Age-Friendly Program to be reviewed month by month
The City of Elliot Lake is continuing with its Age-Friendly Program with plans to review it on a month-to-month basis.
The matter came up for discussion at council this week following complaints by a local business owner Andrew Young who says the program competes with his business, FireSide Classic Grill and FireSide Food Shop.
However, city CAO Daniel Gagnon says the service is in place for those unable to get groceries, especially seniors over 70 years old during times of COVID-19 restrictions.
Mayor Dan Marchisella adds by having to pay $10 for delivery fees, is a day’s groceries for some people whereas the city does not include such fees in their service.
However, council is opening the door for businesses to come up with alternatives to address complaints of competing services.
Council also agreed to review the program on a month-to-month basis.
Mail interruption
If you’re expecting a parcel through snail mail Canada Post says you may be waiting a while.
The mail carrier says staff shortages because of pandemic-related illnesses are causing delays.
In Espanola, the post office has reduced its hours of operations due to staffing shortages.
Canada Post says they have plans in place to deal with the lack of staff but the situation is fluid and delays will continue for the next few weeks.
Privacy invaded?
It’s what people have been worried about.
The Privacy Commissioner is now looking into Public Health Canada’s practice of buying cellphone location data to track people’s movements through the pandemic to see if public health restrictions were working.
Even though the health agency claims it is de-identified, meaning personal information has been removed, it sparked enough concern to force an emergency meeting of the Commons Committee.
Canada’s privacy watchdog is now looking into how the data was used and to make sure it wasn’t for tracking individual movement.
Quebec – no vaxx, you pay
Quebec is introducing a tax on people who won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The premier says a significant financial penalty will be introduced for residents who refuse to get their first shot in the next few weeks.
While a dollar figure hasn’t been announced the Premier says 50 or 100 dollars isn’t enough for him.
The measure is being described by the provincial government as a healthcare contribution and says there is a price to pay for healthcare as it is not up to all Quebecers to pay for this.
A Facebook group of unvaccinated Quebecers call is physiological warfare and has threatened legal action.
