A Summary of the day's activities of Thursday, August 13 follows.

Federal Government Relief Measures

The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services, announced an additional $305 million to support Indigenous Peoples during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the Indigenous Community Support Fund.

The Government of Canada recognizes that First Nation, Inuit and Métis are among the most at risk and face unique challenges in addressing COVID-19. It also recognizes that Indigenous leadership, governments and organizations are best placed to determine the needs of Indigenous Peoples and to develop community-based solutions that respond to these challenges.

This fund can be used for a wide variety of measures such as supporting Elders and vulnerable community members, addressing food insecurity, educational and other supports for children, mental health assistance and emergency response services, preparedness measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and more. It will be distributed through a combination of allocations directly to First Nations, Inuit and Métis leadership.

This funding will be available to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, as well as Indigenous communities and organizations serving Indigenous peoples, including First Nations living off-reserve as well as Inuit and Métis living in urban centres, on an application basis. Further details will be forthcoming.

Statement of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Trudeau did not hold a press conference today.

Federal Government Briefing

  • Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada

Dr. Tam provided her daily COVID-19 update. There have been 120,844 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 9,006 deaths. Eighty-nine percent of people have now recovered. Labs across Canada have tested 4,581,083 people for COVID-19 to date. Over the past week, an average of 43,000 people were tested daily, with one percent testing positive and an average of 376 new cases reported daily from across the country. Over the last several weeks, national daily case counts are averaging between 350 to 500 cases.

Nationally, significantly fewer new cases are being reported daily compared to the more intense weeks of COVID-19 activity in Canada, from late March to June. Case counts peaked in late April and early May at close to 1,800 cases reported daily and then declined steadily reaching a low of 270 cases per day in early July. COVID-19 transmission has increased recently with the opening of economic and social spaces.

In conclusion, the number of new deaths reported daily has remained low following a steep decline from the peak in early May when close to 200 deaths were reported daily. Fewer than 10 deaths have been reported per day on average over the last four weeks. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions also remain low across most jurisdictions with fewer than 400 individuals in hospitals and fewer than 100 individuals in critical care across the country on any given day over the last several weeks.

Statement of Ontario Premier Doug Ford

At a news conference in Windsor, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton and Ontario's Associate Minister of Transportation, Kinga Surma provide an update on their government's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As of yesterday, August 12th, the Windsor-Essex region joined the rest of Ontario in Stage 3 of the province's reopening plan. Pertaining to Windsor-Essex County Rd. 42 mega hospital, Premier Ford ensured that it is a priority for his government.

Regarding the Connecting Link projects, the Ontario government announced the investment of $30 million to support these programs across the province for 2021-2022. The objective is to help municipalities build and repair designated municipal roadways and bridges that connect two ends of a provincial highway through a community or to a border crossing.

In 2020-21, the province provided $30 million in Connecting Links funding, plus an additional $10 million announced as part of Ontario's Action Plan: Responding to COVID-19, to support projects in 33 municipalities across Ontario.

The Connecting Links program funding covers up to 90 per cent of eligible project costs, to a maximum of $3 million and, new for this round, up to $5 million for bridge projects. Funding is provided for the design, construction, renewal, rehabilitation and replacement of connecting link infrastructure.

Statement of Quebec

Premier François Legault was accompanied at his press conference today by Suzanne Blais, Member of National Assembly for Abitibi Ouest, during a press conference in the region.

In preparation for the second wave, Premier Legault said there is enough equipment in Abitibi's hospital to deal with COVID-19 patients. According to the Premier, future outbreaks of the virus in the region will likely take place in the CHSLD since most of those rooms are double or triple resident rooms. He therefore asked the various actors in the network to speed up the construction of seniors' homes and to quickly renovate the CHSLD.

The Premier said the government wishes to get back on track with Bill 61, which, among other things, reduces the length of environmental assessments and grants exceptional powers to the government. It is therefore asking the opposition parties to agree to the bill in order to stimulate the Quebec economy.

The government also wants Quebec to be autonomous in the agri-food sector. COVID-19 brought its share of concerns last spring, since Quebec thought it was running out of food from the United States. As a result, imports are going to decrease considerably in Quebec, and the government also wants to double the number of greenhouses to provide food products to Quebeckers, even in winter.

In addressing the subject of mining projects in the regions of Quebec, the government wants to reduce the delays in environmental assessments, which are longer than elsewhere in the world. According to the Premier, it takes three to five years in Quebec to approve a project, compared to one year elsewhere in Canada. 

Elsewhere in Canada

Alberta

Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, reported a decline in the hospitalization numbers for May and June due to an error in the system code used for online statistics, which resulted in patients who caught COVID in the hospital being retrospectively counted in hospitalized case data. This error had little impact on current hospitalization counts or policy decisions.

On August 12, Alberta reported 121 new cases of COVID-19 and one death, for a total of 1,040 active cases in the province.

The Chief Medical Officer of Health is recommending that all teachers and school-based staff, even those without symptoms, should be tested once before school begins in September, and regularly throughout the year.

K-12 classrooms will open at the start of the school year with health measures in place, including mandatory masks for Grade 4 to 12 students and staff where physical distancing cannot be maintained. The government will distribute more than 1.6 million reusable masks.

As of August 14, the following changes to ministerial orders related to COVID-19 will be in effect:

  • Victims of family violence can apply for an emergency protection order in-person or remotely.
  • Two ministerial orders will expire that allowed irrigation districts and rural utility associations to delay certain actions, such as AGMs and elections, during the public health emergency.
  • The legal restriction under the Residential Tenancies Act preventing landlords from entering a rental premises if any of the parties involved are sick or isolating has ended, recognizing the existing guidance and health measures in place.
  • Legislated requirements to hold AGM's are now reinstated. Organizations must hold their AGM's sometime after August 14. Virtual meetings are permissible if set out in corporate bylaws.
  • As of August 15, landlords do not need to present evidence of a payment plan when filing an application to evict or recover possession due to non-payment of rent. Landlords and tenants are encouraged to develop payment plans if the tenant is struggling to pay rent because of COVID-19. Existing plans are in place for the time period.
  • Children's Services is helping child care programs transition back to normal regulations on staff-to child ratios, group size, age groups, and hours of operation.
  • Temporary rules that let employers give less than 24 hours' notice of a shift change, and less than two weeks' notice of a schedule change under an hours of work averaging agreement will expire on August 14.
  • Permanent workplace rules replace other temporary measures to help employees continue to manage the impact of COVID-19, including:
  • Special rules to let employees take leave to care for loved ones who are isolating, or children impacted by school or daycare closures.
  • Rules allowing temporary COVID layoffs for up to 180 consecutive days were included in legislation, so employees stay attached to their jobs longer, even if their employer does not have work for them.
  • The expanded list of approved respiratory personal protective equipment standards will stay in place until August 14, 2021.
  • An order that limits health-care staff from working in more than one facility is extended for 18 months to help contain the spread of COVID.
  • On August 15, temporary concessions will expire that provided more time to comply with Traffic Safety Act regulations, extended timelines for Transportation Safety Board appeals, and reduced restrictions for commercial carriers for emergency relief efforts.
  • Legal requirements for physical distancing and isolating while sick or symptomatic are still in effect.

The Court of Queen's Bench has new email filing procedures. Filing by fax is no longer accepted.

The Court of Queen's Bench is resuming jury selection and jury trials. Summonses are being sent for trials starting in September. Jury selection and some jury trials will be off-site.

The Court of Queen's Bench will continue to hear short, judge-alone criminal trials via WebEx video and in-person until December 18, 2020.

The Alberta Government is providing an additional $48 million for people struggling with homelessness during the pandemic.

British Columbia

On August 12, 2020, Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer announced 85 new cases of COVID-19, including two new epidemiologically linked cases, for a total of 4,196 cases in BC. This is the third highest number of new cases in one day since the pandemic began.

One new death also occurred. No new health-care facility outbreaks or community outbreaks were reported.

Premier John Horgan announced that the province is hiring approximately 500 new health professionals to bolster contact tracing capacity across BC.

Students in BC will be back in class starting September 10, but their first week will be focused on “orientation” to the changes caused by COVID. September 10 and September 11 may be only partial school days.

School districts are required to create detailed operating guidelines on the restart of the school year by August 17.

Originally published 14 August, 2020

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