someone to come into their units. But she believes that only allows the bedbug problem to get worse, and that it’s a reason to enforce a whole-building pest treatment.

“That way, everyone gets it done whether you like it or not,” she said.

TCHC said it has still provided treatments upon request for specific units during the pandemic, and that there were 261 work orders for pest management across Glen Stewart Acres’ 147 units from February to mid-October — with those work orders including a range of unit visits from inspections to the actual treatment application sessions.

No tenant who requested pest control for their apartment was refused treatment, Malloch said.

But he pointed to public health concerns, and the risks to seniors especially if they caught COVID-19, as reasons for pausing all full building treatments when the pandemic struck — including the one planned at Kingston Road. Responding to pest issues at the unit level, TCHC believes, avoids having mass movement among staff, pest management vendors and tenants who would need to vacant their units for several hours at a time.

Clohessy rejects the housing provider’s logic. “We all know that safety precautions need to be taken. As seniors, we’re more aware of that than anyone. We’re the ones at the highest risk,” she said.

She questioned why it would be less safe for contractors to treat the entire building than individual units, if those contractors were masked and took proper precautions.

In a one-bedroom unit on the second floor of Glen Stewart Acres, 68-year-old Steven Briggs has taken matters into his own hands, buying a steam machine and scattering a powder he found at Home Depot advertised as a killer for bedbugs and crawling insects. “That’s the stuff that works the best,” he said.

Since he moved into the building roughly eight years ago, he said the bugs have been a nightmare. Sometimes it gets a little better, he noted, but then the scales will tip back the other way. He said he’d grown up in a Regent Park social housing complex, but can’t remember ever seeing bedbugs there.

“Cockroaches once in a while, but we took care of them or they brought guys and they got rid of them.”

He believes treating units one by one is ineffective, and allows the pests to simply move to another unit. “They just might as well burn the money that they’re spending on it,” he said.

June Nagle, a resident in her 80s living on the building’s fourth floor, agreed with Malloch that distancing might be tricky with a full-building treatment, though she suggested that they could make use of a rec room to spread residents out.

But she’s skeptical that even a full-building treatment can rid Glen Stewart Acres of bedbugs entirely. Her unit was sprayed repeatedly last year, she said, and she eventually had to throw out a couch and a carpet that were riddled with them.

About a week ago, she said three bedbugs reappeared in her unit — one in her bed and two in her bathtub. Nagle stresses about potential infestations, checking her bed each night and waking at any tickle in her legs.

“You don’t sleep properly. You don’t sleep at all,” she said.

“It’s an ongoing battle in here.”

Victoria Gibson is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering affordable housing. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email:

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‘None of the other kids feel safe.’ Hundreds of elementary school students forced into oversubscribed classes in TDSB

Oct 21, 2021 , , , , by shlf

As cases across Ontario, hundreds of elementary students across the Toronto District School Board have been forced into oversubscribed classes where they may be so close to their peers, they feel unsafe.

When Anjula Gogia’s 12-year-old daughter, a Grade 7 student at Winona Drive Senior Public School, came home from class last week, she told her mom she and her classmates could not maintain a proper physical distance while studying.

“My daughter is safer going into a liquor store or a grocery store than she is going into her own classroom every day,” Gogia said. “She doesn’t feel safe. None of the other kids feel safe. What happens if a kid tests positive?”

Less than two months after the Toronto board approved a plan to reduce class sizes in kindergarten to Grade 8, nearly 4 per cent of its roughly 7,600 classes, both in-person and virtual, exceed the size limits promised at the start of the year, according to TDSB data released last week.

That amounts to roughly 300 classes, both in-person and virtual, that have too many students, the data show, some with as many as five extra kids.

As well, roughly 40 of these oversubscribed classes are located in communities Toronto Public Health identified as high risk for spreading the coronavirus. Fifteen “high priority” kindergarten classes have more than the targeted 20-student limit. One virtual classroom in Grades 4 through 8 has 38 students. The cap is 35.

TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said the vast majority of oversized classes only have one extra student. As part of its commitment to keeping kids safe this year, Bird said the board spent $30 million of its reserves to reduce class sizes, approving 20-student class size limits for in-person kindergarten and Grades 1 to 3.

Most other classes were capped at 27 students. Most virtual classes have been capped at 35 students.

“From the beginning we did say that it was a possibility that one or two students may be over that targeted class size limit,” he said.

The new, unexpected bigger class sizes are a direct result of a massive reorganization of elementary school teachers and students earlier this month to accommodate an overwhelming demand for virtual learning. Nearly 10,000 students switched learning modes in October with close to 8,000 kids leaving brick and mortar classrooms for online school.　

Oversized classes are just one more issue the TDSB has been forced to grapple with since the start of the school year. The board is scrambling to deal with a shortage of tech devices and now a budget shortfall of roughly $41 million.

The TDSB expected about 5,500 more students than are enrolled this year. That figure includes roughly 4,700 elementary school students, including 2,000 kids who were expected to enter kindergarten.

Jacob Beck, 43, was angry when he found out a couple of weeks ago that his son’s 16-person class at McMurrich Junior Public School near Oakwood Avenue and St. Clair Avenue West would swell to 22 students, two students over the 20-kid limit.

It was a shock to Beck and his 6-year-old son Emil because earlier that same week the school board sent out an email reiterating its promise to keep class sizes within the reduced caps. The email, in fact, uses the words “will not exceed” in bold and underlined font. It felt like insult added to injury the week Emil’s class grew because that’s when the school reported a positive case of in another Grade 1 classroom.　

“The whole point is that having the bigger classes increases the risk of contracting the coronavirus,” he said. “The fact that my son has not come down with coronavirus yet does not mean the risk is any lower.”

That’s why Gogia was furious when she heard about her daughter’s class. To express her frustration, she wrote letters to Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

In the meantime, it seems her daughter’s class may have shed a couple of students because, she said, parents were unhappy. Gogia said she appreciates how hard teachers and principals are working to keep her kids safe and learning properly, and that the provincial government should step up to give schools the resources they need to reduce class sizes once again.

In a statement emailed to the Star on Tuesday, Minister of Education spokesperson Caitlin Clark did not address the oversized elementary schools specifically but said the government’s plan to “safely reopen schools is fully endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer of Health and it includes every layer of prevention — including the hiring of over 1,000 new custodians to clean schools, over 2,000 educators to enhance distancing, and over 600 new public health nurses to support our school communities. This is supported by our government’s $1.3 billion investment to keep students safe.”　

Michele Henry is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star, writing health and education stories. Follow her on Twitter:

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Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports new record high of 1,859 COVID-19 cases; U.Ss reaches daily high of nearly 228,000 cases

Sep 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The latest news from Canada and around the world Saturday. This file is no longer updating. Web links to longer stories if available.

7:30 p.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday Dec. 5, 2020.

There are 408,921 confirmed cases in Canada.

_ Canada: 408,921 confirmed cases (71,450 active, 324,882 resolved, 12,589 deaths).The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.

There were 6,352 new cases Saturday from 79,671 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 8.0 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 43,361 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 6,194.

There were 93 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 598 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 85. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.23 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 33.49 per 100,000 people.

There have been 11,905,770 tests completed.

_ Newfoundland and Labrador: 347 confirmed cases (26 active, 317 resolved, four deaths).

There were four new cases Saturday from 247 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 1.6 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 14 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is two.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is 0.77 per 100,000 people.

There have been 64,134 tests completed.

_ Prince Edward Island: 76 confirmed cases (eight active, 68 resolved, zero deaths).

There were three new cases Saturday from 520 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 0.58 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of four new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is one.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is zero per 100,000 people.

There have been 62,566 tests completed.

_ Nova Scotia: 1,364 confirmed cases (95 active, 1,204 resolved, 65 deaths).

There were six new cases Saturday from 792 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 0.76 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 84 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 12.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is 6.69 per 100,000 people.

There have been 152,365 tests completed.

_ New Brunswick: 530 confirmed cases (98 active, 425 resolved, seven deaths).

There were two new cases Saturday from 448 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 0.45 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 49 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is seven.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is 0.9 per 100,000 people.

There have been 104,966 tests completed.

_ Quebec: 149,908 confirmed cases (13,849 active, 128,828 resolved, 7,231 deaths).

There were 2,031 new cases Saturday from 11,322 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 18 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 10,265 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 1,466.

There were 48 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 210 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 30. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.35 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 85.22 per 100,000 people.

There have been 2,238,113 tests completed.

_ Ontario: 125,385 confirmed cases (15,212 active, 106,416 resolved, 3,757 deaths).

There were 1,859 new cases Saturday from 57,457 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 3.2 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 12,347 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 1,764.

There were 20 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 133 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 19. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.13 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 25.79 per 100,000 people.

There have been 6,308,784 tests completed.

_ Manitoba: 18,423 confirmed cases (9,115 active, 8,927 resolved, 381 deaths).

There were 354 new cases Saturday. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 2,305 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 329.

There were 19 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 91 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 13. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.95 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 27.82 per 100,000 people.

There have been 357,524 tests completed.

_ Saskatchewan: 9,730 confirmed cases (4,191 active, 5,484 resolved, 55 deaths).

There were 203 new cases Saturday from 1,962 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 10 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 1,842 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 263.

There were zero new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 10 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is one. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.12 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 4.68 per 100,000 people.

There have been 269,310 tests completed.

_ Alberta: 66,730 confirmed cases (18,806 active, 47,328 resolved, 596 deaths).

There were 1,879 new cases Saturday. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 11,894 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 1,699.

There were six new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 72 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 10. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.24 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 13.63 per 100,000 people.

There have been 1,502,472 tests completed.

_ British Columbia: 36,132 confirmed cases (9,982 active, 25,658 resolved, 492 deaths).

There were zero new cases Saturday from 6,848 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 0.0 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 4,498 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 643.

There were zero new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 82 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 12. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.23 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 9.7 per 100,000 people.

There have been 828,968 tests completed.

_ Yukon: 54 confirmed cases (12 active, 41 resolved, one deaths).

There were three new cases Saturday. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of nine new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is one.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is 2.45 per 100,000 people.

There have been 5,522 tests completed.

_ Northwest Territories: 15 confirmed cases (zero active, 15 resolved, zero deaths).

There were zero new cases Saturday. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of zero new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is zero.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is zero per 100,000 people.

There have been 6,511 tests completed.

_ Nunavut: 214 confirmed cases (56 active, 158 resolved, zero deaths).

There were eight new cases Saturday from 75 completed tests, for a positivity rate of 11 per cent. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 50 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is seven.

There have been no deaths reported over the past week. The overall death rate is zero per 100,000 people.

There have been 4,459 tests completed.

7 p.m.: Alberta has recorded its third-straight day of more than 1,800 new COVID-19 cases. The province reported 1,879 new cases today, setting a new single-day record for the third time this week.

Six additional deaths were also reported. There are 101 people with COVID-19 in intensive care in Alberta.

6:31 p.m.: The Oregon Medical Board has indefinitely suspended the medical license of a doctor who said at a pro-Trump rally that he doesn’t wear a mask at his Dallas, Oregon, clinic and doesn’t require his staff to wear face-coverings either.

Dr. Steven LaTulippe also said at the Nov. 7 rally in Salem that he encourages others not to wear masks, according to KGW-TV.

A state order requires health care workers to wear a mask in health care settings. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say multiple studies have shown that cloth masks are effective in slowing the transmission of the coronavirus.

6:28 p.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 10,431 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 1,049,638. This is the third consecutive day that that state has added more than 10,000 cases and tops Friday’s 10,177.

Also, 90 new resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 19,084.

The cumulative non-resident death toll held steady at 242 deaths.

Florida has the third highest number of total confirmed cases in the country after Texas and California, according to The New York Times COVID-19 database.

6:13 p.m.: The Canadian Armed Forces says it will send a team of reservists to a First Nation in Manitoba to help with the community’s COVID-19 response.

The military says in an email that roughly six Canadian Rangers will work alongside other members of the community in Shamattawa to provide humanitarian assistance.

It says that assistance will include distributing food, firewood and care packages, as well as information and transportation.

Shamattawa Chief Eric Redhead posted online Friday that there were 117 active infections in the northern Manitoba community of about 1,100, saying they were “literally at a breaking point.”

5:57 p.m.: Coronavirus infections across the U.S. continue to rise as the country moves deeper into a holiday season when eagerly anticipated gatherings of family and friends could push the numbers even higher and overwhelm hospitals.

Vast swaths of southern and inland California imposed new restrictions on businesses and activities Saturday as hospitals in the nation’s most populous state face a dire shortage of beds. Restaurants must stop on-site dining and theatres, hair salons and many other businesses must close in the sprawling reaches of San Diego and Los Angeles, along with part of the Central Valley, including Fresno.

Five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area were set to impose their own lockdowns Sunday.

A new daily high of nearly 228,000 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases was reported nationwide Friday, eclipsing the previous high mark of 217,000 cases set the day before, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

5:17 p.m.: Faced with a dire shortage of hospital beds, health officials announced Saturday the vast region of Southern California and a large swath of the Central Valley will be placed under a sweeping new lockdown in an urgent attempt to slow the rapid rise of coronavirus cases.

The California Department of Public Health said the intensive care unit capacity in both regions’ hospitals had fallen below a 15% threshold that triggers the new measures, which include strict closures for businesses and new controls on activities. They will take effect Sunday evening and remain in place for at least three weeks, meaning the lockdown will cover the Christmas holiday.

Much of the state is on the brink of the same restrictions. Some regions have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday.

4:06 p.m.: A Manitoba judge rejected a church’s request Saturday to hold drive-in services despite the province’s COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings and in-person religious events.

“The onus that an applicant must meet to obtain a stay of legislation is extremely high,” Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench said in his rare weekend ruling.

“I do not believe that the applicants meet their burden of showing that (they) will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is not granted.”

Joyal held a special Saturday court hearing in a case brought by Springs Church, which has faced more than $32,000 in fines for drive-in services in recent weeks and wanted a ruling before a planned service later in the day.

3:54 p.m.: All four Atlantic provinces reported new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, but the numbers remained relatively small.

Nova Scotia reported six cases, Newfoundland and Labrador added four, New Brunswick logged two and P.E.I. recorded three, for a total of 15 across the region.

In Nova Scotia, health officials said four of the six new cases were reported in the province’s central zone, which includes Halifax.

On Friday, the province extended tighter health restrictions in the Halifax region and Hants County until Dec. 16. Those restrictions, which stop just short of a full lockdown, were introduced Nov. 24 when health officials reported 37 new cases — 35 in the Halifax area.

The other new cases reported Saturday were in Nova Scotia’s eastern zone. The province now has 95 active cases, though none of those patients were in hospital.

Premier Stephen McNeil issued a brief statement asking residents to limit their social contacts to prevent the spread of the virus, which has claimed 65 lives in Nova Scotia.

3:01 p.m.: The Fraser Health authority is changing the way it notifies people in schools about their exposures to COVID-19.

Jordan Tinney, the superintendent of the Surrey School District, says in a tweet that “significant changes” start today for informing people in a class if they have or have not been exposed.

Tinney’s notice says three different types of letters will be sent out depending on the exposure event.

In the first two exposures, the classes where a person with a positive case attended will be notified, while all others in the school will get a letter saying they were not exposed.

A third notification would be sent to the entire school if an infection is not attached to a specific class, such as if a vice-principle tested positive for COVID-19.

The Fraser Health region has been a hot spot for COVID-19 and the surging infection rates prompted tighter social restrictions there and in Vancouver Coastal Health last month, only to be expanded to the entire province days later.

2:55 p.m.: Saskatchewan is reporting 202 new COVID-19 cases today. Nearly 4,200 cases are considered active, 116 of which are in hospital and 25 of which are receiving intensive care. Provincial officials aren’t reporting any new virus-related deaths today, leaving that total at 55.

2:30 p.m.: Prince Edward Island is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today — all of them women in their 20s who work in Charlottetown restaurants.

The province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Heather Morrison, says all three cases are linked as close contacts, and she confirmed that none had travelled outside the province.

Morrison says the new cluster is cause for concern, but she says it’s too early to suggest there is widespread community transmission.

The Island has reported 73 cases since the pandemic began, including 68 cases that are now considered recovered.

1:45 p.m.: Manitoba has recorded a new daily record in the number of COVID-19-related deaths, with officials there saying 19 people have recently died as a result of the virus.

Among the deaths is a woman in her 20s in the Winnipeg health region. The province is reporting 354 new cases of COVID-19 in the province as of 9:30 a.m. today. So far, 381 people have died from COVID-19 across the province.

1:25 p.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 today — all of them women under the age of 50.

Two of those cases are young women from the same household in eastern Newfoundland, where a previous travel-related case was reported.

The third case is a woman in her 40s from outside the province who came to eastern Newfoundland from Alberta after she was granted a travel exemption.

The fourth case is a woman under the age of 40 in the central zone whose infection is under investigation.

As of today, Newfoundland and Labrador had 26 active cases of COVID-19

1 p.m. Coronavirus infections continue to spread at record levels in the United States, reaching a new daily high of nearly 228,000 cases on Friday.

The 227,885 cases eclipses the previous high of more than 217,000 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 attributable deaths in the U.S. has passed 2,000 for the first time since the spring. It reached 2,011 on Friday. Two weeks ago, the seven-day average was 1,448. There were 2,607 deaths reported in the U.S. on Friday.

Globally, Johns Hopkins reports more than 1.5 million people have died from the coronavirus pandemic, including more than 279,000 in the United States.

11:50 a.m. Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting two new cases of COVID-19 today.

The first case involves a person in their 50s in the Saint John region, and the second case is a person in their 40s in the Edmundston region of northwestern New Brunswick.

There are now 98 active cases in the province, with one patient recovering in an intensive care unit.

The number of confirmed cases in New Brunswick is 530, which includes seven deaths and 425 recoveries.

10:31 a.m. On Saturday, Ontario reported a new record high of 1,859 cases of COVID-19 with about 59,400 tests completed, along with 20 new deaths linked to the virus. The new cases reported include 504 in Toronto, 463 in Peel and 198 in York Region.

There are 1,624 more resolved cases, while the number of active cases sits at 15,212.

The number of patients in the province’s hospitals stands at 709, with 202 in intensive care.

Elliott says the province has “reached a critical point” in the spread of the virus and is once again urging residents to wear masks and follow public health advice.

9:30 a.m. India has registered 36,652 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

India’s health ministry on Saturday also recorded 512 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total deaths to nearly 140,000. The pace of new cases has seen a downward trend, with single-day cases remaining below the 50,000 mark a month.

India has 9.6 million total cases, second behind the U.S. with 14.3 million. But globally it has one of the lowest deaths per million population, according to the Health Ministry.

8 a.m. Millions of students across the province are in the midst of a . COVID-19 forced the sudden shutdown of schools after March Break, and when classes resumed weeks later, everyone was forced to pivot to online with little preparation and no training. It wasn’t pretty.

The start of the school year in September wasn’t much better. With no direction from the Ministry of Education until late summer, boards were left scrambling to make in-person schools safe and build virtual schools from scratch.

The result was chaos. Face-to-face classes were not physically distanced; classrooms lacked proper ventilation; teachers protested a lack of protective gear. Within days, schools were hit with COVID-19 outbreaks; to date, 776 of Ontario’s public schools have had cases, resulting in kids or full classes being sent home. Meanwhile, virtual school, unprepared for the demand, was beset by technology challenges, a delayed start and a seemingly endless shuffling of students and teachers.

Together with the Ontario teachers strikes at the beginning of 2020, these disrupted school days have added up, leaving some to wonder how things are going for the millions of children in the province’s schools: Are our kids even learning? Is this a “lost year?” Who will be left behind when the dust settles?

7:45 a.m. For Empire Co. CEO Michael Medline, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were a flurry of meetings as he and his team scrambled to fulfil the grocery brand’s new role as an essential service.

This included making Sobeys the first grocery store to implement Canada-wide Plexiglas checkout shields, beginning with an order Medline sent out before he’d even hung up his call with the Italian grocery chain CEO who pioneered the technique.

Faced with too many unknowns and not enough data, Medline said the crisis forced the team to cut the picture down to their core goals.

“Everything went back to three things,” Medline said. “Keep our customers and teammates safe, stock those shelves, and support local communities … especially charitable causes (that) continue to be in trouble.”

That attitude sounds similar to what any corporate leader would say about getting through the pandemic.

What makes Medline stand out nine months in, is his continued willingness to back up that rhetoric with both money and action. He has reinstated hazard bonuses for front-line workers, maintained his commitment to Sobeys’ charity events and declined to raise fees on Empire’s food suppliers, even when that meant breaking stride with major competitors in the grocery industry.

7:22 a.m. Procurement Minister Anita Anand says that as soon as she knows when the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Canada, she will share that information with Canadians.

But Anand told The Canadian Press in an interview this week that the original contracts to buy COVID-19 vaccines had to be vague about delivery dates because nobody knew at the time if the vaccines would be successful.

It’s only in the last few weeks, when the leading candidates from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca reported such positive results from their large clinical trials, that the way forward became clear enough for Anand’s department to start asking the companies to be more specific about when they can make good on their contracts with Canada.

“We put these contracts in place in order to place Canadians in the best stead possible, of any country in the world, recognizing that we would need to negotiate additional terms such as precise delivery dates, once a vaccine was discovered, and regulatory approval was obtained,” she said. “And that is what’s happening now.”

7:20 a.m. Much of California is on the brink of sweeping new restrictions on businesses and activities, a desperate attempt to slow the frighteningly rapid escalation of coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

Five San Francisco Bay Area counties imposed a new stay-at-home order for their residents that will take effect Sunday. Southern California and a large swath of the central portion of the state could join this weekend.

Those two regions have seen their intensive care unit capacity fall below the 15% threshold that under a new state stay-at-home order will trigger new restrictions barring all on-site restaurant dining and close hair and nail salons, movie theatres and many other businesses, as well as museums and playgrounds.

If their capacity remains below that level when the data is updated Saturday, the closures will take effect Sunday and stay in effect at least three weeks.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new plan Thursday. It is the most restrictive order since he imposed the country’s first statewide stay-at-home rule in March.

7:07 a.m. Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations in Moscow starting Saturday, a precursor to a sweeping Russia-wide immunization effort.

The vaccinations come three days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a “large-scale” COVID-19 immunization campaign even though a Russian-designed vaccine has yet to complete the advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety in line with established scientific protocols.

The Russian leader said Wednesday that more than 2 million doses of the Sputnik V jab will be available in the next few days, allowing authorities to offer jabs to medical workers and teachers across the country starting late next week.

Moscow, which currently accounts for about a quarter of the country’s new daily infections, moved ahead of the curve, opening 70 vaccination facilities on Saturday. Doctors, teachers and municipal workers were invited to book a time to receive a jab, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that about 5,000 signed up in a few hours after the system began operating on Friday.

7 a.m. Iran’s death toll from the global pandemic has risen above 50,000, according to state television, as the country grapples with the worst outbreak in the Middle East.

A two-week partial lockdown in the capital of Tehran and other major cities helped slow, but not stop the rising wave of deaths from the coronavirus over the past few weeks.

President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday that the lockdown could be extended to more cities or reimposed on the capital, if people do not abide by health measures.

“Tehran is on the borderline of being in the red zone,” Rouhani said. “All people and public officials should try to implement measures and regulations.”

Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said Saturday that the countrywide death toll the previous day was 321.

Friday 6 p.m. The FBI is telling anyone who underwent a coronavirus test at a New Jersey laboratory to get retested and to contact the agency.

In a statement Friday on Twitter, the FBI’s Newark office urges people who were recently tested for the virus at Infinity Diagnostic Laboratory in Ventnor “to be retested as soon as possible.” It also asks that anyone who was administered a finger-prick blood test at the laboratory to contact a victim assistance unit at the FBI.

The announcement gave no further details, and a message left with the FBI seeking further information was not immediately returned.

Voicemail for the company’s operations director Friday evening said it was closed and did not offer the opportunity to leave a message.

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Orillia woman’s car gets towed to impound lot after getting stuck in Hwy. 400 ditch

Sep 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

An Orillia woman did get help after getting stuck in a snowy ditch on Hwy. 400 in Severn Township Dec. 3.

Unfortunately, the tow truck ended up taking her vehicle to the impound lot after she was arrested for impaired operation of a vehicle.

At 10:45 p.m., a Southern Georgian Bay OPP officer stopped after noticing other motorists had pulled over to try to help the woman stuck in the snowdrift.

She was still behind the wheel when the officer spoke with her and allegedly smelled alcohol.

The 33-year-old driver was arrested and taken back to a police station for further breath samples.

She was also charged with having open alcohol in a vehicle under the Liquor License Act.

Her licence was suspended for 90 days and vehicle was towed and impounded for a week.

She has a Dec. 17 court date in Midland.


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Conservative MP warns the Bank of Canada risks becoming too political. Not likely, experts say

Aug 30, 2021 , , , , by shlf

OTTAWA–The Bank of Canada is pushing back against Conservative questions about its independence from the federal government, saying its inflation target — not politics — is guiding its response to the .

The central bank was pulled into the pandemic political fray Thursday when Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre suggested the bank was enabling the Liberal government’s deficit-spending habits.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Poilievre warned the central bank to avoid acting as an “ATM” for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s emergency pandemic programs.

At issue is the bank’s unprecedented purchase of billions of dollars worth of government bonds in an effort to stabilize the economy, which has been rocked by rolling lockdowns during the COVID-19 crisis. The bank has committed to buying $5 billion in government bonds each week during the crisis, a policy known as “quantitative easing” which is intended to inject cash into the economy.

Poilievre called the practice — which has been employed on a massive scale by central banks around the world during the crisis, including in the U.S., U.K., and Australia — “printing money,” and suggested it was a “pyramid scheme.”

“Expanding the bank’s balance sheet during a short-term, once-in-a-lifetime pandemic lockdown is different than perpetually buying and inflating the financial assets of the wealthy at everyone else’s expense,” Poilievre said in a written statement to the Star.

“Trickle-down economics does not work. We need a bottom-up, worker-led recovery.”

The bank has said it will stop its quantitative easing efforts once the economy has recovered after COVID-19.

Poilievre’s characterization was challenged by independent economic analysts who spoke to the Star on Thursday.

“Every central bank is probing the outer limits of monetary intervention to an extent we’ve never seen before, but the Bank of Canada is hardly alone in this intervention,” said David Rosenberg, the chief economist at Rosenberg Research. “I mean, look what’s happened in the world around us.”

Rosenberg pointed out that the bank’s counterpart, the U.S. Federal Reserve, is openly calling on Washington for more fiscal stimulus to weather COVID-19’s economic storm.

“Is Canada behaving irresponsibly? I don’t see that,” Rosenberg said. “Is (Bank of Canada governor) Tiff Macklem somehow political? I find that really hard to believe,”

The Bank of Canada is not typically drawn in to the cut and thrust of partisan politics. As a Crown corporation, it operates at arm’s-length from the government and has legislated independence to set the country’s monetary policy with an eye to keeping inflation low.

While the bank’s efforts to stabilize the Canadian economy during COVID-19 are unprecedented, they should not be viewed as political said Scotiabank chief economist Jean-François Perrault.

“There is no question that central banks around the world … have needed to undertake absolutely exceptional measures to try and stabilize economies and put them on a path to recovery,” said Perrault, who previously worked at the central bank and in government.

“The bank is obviously an inflation targeting organization. That’s job number one, that’s its mandate. I’m 100 per cent convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the actions that they’ve taken were all done with the objective of stabilizing inflation.”

In a statement, the Bank of Canada said it has been “consistently clear that the policy actions taken by the bank during the COVID-19 pandemic are always guided by our mandated inflation objective.”

Alex Paterson, a spokesperson for the central bank, also pointed to a previous statement that the bank intends to continue its policy of quantitative easing until the recovery from COVID-19 is “well underway.”

The Liberal government was less guarded in its response to Poilievre’s charges.

“The Conservatives are recklessly politicizing the role of the independent, and widely respected Bank of Canada,” wrote Katherine Cuplinskas, a spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter:

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‘Litany of malfeasance, misdirection, greenwashing’: Collingwood councillors comment on judicial inquiry findings

Jul 1, 2021 , , , , by shlf

For the first time since Associate Chief Justice Frank Marrocco issued his report on the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry, members of council had the chance to comment on his findings.

Deputy Mayor Keith Hull was a member of the council from 2010 to 2014 which sold the former Collus utility and built the two recreational facilities that eventually led to the inquiry.

“The council of the day and key senior individuals failed the community,” he said at the Nov. 16 council meeting.

Marrocco made hundreds of recommendations for the town, as well as the province, in hopes of improving transparency for municipal governments.

“I think we know and have known for years that we have operated within a system that has too far great (amount) of latitude to allow for things that have transpired in the town of Collingwood,” he said. 

Since 2013, the OPP have been investigating the issues discussed in the inquiry and Mayor Brian Saunderson said that investigation is ongoing.

Hull said he was interviewed by the OPP in 2013.

“I am hoping for all concerned that at some point the provincial police come forward with a conclusive statement so that we as a community can move over and the cloud and the shadow that still cover this community can finally be lifted and move onward,” he said. 

Perhaps the most passionate member of council was Mariane McLeod, who was working as a journalist at the time of the sale. She said the entire report “is a finding of wrongdoing.”

“Not just a finding of wrongdoing but a litany of malfeasance, misdirection, greenwashing, greed, enabling, wilful ignorance, a coverup and just general shenanigans,” she said.

McLeod was not pleased with the $7-million cost, but put the blame on those involved and said the town would “still be paying, had we not done this.

“I would beg that we never again let the good old boys prevail,” she said. 

Coun. Steve Berman said the findings send a message to anyone who thought the inquiry wasn’t necessary.

“For anyone who said or maintains that this was nothing but a witch hunt, I think Justice Marrocco’s own words show, that sometimes, there are in fact witches out there,” he said.