It's the first week of May! Flowers are blooming, trees are budding and we have two goose families wandering in our back yard... (which is actually better than having them swimming because that has been known to happen with late spring flooding.) Though it would be nice to see a bit more sun and a little less rain.
I suppose the bright side of cold, wet spring weather is that if we can't have patios or golf courses open anyway, we aren't wasting beautiful weather stuck at home. That's not meant to be light-hearted, really - this lockdown is wearing us all down and while we might understand it's the right thing to do it's difficult to balance emotionally as businesses suffer and people struggle with isolation.
Access to vaccinations is hopefully improving - Lisa & Susan are "done" and I've got my name on the list now for a pharmacy shot... and there are Chambers across the province accessing rapid test kits that they are making available to members.
We are considering participating in the Rapid Antigen Screening Kit Distribution Plan for Small and Medium Sized Businesses under 150 Employees. The purpose of screening people in the workplace with rapid antigen testing will help identify individuals with COVID-19 to help protect others from exposure and provide much needed data about viral prevalence within job sites and communities across Canada. The goal of this program is to identify individuals who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic to prevent them from spreading the COVID-19 virus in the workplace, at home and in the community.
So, quick question - would you use rapid test kits for your employees if they were available? We're hearing about the logistics and management from others and based on their experience of the rollout, are looking at whether we can make this happen here. Your interest will help guide our decision... email me now if you want to know more!
Tomorrow and Wednesday this week I'll be attending the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Conference and AGM from my kitchen office (along with 1st Vice Anthony Callaghan)... and then we're into planning for our own AGM scheduled for Friday, May 28th. See our "save the date" info below.
There are some mixed responses to the Ontario sick leave option and I believe the intention is to provide a bridge between the time it takes for the federal CSRB program to kick in if you are required to stay home after a positive test result... please, continue to encourage your employees to register for these programs if they aren't able to come to work. More details on those below as well.
Wishing you the best week possible!
