Business
As provinces limit PCR testing, should Canadians be able to report rapid test results? – CBC.ca
As more provinces scale back PCR testing for COVID-19 and the Omicron variant continues to surge, many people in Canada are relying on results from take-home rapid antigen tests, if they can get their hands on them.
However, in much of the country, rapid tests are going uncounted and are not included in official provincial case counts. Some medical experts are warning it’s important to document those results to keep tabs on the pandemic’s progress.
“We need it for a number of things,” said Sally Otto, a UBC evolutionary biologist and member of B.C.’s COVID-19 Modelling Team.
“In order to predict when we’re going to be at the peak, when we’re going to be at the downside of this Omicron wave, we need to know how many people are infected. If we don’t have a good sense of that, it’s really hard to know, are we still at the beginning of this wave or are we at the end of this wave?”
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The tracking of positive results from rapid tests is extremely limited, with most jurisdictions forgoing any kind of reporting system, and it’s getting more difficult for people to access other forms of testing in several parts of Canada.
On Thursday, for example, Ontario changed its testing guidelines to say people who receive positive results on rapid antigen tests no longer need to get PCR tests for confirmation. And as of Friday, the province is also limiting PCR testing to high-risk people who are symptomatic, vulnerable populations and workers in high-risk settings.
A patchwork of approaches to documenting rapid test results are in place in jurisdictions throughout Canada to document rapid test results, such as:
A piecemeal effort is not going to be as good.– Sally Otto, member of B.C.’s COVID-19 Modelling Team
“A piecemeal effort is not going to be as good in terms of the ability to have a good sense of actually how many people are infected right now, what’s the predicted burden that’s going to lead to with hospitalization and when will we be through this,” Otto said.
The precedent for reporting of rapid tests already exists: the United Kingdom has been asking residents to report their results — positive, negative or void — for the last nine months.
“The best data we’ve had about the COVID pandemic has been from the United Kingdom and that’s been because of their strong data analytic framework. They have data on cases linked to hospitalization and vaccination and that’s world class,” Otto said.
Next steps
Jarvis Schmid of Calgary tested positive for COVID-19 on a rapid test on Boxing Day.
After he processed the news, Schmid next wondered what he needed to do with his result.
“I remember someone saying something about it’s good to have these records on hand. What if you have long term symptoms or it helps with diagnoses?” said the 38-year-old, who has been isolating from his family.
There is no system to track rapid test results in Alberta so Schmid instead uploaded a photo of his rapid test along with the date he took the test into his electronic medical records.
“I understand they probably couldn’t get something in place right away. I hope they end up putting something in place that you can easily log this. But right now it’s a bit of a scramble mode,” he said.
However, not everyone agrees a portal similar to what Schmid suggests would be helpful.
Dr. Stephanie Smith, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Alberta, said that type of tracking would require people to be proactive about inputting their results.
“I think the time and effort and money it takes may not actually result in a huge amount of benefit in terms of giving us more information than what we have from the subset of people that are still getting PCR tested,” Smith said.
Down the line
Alberta family physician Dr. David Keegan said something is better than nothing when it comes to tracking rapid test results.
He’s primarily concerned with the bureaucratic consequences for patients who only have a positive rapid test rather than PCR confirmation.
“Will disability, insurance companies accept those when later on, people are looking at long-term disability for benefits and for access to services? Will those self-reported results be accepted? We don’t know,” Keegan said.
“Let’s hope they are. It would just be ideal if governments had figured out a way to gather such data, rapid test results objectively.”
Watch: Don’t trust a negative rapid test for New Year’s parties, says specialist
Business
Pearson airport gold heist: Police announce 9 arrests – CTV News Toronto
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
At a news conference Wednesday on the one-year anniversary of the heist, police confirmed that five suspects were arrested and four others are facing charges in connection with the largest gold theft in Canadian history.
Police said the suspects face a total of 19 charges and Canada-wide warrants have been issued for the arrest of three of the suspects who have not yet been apprehended. All of the suspects arrested in connection with the heist have been released on bail, police confirmed in a news release issued Wednesday.
Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said the heist was “carefully planned” by a “well-organized group of criminals.”
“This story is a sensational one and one which probably, we jokingly say, belongs in a Netflix series,” he said.
Police said 6,600 gold bars were stolen from Air Canada’s cargo facility on the evening of April 17, 2023 by a suspect who arrived at the warehouse in a five-tonne delivery truck.
The gold, along with about $2.5 million in foreign currency, had been shipped to Toronto from Zurich in the hull of an Air Canada plane and was offloaded to an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after the flight landed at Pearson Airport that afternoon.
Police allege that the suspect came into possession of the stolen gold and bank notes after presenting Air Canada personnel with a fraudulent airway bill.
“The airway bill was for a legitimate shipment of seafood that was picked up the day before,” Det.-Sgt. Mike Mavity, the major case manager for the joint investigation, dubbed Project 24K, told reporters on Wednesday.
“This duplicate airway bill was printed off from a printer within Air Canada cargo.”
Brinks Canada, which was hired to provide security and logistics services for the transportation of the shipment, showed up at the facility a few hours later to pick up the items, police said.
According to investigators, when Air Canada employees tried to locate the container, they realized it was missing and quickly launched an internal investigation. Police were notified about the stolen goods shortly before 3 a.m. the following day, Mavity said.
Air Canada launches probe
An exhaustive investigation followed, police said, with officers reviewing video surveillance footage from 225 businesses and residences in an effort to track the path of the truck, which has since been recovered.
Mavity said that last summer, they identified 25-year-old Durante King-McLean as the driver of the truck but were unable to locate him.
In September 2023, Mavity said King-McLean was stopped in rental vehicle by Pennsylvania State Police near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
“After a brief foot chase, he was detained and troopers located 65 illegal firearms in the vehicle,” Mavity said Wednesday.
According to Mavity, investigators believe that the stolen gold was melted down and sold and the proceeds were used to purchase illegal guns for a firearms trafficking operation.
He said members of Project 24K have been liaising with the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau (ATF) with respect to this aspect of the investigation.
Speaking at the news conference on Wednesday, a representative from the ATF said the law enforcement agency believes the 65 guns seized during the arrest of King-McLean were bound for Canada.
While King-McLean is currently in custody in the United States, he is now wanted on multiple charges in connection with the gold theft.
“We are alleging that some individuals who participated in this gold theft are also involved in aspects of this firearms trafficking,” Mavity added.
Two “debt lists” were found by investigators at separate locations during the investigation, police said.
“A common term in drug trafficking investigations, we believe these lists actually show where the money was distributed when the gold was sold by the suspects,” Mavity said.
He said the names on both lists are “consistent” and police are trying to identify all of those identified.
‘They needed people inside Air Canada’
Police said one current Air Canada employee, identified as 54-year-old Brampton resident Parmpal Sidhu, has been charged with theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. A Canada-wide warrant has been issued 31-year-old Simran Preet Panesar, who police said resigned from his position as a manager at Air Canada back in the summer.
“He has been known to us since early on in the investigation. He actually led a tour for Peel Regional Police before we knew his involvement,” Mavity said Wednesday.
He added that police have an idea where Panesar may be but did not elaborate on a possible location.
Mavity said he believes the suspects needed employees on the inside to carry out the heist.
“Because of their position within Air Canada, in my opinion, yeah they needed people inside Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” he said.
Business
Gas prices expected to rise 14 cents on Thursday
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Drivers are bracing for a double-digit spike at the gas pumps on Thursday, as the price is expected to rise 14 cents at midnight.
Roger McKnight, chief petroleum analyst withEn-Pro International Inc., tells CityNews the price at gas pumps is set to rise to 178.9 cents/litre at local stations. The price as of Wednesday is 164.9 cents/litre.
The last time gas prices were this high was back in August 2022.
McKnight says the spike is due to price increases for wholesale gas and only applies to gasoline. He adds the price for diesel will increase by 0.4 cents.
Earlier this month, the price rose to its highest levels in six months following the implementation of the federal carbon price, also referred to as the carbon tax.
That saw the carbon tax on gasoline go up by 3.3 cents per litre, while diesel increased by 4.1 cents per litre.
Business
Rupture on TC Energy's NGTL gas pipeline sparks wildfire in Alberta – The Globe and Mail
A section of TC Energy’s TRP-T NGTL gas pipeline system in Alberta ruptured and caught fire on Tuesday, sparking a wildfire in a remote area, the company said.
“An initial ignition of natural gas at the rupture site is now extinguished. We are working to support Alberta Wildfire in their response to contain a secondary fire,” the company said in a statement on its website.
TC said there were no injuries and it was working closely with first responders in the region.
How fire broke out at the TC gas pipeline near Edson, Alberta
The fire broke out about 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Edson, Alberta, in Yellowhead County. Canadian broadcaster Global News said there was a plume of flames and smoke visible from many kilometres away.
The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) said initial investigations indicated a rupture in a gas pipeline caused the fire, which was under control.
TC Energy said it has isolated and shut down the affected section of the NGTL system, and the remainder of the system is operating normally with no commercial impact.
The CER said it is sending inspectors to the area to monitor and oversee the company’s response and determine the impact of the incident.
NGTL is TC Energy’s natural gas gathering and transportation system that transports gas produced in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) to markets in Canada and United States.
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