Mayor Patrick Brown was our guest speaker last week and the main theme for discussion was how the city is dealing with COVID-19 and its plans to combat the recent rise in COVID cases.
POINTS:
- Brampton’s COVID exposure is mostly cause by essential worker some through the Truckers because we have more truckers per capita than anywhere else in the GTA slow down pay attention to give yourself the opportunity to connect
- Health care capacity is strong, it has not been threatened during the Pandemic we are able to handle the COVID infections
- Contact tracing is very significant to controlling the spread and Brampton has prioritized partly because of the high number of frontline workers in transportation and delivery - we are still maintaining strong contract tracing as this allows Brampton to control community spread
- Spike in infections last Sunday and this appears to be traced back to Thanksgiving celebrations
- Vulnerable communities – are getting special provisions – A hotel was converted to a homeless shelter, funding was allotted to regeneration, there is a task force in place to deal with the impacts associated to vulnerable community
- Financial impact – Brampton has some partnering with the federal GOVT and that covered 70% of the cost we do not expect any negative impact but there are uncertainties, currently our city has a AAA credit rating
- City Hall is virtually fully functional – All city services exclusive of large gatherings are pretty much back online. In person services are a bit more challenging, and some loved event are being worked on as a virtual event – Santa Claus Parade.
- Halloween is being made fun through the use of competition . Currently the costume competition will result a life size chocolate treat
- Mayor encouraged us to continue to adapt, the winter will have some challenges because it limits us even further as we are not able to continue outdoor events. The city is looking at options to provide opportunities
- Mayor Brown encourages us to look at the silver lining in this pandemic, more time with family, the appreciation of the simple things, we have to remember that this is a temporary thing we can get down we have to stay up beat and we will get through this as a community
Questions:
- Bino – What is the help available for the Restaurants and Banquet Halls – Mayor reminded us that the new aid package includes banquet halls and invited Bino to send him a note with contact information so that he is able to pass on how to access the help
- Creative ways for opening restaurants – Mayor Brown is trying to convince govt to relax the approach to restaurant reduce capacity. A more targeted approach to fine the bad actors instead of penalizing all businesses the same by shutting down fully.
- President Dittie asked about meetings restrictions. The mayor mentioned a lot is due to vaccine availability and testing abilities – he was optimistic for a spring turn around on lifting the restrictions
- Secretary Rita asked about vaccine availability - Answer from Mayor Brown -This is still being worked on. Asked for verification on the lockdown period – Peel is still under lockdown. Mayor has asked the Premier for the plan for the re-opening or restaurants
- Jacobson – asked about the insurance hikes and the impact that is happening on the city – Mayor mentioned its regulated federally and however he has been actively trying to get federal alignment in limiting the rate increases.
- Speaker Thanks; Bali Sing – Gave thanks to the speaker, Mayor Brown – he highlighted that Canada’s response is pretty good but we are still in stage 2 so there are still concerns and the rate of infection coming through essential workers but contact tracing is strong. The overall theme is stay positive we can pull through this together. Bali also thanked the Mayor for the great job being done by him and his team in these challenging times.