Accelerate Your Second Dose
Ottawa has continued to reach really encouraging vaccination rates. Over 80% of residents aged 12+ have their first dose and 70% are fully vaccinated. What incredible progress towards community immunity! If you have a second dose appointment booked for the fall, don’t forget to move up your appointment! If your first dose was Pfizer or Moderna, you can receive your second dose if it’s been at least 28 days since your first. If your first dose was the AstraZeneca vaccine, for your second dose you can choose to receive either a second dose of AstraZeneca or one of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna) if it’s been at least 8 weeks since your first. For more information on this, visit this link. There are plenty of appointments available so that you can be fully vaccinated sooner and help keep our communities safe.
Preparing for the Return to Schools
A key factor to having as normal a return to school as possible is to ensure our youth are vaccinated. Let’s encourage our children to spread the news with their friends and help keep our schools safe.
The important place of our education system in our society has been highlighted in many ways during this pandemic. Schools are not only places to learn, they are also spaces to make meaningful connections, develop thoughtful citizens, and spend time outside of the household. I know that many families, mine included, have concerns about the return to school in the fall. The government has announced that they will release their plan next week and it’s incredibly frustrating that it’s taken this long. Despite the government’s poor handling of this planning, I know that my kids are excited to get back to school and I look forward to seeing the positive impacts a return to school will have on the mental health of our children.
Rest assured that I remain committed to putting pressure on the government to carry out changes to our education system that are long overdue. The government has a duty to ensure that children, parents, and education workers can finally have peace of mind.
Ottawa-Vanier Provincial Youth Council Update
Last October, I organized and launched the Ottawa-Vanier Provincial Youth Council in collaboration with your local Councillors Tim Tierney, Mathieu Fleury, and Rawlson King. This group meets regularly to provide input for our priorities at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa-Vanier. I am always grateful for the opportunity to hear the perspectives of our youth on what is important for our community. They have been working on concrete actions to better our community and I recently joined them in person to take part in an initiative they’ve put together in Vanier’s community garden. You can watch a time-lapse of this work here!
Exploring Our Community
Do you follow me on Twitter? Every week, I share information about a small business in Ottawa-Vanier. This has been a fun way to encourage everyone to support local while exploring all our community has to offer. This week, I asked my followers to submit recommendations of their favourite businesses in the area. If you have a recommendation to share, please visit the post on Twitter to add your suggestion! You can help support businesses simply by spreading the word.
