Region offering Fort Erie residents free transportation to Port Colborne urgent care centre
A transportation option for Fort Erie residents seeking urgent medical care is now available via Niagara Region.
Fort Erie residents who would have previously used public transit or other local transportation options to travel to the town’s urgent care centre will now have the option of using a taxi service to travel free of charge to and from the Port Colborne urgent care centre.
Niagara Health temporarily closed the urgent care centre at the Fort Erie site on Thursday, Jan. 6 to redeploy emergency-trained physicians and nurses to emergency departments overwhelmed by surging COVID-19 case numbers and staffing shortages.
Effective Wednesday, Jan. 19, riders can call Niagara Region Transit at 905-980-6000 ext. 3550 or toll-free: 1-800-263-7215 ext. 3550 to book their trip. These call lines are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
When a booking is made through Niagara Region the cost of the taxi ride to and from Fort Erie to the Port Colborne urgent care centre will be covered by Niagara Region. Bookings must be made through Niagara Region.
There hasn’t been any indication as to when the Fort Erie urgent care centre will reopen.
Crime Stoppers of Niagara creates Citizen of the Year award in honour of Sandie Bellows
Local non-profit Crime Stoppers of Niagara is establishing a ‘Citizen of the Year’ award to honour the life and legacy of Sandie Bellows, a former Crime Stoppers board member who passed away last October at the age of 60 following a courageous battle with cancer.
Ms. Bellows dedicated her life to community service, crime and safety issues, victim’s rights and helping young people after she survived a horrific kidnapping and sexual assault in January 1990.
The award will be presented annually to recipients who exhibit some of the qualities and strengths that Sandie displayed, such as heroism, significant achievement, an exceptional advocate for justice, outstanding community service and distinguished leadership.
At the time of her death, Ms. Bellows was serving her first term as a Niagara Region councillor representing the City of St. Catharines and also chair of the Niagara Parks. She previously served from 2014 to 2018 as a municipal councillor in St. Catharines. A proud conservative, Sandie ran for the Ontario PC Party in the 2011 and 2018 provincial elections, narrowly falling short in both contests by less than 2,000 votes.
Brock to proceed with phased return to campus at end of month
While Niagara College pushed back its return to in-person learning to Feb. 25 after initially citing a prospective return date of Jan. 28, Brock University will proceed as planned and start bringing students back to campus on Jan. 31.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Brock’s interim president Lynn Wells said that she was grateful for the community’s understanding and flexibility to date and urged students and staff to remain poised and considerate moving forward.
“I know the return to campus is a time of great excitement for the community,” said Wells. “I urge everyone to remain patient and respectful of each other as we make the transition back to campus, and to do everything possible — including following all public health guidance — to ensure a safe and productive Winter Term.”
On Jan. 31, all graduate courses and lectures, labs, seminars, and tutorials at the first- and fourth-year undergraduate level will resume in-person. On Feb. 7, second- and third-year undergraduate level courses will resume.
With details to come in the coming weeks, the university also intends to reopen the Walker Sports Complex and resume on-campus sport and recreational activities.
Province temporarily reduces electricity rates
From Jan. 18 to Feb. 7, 2022, electricity rates for Ontario residences and small businesses will be lowered to the off-peak rate of 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, 24 hours per day.
“The off-peak rate, which is less than half the on-peak rate, will provide immediate savings as Ontarians spend more time at home and work together to slow the spread of the Omicron variant,” said Minister of Energy Todd Smith.
Electricity customers won’t have to do anything to benefit from the rate cut, it will be applied automatically to both time-of-use and tiered rate plans on the bills of residential customers, small businesses and farms who pay regulated rates set by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).
COVID situation stabilizing, announcement regarding lifting of some restrictions coming soon
In a press conference on Wednesday, Ontario’s health minister said that the province is starting to see “glimmers of hope” in its fight against the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Minister Christine Elliott said because of that, the government will be making an announcement later this week on the public health measures that were put in place earlier this month.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said the rate of hospitalizations and cases in the intensive care unit are increasing at a slower pace, with a peak in hospitalizations and ICU admissions expected this month.
According to officials, the average length of stay in hospital for COVID-19 patients is now five days with the Omicron variant, compared to nine days with Delta.
Annual inflation rate hits three-decade high
Headline inflation in Canada hit a 30-year high at the end 2021 with warnings from economists that the pace of price increases could rise even higher and stirring expectations of a central bank response before the month is over.
Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the annual pace of inflation climbed in December to 4.8 per cent, a pace that hasn’t been seen since September 1991.
Driving growth on the consumer price index were prices for groceries that climbed year-over-year by 5.7 per cent – the largest bump in a decade – and for housing that climbed by 9.3 per cent compared with December 2020.
Furnishing homes also got more expensive compared with the same month last year: Prices for household appliances rose by 8.9 per cent for the largest yearly gain since June 1982.
And despite a month-over-month dip in prices at the gas pumps with demand dampened by renewed public health restrictions related to the Omicron, gasoline prices were still up 33.3 per cent year-over-year in December.
