Simone Kearney-Rodriguez is looking forward to putting cash in the register this weekend when the first crowd of cruise ship passengers pull into port in Victoria, B.C., on Saturday, after the last two cruise seasons were cancelled due to COVID-19.
The owner of the Beaver Gift Shop says her family business almost sank without the support of hundreds of thousands of cruise tourists that have kept her afloat for more than 30 years.
She’s not alone: according to the Tourism Industry Association of B.C., cruise ships contribute about $2.7 billion annually to the provincial economy, supporting tourism-oriented businesses in coastal cities like Victoria, Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
“We’re a tourist town,” said Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce in an interview in the James Bay neighbourhood, where docked tourists stock up on gifts and candy.
Customers shop for souvenirs at a gift shop in the port of Victoria in B.C., on Saturday, April 9. Souvenir shops in coastal cities like Vancouver, Victoria and Prince Rupert are eagerly awaiting the arrival of cruise ships for the first time in two years. (Ken Mizokoshi/CBC)
“These businesses have always been reliant on tourism and some of them are down 80 or 90 per cent of revenue.”
More than 300 ships are expected to call at B.C. ports between now and November, bringing in upward of a million customers. But along with their tourist dollars are some concerns, including the possible arrival of new cases of COVID and the environmental impact of giant ships floating through delicate coastal ecosystems.
COVID monitoring
The first ship to arrive on B.C.’s coast is the Koningsdam, part of the Holland America line.
The ship hosts a seven-day cruise from San Diego, Calif., to Vancouver, and will arrive at a Victoria port Saturday.
People are seen welcoming visitors from the Koningsdam cruise ship, which arrived at the port of Victoria, B.C., on Saturday, April 9. The ship hosts a seven-day cruise from San Diego, Calif., to Vancouver. (Ken Mizokoshi/CBC)
Under federal regulations, cruise ship passengers arriving in Canada need to be fully vaccinated and tested for COVID-19 before boarding at departure points, and are monitored before arrival in Canada.
Dr. Horacio Bach of the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine says cruise companies appear to have learned lessons from the early days of the pandemic, when COVID-19 outbreaks forced them to stay at sea for weeks, and now have strong testing regimes and medical facilities on board to prevent problems.
Dirty dumping
Recent research by environmental organizations warns the industry is treating the province’s sensitive coast as a dumping ground for polluted wastewater, and that what bodes well for business is bad news for the environment.
“B.C. is the toilet bowl for the cruise industry,” says Anna Barford, a shipping campaigner at environmental advocacy group Stand.earth.
In this January 2014 photo, an endangered female orca leaps from the water in Puget Sound west of Seattle, as seen from a federal research vessel that had been tracking the whales. Environmental groups warn unregulated dumping from cruise ships harms B.C.’s delicate ocean ecosystems. (Elaine Thompson/The Canadian Press)
Barford says cruising creates more greenhouse gas emissions than air travel, and lax Canadian regulations mean billions of litres of potentially dangerous sewage, greywater and washwater are likely dumped in B.C. coastal waters every year.
According to a report released last July, Stand.earth found the environmental benefits of cancelled cruises were “astonishing.” It showed an estimated 220 million litres of sewage, 1.8 billion litres of greywater, and 31 billion litres of washwater — enough to fill more than 13,000 Olympic swimming pools — have been kept out of the Salish and Great Bear seas.
The Koningsdam pictured at the port of Victoria on Saturday, April 9. James Bay residents in the city have raised concerns about the pollution and congestion that comes with cruise ship season. (Ken Mizokoshi/CBC)
Greywater originates as drainage from sinks, galleys and dishwashers. Washwater is generated by cruise ship scrubbers that are fitted on the vessel’s exhaust system and pull in seawater to filter sulphur dioxide pollutants out of marine fuel.
In a March report from the World Wildlife Fund on vessel dumping in Canada, scrubber washwater — which is up to 100,000 times more acidic than seawater — accounted for 97 per cent of generated waste nationally.
That report found cruise ships were the top producer of wastewater despite making up only two per cent of the 5,546 ships studied in Canadian waters in 2019.
U.S. vs Canadian regulations
Barford says the laws governing cruise ships on the B.C. coast pale in comparison to those in California — where ships cannot use scrubbers and must burn cleaner fuels — and Alaska, where on-board engineers take water samples, observe environmental practices and report on problems.
This, says Barford, is what needs to happen in Canada as well.
On April 4, Transport Canada, which sets cruise ship regulations, announced stricter measures for discharging greywater and blackwater (wastewater from bathrooms and toilets). But those regulations, says Barford, are only voluntary.
Passengers are seen queueing up for a local tour at the port of Victoria on Saturday, April 9. Earlier this week, Transport Canada announced stricter measures for discharging greywater and blackwater, but a campaigner with Stand.earth says those guidelines are voluntary. (Ken Mizokoshi/CBC)
“The Government of Canada plans to make these changes permanent through regulations, and appreciates the cruise ship industry’s willingness to pursue these measures in the interim,” said Transport Canada in a statement.
Without banning scrubbers, insisting on cleaner fuel and putting observers aboard vessels, the B.C. coast will continue to bare the brunt of “prioritizing profit over ocean health and communities,” said Barford.
High emissions
The industry also creates significant carbon emissions.
According to the Germany-based Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, a single cruise ship accommodating 4,000 passengers is capable of emitting as much carbon dioxide as 85,000 cars.
That’s a challenge for Victoria’s own climate goals. At the end of 2019, B.C.’s last full cruise season, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority reported that cruise ships and the infrastructure that support them emit the equivalent of 12,136 tonnes of carbon dioxide — roughly three per cent of total emissions generated in the entire Victoria region.
Tightening the rules
On March 1, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority announced ships at berth or at anchor can no longer discharge scrubber washwater. In that announcement, the authority said it will be phasing in an eventual ban on scrubber systems altogether.
As of Friday afternoon, Transport Canada had not responded to CBC when asked if they are considering banning scrubbers or adding observers to cruise ships in Canadian waters.
B.C.’s Transportation Minister Rob Fleming told On The Island Friday the federal government is working with industry this season to clean up cruising.
“In reality, the post-pandemic cruise industry as it relates to discharge in Canadian coastal waters will be a much stricter regime,” said Fleming.
On The Island8:56We spoke with BC’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure about the upcoming cruise ship season
Gregor Craigie spoke with Rob Fleming, BC Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and NDP MLA for Victoria Swan-Lake, about the imminent arrival of the cruise ship season. 8:56
He said the province is looking at installing shore power in Victoria so cruise ships have the option of plugging in and running on “clean, green energy” instead of burning bunker fuel, reducing emissions.
According to the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, the ships account for 96.3 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions at the city’s cruise terminal.
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of Our Changing Planet, a CBC News initiative to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
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.
