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16 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Manitoba – CBC.ca

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There are 16 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba on Wednesday, including 10 in Winnipeg.

The update brings the total number of active cases in the province to 202, a news bulletin said on Wednesday — the first time Manitoba’s active case count has surpassed 200.

The caseload increase comes after only four new cases were announced on Tuesday, when Manitoba got a short break from a five-day streak of double-digit increases in the high teens and 30s.

That was the highest number of consecutive days in Manitoba with double-digit increases. The previous record was four straight days in early April.

There have now been 578 cases of the illness caused by the new coronavirus identified in Manitoba.

The province’s five-day test positivity rate, a rolling average of the COVID-19 tests that come back positive, is now 1.06 per cent — a drop from Tuesday’s rate of 1.27 per cent.

The Winnipeg cases announced Wednesday include four men and two women in their 20s, a man and a woman in their 30s and two women in their 40s, the bulletin said.

Four of the new cases announced Wednesday are in the Prairie Mountain Health region: a girl age 10 to 19, a woman in her 20s and two men in their 40s.

The new cases Wednesday also included a woman in her 30s in the Interlake-Eastern Health region and a woman in her 60s from the Southern Health region.

The red line illustrates the five-day test positivity average, or the percentage of tests that came back positive for COVID-19. (Jacques Marcoux/CBC)

Preliminary investigations suggest most of the new cases in Winnipeg are related to travel and close contacts of known COVID-19 cases, the bulletin said. Most of the new cases in the Prairie Mountain region, meanwhile, are linked to previously announced cases in Brandon.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister cautioned people not to live in fear despite the climbing case numbers. He suggested that people may be more worried about new cases after the province went for weeks with relatively low numbers, including a 13-day stretch when no new cases were reported.

“The numbers themselves have been so low … it’s created a circumstance where we’re more fearful as a direct consequence of that, because there was nowhere to go but up,” he said. 

Flight passengers told to isolate

People who were in specific seats on three recent flights are now advised to self-isolate for 14 days following the flight and watch for symptoms.

The seats and flights are rows 30 to 36 on Air India Flight AI 121 from New Delhi, India, to Frankfurt, Germany, on Aug. 3; rows 32 to 38 on Air Canada Flight 873 from Frankfurt, Germany, to Toronto Pearson International Airport on Aug. 4; and rows 19 to 25 on Air Canada Flight 271 from Toronto Pearson International Airport to the James A. Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg on Aug. 4.

People who were on the flights in other seats should still watch for symptoms and self-isolate if they get sick, the bulletin says.

International travellers are supposed to self-isolate for 14 days under federal rules, and travellers from Eastern Canada are supposed to isolate for 14 days according to Manitoba’s rules.

Five people with COVID-19 are in hospital in Manitoba, including three in intensive care — numbers that remain unchanged from Tuesday.

Since Monday, 36 new cases of COVID-19 have been announced in Manitoba.

To date, 368 people have recovered from the illness in the province, and eight have died.

The red line illustrates the cumulative number of cases, while the grey bar illustrates daily case totals. (Jacques Marcoux/CBC)

A growing cluster of cases in Brandon, Man., has climbed to at least 64, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said on Monday.

There were also 22 employees at the western Manitoba city’s Maple Leaf Foods pork processing plant who have tested positive for the illness as of Monday, Roussin said. Only some of them are part of Brandon’s larger COVID-19 cluster.

Most of the province’s active cases are in the Prairie Mountain Health region, which includes Brandon, and in the Southern Health region. As of Wednesday, there were 86 active cases in the Prairie Mountain region and 43 in the Southern region, according to the province’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The red line illustrates the weekly average test level, while the grey bar indicates how many tests were done each day. (Jacques Marcoux/CBC)

Only 28 of the province’s active cases were in Winnipeg, as of Wednesday.

Health officials opened an extra test site in Brandon on Tuesday to help ease long wait times at what was previously the city’s only testing location.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen also announced on Monday that the province will soon start providing more “nuanced” breakdowns of where in Manitoba new COVID-19 cases appear. That change is expected to come by the end of this week, Friesen said.

On Tuesday, 1,554 more tests for COVID-19 were completed in Manitoba, bringing the total done in the province since early February to 105,661.

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Telus prioritizing ‘most important customers,’ avoiding ‘unprofitable’ offers: CFO

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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.

The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.

Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.

The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”

“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.

“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”

Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.

The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.

It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.

It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.

“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.

Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.

The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.

Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.

The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.

“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.

Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.

“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.

“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”

Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.

On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.

That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.

Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”

“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”

French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.

“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.

“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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