Community Matters: "Getting there" means getting people vaccinated

We’re almost there.

Being able to hug a family member or friend after more than a year of socially-distanced visits and Zoom calls.

Hosting a barbecue or birthday party in the backyard.

Sitting on a patio at your favourite restaurant and enjoying a meal, surrounded by family and other familiar faces.

Gathering on the beach, the soccer fields, baseball diamonds and in local businesses, during weekday evenings and on weekends.

Getting there means getting as many people as possible vaccinated, which will close the doors on the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Getting there will allow us all to do everything we’ve done in our daily lives and contribute to reinvigorating our local economy.

Bruce Power continues to play a proactive role in getting vaccines to people. We continue to support the efforts of Grey Bruce medical officer of health Dr. Ian Arra and the Grey Bruce Health Unit, in communicating accurate information about access to vaccines in our local communities.

We encourage you to download the Grey Bruce Vaccine app to learn more and book your vaccination. We recruited Dr. Abdu Sharkawy, a highly-respected internal medicine and infectious diseases specialist with the University of Health Network, to explain the benefits and safety of vaccines in a series of videos you can watch on Bruce Power’s YouTube channel.

Along with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and Facebook Canada, Bruce Power is a founding partner of the Chamber’s Vaccination Support Council to collaborate with the province’s public health units and lend a hand in the distribution of vaccines.

That spirit of collaboration, this time with Dr. Arra and our region’s health unit, has been a catalyst for the “hockey hubs” that were launched in Kincardine, Hanover, and Owen Sound, in the early stages of giving vaccines to residents in our communities, and have since been adopted in other areas of Ontario.

Dr. Lawrence Loh, the medical officer of health for the Region of Peel, announced May 12 that Peel Public Health and Bruce Power were leading the charge to create one of Canada’s largest vaccination centres at the CAA Centre in Brampton. The Mass Vaccination Centre is providing Peel – one of the hardest-hit areas in the province – with the capacity for up to 10,000 vaccinations daily.

In the face of a roller-coaster ride over the past 14-plus months of the pandemic, Ontarians from all walks of life – starting with our health-care and front-line workers – have stepped up to take care of each other.

The hockey hub in Brampton is the latest example of our partners in the nuclear supply chain lending a hand when asked. We’re extremely grateful to Alectra Utilities, Nordion, the Power Workers’ Union, Framatome, Kinectrics, SNC-Lavalin, NPX, CGI Inc., LiUNA, BWXT, E.S. Fox, the Ontario Vaccination Support Council, EnergySolutions, and the provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

We encourage everyone to visit the Grey Bruce Health Unit (www.publichealthgreybruce.on.ca/) and the Government of Ontario (https://covid-19.ontario.ca/) websites to see the latest information on booking a vaccine appointment for yourself or a loved one.

As always, you can contact me at james.scongack@brucepower.com or follow me on Twitter at @jscongack.