TORONTO —
News that Canada is behind other countries in their COVID-19 vaccination rollout schemes – while in a critical point in the pandemic – has experts worried the country won’t meet the September 2021vaccination goal set by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The vast geography of the country, including remote communities where the logistics of flying in healthcare is complicated –as well as tricky storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, were initially pointed out as roadblocks to the rollout.
But with the arrival of Moderna’s easier-to-store vaccine, and Health Canada reviewing more vaccine products on the horizon, experts say governments need to shift focus.
“I think there was a lot of attention given to getting vaccines into the freezers, but not enough attention from freezer to arm,” biostatician Ryan Imgrund, who works with Ottawa Public Health, said in an email to CTV News.ca Wednesday.
“They were so worried about the cold storage requirement that they seemingly forgot that the vaccine needs to come out and actually get in to people,” he said.
It was a sentiment echoed by the Dean of health sciences at Queens University and former federal minister of health Dr. Jane Philpott.
“We need to empty those freezers… there’s no point in pacing ourselves on this,” Philpott said on CTV’s News Channel Wednesday. “That’s what really is going to turn this pandemic around, is getting people the vaccine protection they need.”
The federal government released 500,000 doses of both the Pfizer and Modern vaccines back in December, but the actual distribution and rollout of the inoculations is at the discretion of provinces and territories.
Ontario’s stunted rollout
Ontario has been criticised repeatedly for its vaccination initiatives having trouble getting off the ground, as the province surpassed 200,000 total COVID-19 cases Wednesday.
The Ontario Liberal party called for the military to be used to step up Ontario’s vaccination phases Wednesday, after Premier Doug Ford’s government took some significant heat for shuttering vaccination stations during the Christmas holidays.
“I am urging the premier to request immediate assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who are well-positioned to provide important logistical leadership and support,” Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said in a statement.
Ret. Gen. Rick Hillier, who was tapped by Ford to lead Ontario’s vaccination rollout, admitted that halting vaccinations over the holidays was a mistake, and that the taskforce’s initial scheme of holding back the 35,000 second doses of the Pfizer vaccine also slowed them down.
Hillier rebutted claims that vaccines were languishing in freezers on CTV News Ottawa’s Morning Live show Wednesday – instead claiming that the issue was one of supply chains.
“Yesterday, we vaccinated more than 10,000 people in the province of Ontario, we will do the same and more again today. We are at the point now where we will start running out of vaccines as the people who need the second shot [of the Pfizer vaccine] start coming back,” he said.
Hillier said the vaccine taskforce plans to administer 55,000 doses of 161 long-term care homes in the regions of Toronto, Peel, York and Windsor-Essex by Jan. 21.
There has been no deadline set for the rest of the province.
Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vera Etches announced on Twitter Tuesday that they would begin vaccinating people outside of the Ottawa Hospital – which had been the central distribution hub – and directly into long-term care homes.
Ontario’s Minister of Health Christine Elliot said Wednesday that 60,000 vaccines have been administered in Ontario so far.
In a statement emailed to CTV News.ca Wednesday, the Ontario Ministry of Health said that the province’s vaccine rollout is “well underway” and that it remains committed to administering them “as safely and efficiently as possible.”
“We have received 95,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine so far, that are currently being administered at 19 hospitals – soon to be expanded to 28 – continuing until the end of March 2021,” the statement reads.
The Ministry of Health also noted in its statement that Ontario recently received 53,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine which will “be used for vaccinations at long-term care homes and retirement homes.”
“We continue to ask all Ontarians to remain vigilant and continue following public health measures.”
The sense of urgency is a good sign, Philpott says.
“I’m pleased to see that over the last 24-48 hours the pace is definitely picking up across the country,” she said. “Ontario is seeing almost a doubling of the rate of vaccines getting out of freezers and into arms, and we need to continue doing that.”
Philpott says she is hopeful that a “significant number” of vaccines will be arriving this week and next week to pick up the pace.
So far approximate 4,100 first-dose appointments have been made for Jan. 4 to 10, with 2,000 more available.
The province is hoping to vaccinate around 40,000 people by the end of January.
Quebec, which had its long-term care homes decimated by COVID-19, took the extra step of putting vaccine distribution centres inside of the homes in an effort to vaccinate residents.
British Columbia also put vaccination distribution directly into long-term care homes, with 24,139 people vaccinated as of Sunday.
B.C expects approximately 792,000 doses of the Pfizer and Modern vaccines to be distributed through the end of March.
The province released their updated vaccination plan Monday – which targets populations like seniors living in the community who are at least 80 years old and Indigenous seniors who are at least 65.
The province received approximately 46,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and said their continued rollout will depend on the available supply.
Nova Scotia is opening COVID-19 immunization clinics to help achieve its goal of vaccinating at least 75 per cent of the population by the end of September.
The province received a combined 9,550 doses of Pfizer and Moderns vaccines and has been targeting healthcare workers in their Phase 1 rollout which runs from January to April 2021.
How can we fix it?
“A key to maximizing efficiency in these complex logistical operations is minimizing downtime or non-productive time,” said Director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering at the University of Toronto Professor Timothy Chan, in an email to CTV News.ca Wednesday.
“Retail figured out long ago that inventory sitting on shelves costs them money. The same concept applies here, except now we’re talking lives.”
Chan also criticized the petering out of vaccinations around the holidays.
“COVID doesn’t take a holiday so neither should we,” he said.
Imgrund says Ontario’s initial vaccines should have gone to long-term care facilities immediately, and noted the government’s apparent lack of preparation.
“Vaccination schedules should be made weeks before the vaccine touches ground. You can always cancel appointments. But scheduling in new ones is always difficult,” he said.
Philpott also touched on the logistics.
“Everybody has a responsibility here,” she said. “We need to ramp up the mechanisms to make sure they are delivered as quickly as possible to the people who need them.”
Chan says that fixing the problem relies on accurately identifying the “key limiting factors” or “bottlenecks.”
“Is it a lack of healthcare workers to deliver the vaccines? Is it a lack of space at the vaccination sites? Is it a lack of coordination and leadership? Right now, the only limiting factor should be our vaccine supply,” he said.
“Start a massive scheduling operation to just get people to these sites (or doses delivered to LTC homes) and start administering the vaccine around the clock if we need to,” he said.
For Ontario’s situation, Imgrund said that the province “eventually needs to get to 40,000 vaccinations per day” in order to vaccinate the entire population.
“Phase 1 is the most important phase when it comes to saving lies and reducing hospitalization…It is easier to ramp down in the future than ramp up,” he said.
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.
