Foreign migrant workers entering the country to toil on our farms and grow our food are now receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on-the-spot before they can leave the airport.

The measure is set to begin April 10 and will affect 200 migrant workers arriving at Pearson Airport from Mexico to work in dozens of farms across Southern Ontario.

The federal government said shots will be offered to the 200 workers as they arrive.

Officials from the ministries of health and agriculture, health-care practitioners and representatives from the Mexican Consulate will be at Pearson to meet the group, offering doses after the workers pass through customs.

The workers will be offered doses of the Moderna vaccine, which will be administered in a screened-off area after they take a mandatory COVID-19 test on arriving.

The government says it will follow up with farms to administer the second dose through the local public health unit where the individuals work.

The program will become permanent after implementing lessons learned from a pilot program.

There are plans to offer shots to more arriving workers next week.

As many as 20,000 migrant workers are starting arrive in Canada to work on our dairy and agricultural farms in Southern Ontario.

Many return here to work yearly from South and Central American and Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil and a host of other countries.

Some of the workers were accused by local residents last year of spreading the virus since they live on farms in congested living areas.

No one was hurt on Friday as Toronto firefighters made it look so easy in putting out a two-alarm blaze in New Toronto.

The fire erupted on April 9 shortly after 11:30 a.m. in a townhome on Sixth Street, near Islington Avenue and Birmingham Street, close to the Toronto Police College.

Police had shut the north end of Sixth Street at Birmingham as crews fought the smoky blaze.

Dozens of area residents were out on the streets on a nice day to witness the fire and quick response by firemen.

Crews arrived to find heavy smoke and flames at the front door and on the property, according to Toronto Fire.

Firefighters had to tear down a large part of the ceiling to make sure the fire was extinguished.

Luckily, the fire did not extend to the homes on either side of the burning house.

The occupants were out of the home when crews arrived and no injuries have been reported.

Fire officials the dwelling will not be habitable for at least a day or two due to smoke.  No cause of the fire has been given at this time.

An estimate of the fire damage was not made available.

 

 

Businesses that are already suffering in South Etobicoke are bracing for another financial hit in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

The Ontario government has decreed another emergency stay-at-home order that begins on April 8 and will last four weeks.

This is Ontario’s third state of emergency declaration and will mean the closure of all non-essential retail outlets for in-person shopping until the end of April.

The new restrictions announced by Premier Doug Ford, and his staff, will allow grocery stores and pharmacies to remain open with capacity limits, as well as big-box stores that sell grocery items and all other stores that sell beer, wine or liquor.

“The COVID-19 situation is at a critical stage and we must act quickly and decisively to stay ahead of these deadly new variants,” said Ford. “By imposing these strict new measures we will keep people safe while allowing our vaccination program to reach more people, starting with our high risk population and identified hot spots.”

But big box stores will only be permitted to sell groceries, household cleaning supplies and pharmacy items to in-person shoppers, something that was not the case during the last stay-at-home order this past winter.

Most businesses in the community have complained about massive crowds at Sherway Gardens mall as family-owned businesses are forced to close.

Most other non-essential retailers will be limited to curbside pickup and delivery only and will not be able to operate outside of the hours of 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Malls can also remain open for the purpose of curbside pickup but customers will not be able to get their orders from individual stores and will instead have to head to a single designated location inside the mall.

All non-essential retailers will close to in-person shopping, in-person dining will be prohibited and gyms and personal care services will be shuttered.

A select group of stores will be allowed to remain open by appointment only with a 25 per cent capacity limit. The stay-at-home order makes it illegal to leave a place of residence, except for essential reasons such as work, school, trips to a grocery store or pharmacy and for health-care reasons.

Ford said residents are required to stay at home except for “except for essential purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services, including getting vaccinated.”

He said teams of healthcare workers are now vaccinating residents and workers in identified congregate “hot spots,” and large industrial plants, where there are many people.

The province is allowing outdoor garden centres and plant nurseries, and indoor greenhouses that engage in sales to the public, to operate with a 25 per cent capacity limit and a restriction on hours of operation to between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Ontario’s daily COVID-19 case growth more than tripled through the month of March, leading to record-high hospital ICU occupancy of more than 500 by early April.

Ontario’s science table released new modelling last week, which suggested that Ontario could reduce its case counts from more than 3,000 a day to between 1,000 and 1,500 by the end of April with a four-week stay-at-home order.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province have increased by 28.2 per cent between the period of March 28 and April 5, 2021.

 

Two of Mimico’s top money-earning automated speed enforcement cameras have been vandalized and made inoperable by what appears to be orange spray paint.

The cameras are located on Stanley Avenue, near Elizabeth Street; and on Mimico Ave., and Station Rd., according to photos of the vandalized cameras posted on social media.

The Stanley Avenue camera gained media notoriety after city statistics showed that between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, issued 2,888 tickets or 13 per cent of all the fines issued.

A vehicle was caught on Stanley Avenue going 71 km an hour in a 30 km an hour zone, the highest speed noted, with a fine of $607.

The camera on Mimico Avenue, which is in between two elementary schools caught 408 offenders much less than on Stanley Avenue. The highest speed was clocked at 66 km an hour in a 30 km an hour zone with the highest fine at $532.

Area residents say the cameras play an important role in protecting local children from motorists speeding through area streets.

“I couldn’t imagine how valuable these speed cameras are to the community, especially that there are a lot of kids in the area,” Mark wrote on social media. “It’s sad to see both being tampered with…”

Mark used to live in the area and “used to pass by this place almost every day with my wife.”

Shari wondered if the vandals who spray painted the camera will be captured on video.

There were no warnings about the vandalized cameras from Toronto Police on their social media pages.

Fifty automated speed enforcement (ASE)  cameras were installed, two per ward, across Toronto in community safety zones (near schools) and began issuing speeding tickets last summer.

There were 2,057 repeat offenders across all the cameras in December, with one driver receiving 15 tickets for speeding on both Stanley Avenue and Mimico Avenue, which are also one-way streets.

Tickets through ASE cameras are fines only; no demerit points are issued. The fines are also billed and mailed to the registered vehicle owner, regardless of who was driving. The registered vehicle owner’s driving record will not be impacted through these tickets, the city said.

The cameras were previously installed on different streets across Toronto but were moved in late November to new locations and began issuing tickets again Dec. 1.

The City of Toronto said a total of 22,180 speeding tickets were mailed out to vehicle owners in the second round of locations within the first month of December.