POLAR XPRESS – September 21, 2020

FROM THE TOP

Gender Equality Week

From September 20 to 26, 2020, Canada will be celebrating the third annual Gender Equality Week. Passed in 2018, the Gender Equality Week Act identifies the week as an opportunity to raise awareness of the important contributions women and gender-diverse communities have made to the growth, development, character and identity of Canada; to celebrate the significant achievements and accomplishments that we have made in advancing gender equality; and to reconfirm our commitment to address persistent gender equality gaps in our country.

The theme for this year’s Gender Equality Week, is #BecauseOfYou. Join the conversation on social media this week!

Back to school with LifeSpeak

Back to school is a time for both excitement and anxiety, but this year is different. The uncertainty of how the pandemic will affect the year ahead is weighing on us all. Below LifeSpeak’s experts answer questions on how to prepare for the school year and how to overcome anxieties about going back.

• How to prepare for back to school during the pandemic
• Ask the Expert Series: Overcoming Back to School Anxiety
• How to protect your children online

To access LifeSpeak, whether you are using a computer, a tablet or a smartphone, simply log on to the following address: canada.lifespeak.com, select Access Through Group Account and enter the Client Password: canada

Embracing Risk in Uncertain Times

As part of the rapid and decisive response to the challenges posed by the COVID 19 pandemic, Canada's public service developed new programs, rolled out financial supports, and acquired and distributed critical supplies in a matter of weeks. Despite the challenges and pivots along the way, the experience has taught the Canada School of Public Service that to meet the needs of Canadians, it is sometimes necessary to embrace risk and uncertainty. As public servants, how must we continue to adapt during uncertain times and embrace risk over the longer term? Learn more during this fascinating webcast!

Date and time: September 25, 2020 | 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (ET)
Registration deadline: September 25, 2020, 10:00 a.m. (ET)
Language: English, with interpretation in French
Location: Available across Canada by webcast
Audience: All public servants at all levels
Register for webcast

Canada School of Public Service Virtual Café Series

The Virtual Café series will explore a range of topics of broad interest to public servants. These conversations will feature leading academic experts, business leaders, media personalities, and public servants sharing and debating their ideas and perspectives on a range of economic, social, and technological topics.

Upcoming Event:
Climate Change – Where Do We Go From Here?
Climate change is one of greatest risks facing humanity. Already, our natural world is being altered in many ways, with frequent extreme weather events threatening communities, resulting in damage and devastation, and a growing number of species pushed to extinction.

Date and time: September 30, 2020 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Registration deadline: September 29, 2020, 4:00 p.m. (ET)
Language: French, with interpretation in English
Location: Available across Canada by webcast
Audience: All public servants at all levels
Register for webcast

POLAR’S PEOPLE

POLAR’s Chris Arko gives a tour of the General Computing Lab

Last week, Chris Arko gave a tour of the General Computing Laboratory (GCL) to the new Cambridge Bay staff. The GCL offers 18 computer workstations, four high performance workstations and fourteen conventional workstations. A very dynamic presentation for all who attended!

Frontiers in Earth Science

In a recent article in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, Ian Hogg and colleagues from the US explain how Antarctic soils hold clues about past climates and glacial history and can help us understand environments on Mars. In Antarctica, soils in the few places not buried under ice are among the most saline on Earth. These extremely dry environments lack the water that in Iess arid places removes salts such as nitrate, sulfate, and carbonate from the soil, and so over millions of years they have been steadily accumulating, becoming ever more concentrated.

Ian and his colleagues sampled soils from the Shackleton Glacier in the Central Transantarctic Mountains and used stable isotope analysis, which can help pinpoint the source of a substance by measuring molecular differences, to determine the origin of the salts the soils contained. They discovered that the salts came from a variety of sources: deposition from the atmosphere, chemical weathering of rock, and other processes linked to glaciers and persistent arid conditions. The research has important implications for understanding past climate and atmospheric conditions, suitability for biological habitats, glacial history – and, in future, understanding of the dynamics of salts in Martian soils, whose environments, like those of the Antarctic, are extremely cold and arid. Read the article.

LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE

New Inuktitut children’s series: Ukaliq & Kalla

Officially launched on September 8, 2020, was the first episode of Ukaliq & Kalla. Ukaliq, an impulsive Arctic hare, and Kalla, the wise lemming, are an animated duo who get up to many adventures that both entertain and teach simple life lessons.

You can start watching it today, through NITV’s website.

Note: At this time the program does not offer English subtitles

Inuinnaqtun/Inuktitut word of the week

The Inuinnaqtun/Inuktitut word of the week is: katimavik. It means: board room or meeting place

It is pronounced: kah-tee-mah-vick

Listen to the pronunciations here:

Are you ready to Talk the Talk?

UPDATES

A new addition to the Intranet

Located on POLAR’s Intranet, under Policies and Guidelines you will now find the Inuit Employment Plan to Learn about POLAR’s employment strategy relating to the recruitment, development and retention of Inuit employees. Click here!

Key outcomes from Senior Management Committee and Executive Team Meeting discussions

Here are the key outcomes and decisions from the September 16, 2020, Senior Management Committee (SMC) and the September 9, 2020, Executive Team Meeting discussions

• SMC reviewed and discussed staffing plans for Programs.
• ETM reviewed the current procurement log. Managers were reminded that it is important that items on the procurement log are also reflected in the financial forecast.
• ETM reviewed the POLAR financial report as of August 31, 2020. It was agreed that the current forecast is overly optimistic, given the low burn rate and COVID-related factors.

Managers must review their forecasts and submit their revised numbers to Finance by September 25, 2020.

WORKPLACE NOTICES

Postponed - Return to the Workplace Plan for Ottawa

Due to the second wave of COVID-19 restrictions, the Ottawa staff who were a part of the Phase 1 Return to the Workplace Plan will not be returning to the 170 Laurier Street office until further notice. Employees who require access to the Ottawa office are to first obtain their Director’s approval.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact your manager.

For all Cambridge Bay staff working out of the CHARS campus, please remember to regularly do the following:

• Complete a personal self-assessment at home every day – do you feel ill? Are you showing symptoms? If you are showing symptoms, contact your manager but remain at home.
• Use proper hygiene – wash your hands often, use hand sanitizer, avoid touching your face.
• Physical distancing – keep a distance of approximately two meters from others.
• Sanitize high touch surfaces frequently.
• Work with others to maintain safe use of the workplace and create a healthy environment.
• Take steps to support personal mental health, including taking regular breaks.