Supported by Bruce Power, this new initiative aims to increase access to information, help
In January 2021, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce announced that it had founded the Ontario Vaccination Support Council with the support of a hundred businesses and organizations.
The aim of the council is to provide support for the province’s vaccination campaign.
“The intention was to recognize the size of the undertaking that we have before us here in Ontario, and that there are a lot of organizations, unions, and businesses who want to contribute to that,” said James Scongack, EVP of Corporate Affairs and Operational Services at Bruce Power.
Scongack is co-chair of the Council alongside Garrick Tiplady, the Managing Director of Facebook Canada.
“This was really about mobilizing that community […] to identify where we can support and engage in this vaccination effort.”
Scongack says that one of the aims of the group is to focus on communication and making public health information available to workplaces that are preparing to carry out their own workplace vaccination program. Another element of the task force is creating a sense of unity and understanding around where it is our public health units need the most assistance.
On this point, the OCC recently launched an online portal, supported by Bruce Power and Facebook, to connect public sector units with private sector organizations offering vaccination support. The portal also provides a number of resources to the general public who wish to learn more about key public health information.
Scongack says that this has been a popular initiative and that the Council has grown considerably since its inception: “It started with about 60 companies on the first day and now we're up to over 250 organizations, which include a lot of private sector businesses, colleges and universities and also unions.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bruce Power has provided almost 2.5 million pieces of PPE to frontline workers, businesses, Indigenous communities and schools. It has also spent $1 million on public education efforts, community protection, shop local initiatives, activities and organizations that promote mental and physical health through its Be a Light and Powering Ontario Through COVID-19 campaigns.
