The city’s water supply status is in the orange zone because of demands on the system during the past few weeks from excessive watering of lawns and gardens and other outdoor water uses.
Catégorie : Vision (Clarence-Rockland)
-
Remote learning will remain for rest of school year
Premier Doug Ford announced on Wednesday that school would not return to in-class learning until fall. He said an increased risk of COVID-19 spread, including more contagious variants, was behind the decision.
UNE VERSION FRANÇAISE EST DISPONIBLE
Pas de retour à l’école avant l’automne -
YMCA asks Clarence-Rockland for financial compensation
“I don’t think there’s a rush here,” said Councillor Don Bouchard. “We need more information so we can make a better decision.”
The Ward 4 councillor’s comment echoed the thoughts of other members of council during their May 17 session as they reviewed a preliminary administration report on the YMCA’s operating costs for its Clarence-Rockland facility during the pandemic.
“We need an in-depth analysis of all those expenses,” said Councillor Mario Zanth.
The city received a letter from the YMCA’s National Capital region office (NCR Y) in Ottawa explaining how the pandemic has affected the non-profit recreation agency’s operations. The Clarence-Rockland YMCA was closed to the public as part of the provincial public health emergency order but the agency continued to maintain the facility in anticipation of reopening in the future.
Pandemic expenses
In a letter to the city the YMCA claimed more than $400,000 in maintenance and repair costs so far during the pandemic and that it received about $65,000 in reimbursement funds so far from the city. The YMCA claims the city still owes the YMCA more than $340,000 in reimbursement funds for the 2020-2021 fiscal year under the MOU terms.
The administration report to council noted that city staff have met three times with YMCA officials during the between between August 2020 and February 2021 to discuss partial re-opening options during a pandemic and also an interim MOU to deal with financial issues related to maintaining the Clarence-Rockland facility while the provincial emergency order was in effect.
“On all three occasions when city staff met with the NCR Y executive,” stated the report, “there was no discussion of the city needing to offset a funding shortfall.”
The report noted that the interim MOU proposed for YMCA operations during the pandemic stated that “the Y would continue to provide administrative services and that all expenses would be reviewed by the city treasurer”. The interim MOU was never signed because “the chance of re-opening was bleak” so the city never received any YMCA operation expense reports for review.
“At this point there was no indication that expenses were out of control,” the administration report stated.
The report included a recommendation for a “good faith” payment of $64,000 under the terms of the original Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city and the YMCA for operation of the sports and recreation facility. Several council members expressed reluctance to approve any funds yet until the city has more information.
All of council agreed that the Clarence-Rockland YMCA is “a real asset” to the city’s public recreation services. But council also voted 6-2 against paying any reimbursement funds until administration has gotten more detailed information from the NCR Y about the past year’s operation costs during the pandemic and also what financial aid.
The Clarence-Rockland YMCA was built as an addition to L’Escale through a partnership agreement between the city, the NCR Y and le conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’Est ontarien (CSDCEO). Council wants to know what financial aid the CDSCEO is providing for the past year’s maintenance operation of the facility and also if the NCR Y is getting any senior government pandemic aid.
-
Le parc Calypso rouvre ses portes
«Nous sommes excités et contents», a déclaré Sandra Nadeau, directrice principale ventes, marketing et communications pour le groupe Calypso Valcartier. Le parc ontarien a été fermé durant toute la saison estivale 2020.
Selon le plan de déconfinement, les parcs aquatiques et les parcs d’attractions font partie de la deuxième phase où 70% des adultes doivent avoir reçu au moins leur première dose et 20% leur deuxième dose. Mme Nadeau ajoute que le parc a un mois pour se préparer et qu’il sera prêt lors du moment de l’ouverture.
L’année 2020 a été plutôt difficile pour les employés. En raison de la pandémie, le parc a dû fermer ses portes durant l’été et a prêté son stationnement au Bureau de santé de l’est de l’Ontario qui a organisé un centre de test COVID-19 à l’auto. Heureusement, la subvention salariale offerte par le gouvernement a permis d’assurer une certaine sécurité pour les employés. Le parc est justement en recrutement de personnel pour pourvoir certains postes.
Pour la saison 2021, la distanciation sociale devra être respectée, ainsi que le port du masque à l’intérieur. Une limite de billets journaliers sera vendue pour s’assurer du respect des consignes sanitaires.
-
Alfred accueillera la célébration de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste
La célébration de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste à Prescott-Russell alterne chaque année en juin entre les communautés hôtes. L’année dernière, la fête à Casselman a été une affaire tranquille, sans évènements spéciaux en plein air, en raison des restrictions de la pandémie sur les voyages et les rassemblements. Le maire Stéphane Sarrazin, du canton d’Alfred-Plantagenet, affirme que l’évènement de cette année dans le village hôte d’Alfred sera différent, à commencer par le changement de date de la célébration, qui passera de juin à mi-septembre.
«Nous allions avoir un grand évènement», a-t-il déclaré lors d’une entrevue téléphonique, ajoutant que le fait de déplacer l’évènement au début de l’automne signifiait une meilleure chance que les restrictions liées à la pandémie se soient suffisamment assouplies pour permettre la tenue de grands festivals en plein air.
Désormais, la Saint-Jean-Baptiste sera une célébration de trois jours à Alfred, du 17 au 19 septembre, et fera partie de l’évènement du 150e anniversaire du village. Les activités proposées comprennent un défilé le long de la rue Principale, de la rue Station vers l’est jusqu’à l’intersection du chemin comté 15. Des spectacles et d’autres activités, comme un tournoi de balle molle, figurent également sur la liste de planification, sous réserve d’une consultation avec le bureau régional de la santé sur les directives de sécurité en matière de santé publique.
Le maire Sarrazin a souligné que le comité organisateur de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste est «très optimiste» quant à la possibilité d’avoir une célébration adéquate de la fête franco-ontarienne cette année. Le comité a reçu une «bonne réponse» de la part des entreprises et d’autres commanditaires pour soutenir les festivités.
Plus de détails sur l’évènement seront annoncés plus tard dans la saison.
-
Border closures extended as cases continue to fall
The restrictions, which limit travel between the two provinces for non-essential purposes, were due to expire in Ontario on Wednesday. But the Ontario government announced over the weekend that the border closures would be extended until at least June 16. Quebec is enforcing similar restrictions for those attempting to visit from Ontario.
Police have been set up at checkpoints along the border, including Long Sault Bridge between Hawkesbury and Grenville and the Highway 417-Autoroute 40 intersection, since mid-April. In recent weeks, more officers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have patrolled the Hawkesbury side than Sûreté du Québec officers on the Grenville side, but restrictions have not changed.
The Ontario side of the border remains under a stay at home order until June 2, while patios and non-essential retail are not expected to open until at least the week of June 14. In Quebec, meanwhile, a curfew ended after four months on the weekend, and patios were allowed to reopen.
On Monday, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) marked its lowest active case count since February. Just 114 cases were active in the region on Monday, compared to a third-wave high of 510 on April 19. The lowest active case count in the region this year was 101 on February 23, during a slight lull between the second and third waves.
Seven new cases were reported in the EOHU over the weekend, five of which were in Prescott-Russell. No institutional outbreaks were recorded in the region as of Monday, but an additional death was reported.
EOHU Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said it had been a strong weekend in the area. “Great work our community has done to get the numbers down,” he said. “We need to continue so we can go into [reopening] and not look back.”
Of the 114 active cases in the EOHU on Monday, 62 were in Prescott-Russell communities, including 16 in Russell, 14 in Clarence-Rockland, 14 in Hawkesbury, 11 in Alfred-Plantagenet, 3 in Casselman, 2 in The Nation, 1 in Champlain, and 1 in East Hawkesbury.
-
Déploiement plus rapide de la deuxième dose
Le premier ministre Doug Ford a annoncé vendredi matin que l’augmentation de l’offre de vaccins permettrait à la province d’accélérer le déploiement des secondes doses dans la province. L’intervalle entre la première et la deuxième dose pourrait être ramené à quatre semaines, alors qu’il est actuellement de 16 semaines au maximum, a-t-il précisé.
Les personnes âgées de 80 ans et plus peuvent prendre un rendez-vous plus tôt pour la deuxième dose depuis le lundi 31 mai à 8h à l’adresse covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine/, suivies par les personnes âgées de 70 ans et plus une semaine plus tard, le 7 juin. Les réservations anticipées ne sont pas automatiques, mais sont plutôt un choix que chaque personne doit faire. Il n’y a aucune garantie d’obtenir un rendez-vous plus tôt que celui qui a déjà été attribué.
Environ 65 % des adultes de l’Ontario ont reçu leur première dose, en avance sur l’objectif fixé pour la première étape de la réouverture, le 14 juin. Lors d’une conférence de presse tenue vendredi matin, M. Ford n’a pas indiqué que la réouverture des terrasses des restaurants et d’autres installations seraient devancées, notant que d’autres critères tels que la capacité des soins intensifs et les taux de positivité ont également pesé dans la décision.
Au niveau local, le Bureau de santé de l’est de l’Ontario a dépassé les 100 000 doses de vaccin la semaine dernière. En fin de semaine, 106 049 doses avaient été administrées dans toute la région dans les cliniques de vaccination de masse, les partenaires de la santé et les pharmacies. La plupart des personnes âgées de 60 ans et plus de la région avaient reçu au moins une dose.
Le nombre de vaccins administrés aux groupes d’âge plus jeune était également en hausse. Selon le site Web du BSEO, au moins une dose avait été administrée à 31,2 % des 50-59 ans, 18 % des 40-49 ans, 15,7 % des 30-39 ans, 9,1 % des 20-29 ans et 0,9 % des moins de 20 ans. Ces pourcentages sont basés sur une estimation de la population du recensement de 2017, ce qui pourrait présenter une légère différence.
Au moment de la publication, aucune nouvelle information n’a été présentée concernant la réouverture potentielle des écoles à l’apprentissage en personne. Ford a envoyé une lettre à 55 groupes et personnes différents la semaine dernière pour obtenir des commentaires. Les personnes devaient répondre vendredi dernier avant 17 heures.
-
Provincial online learning plan worries UCDSB
“My real concern is for our small secondary schools,” said John McAllister, chairman of the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) during a May 30 phone interview. “We are talking about the viability of small secondary schools.”
A recent announcement from Education Minister Stephen Lecce declared that all Ontario school boards must offer virtual learning as an option for students at the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Distance learning has been the primary means of education for almost all students, both elementary and secondary since March 2020 when the provincial state of emergency for health took effect because of the pandemic. Attempts to reopen classrooms during the current school year have been sporadic because of renewals of provincial lockdown orders.
School board worries
Last month the UCDSB sent a brief to the ministry outlining its concerns about plans to make distance learning a permanent option for the provincial education program. McAllister noted that distance learning programs have worked well to ensure students continue their education during the pandemic.
“We’re not against remote learning,” he said. “But a pandemic response is not a permanent option.”
McAllister’s concern is that the ministry is trying to apply a one-size-fits-all idea to all school boards in the province without considering the student number differences between large urban schools and small rural schools.
“I am standing up for small schools,” he said. “This may work well in Toronto, Hamilton, and other places. But it doesn’t work in Eastern Ontario where every student (registeredthe ) counts.”
McAllister observed that class size and staffing for small rural schools are often different compared to large urban schools. He gave as an example a Grade 12 physics class that might have 15 students at a rural school. If five students decided to do their physics studies through virtual learning then the school could end up dropping Grade 12 physics from its curriculum because there are not enough students to justify the expense of assigning a classroom and a teacher for the course.
He also noted that the ministry’s demand could also affect the budget revenue situation for many small rural school boards. The ministry could offer full-time online learning for high school students in either English or French through TVO/TFO.
The worry is that school boards would end up losing some of the provincial Grants for Student Needs funding (GSN) they get as part of their annual operation budgets. Students that enrolled in full-time virtual learning through the ministry would no longer be considered as part of the total student enrolment for the school board region where they lived so there would be less GSN money from the ministry for that school board. During its own budget plan the school board would either have to find other revenue sources to make up for the GSN funding lost or consider cutting back on other expenses or eliminating some programs.
Lobby action
The UCDSB has asked the provincial government to form a royal commission on the future of education before making any “significant changes” to Ontario’s education setup. That includes making online learning a permanent option for students.
McAllister noted that almost two dozen other school boards have expressed concern about the ministry’s demand. The Ontario Public School Association and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario have also urged the provincial government to reconsider its plans.
Meanwhile McAllister has begun lobbying for support of the UCDSB’s position from local governments and other groups. He has made presentations to the United Counties of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry council and the regional councils for Grenville and Lanark counties. He is waiting for a response from the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR) to his request to make a presentation to UCPR council.
-
Alfred-Plantagenet prepares bid for food hub project
Mayor Stéphane Sarrazin confirmed that the municipality is working out a proposal for the project based in the Village of Alfred. He said that an announcement on the township’s intention would be made during the June 1 municipal council session.
-
In memory of the children
The flags are at half-mast at city hall and other municipal buildings in the City of Clarence-Rockland and will remain so until June 8.
The city is honouring the memory of 215 First Nations children who died at a former residential school in Kamloops B.C. and whose bodies have recently been discovered in a mass grave. Each hour that the flags remain at half-mast represents the life of a child.
Clarence-Rockland and many other communities within the Eastern Ontario region are located within the traditional lands of the Algonquin First Nations. The city extends its condolences to all First Nations people whose hearts and spirits are touched by this tragedy, and to all residential school survivors, their families, and their communities.