At his daily COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, Ford said that bus driver shortages are something the province deals with “every single year.”
Ford said the province will expedite all the first-time bus drivers who are waiting to go through the Ministry of Transportation for licensing.
Lecce added that the province is investing $1 billion in transportation this year, which he called “highest investment in transportation in Ontario history.”
Union demands more safety steps
The bus drivers, who are represented by Unifor, held a press conference Tuesday to discuss their request for information on safety measures on their vehicles.
They also are asking the government to do more to protect drivers, including hiring private companies to clean and sanitize vehicles.
“We have a lot of elderly drivers that are now required to do a lot of physical work to clean and sanitize the buses and that’s going to be very difficult for some of the drivers to do,” said school bus driver Angela Sargeant.
Lecce was asked today why he hasn’t met with Unifor yet to discuss the needs of school bus drivers.
He responded that he’s been in “constant contact” with the School Bus Association of Ontario — an association that represents school bus companies, not the drivers themselves.
TDSB writes open letter asking for more funding
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) released an open letter Tuesday asking the province for more money to hire teachers and repair and upgrade classrooms and washrooms.
The board also requested that the government follow through on its commitment to pay for PPE, and step up to help ensure the new COVID-19 protocols don’t negatively affect the TDSB’s nutrition programs.
He said the province is encouraging outdoor education — another one of the TDSB’s requests — and will also foot the bill for PPE, saying that “we have been very clear we will be there.”
Ontario released a school reopening plan weeks ago that will see students return to class in early September.
School boards have been given permission to stagger the start of classes over the first two weeks of the academic year if they need more time to prepare.
Teachers’ unions and parents have expressed concern that the Ontario government’s approach has not done enough to lower class sizes and encourage physical distancing.
Ford announces new Etobicoke school, defends back-to-school ads
Also today, Ford announced that a new Catholic school will be built in Etobicoke.
“This new school will serve up to 600 kids,” said Ford. “The project will also create 88 new affordable child-care spaces.”
The project will cost just under $16 million, part of a 10-year, $12 billion dollar provincial investment in new and existing schools, the province said.
On Tuesday, the premier also found himself defending a series of provincial back-to-school ads, which have been criticized by Ontario New Democrats and Liberals, who argue the money could be better spent elsewhere.
100 cases of COVID-19 announced Tuesday
Ontario reported another 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the province’s total to 41,607 since the outbreak began in January.
The 0.2 per cent increase in cumulative cases across Ontario comes as the province’s network of labs processed more than 20,000 tests yesterday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a series of tweets.
Ontario reported another 100 cases of COVID-19 today, marking the fifth straight day with new cases in the triple digits. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
Most of the province’s 34 public health regions are keeping transmission rates of the novel coronavirus relatively low with 30 reporting five or fewer newly confirmed cases in today’s update. Of those 30, 18 saw no new cases at all.
There are currently 1,059 confirmed, active cases in the province, after 75 more were marked resolved in today’s update. The majority active cases are concentrated in Peel, Toronto, and Ottawa.
Ontario’s official COVID-19 death toll grew by two, and now sits at 2,800. A CBC News count based on data from public health units puts the real toll at 2,834.
There is one fewer person with a confirmed cases of the illness hospitalized since Sunday, but the number of patients on ventilators increased from seven to 10.
All of the figures used in this story are found in the Ministry of Health’s daily update, which includes data from up until 4 p.m. the previous day.
The number of cases for any particular region on a given day may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, which often avoid lag times in the provincial system.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
