Canada added 4,876 coronavirus cases and 114 deaths as provinces expressed anger at lowered vaccine shipment expectations.
The country now has 766,102 cases total and 19,647 deaths.
The federal government started the day by reassuring provinces that the country will get four million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses by April after data showed there could be a minimum of 3.5 million.
Already, vaccine shipments over the coming weeks have been reduced as the company deals with troubles at its Belgium plant.
Canada is expected to receive 149,000 doses over the next two weeks — one-fifth of what had previously been promised, according to Maj.-Gen. Danny Fortin, who is in charge of the country’s vaccine efforts.
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“This is a bump in the road — not insignificant,” Fortin said. “But we have to look at the long game.”
Canada is expected to receive 20 million doses of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines between April and June, according to Fortin.
1:44 Confusion and concern over vaccine shipment delays
Confusion and concern over vaccine shipment delays
Alberta’s health minister, though, said the federal government is “failing Canadians” with the vaccine delays.
“This is a grim situation that seems to be getting worse every week,” Tyler Shandro said.
Alberta will receive 63,000 fewer vaccines in the first quarter of the year than originally promised.
Meanwhile, Pfizer is also pressing the Canadian government to boost the number of doses from each vial from five to six.
Health Canada is currently “doing the math” to see if it is possible, according to officials, but provinces have reported they could only get six doses from vials 50 per cent of the time, according to Alberta’s chief medical officer.
Variants are still a concern, as well. The U.K. variant, which is 30 per cent more transmissible, has been circulating in Ontario and is expected to be the dominant version of the virus there by March, according to the province’s health advisors.
On the bright side, vaccine creator Novavax announced Thursday that it has developed the first vaccine effective against both the U.K. and South African variants, at 89.3 per cent and 49.4 per cent effectiveness, respectively.
As for cases, Ontario reported 2,093 new infections on Thursday after three days below the 2,000 case mark. The province also reported 56 more deaths, bringing its total past 6,000 deaths to 6,014. There are now 21,478 active cases in the province and 1,338 in hospital, with 276 in ICU.
1:42 Data correction halves number of Ontario residents who have received 2 COVID-19 vaccine doses
Data correction halves number of Ontario residents who have received 2 COVID-19 vaccine doses
The province also admitted to a mistake in calculating the number of people who had been fully vaccinated with two doses, almost halving its previous count of 96,459 to 55,286.
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Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, who co-chairs Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said new infections are on track to decrease to between 1,000 and 2,000 a day by the end of February.
Over in Quebec, Premier François Legault announced most current restrictions will be extended past their current February 8 deadline as officials detected a seventh case of the U.K. variant.
“We have to be realistic,” Legault said.
The province reported 1,368 new cases on Thursday and 39 more deaths, eight of which occurred in the last 24 hours. There are currently 1,264 hospitalizations there, with 212 in ICU.
Out west, British Columbia recorded 546 new cases and 12 deaths, breaking a four-day streak of below 500 cases. The number in hospitals dropped below 300 to 291, the lowest since late November.
Alberta reported 461 new cases Thursday and seven deaths, with 591 people currently in hospital due to the virus.
Saskatchewan counted 244 new cases and 11 more deaths, with 208 in hospital, while Manitoba reported 173 new cases and two more deaths.
Manitoba also announced an easing of some restrictions, including allowing non-essential retail stores to open at 25 per cent capacity and allowing an increase in household visitors.
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3:57 Alberta slams federal rollout of COVID-19 vaccine and shipment uncertainty
Alberta slams federal rollout of COVID-19 vaccine and shipment uncertainty
Out east, New Brunswick reported 27 new cases, while Newfoundland and Labrador reported four more cases. Nunavut has also added one additional case.
There have been 101,381,964 cases worldwide and 2,188,566 deaths to date, according to Johns Hopkins University.
— With files from Global staff and the Canadian Press
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.
