Statistics Canada have realeased the April 2020 edition of their Business and Community Newsletter, which focuses on COVID-19.

From Statistics Canada:

Our Commitment to serving Canadians

Statistics Canada is responding to the COVID-19 challenge by collecting information vital to the economy and society—remotely and safely. Our employees are working hard to support critical government operations with data, analytics and methodological expertise.

The Canadian Statistical Geospatial Explorer is an interactive online mapping tool accessible for free on the Statistics Canada website. It allows users to to view, visualize and download census, health and community data at geographies across Canada.

From Statistics Canada:

CityWatch Canada is an interactive platform that tracks emergency response measures put in place by local governments across Canada, updated daily.

Find information on which cities are in a state of emergency, the status of municipal buildings and public facilities, the impact on local governance, and any financial supports announced for residents, businesses, and municipal employees. Additional emergency measures will be monitored as the COVID-19 situation evolves.

The MaRS Healthy Neighbourhoods Data Challenge is a competion, launched June 2019, in which Canadians were asked to "identify and/or create new data sets, data sources and methodologies to improve our understanding of physical environments and promote healthy living". Among the finalists of the competition are Community Data Program members, City of Calgary and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

On Thursday, April 23rd at 1:00 pm EDT, MaRS Discovery District will be hosting an online showcase, where the five finalists will present their work.

From April 3rd to April 16th, Statistics Canada will be conducting a survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"Your country, province and municipality need reliable information on the current economic and social situation, as well as on people's physical and mental health, to effectively assess the needs of communities and implement suitable support measures during and after the pandemic.

If you are looking for data on COVID-19 or looking to track cases in Canada or globally, there are several online resources available to help with this:

COVID-19 Tracker Canada: Provides tables and visualisations showing COVID-19 cases and deaths by province in Canada.

Worldometer Coronavirus Updates: Shows global COVID-19 cases as well as cases by country and other related statistics.

In light of recent developments relating to COVID-19, we want to let all Community Data Program users know that the program's operations will be continuing as usual.

Statistics Canada is holding a series of digital conferences, titled Canada 4.0 - society, the economy and the digital transformation. The next conference in this series is:

Connected: The digital revolution and the well-being of Canadians

When:Tuesday, March 26, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, followed by a 30-minute question and answer discussion

Community Development Halton have released a new issue in their Community Lens series, examining home energy poverty in the Halton Region. The report looks at Halton households spending more than twice the Canadian average on home energy needs, using 2016 Census data.

From the report:

"In 2016, over 22% of Ontario’s 5.1 million households were home energy poor. The average for Halton Region was 15.5%, representing almost 30,000 households. Almost one in five (18.3% or 3,800) households in Halton Hills spent more than 6% of their after-tax income on home energy"

Statistics Canada's latest newsletter contain information on the Chat with an Expert they are holding tomorrow, as well as on a new report, titled Associations between parent and child sedentary behaviour and physical activity in early childhood. Read the full newsletter below for more information: