Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces an accelerated delivery schedule from Pfizer-BioNTech, with one million doses arriving each week between March 22 and May 10
All available appointments have been booked for COVID-19 vaccinations at the Nepean Sportsplex, which began this week for many Ottawa residents aged 90 and older
The provincial booking system launches Monday, and residents are asked to wait until then and not to call for appointments Friday or on the weekend
Ottawa Public Health reports 62 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday
There were 1,289 tests conducted in Ottawa Thursday with a 2.4 per cent test positivity rate. The weekly average rate is 2.2 per cent in Ottawa, which must remain below 2.4 per cent to remain in Orange
Ontario administers another single-day high of 43,503 vaccine doses across the province
Three more regions are elevating from their current levels in the provincial framework, including Leeds, Grenville and Lanark, which will move from the Green to Yellow (Protect) zone
PC government house leader Paul Calandra criticizes the federal government over an “unreliable” vaccine supply to the province during a hastily called press conference Friday afternoon
THE LATEST COVID NEWS
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced an accelerated delivery schedule from Pfizer-BioNTech, with one million doses arriving each week between March 22 and May 10.
“A million doses of Pfizer alone, every seven days,” Trudeau said. “That’s going to make a big difference.”
The new delivery schedules have been shared with the provinces, Trudeau said, so provincial counterparts can make adequate preparations for mass vaccination sites.
Canada has so far delivered 3.8 million doses to the provinces and territories.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said more than 2.7 million of those doses have been administered, including more than 600,000 shots in the past week, the highest weekly numbers since the vaccination campaign began.
Closing out a “week of reflection” following Thursday’s national day of observance, and looking back on the pandemic’s past year, Tam said there is renewed focus on the next steps “that will shape our future.”
There have been 899,757 confirmed cases in Canada and 22,371 deaths. There are now more than 30,670 active cases across the country, with a weekly average of 3,050 new daily cases and 31 deaths each day.
More than 2,050 Canadians are in hospital including 540 in critical care.
And to date, more than 3,000 cases involving variants of concern have been identified in Canada, with the highly-contagious B.1.1.7 strain accounting for more than 90 per cent of those.
“Racing to the finish line could cost us the success we’ve worked so long and hard for,” Tam said, urging Canadians to carry on at a “steady, cautious pace.”
THE LATEST COVID-19 NEWS IN OTTAWA
The city is urging people not to arrive early for vaccination appointments after people lined up outside Nepean Sportsplex Friday on the first day of the mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic for those 90 and over. Some of those in line were in wheelchairs.
City staff had to use megaphones to urge people to wait in their cars until it was time for their appointments and to urge those without appointments to go home and book one.
All available appointments have been booked for COVID-19 vaccinations at the Sportsplex.
The provincial booking system launches Monday, and residents are asked to wait until then and not to call for appointments Friday or on the weekend, according to a statement from Ottawa Public Health.
Additional appointments will be available on Monday with the launch of the provincial system.
Residents who are not yet eligible for the vaccine are asked to follow announcements on when they can receive their shots. Ontario is expected to unveil further details about its centralized appointment booking system.
THE LATEST COVID-19 NEWS IN ONTARIO
PC government house leader Paul Calandra criticized the federal government over an “unreliable” vaccine supply to the province during a hastily called press conference Friday afternoon.
Calandra told reporters Ontario has mass vaccination sites “ready to go, but we have not had the supply to allow those clinics to operate.”
The province has had “tremendous success with the vaccines, but we want more,” Calandra said.
Ontario has been administering around 40,000 doses per day, but Calandra said the province has the capacity for 150,000 shots a day.
That rate of efficiency can only be reached with a reliable supply of vaccines, Calandra said, urging the federal government to deliver the shipments that have been promised.
“They haven’t been able to do it in the past. I am hopeful that they will actually deliver this time,” he said.
Meanwhile, three more regions are elevating from their current levels in the provincial framework, including Leeds, Grenville and Lanark, which will move from the Green to Yellow (Protect) zone.
Lambton Public Health will move into Grey (Lockdown) and the Northwestern region will move into Red (Control).
The decisions were made in consultation with local medical officers of health, provincial officials stated Friday, and were based on the trends in public health indicators and local context and conditions.
The three public health regions will be moving to those levels in the framework effective Monday at 12:01 a.m.
The Ontario government also activated an “emergency brake” in the Sudbury region Friday, moving into the Grey (Lockdown) level “due to the concerning trends in public health indicators … ”
Ontario is also adjusting capacity limits for weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies held in regions currently in Grey zones.
Effective Monday at midnight, weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies will be permitted to allow for up to 15 per cent total occupancy indoors, or up to 50 people outdoors.
NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES IN OTTAWA AND ONTARIO
Ottawa Public Health reported 62 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. There have now been 15,400 total cases in Ottawa and 446 related deaths.
There are currently 570 active cases in the city, a number that has increased steadily this week, which began with 513 active cases as of Monday.
Hospital admissions are also rising, with 31 patients in local hospitals and three of those in intensive care.
Ottawa remains in the Orange (Restrict) zone of the provincial framework
Ontario is reporting 1,371 new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday and 18 related deaths.
There have now been 341,891 total cases since the beginning of the pandemic and Ontario’s death toll is 7,127.
Another 1,124 cases were resolved in the past 24-hour period and of Ontario’s total case count, 296,252 are now considered resolved.
Hospitalization rates have flattened across the province after showing signs of decline in recent weeks. There are now 676 patients in hospital, 282 in intensive care and of those, 189 require a ventilator.
The majority of new cases continue to be identified in provincial hot spots around the Greater Toronto Area, with 371 in Toronto, 225 in Peel, 111 in York and another 109 in Hamilton.
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Daily case counts continue to rise in surrounding regions, with 12 new cases in the Eastern Ontario public health unit, which includes Cornwall and Alexandria, a day after 18 new cases were confirmed in the same region. There are nine new cases in Kingston, nine in Renfrew County and 10 in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark. One new case was identified in the Hastings region.
COVID-19 TESTING INFORMATION
There were 1,289 tests conducted in Ottawa Thursday with a 2.4 per cent test positivity rate. The weekly average rate is 2.2 per cent in Ottawa, which must remain below 2.4 per cent to remain in Orange.
Ottawa’s weekly average rate of infection is 36.7 cases per 100,000 population, and must remain under 40 cases per 100,000 population to remain in Orange.
The R(t) number — another key indicator measuring the secondary cases generated by a single confirmed COVID-19 infection — must be between 1.0 and 1.1 to remain in Orange.
Ottawa’s R(t) number had approached that threshold in recent days with a 1.08 score on Monday, but that has since receded to an average 0.95 weekly score as of Friday.
Any number above 1.0 indicates the virus is spreading in the community, any score under 1.0 indicates the spread is coming under control.
New outbreaks were declared at the Peter D. Clark long-term care home on Wednesday and at the Lord Lansdowne retirement residence Thursday, each involving a single confirmed infection in a staff member. There are now 21 open outbreaks at health-care institutions and eight in child-care settings.
According to the latest update from OPH, Ottawa has now administered 73,009 vaccine doses of the 80,540 total the city has received.
There were 64,611 tests conducted in Ontario with a 2.4 per cent positivity rate, which has also flattened in recent days.
Provincial officials continue to track the spread of variants of concern, with 49 new cases of the B.1.1.7 strain identified Friday, including four in Ottawa. There are now 1,005 known cases of B.1.1.7 in Ontario and 13 in Ottawa.
There was one new case of B.1.351. There are now 42 known cases of that strain in Ontario, with two of those in Ottawa.
Another six cases of P.1 were found and there are now 34 cases in Ontario.
There are 6,859 other cases in the province where a mutation has been detected, though the lineage has not been determined. Those include 121 cases in Ottawa that remain under investigation.
COVID-19 VACCINE NEWS AND UPDATES
On the vaccination front, Ontario administered another single-day high of 43,503 vaccine doses across the province, with 1,062,910 total doses administered and 282,748 Ontarians now fully immunized with both shots.
According to the latest update from OPH, Ottawa has now administered 73,009 vaccine doses of the 80,540 total the city has received.
MORE COVID-19 NEWS AND UPDATES
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Wiliams on Thursday said the declines in case numbers, hospitalizations and ICU occupancy the province saw through February are now slowing.
Public health measures have decreased transmission and slowed the spread of variants of concern, Williams said, though with the B.1.1.7. variant, in particular, continuing to spread across Ontario, it is likely that cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions will soon increase.
The next few weeks are “critical” to understanding the impact of the variants, Williams said, and there is still a period of risk before the pandemic likely recedes in the summer.
Williams said there is likely still “four to five months of clear, hard work” while Ontario administers vaccines to those most vulnerable.
University of Toronto Prof. Adalsteinn Brown, who joined Williams for a weekly update on the province’s modelling projections, said there is clear evidence the vaccines are working to reduce severe outcomes and deaths, but there are also some concerning trends developing in the province.
Daily case counts have increased in 24 of Ontario’s 34 public health units, and 14 of those have seen case numbers rise by more than 30 per cent.
“This growth isn’t random,” Brown warned, with mobility increasing in the province as public health restrictions are loosened, along with the spread of variants of concern.
“We can keep the gains we have made by watching the spread very closely, and by loosening public health measures only carefully,” Brown said. “We must be nimble in applying public health measures to extinguish flare-ups quickly.”
Brown also warned of a “significant backlog” of post-pandemic hospital care, with surgeries, screening and in particular mental health and addictions services under immense pressure, Brown said.
“There will be a substantial and prolonged surge in the need for post-pandemic care across all sectors,” he said Thursday.
Vaccinations in long-term care homes, meanwhile, have been a “clear success,” he said.
“We know that vaccines work … especially if we deploy them strategically,” Brown said, and focusing vaccination efforts where they have the biggest impact on deaths and hospitalizations “are key to controlling the impact of the pandemic.”
There are 25 long-term care homes currently in outbreak in Ontario, a dramatic reduction from the pandemic’s peak, and 13 public health units have no home outbreaks.
“Communication is one of the most important skills you require for a successful life.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author.
I’m one hundred percent in agreement with Pulsifer, which is why my evaluation of candidates begins with their writing skills. If a candidate’s writing skills and verbal communication skills, which I’ll assess when interviewing, aren’t well above average, I’ll pass on them regardless of their skills and experience.
Why?
Because business is fundamentally about getting other people to do things—getting employees to be productive, getting customers to buy your products or services, and getting vendors to agree to a counteroffer price. In business, as in life in general, you can’t make anything happen without effective communication; this is especially true when job searching when your writing is often an employer’s first impression of you.
Think of all the writing you engage in during a job search (resumes, cover letters, emails, texts) and all your other writing (LinkedIn profile, as well as posts and comments, blogs, articles, tweets, etc.) employers will read when they Google you to determine if you’re interview-worthy.
With so much of our communication today taking place via writing (email, text, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, ClickUp, WhatsApp and Rocket.Chat), the importance of proficient writing skills can’t be overstated.
When assessing a candidate’s writing skills, you probably think I’m looking for grammar and spelling errors. Although error-free writing is important—it shows professionalism and attention to detail—it’s not the primary reason I look at a candidate’s writing skills.
The way someone writes reveals how they think.
Clear writing = Clear thinking
Structured paragraphs = Structured mind
Impactful sentences = Impactful ideas
Effective writing isn’t about using sophisticated vocabulary. Hemingway demonstrated that deceptively simple, stripped-down prose can captivate readers. Effective writing takes intricate thoughts and presents them in a way that makes the reader think, “Damn! Why didn’t I see it that way?” A good writer is a dead giveaway for a good thinker. More than ever, the business world needs “good thinkers.”
Therefore, when I come across a candidate who’s a good writer, hence a good thinker, I know they’re likely to be able to write:
Emails that don’t get deleted immediately and are responded to
Simple, concise, and unambiguous instructions
Pitches that are likely to get read
Social media content that stops thumbs
Human-sounding website copy
Persuasively, while attuned to the reader’s possible sensitivities
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI, which job seekers are using en masse. Earlier this year, I wrote that AI’s ability to hyper-increase an employee’s productivity—AI is still in its infancy; we’ve seen nothing yet—in certain professions, such as writing, sales and marketing, computer programming, office and admin, and customer service, makes it a “fewer employees needed” tool, which understandably greatly appeals to employers. In my opinion, the recent layoffs aren’t related to the economy; they’re due to employers adopting AI. Additionally, companies are trying to balance investing in AI with cost-cutting measures. CEOs who’ve previously said, “Our people are everything,” have arguably created today’s job market by obsessively focusing on AI to gain competitive advantages and reduce their largest expense, their payroll.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most AI usage involves generating written content, content that’s obvious to me, and likely to you as well, to have been written by AI. However, here’s the twist: I don’t particularly care.
Why?
Because the fundamental skill I’m looking for is the ability to organize thoughts and communicate effectively. What I care about is whether the candidate can take AI-generated content and transform it into something uniquely valuable. If they can, they’re demonstrating the skills of being a good thinker and communicator. It’s like being a great DJ; anyone can push play, but it takes skill to read a room and mix music that gets people pumped.
Using AI requires prompting effectively, which requires good writing skills to write clear and precise instructions that guide the AI to produce desired outcomes. Prompting AI effectively requires understanding structure, flow and impact. You need to know how to shape raw information, such as milestones throughout your career when you achieved quantitative results, into a compelling narrative.
So, what’s the best way to gain and enhance your writing skills? As with any skill, you’ve got to work at it.
Two rules guide my writing:
Use strong verbs and nouns instead of relying on adverbs, such as “She dashed to the store.” instead of “She ran quickly to the store.” or “He whispered to the child.” instead of “He spoke softly to the child.”
Avoid using long words when a shorter one will do, such as “use” instead of “utilize” or “ask” instead of “inquire.” As attention spans get shorter, I aim for clarity, simplicity and, most importantly, brevity in my writing.
Don’t just string words together; learn to organize your thoughts, think critically, and communicate clearly. Solid writing skills will significantly set you apart from your competition, giving you an advantage in your job search and career.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
MONTREAL – Politics, public opinion and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major pay gains for pilots, experts say.
Hammered out over the weekend, the would-be agreement includes a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years — an enormous bump by historical standards — according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The previous 10-year contract granted increases of just two per cent annually.
The federal government’s stated unwillingness to step in paved the way for a deal, noted John Gradek, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it plain the two sides should hash one out themselves.
“Public opinion basically pressed the federal cabinet, including the prime minister, to keep their hands clear of negotiations and looking at imposing a settlement,” said Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University.
After late-night talks at a hotel near Toronto’s Pearson airport, the country’s biggest airline and the union representing 5,200-plus aviators announced early Sunday morning they had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike that would have grounded flights and affected some 110,000 passengers daily.
The relative precariousness of the Liberal minority government as well as a push to appear more pro-labour underlay the prime minister’s hands-off approach to the negotiations.
Trudeau said Friday the government would not step in to fix the impasse — unlike during a massive railway work stoppage last month and a strike by WestJet mechanics over the Canada Day long weekend that workers claimed road roughshod over their constitutional right to collective bargaining. Trudeau said the government respects the right to strike and would only intervene if it became apparent no negotiated deal was possible.
“They felt that they really didn’t want to try for a third attempt at intervention and basically said, ‘Let’s let the airline decide how they want to deal with this one,'” said Gradek.
“Air Canada ran out of support as the week wore on, and by the time they got to Friday night, Saturday morning, there was nothing left for them to do but to basically try to get a deal set up and accepted by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association).”
Trudeau’s government was also unlikely to consider back-to-work legislation after the NDP tore up its agreement to support the Liberal minority in Parliament, Gradek said. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party has traditionally toed a more pro-business line, also said last week that Tories “stand with the pilots” and swore off “pre-empting” the negotiations.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau had asked Ottawa on Thursday to impose binding arbitration pre-emptively — “before any travel disruption starts” — if talks failed. Backed by business leaders, he’d hoped for an effective repeat of the Conservatives’ move to head off a strike in 2012 by legislating Air Canada pilots and ground crew to stick to their posts before any work stoppage could start.
The request may have fallen flat, however. Gradek said he believes there was less anxiety over the fallout from an airline strike than from the countrywide railway shutdown.
He also speculated that public frustration over thousands of cancelled flights would have flowed toward Air Canada rather than Ottawa, prompting the carrier to concede to a deal yielding “unheard of” gains for employees.
“It really was a total collapse of the Air Canada bargaining position,” he said.
Pilots are slated to vote in the coming weeks on the four-year contract.
Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay boosts ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent, ramping up pressure on other carriers to raise wages.
After more than a year of bargaining, Air Canada put forward an offer in August centred around a 30 per cent wage hike over four years.
But the final deal, should union members approve it, grants a 26 per cent increase in the first year alone, retroactive to September 2023, according to the source. Three wage bumps of four per cent would follow in 2024 through 2026.
Passengers may wind up shouldering some of that financial load, one expert noted.
“At the end of the day, it’s all us consumers who are paying,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.
Higher fares may be mitigated by the persistence of budget carrier Flair Airlines and the rapid expansion of Porter Airlines — a growing Air Canada rival — as well as waning demand for leisure trips. Corporate travel also remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.
Air Canada said Sunday the tentative contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline.”
The union issued a statement saying that, if ratified, the agreement will generate about $1.9 billion of additional value for Air Canada pilots over the course of the deal.
Meanwhile, labour tension with cabin crew looms on the horizon. Air Canada is poised to kick off negotiations with the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants this year before the contract expires on March 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
