Community Matters: “Be a Light: Beating COVID-19 Together”

Our number one value at Bruce Power is Safety First. It’s a message delivered to the people who work at our facilities every day – we want every woman and man who comes through our gates to go home safely at the end of their work day. When they’re at home, we want them to show that same awareness to look after their families, their friends and others in their communities.

This message has been amplified over the past nine months since the outbreak of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. We’ve done everything we can to be a good corporate citizen, putting in place measures on-site to keep people safe. We have collaborated with our public health officials to make sure residents had the correct information to protect themselves, worked to ensure health-care, front-line and other workers had enough personal protective equipment, helped fund food banks, and, through a variety of means, supported organizations and businesses affected by this public-health crisis.

We’ve done many amazing things throughout Bruce, Grey and Huron counties to keep our communities safe, and we’re close to having a vaccine. Yet, it’s not enough because people continue to get sick. We’ve seen an increase in the number of cases in our region over the past month. If it gets out of control, it will affect our institutions, our business and our employers. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and we will get there if we double-down now.

That’s why we recently announced the launch of “Be a Light: Beating COVID-19 Together” to expand our support of the tri-county region. We’re committing $1-million to working with public health, county and municipal governments, chambers of commerce, hospitals, local MPs and MPPs, and community organizations by focusing on five areas:
 

• Public Awareness - through engagement with local media outlets (our community media deserve our gratitude for keeping us informed during the pandemic) and social media to reinforce the guidance from public health officials to stop COVID-19 - especially as we move into winter and the holiday season
• Providing Protection - by working with the community to make available temperature-monitoring and other technology, along with the availability of personal protective equipment in higher-risk or high-traffic areas
• Buying Local - In the face of necessary restrictions put in place by public-health experts, local businesses continue to face challenges throughout our communities. Bruce Power is making a $50,000 investment to further leverage the Grey-Bruce-Huron Strong platform that was created earlier during the pandemic and amplify the Buy Local effort
• Mental and Physical Health - Bruce Power will support community organizations which promote mental and physical health activities and programs through the duration of the campaign
• Lending a Helping Hand - Bruce Power will continue to work with food banks, long-term care facilities and community organizations to support these organizations and individuals

By making this investment, and by counting on you to continue washing your hands, wearing a mask, and watching your distance, we can save lives.

As always, please contact me at james.scongack@brucepower.com if you have any questions. You can also follow me on Twitter @jscongack.