OTTAWA —
The global vaccine-sharing initiative known as COVAX told Canada last week it could expect to receive between 1.9 million and 3.2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine before the end of June.
The numbers were confirmed to Canada Tuesday.
But public numbers posted by COVAX Wednesday point only to the lower end of that range, heaping another helping of confusion on an already anxiety-laden vaccine effort.
The vaccine alliance was established last year as part of an international effort to prevent wealthy countries from snapping up all available vaccines or COVID-19 treatment drugs, leaving the world’s poorest nations to go without.
Canada bought into it with $440 million in September, half of which secured doses for Canadians, and the other half to help buy doses for 92 nations who need help to buy vaccines.
The COVAX Facility is co-ordinated by the World Health Organization, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
COVAX has agreements with multiple vaccine-makers to buy about two billion doses this year, which will be distributed among the members nations to vaccinate up to one-fifth of each country’s population.
On Jan. 30, it sent letters to all participating nations to lay out what they could expect to get in the first round of deliveries, between February and June, including 240 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine produced at the Serum Institute of India and between 96 million and 153 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced elsewhere.
That letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, shows Canada was to get between 1.9 million and 3.2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, from SK Bioscience in South Korea. That was to include between 500,000 and 1.1 million doses by the end of March, pending approval of AstraZeneca by both the World Health Organization and Health Canada.
The letter said the range “reflects the expected distribution due to potential supply constraints, based on latest understanding, while the high end reflects the contracted number of doses.”
The letter warned things could change, but Canada was sent a draft of the document COVAX intended to publish to its website Wednesday, which again listed a range of doses between 1.9 million and 3.2 million.
But when COVAX shared the information publicly Wednesday morning, the upper range of deliveries had disappeared.
A spokeswoman for Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada hasn’t been given an explanation.
“Canada has not received further communication since this information was shared,” said Cecely Roy.
Canada is not the only country affected. The Philippines was told last week it would get between 5.5 million and 9.3 million AstraZeneca doses from COVAX in the first round, but Wednesday COVAX says the Philippines will be allocated 5.5 million.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness tweeted Tuesday that Jamaica had been told it would get between 146,400 and 249,000 AstraZeneca doses, while Wednesday COVAX said Jamaica was getting 146,400.
While Canadians have been getting vaccinated since December, Jamaica and the Philippines haven’t started vaccinating yet. Both anticipate doing so this month with the COVAX deliveries.
Anand said the COVAX deliveries would boost Canada’s expected deliveries of vaccine by the end of March.
Canada has authorized two vaccines thus far, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and with them aims to vaccinate three million people by the end of March and another 10 million by the end of June.
Those numbers have been jeopardized because of recent production problems facing both manufacturers, though the government insists the full deliveries will arrive as planned.
Canada could vaccinate another 1.6 million people by June if the upper end of the COVAX range had materialized, and Public Services and Procurement Canada is now seeking clarity from COVAX about why the range was not included in Wednesday’s publication.
With 1.9 million doses, Canada could vaccinate about 950,000 more people.
The COVAX doses are over and above the 20 million doses Canada bought from AstraZeneca directly, which are to start flowing once Health Canada approves it for use, something anticipated within the next two weeks.
Canada has now vaccinated close to a million people with at least one dose of vaccines from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
But vaccine efforts slowed close to a full halt last week when no new doses were delivered.
Production issues from Pfizer-BioNTech cut Canada’s deliveries from them by two-thirds between Jan. 18 and Feb. 14, and Moderna reduced this week’s shipment by 20 per cent because of a production problem.
AstraZeneca has also faced production issues in Europe, prompting the European Union to impose export controls requiring vaccine makers to document all production and shipments of COVID-19 vaccines on the continent.
Canada’s entire supply of COVID-19 vaccines to date comes from Europe. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has assurances from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Canada’s doses will not be affected.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said in an email Europe has a “duty” to vaccinate its own citizens quickly but doesn’t intend to prevent other countries from doing the same.
“In particular if these countries do not have their own manufacturing capacity,” the statement reads.
Europe authorized the export of shipments to Canada this week.
“We have already been receiving requests for deliveries, including for Canada,” the statement says. “Member States have handled these requests very swiftly and these exports have been authorized in accordance with the opinion of the Commission. It proves that the system is working and that we will use it only in very limited cases.”
Canada’s COVAX doses are coming from SK Bioscience in South Korea, but Anand said negotiations are ongoing about where the 20 million doses purchased directly from AstraZeneca will be made.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2021.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
