Fewer Canadians gathered around twinkling Christmas trees to tear open presents with friends and family Saturday as COVID-19 put a damper on festivities for a second straight year, but the holiday spirit still managed to shine through for many.
Public health experts have spent recent weeks urging people to keep their gatherings small and intimate — if they were to go ahead at all — as COVID-19 cases spiked across the country due to the fasts-spreading Omicron variant.
Still, dozens attended a scaled-back noon-hour mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica in downtown Toronto, where churchgoers wore masks and stood two metres apart.
Bernadette Alexander, who attended with a friend, said the service was particularly moving because she had been worshipping from home for so long.
“We were just saying it’s been almost two years. We’ve been watching mass on TV, but this is the first time we’ve been to mass in person in two years,” Alexander said.
“It was amazing. It was beautiful. It reduced me to tears, actually.”
Froila Fernandes, an international student from India who moved to Canada two months ago, attended the service on her own — her first in this country.
“I found this service so spiritually enriching for me today because it felt like that was something I was lacking over here ever since I moved,” she said.
“Being able to experience this was really heartwarming and so touching for me. I kept kind of crying.”
At Saint Gabriel’s Parish in Toronto, Christmas trees and poinsettias were displayed ahead of a small in-person mass service on Saturday.
A pianist played Christmas tunes that filled the church. Green markers signalled where churchgoers could sit among the pews while being physically distanced.
Christine Odunlami of Toronto said she usually spends holidays south of the border catching up with loved ones, but since she suffers from asthma, she didn’t feel comfortable travelling this year.
“It’s still a little lonely in a sense,” she said. “I’m more accustomed to being around family this time of year.”
Odunlami said celebrations this year included a small Christmas Eve dinner with friends, complete with vaccination checks, and a virtual party over Zoom with other loved ones.
Over in Yarmouth, N.S., Const. Ryan Bell worked his first Christmas shift on Saturday. It was quiet, and he and other officers helped out at the Royal Canadian Legion in the small southwestern Nova Scotia town to distribute food and gifts to members.
“Driving around on the roads here in town, we haven’t seen many vehicles,” Bell said.
“With the pandemic, I think a lot of people are staying home, sticking with their families and enjoying Christmas.”
Few provinces reported new COVID-19 diagnoses on Christmas Day, though Quebec was an exception. It saw 9,206 new cases and four added deaths.
In recent days, many provinces have broken records with their infection counts.
On Christmas Eve, Ontario smashed past the record set a day earlier with 9,571 new cases, while British Columbia announced a new high of 2,144 infections and Manitoba broke its record with 742.
Nunavut, with eight infections in several communities, ordered a full lockdown in the territory on Friday.
Back in Ontario, St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Kincardine handed out free Christmas Day meals in drive-thru fashion in the parking lot like they did in 2020 — as opposed to offering sit-down lunches as was the case before the pandemic.
Organizer Sam Finnie said the church had given out 216 meals by Saturday afternoon. The meals consisted of turkey, potatoes, turnip, stuffing, mixed vegetables, gravy, cranberries and dessert. They were made possible with donations from community members, he said.
It meant a lot to be able to give the meals to those in need as well as people who won’t be celebrating the holidays with their loved ones this year, Finnie said.
Toronto-based Dr. Naheed Dosani said finding alternative ways to celebrate was the responsible thing to do during this phase of the pandemic.
“We have come so far and sacrificed so much that, at this time, a decision to put a hold on holiday get-together plans is the right thing to do.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 25, 2021.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
