Air Canada is cutting an additional 1,500 jobs and suspending more international flights while the airline grapples with heavy travel restrictions imposed to help quell the spread of new coronavirus variants.
Effective Feb. 18, the airline told Global News that 17 flight routes to the U.S. and overseas will be temporarily suspended until at least April 30.
“Affected customers with bookings will be contacted with options, including alternate routings,” Air Canada said.
Toronto to: Fort Myers (Feb. 14), Boston (Feb. 16), Washington-Reagan (Feb. 17), Denver (Feb. 17) and New York LaGuardia Airport (Feb. 17)
Montreal to: Boston (Feb. 17), New York LaGuardia Airport (Feb. 17)
Vancouver to: Seattle (Feb 16)
Other international flights affected include:
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Toronto to: Bogotá (Feb. 16), Dublin (Feb. 12), Dubai (start-up postponed), São Paulo (Feb. 16), Hong Kong (start-up postponed), Tel Aviv (continued suspension)
Montreal to: Bogotá (Feb. 13)
Vancouver to: London, England (Feb. 14), Tokyo-Narita, Japan (Feb. 15)
According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, non-essential travel accounts for roughly 15 per cent of travellers who are coming back into Canada by plane, many of whom are snowbirds — Canadians who regularly travel to the U.S. and overseas for the winter.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the “simplest rule of thumb” is to restrict non-essential activities “as much as possible,” even if that means doling out hefty fines.
Her comments come in the midst of a federal government crackdown on non-essential travel that includes mandatory PCR testing, the requested suspension of all flights to sunny destinations from major airlines and designated quarantine hotels that are expected to cost more than $2,000 for travellers.
Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE’s airline division, which represents flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, told The Canadian Press that more needed to be done if the country’s aviation industry was going to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We appreciate the need for measures to prevent the spread of new variants of COVID-19 in Canada,” he said. “But restrictions have to be accompanied by solutions.”
The new travel restrictions have already dealt a blow to the airliner’s vacation subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge, which announced 80 layoffs last week and officially paused its operations on Monday as a result of the government’s suspension of all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico.
On Tuesday, Trudeau announced he was expanding non-essential travel restrictions to include a mandatory negative PCR test for those entering Canada’s land borders taken within 72 hours of departure.
Trudeau said border officials can’t legally turn away Canadians at the land border — but they can issue a “stiff penalty” of up to $3,000 in fines for those who don’t show a negative test and ensure followups for those requiring additional COVID-19 testing and quarantines.
“You can’t prevent someone who is standing at a land border crossing from entering Canada because technically they’re already on Canadian soil when they’re speaking to that customs officer,” he said, adding that non-essential travel represents roughly five per cent of people driving through Canadian borders.
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0:34 Coronavirus: Trudeau says negative COVID-19 test will be required at land border crossings
Coronavirus: Trudeau says negative COVID-19 test will be required at land border crossings
The new measure goes into effect on Feb. 15.
Internal federal government polling has consistently shown broad support for keeping tight restrictions on the Canada-U.S. border until conditions change with the spread of the virus.
The most recent internal government polling commissioned by the Privy Council Office, done in late November and obtained by Global News using access-to-information laws, found that 41 per cent of Canadians believed the border should remain shut to all non-essential travel until there is a vaccine, while 35 per cent thought it should open only when the number of new daily U.S. cases nears zero.
In June, a similar internal poll, also obtained using access-to-information laws, found that 40 per cent said the government should not reopen the Canada-U.S. border until U.S. cases approach zero while 25 per cent said the border should stay closed until a vaccine is available.
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— With files from Global News’ David Akin and the Canadian Press
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.
