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Elmira, Ontario, Canada | observerxtra.com | Volume 25 | Issue 47
Arts | 12
Waterloo Region speeds towards the red zone Increase in COVID-19 cases pushing public health to increase restrictions Damon MacLean Observer Staff
Keri Linscott is one of the parents with a child at the Elmira Children’s Centre who now face finding an alternative.
Sean Heeger
Childcare on the chopping block
Waterloo Region moves away from providing services; Elmira centre could close Sean Heeger Observer Staff
NOVEMBER 26-28
PARENTS ARE UP IN ARMS over the Region of Waterloo’s plans to close the five daycare centres it runs, including one in Elmira. Councillors are expected to back a consultant’s report outlining ways to trim costs to avoid a projected $25-million budget deficit. That would be a reversal of the situation five years ago where
another KPMG recommendation was turned down. The closures – four of the locations would be shuttered in mid-2021, with the Elmira centre at a later date – would save about $6.8 million, the consultants said. The move would see the regional government stop providing services directly while continuing to oversee some 14,000 childcare spaces and 67 operators in the region, private and non-profit. Regional Chair Karen
Redman said the decision would be a difficult one, arguing some changes must be made given that the regional spaces amount to about two per cent of the total but take up about 10 per cent of the funding. “COVID-19 has created significant challenges because there is lower enrolment for childcare providers across the region, due to spacing requirements. And these challenges are impacting the sustainability of some
childcare programs, and additional funding is now required to maintain childcare spaces. In order to protect a very fragile system and ensure a more equitable and affordable system, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, the region realizes some difficult and prudent decisions need to be made,” said Redman in a media briefing last week, ahead of a public meeting Wednesday. A special council meeting to →CHILDCARE 04
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EVEN AS THE REGION OF Waterloo was moving into the third stage (orange) of the province’s new coronavirus staging program, the number of new cases had it on pace to move into the “red” category, with even more restrictions to help slow the spread of the virus. “We are in a serious situation in Waterloo Region, the spread of COVID-19 has escalated rapidly our power supply we are speeding fully into the red zone. If we do not make major changes now, we will continue towards the lockdown zone,” said medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang in a briefing on Monday. The severity of the recent surge prompted Wang and her team at the local public unit to encourage people once again to reduce their social contacts. “We need to dramatically reduce our social interactions. What do I mean by that? Two things.
One, we need to stay home and only go out for essential purposes: school, getting groceries, keeping a medical appointment or getting essential physical exercise outdoors. But two, we need to limit our social interactions to only those within our own households, which can include one or two essential caregivers or essential supports for someone who is living alone,” she said. “Our trajectory is already in motion like that of a speeding train, towards the red zone and beyond,” she stressed in calling for immediate changes in public behaviour to avoid exponential growth in an already increasing caseload. At midweek, there were 354 active cases of COVID19 in the region, up more than 50 per cent from just a week earlier. Officials were tracking outbreaks in 23 locations, just three in long-term care homes, with most in workplace settings. While there have been →RED ZONE 02
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