The Tilbury Times

Year: 2021

  • Sheridan Ignoring Questions Over making childcare students complete in-person training during lockdown

    By: Isaac Callan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer
    Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the designation of “essential” worker has applied to those in food production and retail grocery stores, nurses and doctors, emergency response workers and, more recently, teachers and childcare professionals.
    When Premier Doug Ford issued the stay-at-home order for all Ontarians three weeks ago, he was adamant. “There’s no confusion. It’s very simple. Stay. Home. Stay home. If you’re questioning, ‘Should I go out,’ you got the answer: stay home.”
    If you are not designated an essential worker, other than to get food, medicine or to go out for exercise, the direction was clear. Stay home.
    So, students at Sheridan College were confused when they were told the early childhood education (ECE) program would also fall into the category of essential and in-person placements would have to be completed, despite the current lockdown order in Peel, otherwise their graduation will be delayed a year.
    Some students are now calling on the college to reconsider the risk it is putting them in.
    Communications sent by Sheridan College, and reviewed by The Pointer, tell ECE students that, unless they have a specific high-risk exemption, they are to attend in-person placements in the Region of Peel this month.
    “You certainly have the option to decide against participating in placement until you feel more comfortable,” Stephenie Gillingham, program coordinator, and Cathy Coulthard, associate dean of Sheridan’s Faculty of Applied Health, wrote to students on January 25. “As this is a personal choice, it important (sic) you are aware that this will delay your graduation and there may be additional college fees for taking placement in a future semester.”
    In a separate email to a student, Gillingham confirmed the only option for those not comfortable completing placement is to try again next year. “It will delay you from graduating for two semesters,” she wrote, adding the associated fees would be roughly $2,000 in addition to what the student has already paid.
    Sheridan said it is willing to make exceptions for students on an individual basis, depending on their situation, but is not offering a solution to all students.
    Frustrated students wrote to Michael O’Leary, Dean of Applied Health, and launched a petition to find a solution. They say they’re not all looking to be excluded from in-person placements, but argue it is only fair to offer a virtual option for students who want it, given the obvious health risks posed by the ongoing pandemic.
    Potential reasons for not taking part in placements include accommodation in multigenerational homes, a lack of childcare options and particular risks associated with contracting the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
    The Pointer sent O’Leary a list of questions about the students’ concerns. He did not address them other than stating virtual placements “aren’t widely offered”.
    “It’s been incredibly frustrating, we all wanted to understand,” Diana Franco, a student at Sheridan’s Brampton campus, told The Pointer. “It’s not necessarily like we don’t want placement or anything like that, we just want to understand why the option of virtual placement isn’t for us… why can we not have the option if we don’t feel comfortable?”
    So far, a letter to the Dean with 23 student signatures and a separate petition signed by 69 people have received no response. Staff have only offered to meet with individuals, not address the concerns of the group as a whole.
    “We have the right to know. It’s our health and safety and we’re getting no responses,” Franco said.
    After learning at home all year, ECE students will soon be converging in Peel Region from across the GTA. They will go from course work done at home to interacting with children from different households and travelling across regional boundaries.
    Over the last two weeks, daily case counts have declined, but Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga continue to report numbers comparable to October, when stricter measures were introduced.
    Justifying the decision to send students into childcare spaces in its January 25 letter, Sheridan pointed to declining cases. Staff highlighted safety measures such as rules that mean childcare centres must report cases in Ontario to the Ministry of Education. Peel, Toronto and York have been kept from reopening their schools until February 16 because of concerns about viral transmission while case numbers still pose risks to safe in-class education.
    Peel Public Health confirmed to The Pointer they consulted with Sheridan and offered advice, but said the school made the final decision.
    Sheridan has not indicated if Peel Public Health advised against its decision to send students into childcare settings while the region remains in lockdown.
    The current provincial stay-at-home order exempts those “receiving or providing training or educational services” and attending a post-secondary institution is also an allowable reason for leaving home.
    However, the order is vague and there is no language regarding post-secondary education that can be done virtually.
    The risks of having students travel daily across regions and then attend childcare settings are obvious. But O’Leary ignored questions about these risks and possible alternatives.
    In their petition to Sheridan College, students complained many commute via public transit. For students around the GTA (Sheridan has campuses in Brampton, Mississauga and Oakville) long commutes on buses and trains present additional transmission risk, before even entering childcare settings where distancing from young children is hard.
    Students have pointed out they are being designated by their school as essential workers when, in reality, they remain students. Upon graduation and taking their first job in childcare, they will become essential workers, but right now they are still learning, they told The Pointer.
    “We have been virtual-learning since September, meaning we are not essential so why are we now being told we are essential for placement,” the petition says. “This is unfair and unsafe.”
    In a statement shared with The Pointer, O’Leary — who students say has not responded directly to them — said the college is observing health and safety measures. He said if guidelines change, Sheridan will respond.
    It’s unclear what guidelines he was referring to and what he means by observing safety measures. The students are expected to attend childcare settings outside the college.
    “Many Sheridan ECE students want to complete their in-person placements as scheduled,” he wrote. “For those who choose to delay their placement for this semester, faculty are working with them one-on-one to determine a path to graduate once their program requirements are completed. We’ve communicated to students that we’ll work with high-risk individuals to look at alternative placement arrangements.”
    For some students, including Franco, the lack of detail and clear explanations is frustrating.
    The decision to send students from across the GTA into childcare spaces in hard-hit Peel does not mesh with public health guidance to stay at home.
    The Province has taken measures to protect the public across a range of sectors, including students in elementary and secondary education. Some are unhappy Sheridan won’t follow the same safety measures.
    “It has been emphasized repeatedly by the government authorities, to stay within our safety bubble and minimize any contact with outsiders,” students wrote in their letter to O’Leary. “For some this has led to not seeing their extended family for several months, having to keep their children at home. Thus, it does not make any logical sense to send an entire group of intensive students, who reside across the GTA into the Peel area [which has seen Ontario’s highest rates of transmission for months] for placement.”
    Franco remains frustrated. “We just want another option for online placement,” she said. “I don’t think the options should be you either go in or you delay your graduation, that’s not what anybody signed up for.

  • Kingston Costco refuses service for mask non-compliance

    By: Jessica Foley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, kingstonist.com
    Local man, Michael Trautrimas, expressed his frustrations on social media Sunday morning, after being asked to leave the Kingston Costco warehouse on February 7, 2021, because his autistic son is unable to wear a face covering.
    “We just got kicked out of Costco, because my severely autistic, non-verbal son who lost an arm in a car accident, and also lost his little brother several years ago, and his mother… won’t wear a mask,” Trautrimas said in the video.
    “I don’t know what to say at this point,” he went on. “I’m completely blown away by getting kicked out of Costco because my son, he can’t wear a mask. He won’t wear one.”
    A widower who lost his wife and younger son in a motor vehicle collision in 2016, Trautrimas says he felt discriminated against when no other accommodations were suggested by the big box store.
    “The short of it all was I was approached by someone who insisted Ayden wear a mask or leave. They then stood in front of the cart trying to prevent us from moving,” Trautrimas told Kingstonist in an email.
    Costco’s masking policy is clear, stating individuals over the age of two are expected to wear a face covering while in store. Costco’s policy does not allow for medical exemptions. Trautrimas feels this approach is discriminatory to those, like himself, who have few avenues of recourse during the pandemic.
    “I don’t have many choices but to bring my son to wherever I go, because of funds, and with COVID limiting my choices. I feel it shouldn’t be an issue. I want him with me – he’s my son, that’s it that’s all,” he said.
    While Costco does offer online shopping with delivery options, items in their online system are not the same as what shoppers will find in store. There is currently no option for curbside pickup at the Kingston warehouse.
    Kingstonist reached out to Costco head office for further comment, however they were not available to respond to inquiries.
    KFL&A Public Health says a business may be able to consider alternate ways to provide services to those who are exempt from wearing a face covering while following physical distancing and hand hygiene requirements.
    A list of frequently asked questions about face coverings can be found on the KFL&A Public Health website.

  • Trying to achieve inclusion and diversity? Focus on small and medium-sized businesses

    By: Lu Xu, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter,  The Chronicle Herald
    An employer’s handbook to bolster immigrant inclusion among small and medium-sized companies is going to be available to business owners in March.
    The forthcoming guide, funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, will sample the successful stories from large organizations and be recommended to small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
    It will summarise practices and strategies for including immigrant talent at each stage of the employment cycle, recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and integrating.
    “There’s a lot of immigrant mentorship, but there hasn’t been any business mentorship, as to how do you recruit, hire, onboard and more. Most importantly, integrate people into your workplace actively,” said Robyn Webb, director of Labour Market Development & Executive at the Halifax Partnership.
    The guide, Webb said, is a result of a national campaign called ImmigrantsWork launched last spring. The goal of the initiative is to build immigrant inclusion into business recovery plans. Halifax Partnership and seven other similar organizations across the country have been working together to achieve the objective.
    Webb said although it is fantastic that organizations like IRCC are providing mentorships to newcomers, businesses need to be a fertile ground for successful inclusion.
    According to a government report in 2020, small businesses (companies with under 100 employees) comprise 98 per cent of the economy in Nova Scotia. Across the country, SMEs make up over 99 per cent of the businesses.
    Economist Tony Fang, who studies labour economics and teaches at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said informing the smaller players is crucial to our economy simply because they are the ones who create most of the jobs.
    “The large organizations are visible, but it’s the small and medium-sized enterprises that create most of the jobs,” said Fang.
    Fang said compared to larger corporations, SMEs usually don’t have that many resources to get the necessary training that would help the employers understand integration.
    “They (the large corporations) know it really well. They know how to hire a diverse workforce because their customers are diverse,” he said.

  • Nobody Cares About COVID19 Vaccine Details

    By: Laura Steiner
    The average Canadian doesn’t care about the details of Canada’s vaccine rollout.  You can explain that Pfizer didn’t send shipments because it had to modify its plant in Belgium in order to ramp up production until you’re blue in the face.  Nobody cares, and whose fault that is, is a debate for another day.
    They care about what they see on their newscasts. A steady stream of images and video of people getting their vaccines in other countries.  And an equal amount of time spent looking at why they don’t have it.  Taking all of this into account it’s only natural to ask the questions of why, and when.  Why are they slow to ship them to Canada, and when will they ship them?
    You can get into the questions about why Canada didn’t fix its own production issues before this.  The answer involves Brian Mulroney, Connaught Labs.  Or a building in Montreal that didn’t come up to industry standards before it was supposed to open in in November.  But… nobody cares.
    Because what people see are the empty places at the dinner table where their parents sat.  Or a chair in the living room where a favourite uncle dangled their niece.  They’ll have to go claim a loved one’s belongings at a long-term care home. They’ll hear a  final phone call from a loved one before they were put on a ventilator.  They’ll be tortured by the question of whether their missing loved ones would’ve been safe, if only the vaccine was administered sooner.
    They’ll see an increasingly foolish-looking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cling to the hope that everyone will be vaccinated by September.   And they won’t hear the excuses, or detailed explanations that he tells us. Because they don’t match reality.

  • New Democratic Party calls for end to for-profit long-term care homes

    By: Vincenzo Morello
    Canada’s New Democratic Party has called for an end to for-profit long term care homes and to implement a care guarantee that aims to protect people in long-term care and the workers that care for them.
    In an announcement on Friday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh revealed the party’s first campaign promise to work with provincial and territorial governments to establish a national standard for long-term care as well as invest $5 billion in long-term care systems.
    “Every Canadian, of every age, deserves to live in dignity and be treated with respect by their government and the health care system,” Singh said. “And families need to know that their loved ones are safe in long-term care facilities, and that they’re getting the very best care possible.”
    The NDP’s plan calls for the immediate creation of a rapid response unit in long-term care facilities, which would have a number of responsibilities including support for provinces and territories to save lives in long-term care homes and to monitor best practices in Canada and elsewhere and share them with authorities.
    The response unit would also send the military to assist long-term care homes struggling with large outbreaks and help speedup vaccination rollouts for staff and residents in long-term care homes.
    “We need a government on the side of seniors, their families, and frontline health care workers – instead of on the side of wealthy investors,” said Singh.
    “The NDP will continue to fight to make sure people are ahead of profits.”
    Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, long-term care homes were particularly hit hard, especially in Quebec and Ontario.
    Last year, Trudeau said that the federal government did not want to assert federal jurisdiction on long-term care facilities, but that he was asking provincial governments to agree on minimum standards so that seniors are protected no matter where they live in the country.
    With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press (Mia Rabson)

  • One Milton Postal Code Remains on among the top COVID19 Positivity Rate

    By: Laura Steiner
    There is one Milton area postal code on the list of the Greater Toronto areas with the highest positivity rates.  The data was collected by the website IC/ES’s COVID19 dashboard.
    The postal code L9E, located in the Tremaine Rd and Louis St. Laurent recorded a positivity rate of 8.6%.  It marks a second week in a row of steady decline for the area.  Last week it recorded a 9.3% positivity rate.
    The rates are calculated based on the number of positive tests by residents for the week of January 24-30 2021.  The Region of Halton recorded an increase of 46 cases of COVID19 yesterday.  Six of those came from Milton.  The Region also reports that there has been one travel-related case of the UK variant as of February 3, 2021.

  • High-speed internet coming to remote Canadian communities

    The impact of COVID-19 has made internet access more important to families than ever. With students learning virtually, parents working from home and more of us accessing services remotely, fast and reliable internet is essential.
    While 98 per cent of urban households in Canada have high-speed internet, there is a need for better connectivity for outside cities. Rural and remote households are hugely underserved, with fewer than half having access to high-speed internet, dropping to fewer than a third of First Nations households on reserves.
    Fortunately, that’s all going to change. The Universal Broadband Fund aims to help 98 per cent of Canadians get connected to high-speed internet by 2026. The program is funding projects across the country to get everyone connected and able to access the tools and services they need. This also means better mobile coverage in remote communities and the highways connecting them.
    Stronger connection for remote work, schooling and other important services will mean stronger communities and a stronger Canada. That connection is coming soon.
    Find more information at canada.ca/getconnected.

  • Easy ways you can help prevent the spread of COVID-19

    By now, most of us know how important it is to do our part to limit the spread of COVID-19. We’re familiar with public safety recommendations like wearing a mask or face covering and staying two metres apart. But there’s another easy thing that many more of us can do to have a major impact.
    Health Canada is recommending that everyone with a compatible smartphone download the new COVID Alert app. It’s a free tool that can notify you of a possible exposure to COVID-19 before symptoms appear. If it notifies you of a possible exposure, you will be linked to your local public health unit’s advice so that you can limit the spread of COVID-19.
    The app runs in the background without interrupting your activities. Whenever you’re near someone else who has the app, both phones exchange random codes every five minutes. The codes change often and can’t be used to identify you.
    If someone with the app is diagnosed with COVID-19, they can choose to upload the random codes their phone sent. Every day, whenever your phone has an internet connection, it will get a list of the random codes from people who reported a positive diagnosis into the app. If it finds codes that match, the app notifies you that you may have been exposed and explains what to do next.
    It’s important to know that the app doesn’t collect any identifiable information about you and has no way of knowing your location, name or address, or the place or time you were near someone.
    Downloading the app is easy and works on iPhones and Androids. The more Canadians who install the app, the better we can limit the spread of COVID-19. Find more information at canada.ca/coronavirus

  • NDP to scrap GTA West Highway if elected in 2022

    By: Isaac Callan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
    Source: The Pointer
    To the north of Brampton, in the fields of Caledon, a white blanket of snow covers the pristine landscape.
    Ontario’s Greenbelt, the lungs of the entire region, runs right through the rural municipality.
    The rolling hills and untouched nature are rare in the GTA, where endless development and choking traffic push out all signs of the natural world.
    This pandemic has reminded humans on the hamster wheel that stepping off and finding refuge in wide open spaces, surrounded by trees and big skies, breathing in crisp, clean air, is essential to our well-being.
    Over the next few years, a Progressive Conservative plan will turn over more untouched land for the human hamster wheel. Large stretches of south Caledon, right along the protected Greenbelt, will be replaced with asphalt, gridlocked vehicles emitting tons of carbon and sprawling single-family subdivisions.
    The Province’s new 400-series highway, known as the GTA West Corridor or Highway 413, means a massive new thoroughfare will be laid from Halton Region up the western side of Brampton, east through Caledon and then onto Vaughan.
    The NDP now says it will scrap the highway if it forms government or works in a coalition after the next provincial election in 2022.
    In an interview with The Pointer, NDP Transportation and Highways Critic Jennifer French, pledged for the first time that her party would put an end to the sprawl-inducing plan.
    “The NDP cannot support what is a costly and unnecessary highway which will destroy protected areas,” she said.
    The GTA West Corridor has been a significant priority for Premier Doug Ford and his PC government since they won a landslide election victory in 2018. It was current Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown who put the highway on the PC election platform when he was party leader, before he was driven out by former colleagues following allegations of sexual misconduct against Brown (which he denies).
    Brampton West MPP Amarjot Sandhu eventually put the highway plan forward at Queen’s Park and restarted the project’s environmental assessment (EA) process following the 2018 election.
    The moves were necessary because the previous Liberal government chose to scrap the project, after an expert panel found it would not significantly improve the GTA’s chronic congestion issues. The panel weighed up its environmental impacts, costs and noted the meager 30-second saving it offered on commutes would be better achieved through policy changes such as congestion pricing or investments into public transit.
    Specifically, the panel found it “would deliver few benefits, and could not be justified.”
    But Ford was caught on video during the 2018 election campaign promising developers that if he won, the Greenbelt would be opened up for construction. The 413 Highway is the key to doing this.
    Undeterred by expert opinion, the Ford government has attempted to ram the project through. Frustrated by the highway’s proposed timeline, legislative changes over the summer will reduce the project’s EA process and speed up its delivery. Plans to side-step crucial environmental-study processes promised only to “eliminate duplication while maintaining environmental protection” without offering many concrete examples of how the PCs plan to expedite the EA work.
    Even with its shortened EA, it is unlikely the GTA West Corridor would be ready for construction until after the next election in 2022. The route’s true point of no return may not be reached until after Ontarians return to the polls.
    “This project is one more clear example of the government looking out for developer interests and we — and many others alongside us — would hope for better leadership from the government when there are so many other avenues or opportunities to do better without doing the environmental damage, to do something that will have better economic benefits, that isn’t a direct attack on green space,” French said.
    Cancelling the estimated $6 billion project would unlock a world of alternative investment possibilities. The City of Mississauga recently received $51.5 million from the Province to fund various transit investments, while Brampton received $37.8 million for its bus network in the summer. These costs pale in comparison to the price tag for the GTA West Highway, a figure that could work out to $2 billion each for Halton, York and Peel if it was reinvested in smart, clean transportation for the regions the highway will pass through.
    A summer report by Environmental Defence, a group that has spearheaded opposition to the highway, suggested an eye-opening number of projects that could be funded for a similar cost.
    It calculated that expansion of the Kitchener and Milton GO lines, a Bolton GO station, a Brampton LRT extension and bus rapid transit corridors along Dundas Street in Mississauga, Queen Street in Brampton and Major Mackenzie in York could all be achieved for $6.9 billion instead of the highway’s $6 billion. Some calculations for the projects, including $300 million for the Brampton LRT, may be on the conservative side, but the list shows just how wide-ranging the impact of reinvesting the funds could be.
    “I think whatever it looks like needs to answer to the actual needs of the communities, not the needs of developers,” French said. “Whether that is taking the time and being thoughtful in the alternative — investing in public transit, ensuring that downtown’s have what they need to grow… if you’re not going to take the time and work with planners and be thoughtful, then you’re going to see what you see with this government, which is just reaching for the developers’ wish list.”
    Just how isolated the PCs are in their support for the highway is unclear, but aside from the powerful development lobby and some pro-development municipalities (Caledon being one of them), opposition to the highway is wide reaching. Environmental groups from across Ontario, including the David Suzuki Foundation, the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, and Environmental Defence are all advocating to the province to change course. Municipalities along the proposed route have also spoken out against the project. Halton Region wrote to Ford in the fall telling him the proposed highway was completely incompatible with its plans for the future.
    Mike Schreiner, the Green Party’s only MPP, has been vocal and clear in his opposition to the project, even visiting Caledon in the summer to showcase the protected areas it risks destroying. The Liberal Party, originally responsible for the route’s cancellation, has chosen to sit on the fence.
    “Our platform process is underway and we look forward to sharing our plan for the province over the coming months after a real, meaningful consultation with party members and supporters,” Will Wuehr told The Pointer, on behalf of the Ontario Liberals.
    “Right now we’re focusing our energy on a grassroots platform consultation to make sure our members and supporters are able to have their ideas heard and represented in the platform,” he added in a follow up when pushed for a commitment and asked how current Liberal MPPs would vote on anything related to the GTA West Corridor.
    With the pandemic slowing all kinds of infrastructure projects around Ontario, there is no guarantee shovels will enter the ground on the GTA West Corridor before the next provincial election. Depending how successful the current government is in its attempts to rush the process, the NDP or Liberals may be presented with an opportunity to slam the breaks at the eleventh hour if the PCs can’t hold onto power.
    “I certainly don’t advocate for the building of more roadways willy-nilly,” French added. “Everything needs to be carefully planned with municipal partners. Not just, ‘Here’s a map, let’s draw a line straight through it’.”
     

  • Ontario government details additional pandemic funding for schools

    By: Samantha Butler-Hassan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter,
     kingstonist.com
    The Ontario Government has announced an additional $381 million for Ontario schools through the federal Safe Return to Class Fund.
    According to a statement from the office of Daryl Kramp, MPP for Hastings, Lennox & Addington, the funding will be used to continue to improve air quality and ventilation in schools, support online learning, promote student mental health and hire additional staff. With this new funding, Kramp said schools will have been provided with more than $1.6 billion to implement pandemic safety measures.
    “It’s been an impressive and continuous improvement for schools and students since last March,” Kramp said. “Air quality has been a big focus with over 23,000 HEPA filters and 20,000 portable HEPA units, and nearly 3,000 other ventilation devices installed province-wide.”
    Locally Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board (ALCDSB) confirmed they have added 75 HEPA filtration units and 53 Classroom Unit Ventilators to their facilities. “These units have been installed in classrooms that were previously without mechanical ventilation,” said ALCDSB.
    Limestone District School Board (LDSB) did not have information about ventilation spending immediately available but offered to provide further details next week.
    Provincewide return to in-class learning
    As of Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, more than 520,000 students across Ontario including those in Kingston, had returned to in-person learning. On Monday, Feb. 8, 2021 an additional 700,000 students, including those in the Ottawa region will be able to return. On Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021 the final 730,000 students in Toronto and some surrounding regions are planned to be back in class.
    “We agree with parents and medical experts that kids need to be learning in class – alongside their friends and teachers – as it is crucial for their mental well-being and development,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce. “We will continue to follow expert medical advice and work to get all schools open, for children in all regions of our province.”
    The government said they have introduced additional measures to further protect students and staff, including:
    Provincewide access to targeted asymptomatic testing for students and staff, using a combination of lab-processed PCR and rapid antigen tests;

    • Mandatory masking for students in Grades 1-3, including outdoors where physical distancing cannot be maintained; This policy had already been in place in Kingston-area schools since September, as determined by local boards
    • Enhanced screening of secondary students and staff;
    • New guidance discouraging students from congregating before and after school; and,
    • Temporary certification of eligible teacher candidates who are set to graduate in 2021 to stabilize staffing levels, following high levels of absenteeism.

    “With these enhanced measures, we are making good progress towards a province-wide return to in-person learning, while keeping the safety of children, teachers and schools at the forefront,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. “Moreover, I am pleased to be getting more children back in class, which greatly benefits their development and well-being.”
    To date, the Ontario government said they have hired 3,400 additional teachers, 1,400 custodians and 650 educational assistants, mental health workers and professionals.
    The Government also said they are providing an additional 3.5 million masks for students. Finally, to support the expansion of targeted asymptomatic testing, the Ministry of Education said they have procured test collection capacity for up to 50,000 tests per week, to be deployed at the discretion of local public health units in collaboration with schools.