Lancaster Bomber flies over Niagara on Remembrance Day
The Avro Lancaster bomber flew over Niagara on Remembrance Day in a beautiful tribute to Canadian veterans. The iconic aircraft took off from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in the morning and flew over Hamilton, Burlington and Ancaster before making its way over West Niagara and down to Niagara Falls.
As @Jdavis_Halton tweeted, “God bless that aircraft.”
Breaking ground on new rowing facility
Canada Summer Games Niagara Host Society is holding a ground breaking ceremony this afternoon for the new rowing facility to be built on Henley Island in St. Catharines. This world-class venue will be the site of the rowing competition for the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, before later hosting the 2024 World Rowing Championships. The Games, originally scheduled to take place in August of 2021 have been postponed to August 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lincoln combines agriculture and tech at hackathon
The second annual Agritech Hackathon was held virtually and welcomed more than 210 attendees, 35 teams and 131 participants from across 22 different countries – more than doubling last year’s attendance. With such a diverse group of hackers, the event resulted in a variety of viable solutions facing problems in today’s agriculture, horticulture, and ecotourism sectors.
“The success and growth of this year’s event not only draws light on our agricultural and agricultural-related sector locally, but also globally,” said Town of Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton. “As a Council we have implemented a number of policy decisions that have made Lincoln a Centre of Excellence for Agriculture, this innovative event showcases our agricultural strength to the world.” In 2019, the Town of Lincoln developed Ontario’s first ever AgriTech Hackathon to bring together agriculture and tech to provide innovative solutions to the challenges facing modern agriculture.
Brock awarded $200,000 for equipment to research cell biology of COVID-19 infection
A Brock University research team has received a grant that will enable them to research how humans react to COVID-19 and a possible therapy to treat infection. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) awarded immunologist Adam MacNeil and medical entomologist Fiona Hunter $200,000 to purchase high molecular and cellular resolution equipment for this work.
The Brock research teams will study how cells respond to infection, the impact of acquired immunity toward coronaviruses, and how interactions between the immune system and cells lining the lungs shape the inflammation characteristic of severe COVID-19. They will also look at if and how a molecule called a peptide could be used to reduce the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, acting as a possible therapy. The new equipment will be housed in Brock University’s Level 3 containment laboratory.
New visiting hours for Niagara Health
Niagara Health has changed its visiting hours as of this past Monday offering more time for family members to visit loved ones in hospital. Inpatients may have one visitor during each of the following time blocks: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For safety reasons, visitors may not rotate during time blocks. Niagara Health recommends those wishing to visit an inpatient agree to a visitation schedule in advance to ensure everyone is able to have time with their loved ones.
As a reminder, all visitors must:
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Pass screening in order to gain entry.
- Bring their own mask and wear it at all times while in the hospital. It is mandatory that all visitors wear a mask while at the hospital.
- Follow infection prevention and control measures, including meticulous hand hygiene and physical distancing throughout their stay.
- Limit their movement while in the hospital, staying in the patient’s room for the duration of the visit.
Limited exceptions for additional visitors, or extended visiting time, continue to be made on a case-by-case basis.
Niagara Falls Drive-thru Santa Clause Parade this weekend
Niagara Falls’ Santa Clause parade will be in reverse format this year where performers will be stationary while spectators drive past in their vehicles. The parade is set for Saturday, Nov. 14 between 3 and 5 p.m. on Queen Street in Downtown Niagara Falls and will take place rain or shine.
The new Drive Through event will feature dancers, jugglers, stilt walkers, superheroes, colourful inflatables, community groups, music, and of course, Santa Claus as the Grand Finale. Project SHARE will be collecting cash donations and non-perishable food items.
Niagara Regional Councillors want stricter enforcement of COVID rules
As Niagara wrestles with trying to get its daily COVID-19 positive cases into single digits again, some local politicians are calling for much stricter enforcement of the existing rules. At this week’s regional public health and social services committee councillors said the time for education has passed and it’s now time to starting doling out fines. St. Catharines mayor Walter Sendzik also expressed frustration that an update on the COVID-19 situation in Niagara was left to the end of the meeting. He expressed a lack of confidence in Niagara’s public health team. “This should have been at the top of the agenda, we are in the middle of a second wave and we have been for now, what’s going on five or six weeks and the opening of the public health meeting should have been a report from Dr. Hirji that clearly indicated where we are, what the framework is that was just recently released by the Province of Ontario and provided a map of where we are going,” said Sendzik.
COVID numbers climb
Ontario coronavirus cases continue to climb. The last seven days have seen more than1200 cases per day, with yesterdays 1426 cases being the highest one-day total since the pandemic hit. Testing has climbed back up to average over 35,400 per day. The percentage of people testing positive unfortunately continues to rise with November 9 4.76% being the highest ‘percentage testing positive’ for one day since the 4.94% recorded on May 24. Toronto, Peel and York continue to lead in new infections accounting for more than two-thirds of new cases most days.
In Niagara, it was also a bad week averaging 29 new cases per day. Tuesdays largest one day number of 63 was largely due to a Lincoln farming operation outbreak where 45 cases were identified. Outbreaks continued in Thorold and Fort Erie. Active cases were still led by St. Catharines at approximately 68, followed by Lincoln with 50, Niagara Falls with 44 and Fort Erie with 33. West Lincoln was the lowest with 1 active case.
West Niagara residents get a look at future Casablanca development
Grimsby residents had a chance recently to attend an open house about the proposed development where the current Casablanca Hotel stands. TRG Casablanca Inc. is developing the property and is also the owner of the hotel. Their plan is to demolish the existing hotel and add two buildings to the site, one 19 storeys high as part of Phase 1, and one of 12 storeys in phase 2 with a total of 420 units between both apartment and townhouse units, along with retail, and hotel space.
After push back from the public on the lack of parking spaces, the developer has since revised its plan and will significantly increase parking from 245 spots to 909.
