However, over 671,000 Canadians have recovered after falling ill, and more than 21.3 million tests for COVID-19 have been administered.
In a series of tweets Monday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Minister Dr. Theresa Tam said while daily case counts are “trending down nationally, continuing concerns including the emergence of more transmissible virus variants, warn us that trends can change all too quickly.”
Story continues below advertisement
Tam warned that the risk of re-acceleration of the COVID-19 virus is “ever present.”
2/2 Risk for #COVID19 reacceleration is ever present; we must persist: limit outings to essentials & #AVOID3Cs to ↓ the number of people we come in contact with each day + maintain #WashMaskSpace to protect ourselves & others.https://t.co/w27G7rHASE
She urged the public to continue abiding by measures in place to stem the spread of the virus, including limiting their number of contacts, wearing masks and practicing physical distancing and good hand hygiene.
2:25 Experts answer your COVID-19 questions, part 16
Experts answer your COVID-19 questions, part 16
Tam’s comments come as the vaccine rollout continues across the country.
Story continues below advertisement
According to Health Canada, as of Thursday, a total of 1,119,225 doses of the two vaccines approved to protect against COVID-19 had been distributed across the country.
Ontario added 1,958 new cases and 43 more deaths on Monday. To date, the province has seen 256,960 infections and 5,846 fatalities.
In Quebec, 1,203 more cases were detected and health officials said 43 more people have died after testing positive for the virus.
The new cases bring Quebec’s total case load to 254,836 while the new fatalities push the death toll to 9,521.
Meanwhile, 240 new cases were detected in Saskatchewan, while 113 new COVID-19 infections were reported in Manitoba.
Five more people have died in Manitoba after testing positive for the virus, health officials said, while Saskatchewan said one more resident has died.
In Atlantic Canada, 27 more cases were reported, all in New Brunswick.
Story continues below advertisement
The new infections push the province’s total case load to 1,151, however, health officials said no one else has died.
Neither Nova Scotia nor Newfoundland and Labrador saw a new case or death on Monday.
Prince Edward Island did not release any new COVID-19 data, however, the latest data released on Tuesday said 103 of the province’s 110 cases are considered to be recovered.
In Western Canada, 1,088 more cases were reported.
Alberta added 742 new infections, for a total of 121,535.
Twenty-five new deaths mean that, so far, 1,574 people have died in Alberta after testing positive for COVID-19.
3:43 Do new variants makes this a race between the coronavirus and the vaccine?
Do new variants makes this a race between the coronavirus and the vaccine?
Meanwhile, health authorities in British Columbia said 346 more people have contracted the virus, pushing the total number of infections to 64,828.
Story continues below advertisement
Officials also confirmed 26 additional fatalities have occurred since Friday, meaning the province has now seen a total of 1,154 deaths associated with COVID-19.
Two new cases in Nunavut bring the total number of infections in the territory to 282, however health authorities say 264 of those cases are recovered.
No new cases or fatalities were reported in the Yukon or Northwest Territories.
Global cases near 100 million
The total number of cases around the world neared 100 million on Monday.
By 8:30 p.m. ET, there were a total of 99,655,985 cases globally, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
Since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, it has claimed 2,138,251 lives.
The United States remained the viral epicentre on Monday with 25,261,902 COVID-19 infections and more than 420,000 fatalities to date.
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.
