In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, warned of the danger of the new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus.
She said while most of the new variant cases in the country have been linked to travel, “there is evidence of community spread in at least 3 provinces and links to outbreak activity in long term care homes & other congregate settings, including a workplace.”
1/3 #COVID19 key concerns in ????????: Though most new variant cases in ???????? are travel-related, there is evidence of community spread in at least 3 provinces and links to outbreak activity in long term care homes & other congregate settings, including a workplace.https://t.co/kc78QNjVlI
However, Canada has struggled to provide a steady stream of vaccines to the provinces and territories, after shipments from both Pfizer and Moderna were delayed.
But, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada is set to receive “tens of thousands” of Pfizer vaccine doses in the coming weeks.
Trudeau also said Canada is “still very much on track” to receive “tens of millions of doses into the spring,” and reitereated that all Canadians who would like a vaccine will have access to one by the end of September.
1:15 Coronavirus: Trudeau says ‘tens of thousands’ of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses arriving in Canada this week
Coronavirus: Trudeau says ‘tens of thousands’ of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses arriving in Canada this week
Provinces, territories report new cases
In Ontario, 1,072 new cases and 41 new fatalities were reported.
The new infections mean to date, a total of 281,566 people have contracted the virus in Ontario, while 6,596 have died.
Meanwhile, 989 new cases in Quebec bring the provincial total to 272,726.
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Health authorities also said 34 more people have died after testing positive for the virus, bringing the number of COVID-19 related fatalities in Quebec to 10,112.
In Saskatchewan, 180 new cases of COVID-19 were detected, and provincial health authorities said two more people have died.
To date, the province has recorded 25,843 coronavirus infections and 348 fatalities.
Fifty-nine new cases of the virus were reported in Manitoba on Wednesday, for a total of 30,471.
Health officials also said six more people have died, pushing the provincial death toll to 859.
In Atlantic Canada, 68 new cases were detected.
Newfoundland and Labrador health officials said 53 more people have fallen ill, while 14 new cases were detected in New Brunswick.
Nova Scotia added one new infection, for a total of 1,588.
1:14 Coronavirus: Trudeau specifies it’s ‘not legal’ to refuse to any Canadian that wants to come home’
Coronavirus: Trudeau specifies it’s ‘not legal’ to refuse to any Canadian that wants to come home’
Prince Edward Island did not release any new COVID-19 data on Wednesday, however, the latest numbers released on Tuesday said the province has seen 114 confirmed cases of the virus, 110 of which are considered recovered.
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Meanwhile, in western Canada, 808 more cases and 12 new fatalities were reported.
Health authorities in British Columbia said 469 more people have contracted the disease, and six more have died.
To date, the province has seen 71,856 COVID-19 infections and 1,269 fatalities.
In Alberta, another 339 have fallen ill, pushing the total case load in the province to 127,570.
Six more deaths means to date 1,728 people have died after testing positive for COVID-19.
Both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut each reported one new case of the virus on Wednesday.
Global infections surpass 107 million
Globally, the total number of people who have contracted the coronavirus has topped 107 million.
By 6 p.m. ET, 107,223,174 had tested positive for the virus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
Since the virus was first detected in China in late 2019, it has killed 2,350,316 people around the world.
CALGARY – MEG Energy says it earned $167 million in its third quarter, down from $249 million during the same quarter last year.
The company says revenues for the quarter were $1.27 billion, down from $1.44 billion during the third quarter of 2023.
Diluted earnings per share were 62 cents, down from 86 cents a year earlier.
MEG Energy says it successfully completed its debt reduction strategy, reducing its net debt to US$478 million by the end of September, down from US$634 million during the prior quarter.
President and CEO Darlene Gates said moving forward all the company’s free cash flow will be returned to shareholders through expanded share buybacks and a quarterly base dividend.
The company says its capital expenditures for the quarter increased to $141 million from $83 million a year earlier, mainly due to higher planned field development activity, as well as moderate capacity growth projects.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
Premier David Eby is proposing an all-party committee investigate mistakes made during the British Columbia election vote tally, including an uncounted ballot box and unreported votes in three-quarters of the province’s 93 ridings.
The proposal comes after B.C.’s chief electoral officer blamed extreme weather, long working hours and a new voting system for human errors behind the mistakes in last month’s count, though none were large enough to change the initial results.
Anton Boegman says the agency is already investigating the mistakes to “identify key lessons learned” to improve training, change processes or make recommendations for legislative change.
He says the uncounted ballot box containing about 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie was never lost, and was always securely in the custody of election officials.
Boegman says a failure in five districts to properly report a small number of out-of-district votes, meanwhile, rippled through to the counts in 69 ridings.
Eby says the NDP will propose that a committee examine the systems used and steps taken by Elections BC, then recommend improvements in future elections.
“I look forward to working with all MLAs to uphold our shared commitment to free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy,” he said in a statement Tuesday, after a news conference by Boegman.
Boegman said if an independent review does occur, “Elections BC will, of course, fully participate in that process.”
He said the mistakes came to light when a “discrepancy” of 14 votes was noticed in the riding of Surrey-Guildford, spurring a review that increased the number of unreported votes there to 28.
Surrey-Guildford was the closest race in the election and the NDP victory there gave Eby a one-seat majority. The discovery reduced the NDP’s victory margin from 27 to 21, pending the outcome of a judicial review that was previously triggered because the race was so close.
The mistakes in Surrey-Guildford resulted in a provincewide audit that found the other errors, Boegman said.
“These mistakes were a result of human error. Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province,” he said.
“Election officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day in particular faced extremely challenging weather conditions in many parts of the province.
“These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes,” he said.
B.C.’s “vote anywhere” model also played a role in the errors, said Boegman, who said he had issued an order to correct the results in the affected ridings.
Boegman said the uncounted Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box was used on the first day of advance voting. Election officials later discovered a vote hadn’t been tabulated, so they retabulated the ballots but mistakenly omitted the box of first-day votes, only including ballots from the second day.
Boegman said the issues discovered in the provincewide audit will be “fully documented” in his report to the legislature on the provincial election, the first held using electronic tabulators.
He said he was confident election officials found all “anomalies.”
B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad had said on Monday that the errors were “an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”
Rustad said he was not disputing the outcomes as judicial recounts continue, but said “it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process.”
Rustad called for an “independent review” to make sure the errors never happen again.
Boegman, who said the election required fewer than half the number of workers under the old paper-based system, said results for the election would be returned in 90 of the province’s 93 ridings on Tuesday.
Full judicial recounts will be held in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre, while a partial recount of the uncounted box will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie.
Boegman said out-of-district voting had been a part of B.C.’s elections for many decades, and explained how thousands of voters utilized the province’s vote-by-phone system, calling it a “very secure model” for people with disabilities.
“I think this is a unique and very important part of our elections, providing accessibility to British Columbians,” he said. “They have unparalleled access to the ballot box that is not found in other jurisdictions in Canada.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
WINNIPEG – A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.
A teepee and a sacred fire were set up outside the Manitoba legislature for people to pay their respects hours after news of his death became public. The province has said it will remain open to the public until Sinclair’s funeral.
Sinclair’s family continues to invite people to visit the sacred fire and offer tobacco.
The family thanked the public for sharing words of love and support as tributes poured in this week.
“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) impact and reach cannot be overstated,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday, noting Sinclair’s traditional Anishinaabe name.
“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people.”
They encourage the public to celebrate his life and journey home.
A visitation for extended family, friends and community is also scheduled to take place Wednesday morning.
Leaders from across Canada shared their memories of Sinclair.
Premier Wab Kinew called Sinclair one of the key architects of the era of reconciliation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sinclair was a teacher, a guide and a friend who helped the country navigate tough realities.
Sinclair was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba — the second in Canada.
He served as co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba to examine whether the justice system was failing Indigenous people after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting death of First Nations leader J.J. Harper.
In leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he participated in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.
The commissioners released their widely influential final report in 2015, which described what took place at the institutions as cultural genocide and included 94 calls to action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
