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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, O ct ob er 28 ,2 02 1 | 10 2022 Regional Budget Committee meetings for the 2022 Plan and Budget for the Regional Municipality will be held electronically on the following dates: • Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. • Monday, November 29, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. • Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. • Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 3:30 p.m. Public Input meetings will be held on the following dates: • Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. • Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. If you wish to appear as a delegation during the Public Input meeting, please visit the Region's website for more information and to complete and submit an online form: https://www.regionofwaterloo. ca/en/regional-government/communicate-with-council.aspx Final approval of the Region's 2022 Operating Budget and Ten-Year Capital Program is scheduled for Wednesday, December 15, 2021. You can watch any of the scheduled budget or Council meetings on the Region's website at https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regional- government/live-webcast.aspx. For a copy of the budget schedule or for more information about the Regional budget, please visit our website: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regional-government/budget- and-finance-archives.aspx . Notice of these meetings is being given in accordance with the "Municipal Act", as amended, and the Region's Notice Policy. William Short Regional Clerk October 26, 2021 STREET TREE LEAF COLLECTION STREET TREE LEAF COLLECTION BEGINS NOV. 1 AND RUNS UNTIL NOVEMBER 27 The weekend before your collection date, leaves from street trees can be raked onto the roadway and piled as close to the curb as possible. Do not include leaves from the trees in your backyard - you must manage these separately. Visit waterloo.ca/leafcollection for a map of zones and collection dates, and watch for signs in your neighbourhood. Zones with fewer street trees will be collected first, followed by zones with heavily treed areas. We will visit each zone only once. Missed collection? You can bag your leaves for the Region of Waterloo's yard waste collection program until the week of November 22-26. You can also mulch leaves into your lawn, or pile them in gardens as a winter shelter for pollinators and other insects. Visit waterloo.ca/leaves for more information. waterloo.ca/leafcollection To ensure the safety of your children, please do not allow them to play in the roadside leaf piles. Pregnant and breast- feeding women are encour- aged to consider the CO- VID-19 vaccine now that it's been proven to be safe and effective for this group which is at greater risk of severe outcomes. "While initial safety studies universally ex- cluded pregnant and lac- tating individuals -- which is exceedingly com- mon in trials -- there is in- creasing real-world evi- dence of both efficacy and safety in these popula- tions," said Dr. Sharon Bal, primary care physi- cian lead of the region's pandemic task force. Yet, fewer pregnant and breastfeeding women are getting immunized against COVID-19. Only 60 per cent are fully vaccinated, com- pared to just over 80 per cent of the general eligible population in Ontario. Experts recommend that pregnant and breast- feeding women should be offered the vaccine if they're eligible and there are no contraindications -- supported by data as these women received the vac- cine and smaller research studies. "You are encouraged to talk to your health-care provider," Bal said. REGION ENCOURAGES VACCINE FOR PREGNANT, BREASTFEEDING WOMEN JOHANNA WEIDNER NEWS A dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is prepared for injection. Armando Franca photo