Three of Atlantic Canada’s four provinces reported progress Sunday in their bids to limit the spread of COVID-19, but health officials in P.E.I. instituted a two-week “circuit breaker” to quell a small but growing outbreak first reported just one day earlier.
P.E.I.’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Heather Morrison, announced new health protocols that will take effect on Monday and remain in place until Dec. 21, including a plea for all Islanders to avoid social gatherings and remain at home.
“If we do not … take a hard approach dealing with this situation head-on, it will take us much longer to recover and we will have more devastating impacts,” Morrison told a news conference in Charlottetown.
“As a province, we have learned from the experience of other jurisdictions that, in some cases, they wish they had acted earlier to address the spread of COVID-19.”
Morrison banned in-restaurant dining, closed all fitness facilities, bingo halls and libraries, limited organized gatherings to no more than 10 people and moved four high schools to online learning. Retail stores must also limit capacity to 50 per cent.
Morrison also asked all Islanders between the ages of 20 and 29 to get tested for COVID-19, even if they have no symptoms.
Premier Dennis King described the new measures as a “circuit breaker.”
“The last eight days have been quite a roller coaster on Prince Edward Island,” he said Sunday. “More concerning than the number of cases at this time is that tracing the source has been a challenge.”
5:27 Coronavirus: PEI’s top doctor details what suspending Atlantic bubble participation means
Coronavirus: PEI’s top doctor details what suspending Atlantic bubble participation means – Nov 24, 2020
The new measures were introduced as the province confirmed four new cases of COVID-19, all of them women linked to three other women whose cases were reported on Saturday.
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The first three women all work in fast-food restaurants in Charlottetown, health officials said.
The Island is now dealing with 11 active cases, which are among the 80 diagnoses reported since the pandemic was declared in March. Health officials have said 10 of those cases were reported in the last week alone.
By contrast, health officials in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were thanking residents for adhering to health protocols, saying their efforts were behind lower infection rates.
New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russel, announced Sunday that restrictions imposed to control recent outbreaks in the Moncton and Fredericton areas would be lifted on Monday.
She said a declining COVID-19 caseload and adherence to health protocols prompted the change, which means the two areas will be returned to what the province describes as its less restrictive Yellow Level.
“Yellow means caution,” Russell said. “It is not an invitation to go full speed ahead into life as it was before COVID-19.”
Russel reminded New Brunswick residents that the situation remains grim in many other provinces.
“Pandemic field hospitals are being set up in Alberta,” she said. “… Ontario has seen daily increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. There are hospitals in B.C. where the physicians have not had a day off since August. The premier of Manitoba has pleaded with citizens to avoid holiday gatherings.”
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Russel also announced that tougher restrictions at the Orange Level would remain in place in the Saint John area because the number of active cases there was too high.
Four new COVID-19 cases were reported Sunday in New Brunswick, three of them people over the age of 60 and one under 20. The province had 82 active cases.
2:16 Halifax area prepares for tougher COVID-19 restrictions after spike
Halifax area prepares for tougher COVID-19 restrictions after spike – Nov 25, 2020
Health officials in Nova Scotia reported five new cases Sunday, all of them in the province’s central region. One case involves an elementary student in Dartmouth, whose school will be closed until Dec. 10.
The province was dealing with 89 active cases as of Sunday, though no one was recovering in hospital.
Premier Stephen McNeil issued a statement saying he was pleased to see the number of new cases dropping on the weekend, with only six new cases reported on Saturday.
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“It reflects Nova Scotians’ commitment to following public health measures and doing their part to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
On Friday, the province extended tighter health restrictions in the Halifax region and Hants County until Dec. 16. Those restrictions, which stop just short of a full lockdown, were introduced Nov. 24 when health officials reported 37 new cases _ 35 in the Halifax area.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, health officials reported four new cases of COVID-19, three of them men who recently returned to the province from Alberta. The fourth case involves a man who was a close contact of a previous case.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
