The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Unvaccinated family members will be prevented from entering long-term care homes in Ontario as the province enhances the COVID-19 protocols to prevent the Omicron variant from triggering another wave of outbreaks in an already fragile sector.

The Ministry of Long-Term Care is blanketing the sector with new rules this week that would impact visitors and staff alike, regardless of their vaccine status, limiting who can enter a nursing home ahead of the holidays.

The temporary measures will go into effect on Dec. 17.

GUEST: Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos, Co-Founder of Canadians4LTC Standards and a Professor at Ontario Tech University

-

Ottawa’s bottom line is benefitting from billions in new tax revenue since the April budget, with the Liberal government opting to divert about half of that substantial gain toward new spending, the fall fiscal update shows.

Funding related to COVID-19 makes up a large part of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest fiscal plan, which outlines nearly $30-billion for recent and future pandemic measures, including $4.5-billion for responding in the event that new measures are required to fight the Omicron variant.

The new variant is fueling fears of another round of lockdowns, and inflation is running near two-decade highs. This appears to have persuaded the government to delay acting on measures that were promised in the recent Liberal Party election platform.

GUEST: Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

-

The federal government is readying new travel rules that could be announced as early as today (Wednesday December 15), after Justin Trudeau met with the premiers to chart a response to the escalation in COVID-19 cases, increasingly driven by the Omicron variant.

The Prime Minister held a call with his provincial and territorial counterparts to brief them on options Ottawa is weighing to make travel more difficult. He was also expected to urge premiers to ramp up their booster campaigns and consider tightening public-health restrictions.

GUEST: Justin Ling, Freelance Investigative Journalist who has written for both the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s 

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Defence Minister Anita Anand says successive Canadian governments have failed to dedicate the time, money and effort needed to stamp out the “scourge” of sexual misconduct in the Canadian military.

Survivors and victims of military sexual misconduct received a historic and long-awaited apology on Monday from Anand, as well as from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and Jody Thomas, deputy minister of the Department of National Defence.

More than 7,600 people watched the apology livestream on Facebook, which comes after a year in which the Canadian military has been forced to confront what experts have called a “crisis” of sexual misconduct within its ranks, particularly senior leaders.

ALSO: Opposition pressing Liberals to address inflation ahead of fiscal update

GUEST: Dr. Lori Turnbull, Director of the School of Public Administration with Dalhousie University

-

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada would 'align' its own electric-vehicle incentives with those south of the border if Canadian-built cars and trucks could be made eligible for proposed U.S. tax credits.

Trudeau says the two countries have been building cars together for more than 50 years -- an alliance threatened by President Joe Biden's efforts to boost sales of vehicles made in the U.S. with union labour.

GUEST: Noah Frey, PhD Student of Political Science at McMaster University

-

Police in Niagara Falls charged Marineland in an investigation where it’s alleged the theme park used animals for a park performance without authorization.

Niagara Regional Police (NRPS) say the probe started in October and is tied to a summer display that investigators believe violated the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act.

GUEST: Camille Labchuk, a Lawyer & Executive Director of Animal Justice

Ottawa has announced plans to hold a national summit early next year to examine the country’s supply chain and seek ways to deal with the bottlenecks and other problems facing the system.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the meeting will bring together industry, shippers and organizations that run critical infrastructure.

The issues have been compounded by the storms and mudslides in B.C. that cut key rail and highway routes between the Port of Vancouver and the rest of the country.

GUEST: Ian Lee, Associate Professor with the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Zach Collaros’ 13-yard TD strike to Darvin Adams in overtime earned the Winnipeg Blue Bombers a thrilling 33-25 Grey Cup win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on a windy Sunday night.

Bill Kelly and Justin Dunk recap the game and analysis the results.

GUEST: Justin Dunk, Founder of 3 Down Nation, and Sports Anchor for CHCH News

-

Ontario will offer all adults who are six months past their second dose a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine starting Jan. 4, the province said Friday as it scrapped plans to lift its vaccine certificate and announced a crackdown on fake medical exemptions.

The moves, announced by Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore, come as infections in the province rose rapidly amid projections that a new more contagious variant could see cases skyrocket in just weeks.

Should boosters be offered sooner?

ALSO: Ontario needs new pandemic response strategy as Omicron COVID-19 variant makes inroads: experts 

GUEST: Thomas Tenkate, Professor at the School of Occupational & Public Health with Ryerson University

-

A recent poll finds that a majority of Ontarians feel that the provincial government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly faltered.

A survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute, a non-partisan public opinion research organization, concludes that Canadians appear to be increasingly disappointed in their provincial leaders in wake of variants of concern rapidly impacting the severity of a third wave.

While at least half of respondents in Manitoba and Saskatchewan said they’re concerned with their premiers response, 65 per cent of Ontarians and 75 per cent of those polled in Alberta said their leader or their provincial government is poorly handling the pandemic.

Also: New poll shows majority of Canadians are ready to live with COVID-19

GUEST: John Wright, Executive Vice President of Maru Public Opinion