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HELLO OTTAWA

The City has announced how it will be complying with the new COVID-19 state of emergency. Some highlights:

 

City Owned Buildings

  • City Hall is only open for Service Ontario access and city daycare. There is no personal access to City services although online is still available.
     
  • 100 Constellation and Ben Franklin Place are closed.
     
  • All indoor recreation centres are closed, except warming centres, COVID-19 testing centres, and city childcare.
     
  • Before-And-After School programmes will be open when schools reopen.
     
  • Libraries remain closed but curbside pick-up and dropoff remain.

Outdoor Rinks and Toboggan Runs

  • Outdoor rinks and hills remain open but are limited to 25 people at a time and masks must be worn. The refrigerated rinks are pre-booking only. [ottawa.ca/skating]
     
  • No team sports are permitted and no sticks or pucks are allowed.

The full statement, including information for people dealing with building permits and such, can be found here.

 

Weekend Plans

If lockdown’s got you depressed, helping others might make you feel better. This weekend, while watching the expected snowfall from the comfort of the couch, we could do worse than finding ways to support some of the hard working charities in Ottawa. 

▪️Hope Cornerstone is the Ottawa charity serving the housing needs of women. Right now they’re hosting the Ottawa Westboro page of the Coldest Night of the Year fundraising walk to raise money for charities serving those facing homelessness. The walk happens on February 20th, and Ottawa Westboro aims to raise $25K. They’ve reached 7% of their goal as of today.

Ways you can support the effort:

  1. Donate to a walker or a team (the ottawan registered a team this morning, hint hint.)
     
  2. Register to walk 2.5km or 5 km by yourself or with a team on February 20th.
     
  3. Help to raise awareness of the walk. 

▪️There’s a jackpot of at least $22K in the monthly Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ontario 50/50 lotto draw, and ticket sales end later today. The proceeds support the charity’s mentoring programs.

▪️Practice self care while you help others. You can support the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation by purchasing Soap for Hope from Garden Path Homemade Soaps. This natural soap has citrus essential oils and paprika, which is used to give it its subtle colour. $5.75 plus shipping.

▪️Apply for a job: The Ottawa Food Bank is hiring two Community Harvest Assistants to work from April to November 2021. If you have agricultural/gardening experience and knowledge, and you can operate farm machinery, and you have experience in supervising volunteers, the Food Bank would love to hear from you. The farm is located in Stittsville and is inaccessible via public transit, so you’ll need a vehicle. Salary commensurate with experience, but will be at least $15/hr.

▪️The Food Bank is always looking for donations. Check the website for lists of items needed, and a map of drop off locations. 


Weekend Shopping

▪️The Ottawa Farmers’ Market is deemed an essential service and will therefore be open this weekend. If it’s safe for you to do so, visit the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park on Sunday for in-person shopping. This week, vendors will be selling empanadas, cupcakes, game meats, baked goods, organic produce, Thai food, freshly roasted coffee beans, Kombucha, honey, maple syrup, soup, and a whole lot more. 

▪️Dominion City’s new Stay Home, Slay Foam glasses are stylish, 13.5oz glasses that not only hold beer. They also help to support the Frontline Fund, which supports Canadian hospital foundations dealing with COVID with supplies, support, and research. Available for pre-order now, the glasses are expected to be ready for pick-up in early February. $15

We'll see you Monday – Martha and Darren


#STATS

Weather: ?️ 30 per cent chance of flurries. High of 0° Snowfall warning: 15 - 25 cm of snow over the weekend

Number: $160,000. The cost to excavate one-quarter kilometre of earth at Dow's Lake to install lay clean water pipe because the park was built on a former landfill. The entire cost was $204,000. [Ottawa Citizen

Ottawan of the Day: Brydon Gibson. FINALLY someone understands what life in the future, 2021, is supposed to be about. Gibson has built a homemade 'jetpack' to zoom him down the ice on skates. The fact that the ‘jetpack’ is a propeller does nothing to diminish the accomplishment in our eyes. Godspeed, Future Man. [CBC

Quote: “We’re normally 35 to 45 people when we meet once a week in person. When we were on Zoom, we were getting 60 to 85 people coming to our meetings” – Jo D, chair of the Ottawa Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ottawa area Alcoholics Anonymous groups are finding that virtual meetings bring in more people but some participants are left behind by technology [Ottawa Citizen] [Ottawa Alcoholics Anonymous]


CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Vaccination tracker by Andrew Lam (@socialvizcanada)

159,021 doses have been administered in Ontario (81% of the doses available)

? At this rate, it would take 168.5 weeks to administer one dose to each person in Ontario. 

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines delivery tracker
Federal Goverment database listing predicted future deliveries


? Public Health Reports

OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health Dashboard

Ottawa Wastewater Dashboard

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

Ottawa Catholic School Board

Conseil des ecoles catholiques du Centre-Est

Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
 

There have been 11,879 confirmed cases of COVID‌-19, an increase of 132 since yesterday, and 398 deaths, no new reports.
 

OUTAOUAIS

Outaouais Public Health dashboard

There have been 5445 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 52 since yesterday, and 139 deaths, two new reports.
 

EASTERN ONTARIO

Eastern Ontario Health Unit dashboard

There have been 2046 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 42 since yesterday, and 42 deaths, four new reports.
 

Sometimes the number of cases or deaths are lower from one day to the next. This is usually because the powers-that-be have reassigned a case to a different health authority.


⭕ The First Nations community of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg has far fewer vaccine doses than needed but it's not clear if Quebec or the Federal government will step up [CBC]

⭕ How come months of ‘stay home’ messaging didn't work for Ontarians? [Macleans]

⭕ Quebec is delaying the second dose of vaccines to a maximum of 90 days to increase the number of people vaccinated [CBC]

⭕ Production issues in Europe will delay shipments of the Pfizer vaccine to Canada. Four million doses by March are no longer guaranteed. [CityNews]


 ? The Canada COVID Alert App

Be alerted if you have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. 

How It Works       [Apple App Store]      [Google Play Store]

HISTORIC OTTAWA LOGO T-SHIRTS

We’ve made t-shirts of iconic Ottawa logos. 

Printed in Canada.

BUY

 

And don’t forget: you can also buy official ottawan t-shirts

#WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

▪️Ottawa Police Service officer pleads guilty to assaulting four women he met online. He also pled guilty to threatening to kill a fifth if he caught her cheating on this charmer. Constable Eric Post will remain under house arrest until he is sentenced in April. He is barred by the court from accessing dating sites. [Ottawa Citizen

▪️Secondary school students in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will stay home until January 29. Elementary students are still scheduled to go back January 25. [CTV]

▪️The two six-unit buildings in Kanata which caused so much concern from local residents has been approved by the City's planning committee. It now goes to the full council on January 27. [Ottawa Citizen]

▪️Kanata will be home to Hub350, ‘a living lab for a highly educated and tech-oriented workforce to gather to live, work, play, and learn‘ this summer.  It's also a ‘brand new ecosystem for industry, academic and finance partners’.  The Kanata North business association says that Hub350 will ‘be the primary node within Canada's largest tech park that will emerge as a mixed use innovation district activity centre with ecosystem partners collaborating in this shared space.’ Dandy. [TechRepublic]

▪️The provincial Solicitor General says that police do not have powers to stop cars or enter homes under the new COVID rules. ‘[B]eing outside is not sufficient evidence of a failure to comply with the stay-at-home order,’ spokesman Stephen Warner said. Workers also do not have to have documentation proving that they are travelling to or from work. [Huffington Post]

THE OTTAWAN

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