The South Bayview Bulldog

The government’s lockdown on retail business is getting a skeptical review Monday as the Hudson’s Bay store in the downtown Sak’s building has remained open. The purported loophole? There’s Pusatieri’s food outlet somewhere in the department store. According to HBC, that makes it a grocery store. Meantime, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has denounced a decision to permit big box stores like Costco and Walmart to stay open when small retailers are forced to close. It seems like a tough call for the government. Both stores have large grocery businesses even though they sell almost everything else as well.

Loblaws has announced yet another variation on the many aspects of grocery home delivery. It was three years ago that the food giant announced the first organized form of delivery. Now it has partnered with a firm called Gatik Al. According to BNN, this arrangement will see five Ford Transit 350 box trucks outfitted with Gatik’s self-driving system, which will drive on five fixed routes across the Toronto area for seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Self-driving you say. BNN

Bill Gates thinks all vaccines will work

Hard-headed billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes “almost all” the Covid-19 vaccines will work and work well, he said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Already, vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have shown to be effective in early company data, and Gates said he expects vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson and Novavax to have similar success soon. Monday morning, AstraZeneca announced that its vaccine has been 90 percent effective in the final trial stages. “I’m optimistic that by February, it’s very likely they’ll all prove very efficacious and safe,” he said. Gates spoke with CNN on Friday, a day before more than 177,000 people tested positive for the virus and about 1,400 people died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Area scout troops continue to sell Christmas trees this season despite pandemic strictures. Leaside 132nd is limiting business to online sales only with pickup times open. A poster for the 58th Toronto Scouts suggests that sales will go on more or less as normal at the Church of the Transfiguration at 111 Manor Rd.

69th Toronto Scouts cancel Trace Manes tree sales this year

A warning of significant snowfall warning has been issued regionally but the Weather Network forecast for Toronto is one of rain and snow. The precipitation is expected to begin Sunday morning with perhaps 5 to 10 cm of snow possible before the snow tapers heading into Monday. The areas near Lake Ontario will see wet snow or rain. The precipitation is the result of a Colorado Low that will track from Ohio towards the St. Lawrence River Sunday into Monday. There is still some uncertainty in model guidance as to the exact track of the low and the axis of heaviest snow. Environment Canada continues to continue to monitor data.

Two people are confirmed dead and a third person is in critical condition after a collision of several vehicles on Highway 401 at Winston Churchill Blvd. about 9 a.m. Saturday morning. In the minutes following the crash, a number of incorrect details were published. Police now say a man and a woman have died and a third man is critically injured. They were in a Ford F-150. Police tell media that they think the crash first involved two vehicles in the westbound lane. One of these vehicles then crossed through the median and hit a third vehicle. After that, some other vehicles were incidentally caught in the tangle. Toronto Sun video

Resident Rebecca Florence has posted a picture of a visiting fox on the fence of a backyard on Southvale Drive. FB

A boy, 9, was struck by a car at Millwood Rd. and McRae Drive and is being treated for injuries to his back and head. He was said to be conscious at the scene. The accident occurred Friday afternoon. The driver remained at the scene. This is the intersection where Georgia Walsh was fatally injured in the summer of 2014.

The South of Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents (SERRA) will hold its Annual General Meeting tonight (November 19). Webinar registratio0n for the AGM and Town Hall is here.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot says Canada is expected to receive four million doses of the Pfizer C-19 vaccine between January and March and two million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. Of this, Ontario will get 1.6 million of the Pfizer vaccine and 800,000 of the Moderna vaccine for an immediate total of 2.4 million doses. Priority for the vaccine in early availability is unclear. People require two doses of the vaccine 21 days apart. Elliott said the government is working on the logistics of this challenge. The Ontario population is 14.57 million.

No extension of school break

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says an extended winter holiday for school children is “not necessary at this time.” The idea had been floated as a possible way to help reduce the spread of C-19 as case numbers soar in the province. However, Lecce said Wednesday that transmission levels are low in schools and safety measures there are sufficient.

873 of total 1417 cases in Peel, Toronto

Peel Region with 463 cases and Toronto with 410 cases continued to be hotspots in Ontario as the province reported 1,417 new C-19 cases on Wednesday and 32 new deaths. The count continues to range in a worrisome range between 1200 and 1500 in recent days. Provincial labs processed 33,440 specimens in the past 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of 4.5 percent when duplicate tests and errors are taken into account.

The Ontario Fire Marshall is investigating the cause and circumstances of Tuesday morning’s fatal fire at 37 Norton Ave. in Willowdale. Fire service personnel say they faced “horrendous” conditions searching the house and in finally extinguishing the fire. They’ve told reporters that the fire seemed to pop up again even after they had knocked it down. Most disturbing, construction at the home apparently slowed a search. Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop said many people were living at the old home and that “some type of construction” made it difficult for his crews to move around once inside. The dead person, as yet unidentified, was found in a second-floor bedroom.

Organic Garage, the small grocery store chain that promises “healthy” food, is glowingly assessed by the publication eResearch this month. As reported here a number of times since 2017, the firm’s fifth store is scheduled to open in the commercial site now being built at 33 Laird Drive. The progress has been slow and the project has had a low-profile, to say the least. New grocery stores are always of interest and there seems to be a market for those with cute names that suggest healthy and/or fresh food. Sobey’s current thrill Farm Boy is one. Organic Garage says construction underway on Laird store