Now that it’s been a full year since the first presumed positive case of COVID-19 was discovered in Canada we are also experiencing another not so positive first. This week will be the first week where Canada will have zero doses delivered of the two vaccines so far approved by Health Canada since they became available. This is not good news as the bulk of Ontario continues to be in lock-down and kids are forced to continue with on-line learning. Here in Niagara the case numbers have been climbing at an increasing rate, and at one-point last week, we had the highest reproductive rate of the virus in the province. It seems we continue getting hit on all sides.

As Niagara residents wonder about when we might be headed into the “Red Zone” and lose the ability to shop for Christmas/Hanukah or go the gym and eat in a restaurant, it seems puzzling that, in a country as fortunate and well off as Canada, we are learning that most similar countries to us, like those in the G7, will have access to COVID-19 vaccines sooner than we will. If you’re wondering why, it might be because successive governments of all political stripes at both the federal and provincial level have allowed it to happen. They have plowed full steam ahead on policies that may sound fantastic because they will save some money on a budget line item but they don’t fully understand that costs will end up increasing on another line item either immediately, or at some point in the future.