April 1 Newsletter 2021

April 1, 2021 newsletter from Rawlson King, City Councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe.

Join me on Thursday , April 15, at 6 pm for a virtual Town Hall meeting to discuss City of Ottawa's New Official Plan. Visit rideau-rockcliffe.ca/newop to register for the meeting.

Provincial COVID-19 Lock Down

The provincial government is imposing a provincewide emergency brake in all 34 public health unit regions as a result of an alarming surge of COVID-19 case numbers and related hospitalizations across the province. The provincewide emergency brake will be effective Saturday, April 3, 2021, at 12:01 a.m. It is intended to be kept in place for at least four weeks.

The provincewide emergency brake puts into place time-limited public health and workplace safety measures to help to stop the rapid transmission of COVID-19 variants in communities, protect hospital capacity, and save lives. Measures include, but are not limited to:

• Prohibiting indoor organized public events and social gatherings and limiting the capacity for outdoor organized public events or social gatherings to a 5-person maximum, except for gatherings with members of the same household (the people you live with) or gatherings of members of one household and one other person from another household who lives alone;
• Restricting in-person shopping in all retail settings, including a 50 per cent capacity limit for supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers' markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies, and 25 per cent for all other retail including big box stores, along with other public health and workplace safety measures;
• Prohibiting personal care services;
• Prohibiting indoor and outdoor dining. Restaurants, bars, and other food or drink establishments will be permitted to operate by take-out, drive-through, and delivery only;
• Prohibiting the use of facilities for indoor or outdoor sports and recreational fitness (e.g., gyms) with very limited exceptions;
• Requiring day camps to close; and,
• Limiting capacity at weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies to 15 per cent occupancy per room indoors, and to the number of individuals that can maintain two metres of physical distance outdoors. This does not include social gatherings associated with these services such as receptions, which are not permitted indoors and are limited to five people outdoors.

The current COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open, will be paused when the provincewide emergency brake comes into effect.

Easter schedule changes

The City of Ottawa would like to remind residents of the following schedule changes for the Easter holiday from Friday, April 2 to Monday, April 5:

https://ottawa.ca/en/news/easter-schedule-changes-9

Vaccination appointments and pre-registration open for high-priority residents 

Adult recipients of chronic home health care 

If you are an adult recipient of chronic home health care living anywhere in the City of Ottawa, you can book an appointment at the Canterbury pop-up clinic or any of the City’s other COVID-19 vaccination pop-up clinics. Call 613-691-5505 to confirm your eligibility and book an appointment.  

Patient-facing health care workers pre-registration 

Patient-facing high-priority health care workers (opticians, chiropractors, psychologists, registered massage therapists, etc.) are now able to pre-register for a vaccination appointment. 

Highest priority and very-high priority health care workers from Phase 1 who have not yet received the vaccine can continue to pre-register for appointments. Visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca to confirm eligibility and pre-register. 

Faith leaders pre-registration 

Pre-registration is now open for faith leaders who, as part of their regular role, are at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the following circumstances:  

• End of life care 
• Care of the deceased, funerals, bathing, or other ceremony with direct contact with deceased persons 
• Home visits to unwell persons 
• Pastoral care in hospitals, long term care homes, retirement homes or other vulnerable settings 

Faith leaders can visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca to pre-register for a vaccination appointment. 

First Nation, Métis and Inuit populations 

Ottawa Public Health is partnering with Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health to provide a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for First Nation, Inuit and Métis community members age 16 and over at the St-Laurent Complex, located at 525 Côté Street. Call 613-691-5505 to book an appointment. 

Akausivik Inuit Family Health Team is providing vaccinations for all Inuit adults. To book an appointment with Akausivik or for more information, call 613-740-0999. 

For more information, please visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca/IndigenousVaccine.

Imagine: An April break filled with fun and creativity with the Ottawa Public Library 

April break is just around the corner, at long last! To add to all the excitement of the arrival of spring, the Ottawa Public Library has planned a range of activities under the theme “Imagine” for kids aged 4 to 12. There is something for everyone! On the agenda from April 12 to 17: yoga, dance, arts and crafts, reading, writing and plenty of laughter — not to mention concerts for the whole family each afternoon at 3:30 pm! 

So not to worry, parents! Your kids will be anything but bored. They will find everything they need at the Library to learn, play and let their imagination soar. Hop onto Zoom, YouTube or Facebook to join in on a variety of fun online activities. 

• Starting March 24, you can use your library card to register your kids for the many creative activitiesplanned for April break, every day from 10 am to 2 pm. The fun awaits! 
• From April 12 to 17, the whole family can enjoy concerts by local musicians live on Facebook, YouTube and Zoom. Come check out some new artists and dance along at home!
• Monday, April 12 at 3:30 pm: Will’s Jams Just Imagine
• Tuesday, April 13 at 3:30 pm: Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre: Snippets
• Thursday, April 15 at 3:30 pm: Rabbit and Bear Paws – The Way
• Friday, April 16 at 3:30 pm: Visions of Turtle Island: Tribal Vision Dance
• Saturday, April 17 at 3:30 pm: Conte musical sous un arbre : L’arbre millénaire
• Check out OPL’s YouTube channel to discover fun ideas for STEM and arts and craft activities. 
• If you are looking for something a little different, the OPL Facebook and Twitter pages are always full of tips and tricks for sharing magical and unforgettable moments with the kids.

Reading is the richest road to literacy and knowledge. Reading at any age, though especially for the young has immediate and long-lasting benefits such as reasoning, comprehension, memory, vocabulary, empathy, self-awareness and decreased levels of stress. OPL librarians have put together an exciting booklist to enthrall young readers of all stripes special list of children’s books for the occasion. 

For more information on this program, visit BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca. 

Paint it Up! Funding Applications Available 

Funding is available for outdoor mural art projects that support vandalism prevention, youth empowerment, community safety and the beautification of Ottawa neighbourhoods. Projects must contribute to a clean, safe and beautiful city by engaging neighbourhoods and youth in a constructive learning process to create murals to prevent or deter tagging and vandalism.

Applications are due on April 23.  We are releasing the call for proposals with a timeline to ensure the completion of the projects over the summer period. 

For more information about funding, please visit crimepreventionottawa.ca for the program guidelines and application form. 

Early registration for Cleaning the Capital

The City of Ottawa’s 2021 Cleaning the Capital Program returns for the spring campaign, from April 15 to May 15. Early registration begins today.

Registering is quick and easy:

• Visit ottawa.ca/clean or call 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401) to register your cleanup. Our interactive map will show you which locations have already been claimed, and our online registration form will allow you to choose your own project site and indicate the cleanup supplies that you need.
• Select a location, such as a park, ravine, shoreline, bus stop or pathway – any public area that requires litter pickup or graffiti removal.

The campaign is a citywide event that brings together communities, neighbours and friends to help keep Ottawa clean and green. Cleaning the Capital is also an excellent way for high school students to earn their community volunteer hours.

Montreal Road Revitalization Project update

The work activities planned for the next two weeks (March 29 to April 9) will focus on:

• Preparations for the eastbound Montreal Road detour: As outlined on the project webpage, starting April 18, eastbound Montreal Road between the Vanier Parkway and St. Laurent Boulevard will close, along with numerous side streets. All eastbound traffic will be detoured to McArthur Avenue, while westbound traffic will be reduced to one lane between the Vanier Parkway and St. Laurent Boulevard. The closure will require alternative OC Transpo bus routes which are posted on the OC Transpo website. In preparation for the detour work, work has started along Montreal Road and McArthur Avenue, including traffic signal adjustments, line painting and some segments of concrete median removal. Bus pad and sidewalk modifications, as well as line painting will be undertaken along bus detour routes. Lafontaine Street and Deschamps Street will also require the temporary removal of the cycling lane between the Vanier Parkway and Marier Avenue to accommodate buses. 

• Watermain work: Underground watermain work started last week, which required cut and caps of several side street watermains connecting to Montreal Road. Over the next two weeks, underground work will begin at St. Laurent Boulevard working west. Weather temperature pending, some setup of temporary water services, consisting of an overland hose that will supply drinking water to buildings adjacent to Montreal Road, could begin in early April between Lajoie Street and St. Laurent Boulevard.