As Ontario prepares for a second lockdown on Boxing Day, it is yet another body blow to small businesses that have been struggling to survive since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were first announced in March.
Many have gone out of business, others may not make it through this lockdown and still others are hanging by a thread.
Contending with closures, zero foot traffic and layoffs has led many small businesses to ramp up their presence online, where customers have also migrated to shop for everything from Christmas presents to toilet paper. Innovation is the name of the game to stay afloat and some local businesses and entrepreneurs have taken to Instagram to do just that.
Daphne Nissani, Boa Boutique
Daphne Nissani, owner of Boa Boutique in Toronto and Oakville, has found a unique way to use Instagram’s live video feature to move inventory, by conducting interactive live sales and auctions.
“I’ve done 60 live [videos] and over 150 hours of lives,” said Nissani, who launched the weekly broadcasts just two days after non-essential businesses were ordered closed in March.
She says the idea initially came from another boutique owner, but auctions run in Nissani’s blood.
“My father was a professional auctioneer and I thought – let’s try it,” she said. “I didn’t know how long [the lockdown] was going to last and I didn’t want to get stuck with dated inventory. So I thought, what the heck?”
The process is involved and exhausting. Nissani goes live on Instagram for three hours at a time with a collection of items curated for the sale.
Customers tune in and either bid on or claim items as she displays them, often modelling them herself, while fielding questions and feedback from those watching and shopping. Those who purchase items pay via e-transfer and sold items are then sent to one of their two locations for curbside pickup or shipping.
“You get used to it. We’ve developed this formula … we’ve learned how to adapt to this new channel of distribution,” said Nissani of her team. “It requires a lot of technique and an ability to connect with people on the show,” while remaining organized and meticulously keeping track of every sale.
Nissani says Instagram makes the execution of the concept easy for both her business and her customers — a blessing given the idea was just an experiment to begin with.
“[There was] this sense that you have to do something, you don’t know what it is and you don’t want to take too many risks and you don’t want to lose too much of your profit. But if nothing’s ever been done before and everything is so unprecedented, then you may as well try,” she said.
The gamble has paid off and she’s been able to sell stock and serve customers — unconventionally, but successfully.
“I never would have imagined I would become a fashion auctioneer. I couldn’t even imagine being in front of the camera so much. I wasn’t prepared, but I got prepared and you do what you have to do,” she said.
Miheer Shete, Curryish
Miheer Shete is the chef and owner of Curryish — a business he launched entirely on Instagram.
Shete was the chef de cuisine at a fine dining restaurant in Toronto when the pandemic hit Canada’s shores. With restaurants forced to close in the spring, he was temporarily laid off like millions of others in the field.
“I really enjoyed the family time [at first]. Then, the reality hit and I [realised] this is not going away anytime soon and we’ve got to do something, quickly,” says Shete.
As a chef, he always dreamed of one day owning his own restaurant, but those ambitions didn’t seem realistic at this time.
“I had a great career, great job with a great company and all of a sudden, the restaurant was shut down,” he said. “[I thought] what’s plan B? I can’t just go down so easily.”
While trying to find a way to stay afloat, Shete says he was reminded of the entrepreneurial spirit of people in his home city of Mumbai, India.
“Back in India, this is a very common practice. People start something very small,” he said. “I have seen my mom or aunts cooking from home or starting something small and they provide this very unique experience. Not a restaurant experience, but a different experience where you get to connect with your guests one-on-one — and the delivery option was the ‘dabbawalla’.”
Dabbawallas are lunch box delivery men who carry meals from homes across Mumbai to offices and schools, in time for the lunch hour, every day. It is widely regarded as the most organized and proficient food delivery service in the world.
The ideas all came together in his new business Curryish – gourmet meal kits of what he calls “Indian Toronto food” delivered to your door.
He said the decision to launch it on Instagram was spontaneous, simply because he was familiar with it as a casual user.
“I’d never thought, in my head, that I would ever start a business through Instagram,” he said. “I just didn’t know any better way to do it.”
Shete says the ease of use of the platform was the main draw and the options to promote posts was a welcome bonus.
He posts a weekly menu online with a limit of about 50 to 60 meals available. Customers send him a direct message with their order and then e-transfer payment. On the weekend, they receive a meal kit with a few prepared as well as do-it-yourself components, along with cooking and plating instructions.
Initially, Shete delivered the kits himself, but says the response has been overwhelmingly positive and he sells out almost every week. He’s now had to enlist the help of a few more ‘dabbawallas’ for his deliveries.
There are some challenges when it comes to keeping up with regular content creation on the account, Shete explains, but his customers have also helped in spreading the word.
“I have a very loyal customer base — some of them have been ordering every week. Their word-of-mouth has been the strongest weapon for me,” he said.
Curryish now has a website and in the long run, Shete still hopes to have a storefront, but feels the current model has been a very successful spring board.
“I feel lucky, blessed and proud at the same time. But I still know there’s lots of work to be done,” he said.
Casey Cunningham, Bohemian Blooms Shop
Photographer Casey Cunningham had to quickly pivot her fledgling plant and vintage business into her main source of income when COVID-19 restrictions led to a severe drought of work in her industry.
She began collecting plants six years ago, initially using Facebook’s marketplace feature to sell a few plants as a hobby. She later launched Bohemian Blooms on Instagram in the fall of 2019 and says it has seen exponential growth during the pandemic.
“Now it’s like a full-blown little shop,” she said. “I think everyone was at home and just got sick of staring at the empty space and they realized how much plants actually bring to your home. And it just started to escalate aggressively in the best kind of way,” she said.
Cunningham runs the store out of her own home and her sales model is simple — she posts an item on her Instagram feed with its details and price and customers send her a direct message to purchase it with an e-transfer payment. She also conducts “story sales” where a series of items are posted using the platform’s “stories” feature and the first person to message, claims the item. She then offers delivery or curbside pickup.
“I just love the opportunities that Instagram gives small businesses, with a little bit of restrictions of course,” she said.
Those restrictions include a requirement of 10,000 followers before one can add website links to stories – something many small businesses could use to their advantage.
“That would be such a beneficial thing to use, but I can’t use it because I don’t have enough followers or I don’t have the engagement,” she said.
But despite the limitations, Cunningham says the Instagram store has been instrumental in helping her tide over the lean times of the pandemic.
“The plant side of the business has really helped me … because it’s supplied so much of my income, because I’m not doing photography at all,” she said.
She adds that the business has also been a learning experience as well as a creative outlet and led to much personal growth.
“Like everyone says, this has been a really crappy year and it definitely has, but this year for me has been the biggest transitional year in the best way. And I’m okay with it,” she said.
Community connection
While using Instagram has helped launch or keep their businesses afloat, all three business owners say a happy by product of the decision to use the platform in this way has been the connections they have made and the communities they have built.
Nissani says it was heartening to see customers connecting via her live auctions.
“[In the early days] there was so much uncertainty and people wanted something to do and people wanted to feel this connection and this live space had so many women — they have this desire to connect with other women. And that really happens naturally in its own way on the live feed,” she explains. “We’ve gotten to know the customers and vice versa and it’s so nice to just see that connection made. I love it. It’s my favorite part.”
Shete says the instant feedback and being able to see his customers enjoying his food via their Instagram posts and stories has been very gratifying.
“The fun part is after [the meal kit] is delivered, how personally I was in contact with many customers,” he said. “People have sent me photos of their kids eating the food and they say ‘Oh, I can’t even imagine my kid is eating a daal,’ and I think that is so special. And throughout these eight months of Curryish, I was able to connect with that one-on-one factor so much.”
Cunningham says she finds the plant community in particular to be very kind and supportive.
“There’s a lot of kindness and just compassion, which is really nice to see, especially in the times that we live in right now,” she said. “It keeps me going and keeps me wanting to keep like selling and it’s the connection that I get with people that I love the most.”
The federal government is directing the Canadian Transportation Agency to strengthen rules that require airlines to refund passengers for cancelled flights.
In a statement Monday, Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the pandemic has highlighted a gap in Canada’s protections for airline passengers, which weren’t designed to cover such lengthy delays.
“In the event of a future situation that causes similar large-scale flight cancellations, this gap needs to be closed so that travellers are treated fairly,” Garneau said.
Existing CTA rules don’t require airlines to offer refunds if they can get passengers to the destination within a reasonable time period — for example, offering a next-day flight if a snowstorm grounds planes. But passenger advocates say that doesn’t work for the indefinite delays ticket-holders currently face and are lobbying the government to mandate that airlines issue cash refunds, rather than travel vouchers, for flights that were cancelled due to COVID-19.
At least 3.9 million passengers have been affected by cancelled flights due to COVID-19, according to Gabor Lukacs, the founder of Air Passenger Rights, one of the groups advocating for airlines to issue refunds.
Scott Streiner, chair and chief executive officer of the CTA, said the agency’s goal is to have the new regulations in place by next summer.
One of the biggest details to be worked out between now and then include how long customers have to wait after a cancelled flight before they are entitled to a refund, Streiner said.
The agency is launching a public consultation between now and Jan. 28 to help determine the answer to that and other questions.
“This is a major priority for us,” Streiner said.
The new rules would apply to future cancellations only and will not be retroactive.
Garneau said the updated regulations should be “fair and reasonable” to passengers and should not impose an undue burden on airlines “that could lead to their insolvency.”
Airline passenger refunds have emerged as a point of contention between airlines and the government, which are currently negotiating the terms of an aid package for the struggling travel sector.
The federal government has said that any aid to the sector would be contingent on giving passengers full refunds for cancelled flights.
Airlines maintain that they are not legally required to issue refunds and have criticized Ottawa for its delay in issuing more assistance to the sector.
Lukacs says he warned the government in an in-person meeting and written communications in 2019 that Canada’s protections for airline passengers were weak and could be misinterpreted by airlines to avoid issuing refunds.
Air Passenger Rights’ communications with both Transport Canada and CTA cast doubt on the government’s claim that it discovered this issue as a result of the pandemic, Lukacs said.
In response to a question about whether the government was aware of regulation gaps prior to the pandemic, Transport Canada spokeswoman Allison St-Jean didn’t answer directly. “We are encouraged by recent efforts by air carriers to provide options for cancelled flights and refunds in some cases,” she said.
The CTA said it has only now received legal authority to develop regulations requiring airlines to issue refunds if a flight is cancelled for reasons beyond the airline’s control and passengers can’t complete their itinerary within a reasonable timeframe.
Stephanie Kusie, a Conservative MP and the shadow minister for transport, said in a tweet Monday afternoon that the government’s proposal fails to address the problem of outstanding passenger refunds.
Similarly, Lukacs said the new regulations wouldn’t be of any help to those passengers who have already had their flights cancelled.
“This would provide no relief to passengers who have been shortchanged,” Lukacs said. “Regardless of what they do with the regulations, the law is already that passengers are entitled to a refund.”
The Toronto Raptors have agreed to a multi-year contract extension with forward OG Anunoby, the team announced Monday.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports the contract is for $72 million over four years and includes a player option for the 2024-25 season.
The contract will begin in the 2021-22 season, as Anunoby still has one year remaining on his rookie deal. The deadline for Anunoby to sign his extension was Monday at 6 p.m. ET, or else he would have become a restricted free agent next off-season.
“OG is the epitome of the skilled, powerful, determined player we want in our organization long-term. Remember, he doesn’t shoot to miss,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said in a statement. “We’re really pleased OG will be with us for seasons to come.”
The Raptors selected Anunoby 23rd overall in 2017 and he hit the ground running the following season, starting 62 of 74 games as a 20-year-old rookie. A versatile six-foot-eight forward, Anunoby has played every position but point guard in his three-year Raptors career, adding shooting guard to his resume this past season.
The 23-year-old posted new career highs in points (10.6), rebounds (5.3), assists (1.6) and steals (1.4) per game last season, while improving his shooting volume and success rate.
He cemented himself in Raptors lore this summer when he hit a last-second buzzer-beater to defeat the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Anunoby’s new contract now locks in the final piece of the next generation of Raptors stars long term after forward Pascal Siakam signed a four-year, $130 million extension last summer and guard Fred VanVleet signed a four-year, $85 million contract in free agency last month. With veteran centres Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol now plying their trades in Los Angeles, and 34-year-old Kyle Lowry entering the final year of his contract, the Raptors are poised to transition into the next generation seamlessly.
Stocks are falling Monday as a new, potentially more infectious strain of the coronavirus has countries around the world restricting travel from the United Kingdom, raising worries that the economy is about to take even worse punishment.
The S&P 500 was 1.3 per cent lower in midday trading, putting it on track to fall for a second day from its record set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 178 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 30,000, as of 11:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1 per cent lower.
It’s a busy day of trading, with plenty of forces pushing and pulling the market. Thin trading ahead of a holiday-shortened week may also be exacerbating moves, analysts said. Crude oil prices were also dropping on worries about disappearing demand, and Treasury yields slipped.
One big factor for the market is Congress, which finally appears set to act on a $900-billion relief effort for the economy. House and Senate leaders are planning to vote Monday on the deal, which would include $600 in cash payments sent to most Americans, extra benefits for laid-off workers and other financial support.
Economists and investors have been clamouring for such aid for months, and a recent upswing in momentum for talks had stock prices rising in anticipation of a deal. Analysts said some traders may be selling now to lock in profits, with the compromise all but assured and prices close to the highest they’ve ever been. Even after Monday’s drop, the S&P 500 is back only to where it was earlier this month.
Across the Atlantic, negotiators blew past a Sunday deadline set for talks on trade terms for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Investors have been fixed on the progress of those talks because a Brexit with no deal could cause massive disruptions for businesses on New Year’s Day.
Monday is also the first day of trading for Tesla since joining the S&P 500 index. The electric-vehicle maker surged so much this year, nearly 731 per cent as of Friday evening, that some critics say its price doesn’t make sense. But its inclusion in the benchmark index triggered $90.3 billion in trades, as the company instantly became the sixth-biggest in the S&P 500. Tesla slumped 5.4 per cent Monday.
The market’s focus, though, was centred nearly 3,500 miles to the east of Wall Street, where U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that he was placing London and the southeast of England in a new level of restrictions after scientific advisers warned they detected a new variant of the coronavirus. There is no evidence that the new strain’s mutations make it more deadly, but it seems to infect more easily than others.
Two COVID-19 vaccines have already been approved for the United States, and regulators around the world have also either approved or are considering usage of the vaccines. Hope that widespread vaccinations will nurse the economy back to some semblance of normal has been a big reason for surging prices across markets worldwide.
But for now, vaccinations are only for health care workers and other high-risk populations. It will be a while before a more widespread rollout can get life around the world closer to normal, and surging numbers of coronavirus counts and deaths in the meanwhile are setting the global economy up for a bleak few months.
The worries hit stock markets hardest in Europe, where France banned U.K. trucks from entering for a period of 48 hours. Other countries around the world also halted flights from the United Kingdom.
France’s CAC 40 fell 2.5 per cent, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.7 per cent. The FTSE 100 in London dropped 1.7 per cent.
All the new restrictions on movement also sent travel-related stocks on Wall Street to sharp losses. Cruise operator Carnival dropped 4.7 per cent, Norwegian Cruise Line fell four per cent and American Airlines lost 3.4 per cent.
Stocks of energy producers were also weak on worries that heightened travel restrictions could mean even fewer airplane seats filled and fewer miles driven by automobiles.
Losses were widespread, and the vast majority of stocks in the S&P 500 were dropping. The index fell as much as two per cent early in the morning.
Amid the few gainers was Nike, which rose 5.4 per cent after reporting stronger revenue and profit for its latest quarter than analysts expected.
Financial stocks were another rare source of resilience, after the Federal Reserve said Friday that the 33 largest banks look healthy enough to survive a sharp downturn. The Fed also permitted buybacks of company stock, with some limits.
Goldman Sachs rose 6.3 per cent after it said it expects to begin buying back its stock again next quarter.
In Asian stock markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.2 per cent after Japan’s Cabinet approved a record annual budget of 106.6 trillion yen ($1.03 trillion) for the coming fiscal year, which begins April 1.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.7 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi recovered from early losses to gain 0.2 per cent and stocks in Shanghai rose 0.8 per cent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 0.92 per cent from 0.93 per cent late Friday.
The Ontario-wide lockdown will start on Boxing Day, Premier Doug Ford has announced.
The move will restrict non-essential retail and prohibit indoor dining right across the province starting at 12:01 a.m. the day after Christmas. The province-wide lockdown will last until January 9, 2021. After that date, restrictions will remain in effect until Jan. 23 for all public health unit regions in Southern Ontario.
Ford said the virus is spreading rapidly from areas with a high number of cases to those with fewer cases, and the province needs to preserve capacity in its health-care system.
“This difficult action is without a doubt necessary to save lives and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks,” he said. “Make no mistake, thousands of lives are at stake right now.”
The decision comes as the province records its seventh straight day of over 2,000 new COVID-19 cases. Toronto and Peel Region continue to have the largest number of cases.
The lockdown means no indoor organized public events or social gatherings, except with members of the same household. Weddings, funerals and other religious services can only have 10 people regardless if they are indoor or outdoor.
Essential businesses that remain open will have strict capacity limits. Indoor sports facilities, personal care services, including salons and casinos are all shut.
The province also announced it will offer a grant to some small businesses with a minimum of $10,000 to help offset losses.
Hours earlier, the province’s health advisers said the sooner a “hard lockdown” were implemented, the more new cases could be prevented.
“If we started on Dec. 21, instead of Dec. 28, it plays out significant reductions in cases under almost any scenario,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the province’s COVID-19 science advisory table.
Brown added that anything less than a four-week lockdown will not work, based on the experience of other jurisdictions.
When asked why the date had been pushed back two days from the original plan that saw the lockdown go into effect on Christmas Eve, Ford said they needed to give businesses that have not experienced a lockdown before time to prepare.
“[We need to] give them the opportunity to get ready to hunker down. We can’t do it overnight and leave these people with inventory, especially restaurants with food inventory.”
As for education across the province, both publicly-funded and private schools will move to remote learning heading into the new year.
Here in the GTA, elementary school students will take part in remote learning from January 4 to 8 and return to in-person learning on January 11. Secondary students will continue to learn remotely until January 24 and return to the classroom the next day.
The government says child care will remain open for the duration of the province-wide shutdown. But, during the time when elementary schools are operating virtually, “licensed child care centres and authorized recreation and skill-building providers will be prohibited from serving school-aged children.” Before and after school programs will also be shut down during the period of Jan 4 to 8.
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), which had called for strict new restrictions, said it was disappointed the lockdown wouldn’t take effect sooner.
“The Dec. 26 implementation date sends a confusing message about what (residents) should and shouldn’t do at this crucial moment,” said CEO Anthony Dale.
Over the past several weeks, various medical organizations have pressed the government for stronger action in order to alleviate the growing strain on the health care system.
An association of GTA hospitals joined the OHA and the Ontario Medical Association in calling for stronger lockdown measures, warning that a surge in cases following the holiday season is expected to make the situation even worse.
The group says frontline health care workers are stressed and their efforts to battle the pandemic are being overstretched and is reaching a level that is “simply not sustainable for much longer.”
“We are seeing increasing numbers of staff becoming ill and not able to work – both with COVID-19 and other illnesses. While we are coping and planning for redeployment, we are seeing more illness and stress and hearing about the toll this is taking on people’s families,” the joint statement reads.
“We recognize that lockdown measures are challenging for many members of our communities, but we cannot afford to put patients and health care workers at further risk.”
To watch more:
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/12/20/all-regions-in-ontario-to-enter-lockdown-starting-christmas-eve-source/
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association settled on a plan for the upcoming season Sunday.
The league and union agreed to a 56-game schedule that includes an all-Canadian North Division — for the 2020-21 season only — because of border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The National Hockey League looks forward to the opening of our 2020-21 season, especially since the return to play in 2019-20 was so successful in crowning a Stanley Cup champion,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
“While we are well aware of the challenges ahead, as was the case last spring and summer, we are continuing to prioritize the health and safety of our participants and the communities in which we live and play.”
The NHL wants to play games in the home arenas of participating teams, but is prepared to hold them in one or more “neutral-site” venues per division if necessary.
Approval from health officials in the five Canadian provinces with NHL teams is needed for the Canadian clubs to play at home.
TSN has reported B.C. hasn’t signed off on the plan.
B.C. health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a statement the province “continues to work with the NHL and the other provinces involved to find a safe solution for the return to league play. Discussions have been ongoing to ensure the proposal aligns with the restrictions in place across all provinces.”
The Canadian border remains closed to non-essential travel.
Infection rates are rising across the continent as North America faces the teeth of the pandemic’s second wave.
The NHL pulled off the resumption of its pandemic-interrupted 2019-20 season this past summer thanks to tightly-controlled “bubbles” in both Edmonton and Toronto.
There were zero positive tests for COVID-19, according to the NHL, but the setup wore on participants.
Players and coaches were separated from their families for more than two months in some cases.
There was little appetite — nor was it feasible practically or economically– for a similar setup in 2020-21.
The seven teams that didn’t take part in the summer restart — the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and the three California teams — get extra time to prepare for their first games since mid-March.
Those seven start training camps Dec. 31, which is three days ahead of the rest of the teams.
“The players are pleased to have finalized agreements for the upcoming season, which will be unique but also very exciting for the fans and players alike,” NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said in a statement.
“During these troubled times, we hope that NHL games will provide fans with some much-needed entertainment as the players return to the ice.”
The league and PA agreed to an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement through 2026 in order to complete the 2019-20 campaign.
Players gave the thumbs up on a 10-per-cent salary deferral in 2020-21 and a deal on escrow — a consistent thorn in their sides that guarantees a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue with owners — that caps payments at 20 per cent in 2020-21 and decreases in subsequent years.
But the NHL reportedly came back to the players in November asking for more concessions due to a bleak economic outlook for the league’s US$4.8-billion business.
The NHL, which relies heavily on ticket sales, faces a shortened schedule and no clear indication if or when fans will be allowed into arenas.
The players reportedly balked at the request. The league subsequently backed off before the two sides began hammering out details of what this season could look like in terms of scheduling and divisions.
While the league is getting back on the ice, COVID-19 still looms large.
The NHL created an all-Canadian division of the seven franchises north of the 49th parallel because of border rules requiring a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country for non-essential purposes.
That means the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens will only play against each other through the regular-season schedule and the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The other three divisions were also reworked.
Buffalo, Boston, New Jersey, the New York Islanders and Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington are grouped together in the East Division, as are Carolina, Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville and Tampa Bay in the Central Division
Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Los Angeles, San Jose, St. Louis and Vegas make up the West Division.
Each team in the East, Central and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times. Each North Division team will play every other team in its division nine or 10 times.
The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.
The regular season concludes May 8 and the playoffs are expected to finish by mid-July.
The league hopes to return to its normal schedule for 2021-22 with September training camps.
– With files from national hockey writer Joshua Clipperton in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2020.
An online survey shows the majority of Canadians report feeling optimistic about the new year in light of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A report commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies and conducted by Leger says 70 per cent of those polled said they were somewhat optimistic about 2021, while 15 per cent reported feeling very optimistic.
Another 10 per cent said news of the vaccines left them feeling somewhat pessimistic about the new year, and five per cent said they felt very pessimistic.
Quebecers were slightly more positive overall, with 87 per cent reporting some level of optimism, compared with 84 per cent in the rest of Canada.
Those who described themselves as very optimistic were the most likely to say they will get immunized once a shot is publicly available.
More than 88 per cent of them said they would get the vaccine, compared with roughly 72 per cent of the somewhat optimistic respondents, 25 per cent of the somewhat pessimistic and just over six per cent of the very pessimistic.
The survey polled 1,528 Canadian adults between Dec. 11 and 13. According to the polling industry’s generally accepted standards, online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
Meanwhile, Canada surpassed 500,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this weekend as vaccine rollout reached its final province.
The latest 100,000 cases were recorded across the country over just 15 days — the shortest growth period since the pandemic was declared in March.
It took six months for Canada to register its first 100,000 cases of the virus, another four to reach 200,000, less than a month to hit 300,000 and 18 days to hit 400,000.
Case counts remain high in several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, which account for the bulk of the country’s infections.
Ontario marked a sixth consecutive day with more than 2,000 new cases on Sunday, reporting 2,316. The province also saw 25 new deaths related to the virus.
The provincial government is expected to announce additional health measures Monday.
Quebec reported 2,146 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and 21 additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus.
All regions in the province of Ontario will be placed into the grey-lockdown stage starting Christmas Eve, sources confirm to 680 NEWS.
The move will restrict non-essential retail and prohibit indoor dining right across the province starting at 12:01 a.m. the day before Christmas.
A senior government source indicates the length of the lockdown will vary depending on region, so just how long the measures will remain in place is not clear at this point.
Premier Doug Ford has already confirmed that lockdown measures in both Toronto and Peel Region will be extended until January 4 and that Hamilton is set to join the grey-lockdown zone on Monday.
The premier is expected to announce additional measures at a 1 p.m. press conference on Monday after holding emergency meetings with health officials over the weekend.
The decision comes as various medical organizations have pressed the government for stronger action in order to alleviate the growing strain on the health care system.
An association of GTA hospitals joined the Ontario Hospital Association and the Ontario Medical Association in calling for stronger lockdown measures, warning that a surge in cases following the holiday season is expected to make the situation even worse.
The group says frontline health care workers are stressed and their efforts to battle the pandemic are being overstretched and is reaching a level that is “simply not sustainable for much longer.”
“We are seeing increasing numbers of staff becoming ill and not able to work – both with COVID-19 and other illnesses. While we are coping and planning for redeployment, we are seeing more illness and stress and hearing about the toll this is taking on people’s families,” reads the statement.
“We recognize that lockdown measures are challenging for many members of our communities, but we cannot afford to put patients and health care workers at further risk.”
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of his cabinet are meeting behind closed doors to discuss Canada’s response to a new strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu revealed the discussions in a message on Twitter this afternoon as a number of European countries closed their borders with the UK because of the new strain, which is allegedly more contagious.
Trudeau’s office later confirmed the meeting of the so-called Incident Response Group.
France, Belgium and the Netherlands are among the countries that have imposed travel bans to keep the strain from spreading.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is calling for Ottawa to follow their lead and suspend flights from Britain.
The Trudeau government did not respond to questions from The Canadian Press about whether Canada was considering a travel ban.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2020.
The Ford government announced it is launching what it calls one of the largest recruitment and training drives in the province’s history to deliver improved care for seniors in Ontario’s long-term care homes.
On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford and Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, said the province is investing up to $1.9 billion annually by 2024 and 2025 to create more than 27,000 new positions for personal support workers, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses in long-term care.
“We want more people working in long-term care to love what they do and thrive in their careers,” said Premier Ford.
“That’s why our new staffing plan will pursue innovative partnerships, like the one between George Brown College and the Rekai Centres, and more training opportunities for future nurses, personal support workers, and health care staff, so they can take pride in what they do and provide the care our loved ones need and deserve.”
Included as part of the plan, Ontario will accelerate and expand education and training in order to train the tens of thousands of new staff that will be required. This includes four hours of personal care per day for each resident.
They also announced the goal to improve working conditions for staff by coordinating with long-term care employers to increase full-time employment.
In late November, the Ford government received an open letter from over 4,000 loved ones with family members in long-term care homes across Ontario demanding immediate action from the province’s top officials to improve the quality of homes.
Families have said they want Bill-195 completely abolished, which allows long-term care homes to deploy untrained staff to any position they find reasonable, along with a complete phase-out of for-profit LTC’s.
Advocacy groups have accused the Ford government of introducing legislation that would make it significantly harder for residents and families to hold long-term care homes liable for failing to protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the province’s latest weekly epidemiological update, Ontario recorded a drop in new COVID-19 cases among residents at long-term care homes.
