Carleton Family BBQ Sept. 7 at Richmond Fairgrounds

By Goldie Ghamari, MPP for Carleton

I am pleased to once again host my annual Carleton Family Barbecue.

This year’s event will take place Saturday, Sept. 7 at the Richmond Fairgrounds. Firefighters from Richmond will be manning the grill and cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs, while we will also be serving up cobs of corn, vegetable spring rolls, veggies and dip, ice cream, and more.

The most entertaining and multi-talented man in all of Carleton, Dr. Kaboom, will be joining us. We will also have face painting, and entertainment and activities that will be announced closer to the date.

I also want to emphasize that this is a non-partisan, non-political event and everyone is welcome. This is an event to celebrate Carleton, and to celebrate our best summer in years.

I hope to see you there!

The Capital Fair is just around the corner at Rideau Carleton Raceway

One of the great things about being the MPP for Carleton is that our riding hosts three amazing fairs every year.

The Richmond Fair and the Metcalfe Fair are well known throughout Eastern Ontario, but the entire fair season kicks off with a big one that is right in the back yard for readers in Riverside South and Findlay Creek.

The Capital Fair gets underway Aug. 16 and takes place at the Rideau Carleton Raceway. While many people think the fair started to replace the old Central Canada Exhibition or Ottawa Ex, the Capital Fair is actually the old Gloucester Fair.

In 1999, the Gloucester Agricultural Society moved the Gloucester Fair to the Rideau Carleton Raceway. They changed the name to the Capital Fair in 2014. In taking on a new 10-day format in August, the fair moved to introduce its expanded program to the region by implementing an introductory free gate admission program. The results were wildly successful as in 2017 the fair attracted more than 255,000 guests.

With all of the restrictions from COVID-19 now behind us, we hope to see the biggest and best Capital Fair ever!

Ontario exploring more ways to expand role of pharmacists

The Ontario government is looking at additional innovative and creative ways to make pharmacies a one-stop-shop for people to conveniently connect to care, close to home by further expanding the ability of pharmacists to provide care. Starting today, the government is consulting with its partners on further expanding the ability of pharmacists to provide care by treating additional common ailments, administering more vaccines, and performing more point-of-care testing.

Since January 2023, Ontario’s pharmacies have provided more than 1 million assessments to treat and prescribe for 19 common ailments such as cold sores, pink eye, insect bites and urinary tract infections. Over 4,600 pharmacies, or 99 per cent of all Ontario pharmacies, are now participating in the program, connecting people to care in every corner of the province.

Building on this success, Ontario is consulting on more ways to leverage the skills and expertise of pharmacists to continue making pharmacies a one-stop-shop for more convenient care closer to home, including:

• treating and prescribing for 14 additional common ailments, such as sore throat, calluses and corns, mild headaches, shingles, and minor sleep disorders including insomnia
• ordering specific laboratory tests and performing additional point-of-care tests such as strep throat testing, to make it faster and easier to assess and treat common ailments
• administering additional publicly funded vaccines at pharmacies, including Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pneumococcal, and Shingles to increase access to care and save people a visit to the doctor’s office
• allowing pharmacy technicians to administer additional vaccines, such as Hepatitis A and B, Rabies, Meningococcal, and Human Papillomavirus
• identifying barriers in hospital settings that limit pharmacists from ordering certain laboratory and point-of-care tests, to make it easier for people to connect to care and reduce burden on nurses and doctors
• improving the MedsCheck program to support health outcomes and reduce unnecessary service duplication and administrative red tape, while continuing to protect patient choice.

In addition to providing more convenience, allowing pharmacists to connect people with more care options at their local pharmacy will also give family doctors more time to help people with more complex needs. As with visiting a family physician or walk-in clinic, Ontarians can receive a prescription from a pharmacist for common ailments with just their Ontario health card. The cost of the medication being prescribed will continue to be paid for by people directly or through their drug benefits plan.

As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the government is strengthening all aspects of the health care system, including making it easier for highly skilled, regulated health care professionals, like pharmacists to work to the full extent of their training and expertise to provide people more connected and convenient care.

Quick Facts

• Pharmacy assessment of common ailments began in January 2023, with an initial 13 ailments, and was expanded in October 2023 to include 6 additional ailments.
• More than 1 million assessments have been completed since allowing pharmacists to treat and prescribe for 19 common ailments, including pink eye, UTIs, and acne. More than 4,600 pharmacies (99 per cent) have participated in the program.
• Recent changes by the province also allow pharmacists to administer certain injection and inhalation treatments so that they can better care for people who need help taking certain medications, such as insulin, vitamin B12, or osteoporosis treatment.
• Anyone with symptoms should contact their local pharmacist to confirm whether they provide prescribing services for certain common ailments before visiting the pharmacy.
• On July 1, 2022, regulatory amendments came into force under the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act, allowing pharmacy professionals to collect specimens and perform the following point-of-care tests for the purpose of medication management to treat chronic disease: Glucose, HbA1c, Lipids, and PT/INR.
• Vaccines that are part of Ontario’s publicly funded immunization program are free if administered by a primary care provider or local public health unit. At this time, pending the consultation and implementation timing, patients who choose to receive vaccines in a pharmacy will need to pay for the vaccine and the administration, other than COVID-19 and influenza vaccines.

Governments expanding mental health supports for farm workers

The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing up to $538,000 through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) to expand the Farmer Wellness Initiative to Ontario farm workers. Of that total, nearly $178,000 will be dedicated to supporting the delivery of services in Spanish.

Delivered by Agriculture Wellness Ontario, a suite of free programming managed by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division, the Farmer Wellness Initiative provides farmers, farm workers and their family members in Ontario with unlimited access to a free, 24/7 phone line that connects them to tailored mental health counselling. Earlier this year, the line expanded to include farm workers, and now the expansion includes the delivery of mental health services in Spanish to better serve international agricultural workers.

Services offered through the 24/7 phone line include crisis counselling, risk assessments, and face-to-face, phone or video sessions with a counsellor.

Today’s action builds on a series of recently launched and expanded free mental health supports for workers in the farming sector. It also supports the priorities of the Ontario government’s Grow Ontario Strategy, which include strengthening the stability of our agri-food supply chain and attracting and growing local agri-food talent.

Sustainable CAP is a five-year (2023-2028), $3.5-billion investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen the competitiveness, innovation, and resiliency of Canada’s agriculture, agri‐food and agri‐based products sector. This includes $1 billion in federal programs and activities and a $2.5 billion commitment that is cost-shared 60 per cent federally and 40 per cent provincially/territorially for programs designed and delivered by the provinces and territories.

Quick Facts

• Since its January 2022 launch, the Farmer Wellness Initiative has been supporting 617 farmers and their families.
• In total, the governments of Canada and Ontario have invested $5,306,244 into the initiative.
• With this new funding, farm workers can now access services in Spanish in addition to English and French by calling 1-866-267-6255.
• According to a 2021 study conducted by the University of Guelph, 76 per cent of farmers experience moderate or high stress.
• Supporting and empowering farmers to take care of their mental health was among the priorities set for Sustainable CAP by the federal-provincial-territorial agricultural ministers in The Guelph Statement.
• Sustainable CAP will help enable the goals outlined in Ontario’s Grow Ontario Strategy, which includes increasing total agri-food sector employment by 10 per cent.

Inspiration for the week

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Office Notice:

My office is open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm. If you require assistance on any matter, please contact me at any time. My staff and I will be happy to assist. Even if it’s not a provincial issue, I’ll make sure to connect you with the proper office.

Goldie

Your voice at Queen’s Park

Featured Image – Members of the Richmond Fire department will once again be manning the grill for the annual Carleton Community BBQ hosted by MPP Goldie Ghamari.