The government of a Caribbean island has a tantalizing suggestion for quarantine-weary Canadians: Working from home is a lot more palatable when you’re doing it remotely from a tropical paradise.
The Island nation of Barbados has launched something it’s calling a Barbados Welcome Stamp, a one-year working visa that gives foreigners the right to live and work in Barbados while they ride out the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting now, applicants can send in their personal information at a portal website. The application will be processed within 72 hours, at which point they may be approved to come live and work in Barbados.
There’s a non-refundable fee of $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for families, but once that’s paid, a successful applicant is all set.
“You don’t need to work in Europe, or the U.S or Latin America if you can come here and work for a couple months at a time, go back and come back,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said in announcing the idea earlier this month.
The appeal of living on a tropical island may be obvious under normal circumstances, but a spokesperson for the government running the initiative said it makes even more sense during the current unprecedented situation with COVID-19.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley shakes hands with Justin Trudeau at a UN meeting in 2018. Mottley is pitching Canadians on riding out the pandemic by working remotely from Barbados. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Barbados ahead of crisis so far
Barbados has recorded 106 official cases of COVID, and seven deaths so far, said Peter Mayers, the Canadian director for Barbados’s tourism and marketing organization.
The country’s health-care system has been able to stay well ahead of the crisis so far, he said in an interview, as officials have set up two facilities dedicated solely to COVID-19 patients to keep them out of hospitals. The two isolation wards are capable of housing more than 200 people.
“When persons start to consider looking for travel options in jurisdictions that have managed the COVID crisis well, Barbados must be on the radar,” he said.
There are ample schooling and daycare options, none of which are currently closed or limited in any capacity, he said, adding the island also boasts the fastest fibre internet and mobile services in the Caribbean.
Housing suitable for a family can be found for about $1,000 US a month, which is why the program is hoping to appeal to families and not necessarily just individuals.
“It’s a unique opportunity to remedy cabin fever and at the same time help our tourism industry,” Mayers said.
Canadians advised against ‘non-essential’ travel
While Barbados may be welcoming Canadians with open arms the Canadian government still advises against all “non-essential” travel to Barbados, just as it does with many other countries.
Strictly speaking, there’s nothing stopping a Canadian from going to Barbados, but problems could arise if and when they attempt to return.
“The governments of those destinations that have opened their borders to tourists could impose strict travel restrictions suddenly, should they experience an increase in cases of COVID-19,” the Canadian government’s travel advisory page for Barbados reads.
“International transportation options could be reduced significantly, making it difficult for you to return to Canada. There are no plans to offer additional repatriation flights.”
So Canadians could theoretically get stuck in Barbados should the situation take a turn for the worse, but at least one prominent Canadian seems fine with taking that risk.
Canadian musician and entrepreneur Drake, right, showed up in Barbados shortly after the country reopened its borders this month. (Remus/Twitter)
The program has only been formally open for a few days, but Mayers said there have already been a significant number of applicants from Quebec and Alberta.
And strictly speaking, it’s not limited to Canadians, although Mayers said he suspects the idea of being housebound in a place where the average winter temperature is 20 degrees above zero, not below, may have particular appeal to Canadians.
“In very much the same way that COVID-19 does not discriminate, neither do we,” he quipped.
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.
