Morning Coffee – By Aaron Hall

Weather forecast for Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Today – Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 near noon. High minus 4.

Tonight – Clearing this evening. Wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40. Low minus 10.

Increased enforcement to ensure minimum wage compliance

Ontario is enhancing workplace enforcement, penalties and education to ensure all new worker rights under its plan for Fair Workplaces and Better Jobs are followed.

Provincial officials say this plan includes raising the minimum wage, ensuring part-time workers are paid the same hourly wage as full-time workers, introducing paid sick days for every worker, and providing at least three weeks’ vacation after five years with the same employer.

“Workers deserve to be treated fairly at work,” stated Kevin Flynn, Minister of Labour, in a press release.

“The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act addresses the needs of the modern workplace and provides a minimum wage that workers can actually live on. We are hiring more employment standards officers to improve enforcement as well as funding education to ensure workplaces get the essential information they need. We want to ensure everyone who works hard has the chance to reach their full potential and share in Ontario’s prosperity.”

To ensure enforcement of enhanced worker rights, Ontario is:

– Hiring up to 175 additional employment standards officers to enforce employment standards

– Launching a program to educate both businesses and employees about their rights and obligations under Ontario’s employment standards laws

– Increasing penalties issued by employment standards officers to non-compliant employers from $250, $500 and $1,000 to $350, $700 and $1,500, respectively, for the first, second and third (or subsequent) contravention of the Employment Standards Act within a three-year period

– Introducing new ways to ensure enforcement of penalties against employers who refuse to pay employees, including the ability to issue warrants and register liens on personal property

– Publishing names of employers that don’t meet employment standards, including a date and description of the contravention and the penalty

More details:

– Ontario is investing $500,000 in the Employment Standards Training and Education Program.

– The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 responds to the final report of the Changing Workplaces Review. It was the first-ever independent review of both the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and Labour Relations Act, 1995.

– The report estimated that more than 30 per cent of Ontario workers were in precarious work in 2014. In 2016, the median hourly wage was $13 for part-time workers and $24.73 for full-time workers. Over the past 30 years, part-time work has grown to represent nearly 20 per cent of total employment.

– Provincial officials say studies show that a higher minimum wage results in less employee turnover, which increases business productivity.

Teaching students the value of community

Do you remember the questions asked of you on your Grade 12 English exam?

If you do, do you remember feeling like you made a difference?

Amy Bergsma, a teacher at Chatham Christian School, has partnered with United Way of Chatham-Kent and the Chatham-Kent Nonprofit Network to create a unique opportunity for her students to work on a project in place of their final exam – a project that will raise awareness for charitable programs in Chatham-Kent, encourage volunteerism in youth, allow students to meet Ontario curriculum requirements in a meaningful and purposeful way, all while encouraging a pride in, and love for Chatham-Kent.

The students each selected a charity to research and their assignment is to publically present and advocate for funding for each of these charities to a panel of community volunteers.

At the end of the presentation, each of the students will be assigned a grade and the charity represented by the presenter with the most votes will receive a $5,000 donation.

“I designed this project to not only matter for Grade 12 marks, but to alter the course of their lives,” stated
Bergsma in a press release.

“Imagine the impact of these students having a deeper sense of community, greater capacity for empathy, and the empowerment to know how to step outside of their comfort zones and make change happen.”

Students will be presenting their work on Thursday, January 18 in the Worship Centre at Chatham Christian School from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

The presentations are open to the general public, so come on out and see the hard work students have done, but also the incredible work being done in the community by nonprofit organizations.

Library recognized for efforts toward accessibility

Chatham-Kent Public Library received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Canadian Council of the Blind, Chatham-Kent Chapter last month.

Chatham-Kent Public Library shares information about its programs and services online through its website, www.ckpl.ca, as well as through social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Recently, CKPL’s Facebook Page received a message that posts from the page were not accessible as they couldn’t be read by a screen reader. CKPL was able to make a change to its Facebook posts, by adding text that made them accessible to those using screen readers online.

The Certificate of Appreciation cites CKPL for “the outstanding efforts to accommodate the blind and visually impaired on-line community by the CCB-Chatham-Kent members.”

CKPL offers services to the visually impaired including accessible formats like Large Print, Book on CD, and downloadable collections, and partners with the Centre for Equitable Library Access to provide additional collections including braille options.

To find out more about the local chapter of Canadian Council of the blind, search “CCB- Chatham Kent” on Facebook.

To find out more about accessible collections and services at Chatham-Kent Public Library, visit www.ckpl.ca or call 519-354-2940.

Ontario making OSAP application process easier for students

Ontario is making it easier for students receiving OSAP to plan, budget and pay for their college or university education.

For the first time, students applying to college or university who have applied for OSAP can now go online to see the estimated tuition costs for each of the programs they have applied to and the estimated amount that will be covered by OSAP.

In addition, students receiving OSAP and attending college or university in Ontario will receive a bill from their college or university that has already been reduced by the amount of OSAP aid they will receive. Any remaining eligible OSAP funds will be sent directly to the student to cover additional costs, such as living expenses and books.

“We’re making the new OSAP even easier to use so more students can benefit from free or reduced tuition,” stated Deb Matthews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development.

“By opening up applications earlier, providing new tools to estimate financial support and delivering grants and loans upfront, students and their families will have the information and support they need to make their dreams a reality.”

OSAP applications for the 2018-19 school year opened in November 2017, four months ahead of previous years, giving students and their families the time and information they need to make the best decisions for their future.

More than one-third of all full-time college and university students in Ontario are receiving free tuition this school year, and OSAP applications grew by more than 10 per cent in 2017, compared to the previous year.

Over 225,000 full-time Ontario college and university students are receiving free average tuition covered by OSAP grants.

More than 400,000 Ontario students are receiving generous grants and loans from OSAP to help pay for college or university.

Canada increasing security on the Korean Peninsula

Canada has announced a $3.25-million contribution from its Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat Reduction Program.

Government officials say the support is for efforts to counter North Korean Weapons of Mass Destruction development and financing. The time frame for the funding is from January 2018 to December 2018.

In an effort to assist partner countries to fully implement UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and strengthen efforts to prevent North Korea from financing its Weapons of Mass Destruction programs, Canada is providing support to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction to undertake capacity-building activities, government officials say.

As part of these activities, focused training will be given to foreign ministry, law enforcement, customs, regulatory and border security officials on:

– Understanding and implementing North Korea-related UNSC resolutions

– Developing and implementing measures to combat money laundering by North Korean nationals and front companies

– Enforcing UNSC resolutions and identifying the illicit networks and tactics North Korea has used to finance and procure dual-use goods and technologies for its nuclear and missile development.

On January 16, 2018, Foreign Ministers and representatives of 20 countries from across the globe met in Vancouver, Canada, to demonstrate global solidarity in opposition to North Korea’s illegal and dangerous actions, and to advance diplomatic efforts towards a more stable, secure and denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

Nearly seven decades after these states ‎stepped up to restore stability on the Korean Peninsula, Ministers unequivocally declared that North Korea will never be accepted as a nuclear power and committed to exerting continued pressure, including by strengthening sanctions, in order to bring North Korea back to negotiations.

They reaffirmed that these measures will remain in place until North Korea changes its course and takes decisive, irreversible steps to denuclearize.

The Ministers agreed, however, that a diplomatic solution is both essential and possible.