- 13,100,369 doses have been administered in Canada, as of writing. 31.6% of Canadians have received at least one dose and 89% of doses delivered have been administered.
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Percent of population who have received at least one dose: Israel: 62.4%, U.K: 50.2%, U.S: 42.7%, Canada: 31.6%, E.U: 22.9%.
- We spoke too soon when we said that Canada's vaccine rollout is slow because things are looking up now. Keep reading to see what's changed.
April 30, 2021
Skrrt Skrrt
Good morning. Au revoir Quebec. This morning we're pulling into Atlantic Canada (ok, just virtually - not bursting the bubble) to see what's cooking other than lobster. As we already knew, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland have a lot on offer.
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Watching Canadian cities you'd think the worst thing that could happen to a place is the arrival of scooters.
Toronto’s infrastructure committee voted to uphold a ban on e-scooters over unresolved safety issues. This is the latest in our country’s multi-year war with the new mode of transportation.
- A reporter that attended the meeting said someone compared e-scooters to handguns and another called them “murder machines.” 😬
Refresher: The e-scooter boom took off in 2018, with the rise of e-scooter sharing services like Lime, Bird, and Canadian-based Roll Technologies. Similar to other forms of transportation, e-scooters are subject to local regulations to ensure safety.
- E-scooters are legal in 46 US states with wide adoption in cities like LA, Nashville and Detroit.
- Ontario and BC are running pilot programs to let cities make the call on whether they want to permit e-scooters on their roads.
- To date, only Calgary and Ottawa allow scooters with Windsor, ON expected to start a pilot project this year.
What are the rules? Developing rules around e-scooter use is tough because regulators don’t know how to designate them: they’re not cars, but they can travel up to speeds of up to 60 km/h, so they aren’t exactly bikes either.
In cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton, where there are existing pilot programs, local officials have been wary about the widespread use of e-scooters.
- Transportation experts have often rebuffed execs of e-scooter companies, saying that e-scooters have safety and accessibility concerns.
Big picture: Even though the rules around e-scooters are wishy washy, Canadians have taken hundreds of thousands of rides on them each year in some cities which leaves many wondering why they’re still banned.
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Well, this is awkward. The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) won’t meet its spending goal of $35 billion in the next decade or so.
- The Bank is going to fall $19 billion short of its spending mandate, according to a report by Canada’s federal budget watchdog.
What’s CIB? Established in 2017, the CIB is a federal bank that funds a mix of government and private sector-led infrastructure projects that the Bank believes are in the public’s interest.
The report says that CIB hasn’t been spending quickly enough (can’t relate), but that’s apparently not uncommon for institutions that fund a mix of public and private investments.
- CIB has committed around $5 billion to 7 projects, which include the expansion of Ontario’s Go Station, a light rail line in Montreal, and the Lake Erie Connector project.
Playing catch-up: The CIB was so slow to make a dent in its spending that the feds approved a leadership shuffle and drafted a new plan last year that would get them to spend $10 billion over the next 3 years.
What’s next? The CIB said it’ll ramp up funding with announcements for sustainable projects, like zero-emission buses, in the coming months.
...in the night sky are like shootin' stars? I can't believe that song is over 10 years old.
The feds are swooping in to rescue another airline. Transat has agreed to the federal government's offer of an aid package worth up to $700 million.
- The bailout will help the airline maintain operations after hits to ticket sales from travel restrictions.
- Transat issued 13 million warrants to the government that could let it buy shares at $4.50 worth up to ~20% of the airline.
$390 million will be used to support Transat’s business, while the remaining $310 million will be used to issue refunds to customers.
- As part of the deal, Transat can't boost exec compensation and has to maintain employment at current levels.
- Air Canada received $5.8 billion under the same program to help large companies recover from the pandemic.
Bottom line: Transat said that customers have until August 26 to book refunds. Here’s exactly how to get your money back.
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The Peak sat down with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's Chief Catalyst to ask a few questions. The first of which was "what's a Chief Catalyst?"
We also discussed student mentorship, building skills for the future and much more. Read our entire interview with Jim Gibson.
- We should all exude more main character energy ✨
- Floatation therapy is the hottest new thing. Personally? I think it's a bit overrated.
- I'm getting major FOMO just from reading about Miami Tech Week. Can we get some invites?
- There's another development in the #FreeBritney movement.
- This duck has been nicknamed "long boi" and we can't object.
- Google has saved $1 billion since the start of the pandemic thanks to remote work.
- The Biden administration says gig workers should be considered employees.
- Waterloo-based Magnetic Forensics made its TSX debut earlier this week.
- Facebook temporarily hid #ResignModi posts as India struggles to control the COVID-19 crisis.
- Chinese regulators are reining in 13 tech companies, including ByteDance and Tencent.
Maybe we can resume our hot girl and dudes rock summer plans, after all. Canada said it’s ramping up vaccine appointments starting this week.
- Residents who are 55+ in Nova Scotia, and Ontario can begin to book appointments this week.
- Ontario plans to open up vaccine appointments for all adults by the week of May 24 and Quebec by May 14.
We were complaining about a slow vaccine rollout (and we still are) but this is a significant move forward for Canada, and Ontario in particular where cases remain high.
- In Ontario, vaccine appointments will open up to essential workers and those in hotspots next week.
- By the May 24 weekend, all Ontarians 18+ will be eligible to book an appointment. See the full schedule here.
So, what changed? Vaccine shipments to Canada are speeding up, after long periods of production delays and setbacks.
- This week, we got our first shipment of 300k J&J single-shot vaccines (Canada bought 10 million doses from them in total) and around 1 million doses from Pfizer.
Zoom out: The accelerated vaccine rollout timeline should let us re-open the economy sooner and get back to the business of recovery. If the U.S. trajectory is any indication, we should expect a fast and steep rebound.
You’ll soon be able to book tickets to hitch a ride on Blue Origin’s tourism space rocket New Shepard. No word yet on whether you’ll need to do a hotel quarantine upon return.
- Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin teased the ticket sales with a clip on Twitter yesterday.
What’s New Shepard? Named after the first American astronaut in space, the rocket can carry up to six people and reach an altitude of over 100 km.
- For reference, the deepest known point of oceans, the Challenger Deep, is around 11,000 meters deep. The more you know 🌈
- New Shepard scrapped plans for their first crewed test flight in 2019.
Blue Origin has carried out 15 test flights of New Shepard without any people (unless you count Mannequin Skywalker as a person) on board so far.
Bottom line: We don’t know how much the tix will cost yet but we’ll bet they will set you back by...a lot. The company said more details, including the length of the flight, TBA next week. Don’t worry, we’ll keep all you would-be astronauts posted.