UPDATES FROM TASK FORCE CHAIRS
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This morning, our Richmond COVID-19 Community Task Force (RCCTF) hosted its ninth teleconference meeting.
May 19th, was the first day of BC's Restart Plan. Of course, a great deal of conversation focused on the reopening of Richmond's businesses and institutions.
As we take these gradual steps forward, the RCCTF will continue to meet and keep you informed.
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Task Force Co-Chairs:
Fan Chun (Chair, Richmond Chamber of Commerce) and Mayor Malcolm Brodie (City of Richmond)
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UPDATE FROM VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH
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Dr. Meena Dawar, Medical Health Officer with Vancouver Coastal Health shared:
- Epidemiology: As of yesterday, 2444 cases of COVID-19 were reported in BC. The number of reported cases continues to decrease with majority of new cases related to contact of a known case or cluster (rather than through community acquisition). All Canadian provinces are experiencing a decline in new cases.
- Your Story, Our Future Survey: The BC COVID-19 survey is a very important survey. Over 200,000 have responded already. This is a 10-minute survey that asks about health impacts and perception of measures that have been taken. It is very important for everyone in Richmond to have an opportunity to provide their input. This is important for recovery, and also to prepare for the future wave.
- Elective Surgeries: The plan to restart elective surgeries will be implemented in stages:
- To start, all patients who had surgeries postponed will be contacted.
- Patients who had their elective surgery postponed will be rescheduled with their surgeon.
- Urgent surgeries will be prioritized, and will proceed in a way that maintains patient and staff safety.
- New clinical guidelines will ensure patients are pre-screened for symptoms.
Resources:
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UPDATE FROM THE CITY OF RICHMOND
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Three-month emergency shelter to open in Richmond
Mayor Brodie and Senior City staff shared that the City of Richmond is looking at the reopen plan for City facilities, filling gaps, and supporting residents and businesses in Phase Two.
Major Events: Events hosted by the City of Richmond will change for 2020. Some events will be replaced by an online experience, like Doors Open, and others will need to be cancelled entirely. The matter is on Council's agenda for today.
Emergency Response Centre
: Open today at the former Minoru Place Activity Centre, the ERC will provide shelter for Richmond's homeless population, with physical distancing and health and personal support. The ERC will operate 24/7 and is a part of the provincial COVID-19 strategy to allow people, including those without permanent homes, to remain healthy and safe during the pandemic. The ERC is funded by BC Housing with Turning Point Recovery Society operating the space.
Assisting Businesses: The City of Richmond Economic Development Office's priority for the coming weeks is to make sure that businesses have access to all the information they need to develop their safety plans and to re-open when they’re ready. WorkSafeBC has worked with industry associations to develop very specific and helpful guidelines for individual sectors. They have also developed a 6 step planning tool and a template to help guide businesses through this process. The City’s Business Support Center is also available to help (website:
www.businessinrichmond.ca/covid-19; email: businesshelp@richmond.ca; and phone: 604-276-4114
Resources:
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UPDATE FROM RICHMOND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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Matt Pitcairn, President & CEO shared:
RCC's Federal Focus:
- This morning, expansion to the eligibility criteria for CEBA was announced to include many owner operated businesses.
RCC's Provincial Focus:
- The Chamber is working with members to help them comply with BC's Restart Plan, and reopen their businesses in some capacity, where they are able: including investigating funding support for PPE supplies, answering questions and forwarding to elected officials.
Restart:
- The Chamber is hosting a virtual Virtual Town Hall in conjunction with WeAreRichmondBC Partners (Tourism Richmond and the City's Economic Development Office) this Friday at 10am. Ian Tostenson, President & CEO of the BC Restaurant & Food Services Association (BCRFA) will be discussing BC's restaurant industry and what to expect in the coming week as restaurants look to reopening. This event is free to attend and open to anyone in the food service industry.
Resources:
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UPDATE FROM VANCOUVER AIRPORT AUTHORITY (YVR)
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Anne Murray, YVR's Vice President of Airline Business Development and Public Affairs, joined the task force call this week and will represent YVR moving forward. She provided the following update:
YVR's Board of Directors announced last week the
appointment of Tamara Vrooman as YVR's new President & CEO
, effective July 1, 2020. The former President and CEO of Vancity Credit Union is no stranger to YVR, and has a comprehensive understanding of the airport—gained from her nine years on YVR's Board of Directors. She is the ideal person to lead the organization and reimagine YVR as a benchmark airport of the future. As previously announced in November 2019, Craig Richmond will retire at the end of June.
Canada-U.S. border update:
The extension of the Canada-U.S. agreement means the border will be closed to all non-essential travel for at least another month. YVR remains in close contact with its airline partners to align and help drive their recovery planning. For the month of June, there is re-start and increased frequencies for a number of key routes.
Moving BC goods to market:
While non-essential travel is not occurring for now, the flow of goods continues. As restrictions are lifted around the world, and societies begin to reopen, we anticipate two additional trends in cargo:
- Increased demand for BC perishables as restaurants reopen in overseas markets.
- Increased cargo shipments as the retail sector reopens, and retailers undergo an inventory refresh to restock shelves and meet pent-up demand.
Resources:
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UPDATE FROM RICHMOND SCHOOL DISTRICT 38
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Scott Robinson with Richmond School District 38 shared that:
- Starting June 1st, all parents will have the option of sending their children to school for part time face-to-face learning opportunities
- Parents will also have the option of keeping their children at home for the remainder of this school year. In that case, their children will continue to receive remote learning opportunities at home.
- Students in K-5 – will have the option of returning to school two days per week
- Students in grades 6-12 – will have the option of returning to school the equivalent of one day per week
- All parents will be asked to complete a survey this week indicating whether they wish to send their child to school or will continue only with remote learning for the remainder of this school year
Resources:
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UPDATE FROM TOURISM RICHMOND
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Nancy Small, CEO of Tourism Richmond shared that:
- We continue to work with our tourism partners to determine what our restart marketing will look like – when, where, how.
- We are looking at many different options – but will certainly focus on locals (with a rallying cry to our residents to support our hospitality businesses) and conversely, we will look at attracting visitors from outside Richmond for day and overnight trips.
- Local and regional travel will respond first. Then moving to interprovincial and then in the long-term US and international.
- And in very big, positive news – WeAreRichmondBC.com has officially launched. Our team has collaborated to support businesses and residents.
Resources:
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UPDATES FROM RICHMOND'S MLAs
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MLA Linda Reid shared an update on behalf of her and his colleagues, Jas Johal, Teresa Wat, and John Yap:
- Condolences to the Canadian Snowbirds and all those affected by the tragedy.
- In terms of Day 1 of Phase 2, there is a lot of anxiety for businesses.
- This week is the BC Chamber of Commerce AGM.
- The Legislature will be reopening in Mid – Late June. It will be a restricted attendance.
Resources:
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MP Kenny Chiu shared updates on behalf of the Richmond MPs:
- There’s been an increased number of cases of alleged hate or racist incidents in GVRD and recently even in Richmond. The immigrant Chinese community has expressed stress and felt the pressure under the political cloud of COVID. I have reassured the community that hate & racism has no place in Canada, and asserted my confidence in the ability of our police force to keep protecting citizens of Richmond. A special shout-out to the RCMP for a speedy and satisfactory resolution of the incident that happened one block from the MP Office in Steveston.
- We have accepted a sizable shipment of personal protective equipment, very generously donated from individuals with ties to Canada in Hong Kong. Tomorrow I will be holding a digital press conference to give more details on this and issuing a release. Needless to say, we have partnered with Richmond community organizations to see this material put to good use.
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Superintendent Will Ng, Officer in Charge for the Ric
hmond RCMP shared that:
- The Richmond RCMP are continuing high visibility patrols. There has been a marked reduction in commercial and residential break ins.
- The RCMP does not condone hate crime and all incidents will be investigated fully.
- The RCMP is monitoring the Emergency Response Centre at the old Minoru Senior's Centre.
- No officers have been exposed this week to COVID-19 and no officers are currently in self-isolation.
Resources:
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UPDATES FROM RICHMOND FIRE RESCUE
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Chief Tim Wilkinson with Richmond shared that:
- Staff remain healthy. PPE levels are adequate and we are having no issue acquiring PPE as needed.
- RFR is acting on our plan to reopen business:
- High risk building/business inspections are on going, next levels will come into action once high risk inspections are complete,
- Tower crane inspections are now available and being actioned by response teams,
- Access to #1 Brighouse Fire Hall is on an appointment only basis; must have an established need to meet in person.
- Recurrent training is ongoing at all fire halls and the Lafarge Live Fire Training site.
- Emergency Response, Medical response protocols are expected to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.
- Fire response remains higher than normal.
- Public Education Program – reduction of outdoor fires, “Stick it, Don’t Flick It” will begin soon as we see the warm weather start to return.
Resources:
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Richmond Chamber of Commerce
604.278.2822
rcc@richmondchamber.ca
www.RichmondChamber.ca
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