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'We are no longer comfortable': How Canada's rising COVID-19 cases have some abandoning back-to-school plans – CTV News

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TORONTO —
With the new school year beginning over the next few weeks in Canada, the recent rise in COVID-19 infections across the country has prompted many parents to reconsider whether to send their children for in-person at school this fall or keep them at home for online learning or home-schooling.

With daily new cases across Canada rising from a low of less than 300 in mid-July, to approximately 2,400 on Friday, CTVNews.ca asked Canadians whether they had recently changed their minds about their childrens’ schooling.

The responses were emailed to CTVNews.ca. Not all have been independently verified, though CTVNews.ca did contact several respondents for additional details.

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The question of how parents plan to approach the school year is complicated by the fact that the availability and rules surrounding online learning vary across the provinces and by school board, as do the deadlines for choosing which stream parents want their children in this fall.

This means some parents have had to make their choice before parents in other jurisdictions, and in areas where online learning did not seem to be a viable option, some parents have elected to simply home-school their children.

Overall, the responses showed that, across the country, many parents share concerns about the recent rise in COVID-19 infections and have either recently reconsidered, or are now reconsidering whether to send their children back to school for in-person learning.

“A couple of months ago I was on the fence about sending my child to primary at a local school or home-school him. As the COVID cases started increasing across Canada and now in my province, we have decided he will be home-schooled this year,” Erin Macvicar of Sydney, N.S., a mother of four including a 5-year-old about to start primary school, emailed to CTVNews.ca.

For parents of young children, the decision is complicated by the fact that no vaccines are yet approved for children under 12.

While approximately 72 per cent of eligible Canadians are now fully vaccinated, according to the CTVNews.ca coronavirus vaccination tracker, some parents cited concerns about vaccination rates among teachers and other school personnel.

“With the way things are rapidly changing we are no longer comfortable sending our children back to the classroom this fall,” wrote Ashleigh Kannenberg Martin of Orangeville, Ont. “Prior to reconsidering a return, we would want to know what percentage of teachers and administrators are vaccinated in each facility.”

Kannenberg, who said she and her husband had been looking forward to sending their children back to in-person learning, also said she would like to see specific information on ventilation capabilities at schools.

“With what is unraveling in the U.S., we as parents feel that our best plan of action is to be more cautious than not,” she wrote.

WANTING A DO-OVER

Facing deadlines for choosing between online and in-person learning, some parents found themselves regretting decisions made earlier in the year.

“My school board requested in June that I made a decision, and I did decide to send my daughter back in person after a year of virtual school. Now I am struggling to switch her back to online given the fears of the fourth wave,” wrote Ahilia Singh Morales, whose anxiety is heightened by the fact that she works in a hospital emergency room.

A complicating factor for many has been different school boards’ varying deadlines for selecting in-person learning.

The Toronto District School Board, the country’s largest, had a deadline of Aug. 12, but other boards required parents to make their decisions much sooner.

“We had to let the school board know by April and we felt it was too soon to make a decision, so our children were automatically enrolled in physical school for their school board,” wrote Rachel Brethour-McMichael of Blenheim, Ont. Her daughters, aged 13 and 7, attend school in the Lambton-Kent District School Board, which imposed an April 21 deadline for choosing virtual learning.

Since then, they have attempted to switch to virtual learning, but have been told there is no room left, said Brethour-McMichael.

“My option now is to sit on a wait list, not knowing or being able to prepare my children for what type of schooling they’re taking in just a couple weeks,” she wrote.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL GUIDELINES

While the rising infection numbers were cited by the majority of respondents as a reason to reconsider keeping their children at home, some also mentioned dissatisfaction with provincial back-to-school guidelines.

Ellie Lo, a York Region mother of four, including two unvaccinated children going into Grades 3 and 5, said both the rising numbers and Ontario back-to school guidelines meant she was no longer comfortable sending her younger children back to class.

“Classrooms and buses could be at full capacity, and wind instruments/singing lessons would be permitted, but we all know schools cannot accommodate 2-metre distancing,” she wrote.

For Kim Tessier of Navan, Ontario, whose twins will be entering Grade 8 in the fall, a key issue is the lack of vaccine mandates at the school board level.

“If the Delta variant is of such great concern why are vaccines not being mandated for the staff and kids to help curb the spread?” she wrote. “I have issues with there being so many other mandatory vaccines for kids in school but this is not one of them.”

NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER

Some of the responses revealed the difficult situation faced by parents whose work situation means that they cannot stay home with their children.

“My 8-year-old daughter will be returning to school in person. I am a single mother than has to work full-time to pay the bills. I have no choice,” wrote Jess Wood of St. Catharines, Ontario.

“I’m scared and hesitant because my father passed away in January 2021 from COVID-19, but what else can I do? I just have to trust the guidelines and hope for the best,” she added.

Paulina, a mother of two boys who lives near Hamilton, Ontario, said she had kept her two sons at home for virtual learning last year and hoped to again, but that she had been told by her employer she would have to return to work in person.

“I don’t feel comfortable sending my kids to school but I do want to keep my job,” she wrote.

WAITING FOR VACCINE APPROVALS

For some parents who had hoped to send their children back to school, the current risks have now made the issue of in-person learning a non-starter until vaccines are approved and distributed to children under 12.

Stephanie Savoni and her husband had kept their 9-year-old son at home in Windsor, Ont. since the pandemic started, but had notified the local board ahead of a June 4 deadline that he would be attending in-person learning this year, as they were comforted by the rapid pace of vaccinations in early June.

“We watched as case counts went down in June and July, and felt confident in our decision,” Savoni wrote. “In recent weeks however, the case numbers are climbing in Windsor-Essex (County) and we are feeling extremely concerned about our decision.”

Complicating the matter for her is that her husband is a transplant recipient, which raises questions about the efficacy of his vaccination. She said stricter action should be taken to avoid a repeat of last year, when rising case counts saw schools sending students home.

“While it would be an unpopular decision, it would be reasonable in my view to have all children do remote learning until they are vaccinated,” she wrote.

Shannon Twiss of Langley B.C., a mother of a 10-year-old, agreed, in a response that was brief and to-the-point.

“We won’t be sending our child until there is a vaccine,” she wrote.

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Child care in Canada: Trudeau unveils new help for providers – CTV News

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The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.

The prime minister unveiled a trio of child-care-centric commitments that will be included in the upcoming federal budget, with the aim of opening up more $10-a-day child-care spaces across the country, as the Liberals continue to work towards creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.

Specifically, the Liberals are vowing to offer $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants to public and not-for-profit child-care providers, so they can build or renovate their care centres. 

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This funding will be administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMCH), which Trudeau called “a common sense approach that will help child care be developed alongside housing.”

An additional $48 million is being earmarked for the next four years to extend student loan forgiveness — similar to the program offered to rural doctors and nurses — to early childhood educators, in an effort to incentivize more teachers to work in smaller communities. 

The federal government is also promising $10 million over the next two years to train more early childhood educators.

The prime minister, speaking in Surrey, B.C., alongside the minister currently leading the file, Jenna Sudds, touted the bilateral child-care agreements in effect across the country for seeing thousands of children placed in affordable spaces.

However, in recent months Canadian parents and care providers have sounded alarms about increasingly long daycare waitlists. And, operators in some provinces have threatened to withdraw from the lower-cost program because they’re struggling to make ends meet. 

Trudeau said while the government has funded 100,000 spaces so far and is aware of the challenges in rolling out this new national program, not enough families have access and not all provinces are moving as fast as they should. 

“I want to take a moment to talk to young moms, many of you millennials. You’ve grown up with so many pressures in this economy, the 2008 recession, COVID, climate change … and we want to make sure that everyone — especially moms raising kids — has the best chance to succeed and thrive,” Trudeau said.

“As Canada grows, as families grow, we want to make sure more kids can access high-quality child care… That’s what fairness for every generation is all about.”

The prime minister also got political, accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of opposing the program, despite the Official Opposition voting in support of a recently passed Liberal piece of legislation meant to enshrine in law a commitment to the Canada-wide early learning and child-care system, and the long-term funding needed to maintain it. 

Reacting to the news, NDP MP and critic for children, families, and social development Leah Gazan said the announcement was a “direct result of advocacy” by her party, care workers, unions, and women’s organizations.

She also pointed the finger at the Conservatives, accusing them of trying to stall the program and push for a “for-profit private system that parents can’t afford.” 

Liberal pre-budget strategy

Similar to how Wednesday’s rollout of renter-fairness-focused pre-budget news went, cabinet ministers are making echo announcements of the new child-care affordability measures across the country Thursday afternoon. 

This is all part of a new communications strategy the Liberals are employing in the lead up to the release of the April 16 federal budget.

Practically every day between now and when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland releases the massive economic document, the Liberals are expected to tease out bits and pieces of the budget.

In an effort to stretch out their ability to market the measures within it, Trudeau as well as members of his cabinet will unveil new initiatives over the next two weeks, to the point that the vast majority of the budget will be public prior to budget day.

Traditionally, governments have held budget news — save for some pre-tabling leaks — for the day the document is tabled in the House of Commons post-daylong reporter and stakeholder lockup.

Kicking off this strategy on Wednesday, Trudeau issued a video across social media platforms indicating the overall theme for the 2024 budget will be “generational fairness,” a message meant to speak to millennials and Generation Z.

“When I first decided to run for office, one of my biggest motivations was working to create a Canada that young people saw themselves… As prime minister, I’ve never lost sight of that,” Trudeau said in the clip.

“You as a young Canadian are the heartbeat of our economy. You power our growth and you deserve an economy that gives you a fair shot at success. But, this moment we’re all living in is throwing big challenges your way… So we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work like hell. And we’re going to tell you about what we’re doing to fix it, over the next two weeks.”

While Trudeau’s 2015 election victory was credited in part to a historic surge in young people turning up at the polls, Poilievre has been chipping away at that Liberal voting bloc of those aged 43 and under, seeking to appeal to their current struggles to get ahead with his “powerful paycheques” and housing affordability arguments.

In November 2023, Trudeau tapped Max Valiquette, a marketing guru with self-described expertise in understanding younger generations, as his new executive director of communications.

“We’re witnessing a different communication strategy from the government. They’re implementing something they’ve not tried before. We’re not going to have a budget day on April 16. We’re going to have budget days between now and April 16,” said political commentator Scott Reid in an interview on CTV News Channel.

“Frankly, this government knows that it needs to break through, it knows that it needs to connect with Canadians… Is it going to turn around the polls overnight? No. Might they get a little bit more of a hearing than they otherwise would have been? Probably.” 

With files from CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos and Annie Bergeron-Oliver

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Ontario releases 2023 Sunshine List, top earner made $1.9M – CBC.ca

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Five employees at Ontario Power Generation are in the top 10 earners on the province’s so-called sunshine list for 2023, with the province’s highest salary nearing $2 million.

The annual sunshine list documents public sector employees with salaries over $100,000. In this year’s edition, there are 300,570 names, more than 30,000 higher than last year.

Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, is in the top spot again with a salary of $1.93 million.

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Two other executives at the organization — chief strategy officer Dominique Miniere and chief projects officer Michael Martelli — made nearly $1.2 million and nearly $1 million, respectively.

You can find a list of the top 100 earners below.

The presidents and CEOs of the Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network are also in the top 10, earning around $850,000 each. So is Phil Verster, who is president and CEO of the provincial transit agency, Metrolinx, with a $838,097 salary.

Caroline Mulroney, president of the Treasury Board, highlighted other high growth areas in a release.

“The largest year-over-year increases were in the hospitals, municipalities and services, and post-secondary sectors, which together represented approximately 80 per cent of the growth of the list,” she said.

The list shows 17 professors or associate professors at the University of Toronto had earnings of $500,000 or more.

A statement from a University of Toronto spokesperson said the school competes with top universities and private-sector employers around the world for faculty members.

“This occasionally results in salaries above the usual range for a small number of faculty members.”

An Ontario Power Generation building.
Five employees at Ontario Power Generation are among the top 10 spots of the annual sunshine list for 2023. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press)

Premier Doug Ford earned $208,974 last year. His chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, earned $324,675.

Matthew Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health, a provincial agency the Ford government created in 2019, earned $821,000. Meanwhile the public servant leading the Ministry of Health, deputy minister Catherine Zahn, earned $477,360, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones, $165,851.

There are more than 25,000 registered nurses on the list, including seven who earned more than $300,000 last year.

Chief Justice Sharon Nicklas, who was appointed to the top post in the province’s judiciary last May, earned $388,960.

The police chiefs of Thunder Bay, Daniel Taddeo, ($376,428) and Hamilton, Francis Bergen, ($374,492) were paid more last year than OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique ($373,472). Taddeo retired in April 2023. 

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw, who took over the post in late 2022, earned $353,411. 

Organizations that receive provincial government funding are also required to disclose salaries for the sunshine list, so it includes top earners at some registered charities.

The chief executive of the True Patriot Love Foundation, Nicholas Booth, earned $421,149. The foundation funds support programs for veterans and military families. 

The president and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross Society, Conrad Sauve, earned $412,970, while the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s chief executive, Medhat Mahdy, earned $394,057.

Salaries of other key Ontario public figures include:

  • $826,539 for Ontario Pension Board CEO Mark Fuller.
  • $709,581 for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Association president & CEO Alfred Hannay.
  • $601,376 for Registered Nurses Association of Ontario CEO Doris Grinspun.
  • $596,392 for Dean of Ivey Business School, Western University, Sharon Hodgson.
  • $563,291 for LCBO president & CEO George Soleas.
  • $546,053 for Dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Queen’s University, Jane Philpott.
  • $533,112 for Royal Ontario Museum president & CEO Joshua Basseches.
  • $486,192 for University of Toronto president Meric Gertler.
  • $464,148 for Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.
  • $455,091 for Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer.
  • $404,003 Art Gallery of Ontario director and CEO Stephan Jost.
  • $395,974 for former auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

Adjusting sunshine list threshold

The sunshine list has been around for almost 30 years, always set at six figures and up. 

At Queen’s Park on Thursday, some members of provincial Parliament faced questions on whether the $100,000 starting point should be adjusted.

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner said it should be pegged to the rate of inflation, but others disagreed.

“I think that people think that $100,000 is still a lot of money, especially in an affordability crisis,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife, who’s also the finance critic.

Government House Leader Paul Calandra said the government has no plans at this time to change the threshold on the sunshine list.

“I think it’s an important document that serves the people well in highlighting the salaries of our public employees.”

The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, enacted by former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1996, compels organizations that receive public funding from the province to report the names, positions and pay of people who make more than $100,000.

The interactive chart below shows the top 100 earners on the list, based on both salary and benefits.

Search the complete Sunshine List for yourself here.

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1 dead, 2 critically injured after car crash in Montreal

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Montreal

Three people are in hospital with critical injuries after their vehicle crashed into a tree. Police believe they might be connected to two drive-by shootings that took place early Thursday morning.

2 drive-by shootings also took place overnight

an SPVM car near a taped-off crime scene
Montreal police are investigating a car crash possibly linked to two drive-by shootings. (Mathieu Wagner/Radio-Canada)

Urgences-santé say one person died and two others were critically injured after their vehicle hit a tree in the Rosemont neighbourhood.

Montreal police believe the crash may be linked to two drive-by shootings early Thursday morning.

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The first happened around 5 a.m. on Pie-IX Boulevard. Police say a car was shot at repeatedly and the driver, a 41-year-old man, was injured in the upper body. He was transported to hospital, but his life is not in danger, say police.

Shortly afterward, shots were reported in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough, near the intersection of Saint-Joseph Boulevard and Henri-Julien Avenue. No one was injured.

Police say they are investigating to determine if there is a connection between the collision and the shootings. Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant says it’s possible those in the vehicle were involved in the shootings.

The province’s independent police watchdog is now involved.

with files from Chloë Ranaldi

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