Covid-19 Double Standards | NHL Teams Allowed To Dine At Private Restaurants
Canadian COVID-19 News of the Week
Each week, the COVID-19 global pandemic brings with it a ton of news that can often be hard to keep track of. Thus, to ensure you haven’t missed some of the latest happenings related to the virus in Canada, we are here to catch you up.
Can NHL Players Really Dine in Ontario?
On Monday, the Government of Ontario said it would allow Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) teams to dine at restaurants throughout the province, even amidst current lockdown measures and future dining capacity limits.
At that time, CBC Sports said the NHL would provide the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health with a plan outlining “a full list of Ontario businesses and places that will be used by the NHL.”
Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams explained that the NHL’s rigorous health and safety protocols – which includes frequent testing, player isolation and “tight transport” within Canada – made him confident about the possibility of Canadian teams grabbing meals at private restaurants within the province.
By Wednesday, however, an NHL spokesperson told the Canadian Press that it is not “planning to loosen the restrictions at this point in time.”
According to current NHL protocols, teams can offer its players and personnel modified buffet service, with said service provided by an attendant who is maintaining proper physical distancing.”
Added, Steve Keogh, Director, Media Relations for the Toronto Maple Leafs:
"We have a dining space within each hotel that we go to, and that's where the team meals are happening. They're all following the proper protocols that the NHL and the province put forward — proper spacing, you're always sitting at the same seats within that dining area.
He continued: “It's not something where the teams can go out for a night out to dine at a particular restaurant.''
On Thursday, the NHL further enhanced its COVID-19 protocols as several players and teams across the league remain sidelined due to the virus. In addition to heightening its testing practices, the NHL wants its players to only venture into society for essential purposes.
Reads the press release: “To reduce the introduction of infection into the team environment, effective immediately, all players, coaches, training staff, equipment staff and other members of each club's travelling party will be required to remain at home and not leave their place of residence except to attend practices and games, to exercise outdoors on an individual basis, to perform essential activities (i.e. go to the doctor), or to deal with family or other emergencies and other extraordinary circumstances.”
The NHL has also “strongly recommended” that household members (i.e. spouses, partners, etc.) “ limit their discretionary activities outside of the home.”
Millions of COVID-19 Rapid Tests in Canada Are Going Unused
This week, the CBC News Network program ‘Power & Politics” asked each province to reveal how many rapid COVID-19 tests it has received from the federal government and how many have been used.
Every province, with the exception of Saskatchewan, offered their totals. Here’s the breakdown from lowest percentage used, to highest:
Alberta: 0.89% of 1.9 million tests
Newfoundland and Labrador: 0.90% of 144,240 tests
Quebec: 0.92% of 2,600,000 tests
Manitoba: 1.49% of 620,376 tests
New Brunswick: 4.15% of 284,0604 tests
Nova Scotia: 5.57% of 287,000 tests
British Columbia: 17.69% of 1,300,000 tests
Ontario: 18.47% of 5,413,872 tests
Prince Edward Island: 25% of 37,000 tests
During his media availability on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broached the topic of all the unused rapid tests and encouraged provinces to do better.
"We know that rapid testing, even right now with the variants spreading, is really important to get us to a place where we're starting mass vaccinations with lower and lower case counts," Trudeau said.
"So as we've sent close to 20 million rapid tests across the country we're really hoping and excited about the different ways and innovative, creative approaches to using them."
Now, a province not utilizing its rapid testing inventory can be a result of a number of factors, not the least of which is whether or not such a tool can properly detect whether or not a person has contracted COVID-19.
Dr. David Naylor, Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and a member of the federal government’s COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel, told the CBC that rapid tests are not as accurate as full-fledged lab tests. But he also argued the importance of using them to determine infectivity.
"You have to conceive of them as a screening test. If you get a positive, you want to confirm it with the gold standard test still, but the point is we need the information," said Dr. Naylor.
"We cannot be willfully ignorant when we have the tools that can shed light on what's going on in these settings where people are thrown together, where the risk of transmission is quite high."
Union of Taxation Employees Upset with CRA
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has contracted Maximus Canada – a company that “focuses exclusively on providing services to government” – to handle calls related to emergency benefit inquiries.
The contract will run from February to August, with potentially 130 temporary call centre attendees coming aboard. The Maximus Canada staff lending assistance will be based in the Great White North and not have access to a caller’s CRA particulars.
Marc Brière, President of the Union of Taxation Employees, is concerned by this move.
"I understand that these people might not have access to the employee CRA system,” said Brière, whose union represents 28,000 CRA workers. “But what if a taxpayer, thinking they're calling CRA, inadvertently gave confidential information to the employees of the third party? That can certainly happen. So we're concerned with that.”
The CRA has said these incoming, temporary staffers will be trained using in-house materials and procedures. If a caller asks specific questions regarding their account, they will have to be passed over to full-fledged CRA agents.
-by Adam Grant
NHL teams not going to private restaurants despite Ontario green light
Ontario permits indoor dining for NHL teams while province under stay-at-home order
NHL, NHLPA enhance COVID-19 protocols
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-nhlpa-enhanced-covid-protocols/c-321308780
Millions of rapid COVID tests gather dust as some provinces use a fraction of their supply
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rapid-tests-provinces-use-unused-1.5909702
Bracing for 'a tax season like no other,' CRA hires private firm to answer Canadians' questions
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tax-season-pandemic-private-company-questions-1.5909359
Maximus Canada
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Who Is Matt McKeever?
Matt McKeever is a CPA, CA and Real Estate Entrepreneur in London, Ontario. On his YouTube Channel with over 70,000 subscribers and 4,000,000 views Matt discusses a variety of real estate and personal finance strategies and tactics. Including: How to BRRRR Real Estate, The Importance of Investing for Cash Flow, How to Reach Financial Independence Retire Early, Safe Withdrawal Rates, Frugality and Reducing Personal Consumption & Embracing Minimalism.
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4 年I think everyone should have the right to eat at a restaurant right now