When the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved in Canada, Ketty Samel and her 76-year-old husband Morris believed the end to the long months of isolation was in sight. Since last March, the Thornhill, Ont., couple has been hunkering down in their home.
“We’re living in fear. For me to go to a grocery store right now, I’m in a total sweat. I’m stressed, I walk in and I walk out. I grab whatever I need off the shelves and that’s it.”
Under Ontario’s vaccination rollout plan, Samel, 71, and her husband will be vaccinated in Phase 2 — a phase that could begin as early as March, according to government officials, and will continue through to July. It’s a tiered system by age groups, starting with those 80 years of age or older, then decreasing by five-year increments.
“They’ve told us from the beginning of this pandemic that we were vulnerable. [After] long term care we were the next vulnerable population,” said Samel.
“And all of a sudden we’re expendable. That’s our feeling.”
The Ontario Ministry of Health says the roadblock to vaccinating more people faster is supply, which is expected to increase in Phase 2.
But in the meantime, some are questioning whether everyone getting a dose in Phase 1 is as vulnerable as seniors in the community, with figures from Public Health Ontario showing that more than a third of COVID-19 deaths are adults over 60 who aren’t in long-term care.
Long-term care nurse Limin Liu, right, takes a selfie as registered nurse Sasha Vartley vaccinates her with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Dec. 15. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Federal guidelines
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends adults 70 and older to be part of the first stage of immunization rollout, alongside residents and staff in seniors’ congregate living settings, health-care workers, and adults in Indigenous communities “where infection can have disproportionate consequences.”
Actual plans vary by province. In Ontario, Phase 1 of the rollout involves vaccinating all residents, staff, essential and other workers in long term care and retirement homes, health care workers, adults in First nations, Metis and Inuit populations and recipients of adult chronic home care.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford watches a health-care worker prepare a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccine clinic in Toronto on Jan. 7. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
This discrepancy between federal guidelines and Ontario’s planned rollout is one that 76-year-old Toronto resident Brian Corcoran calls frustrating.
“We’re not considering elderly people. They don’t have that criteria in Ontario,” said Corocoran.
Corcoran, like many other seniors in Ontario, has called his local health clinic to try to find out when he’d be vaccinated, only to be told staff have received no direction.
“By having the seniors in limbo is not good for a lot of people. A lot of people will get depressed. A lot of people will be isolated.”
Corcoran said he believes in the importance of vaccinating seniors in long-term care homes and front line workers first, but said he doesn’t understand why older adults like him aren’t included in the first phase after them.
Brian Corcoran, 76, pictured outside his Toronto home. He’d like to see elderly people such as himself vaccinated in Phase 1 of Ontario’s rollout plan. (Pelin Sidki/CBC)
It’s a sentiment shared by Samel and her husband.
“If we should contract COVID, it’s most likely that we are going to end up taking up a hospital bed and end up not surviving. That’s the bottom line,” she said.
‘The numbers don’t lie’
According to Public Health Ontario’s figures as of Friday, there have been 5289 COVID deaths in the province.
A closer look at the numbers show that of the estimated 5289 deaths, 96 per cent — 5064 people — are aged 60 and over. (The majority — 3137 deaths — have been seniors in long-term care homes, but nearly 2000 estimated deaths have been seniors not in long-term care.)
Those figures are prompting some medical professionals and advocates to call for Ontario’s vaccination plan to look more closely at older adults.
“The numbers don’t lie,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of Geriatrics at at Mount Sinai and the University Health Network Hospitals in Toronto.
“And yet our government is basically following a kind of a plan that I don’t actually think really follows the science.”
Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto, says he doesn’t believe the government is using science to guide its vaccination rollout plan when it comes to seniors. (Jennifer La Grassa/CBC)
Sinha questions why some essential workers in hospitals — who don’t interact with patients — are being vaccinated before older adults.
“The science says that when 96 per cent of the people dying in this pandemic are people older than 60. Why would you make that make that population wait until April, that 3.5 million people, and start vaccinating 1.5 million essential workers months in advance of that?”
Sinha pointed to other countries — such as Israel — that he said have already vaccinated more than 70 per cent of its population over the age of 60 in a matter of weeks.
Bill VanGorder is the Chief Policy Officer for the Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP). He says with community spread in Ontario, there is a serious risk to those seniors living in their own homes. (CARP)
Each province has its own timeline for vaccinating seniors. In British Columbia for example, only those 80 years of age or older who live in the community will be vaccinated before April.
In Quebec, the provincial government plans to start vaccinating those 70 years and older by February 15 with the hope that all Quebecers over 70 will get vaccine by April. In Alberta the plan is to start offering vaccines to seniors 75 and older by February.
Some seniors’ advocates say older adults must be prioritized regardless of where they live.
“There is great risk to people who are living in their own homes. They’re still visited … by caregivers, by their own family,” said Bill VanGorder, chief policy officer with the Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP)
“And we know how bad community spread is right across [Ontario]. Why would we not want to vaccinate them just as quickly as possible first?”
WATCH | Why some provinces are delaying 2nd dose of vaccine against recommendations:
As provinces rush to get vaccines into arms, debate continues over how late second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can be given. Canada’s Vaccine Task Force is pushing for manufacturer guidelines to be adhered to, while Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization says up to 42 days is OK. 2:01
Ministry response
CBC News reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Health to ask why older adult aren’t part of Phase 1 and why the province hasn’t moved to vaccinate them sooner.
In a statement it said the province has the ability to ramp up its capacity to vaccinate more people, but the problem is supply.
“We continue to urge the federal government to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible to keep up with Ontario’s capacity to administer.”
It added: “As the province continues to receive more doses, we will continue to expand locations across the province to vaccinate our most vulnerable and over time every Ontarian who wishes to be immunized.”
For Ketty Samel and her husband, that’s not good enough. They’ve started a letter-writing campaign to the provincial government.
“They’ve told us and warned us that we are so vulnerable,” said Samel. “If we’re so vulnerable, why is nobody looking at this?”
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.
