The federal government is once again warning Canadians against non-essential travel abroad as the Omicron variant continues to quickly spread worldwide.
“To those who were planning to travel, I say very clearly, now is not the time to travel,” said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
“The rapid spread of the Omicron variant on a global scale makes us fear the worst for Canadians that may think of travelling. Travelling Canadians could contract the virus, or get stranded abroad.”
Cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant are climbing around the world, particularly in the United Kingdom and Denmark – both of which have highly vaccinated populations akin to Canada’s.
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However, the variant contains dozens of mutations including some which preliminary studies have suggested can make COVID-19 vaccines less effective in preventing infections.
So far, available evidence does not suggest a significant lowering of the vaccines’ abilities to prevent people who are infected from experiencing severe symptoms or needing to go to hospital.
Evidence is still emerging about the full extent of the variant’s capabilities though, and leaders are facing growing calls to ramp up access to booster shots for their populations in order to fight any waning of immunity gained from vaccination campaigns over the summer.
How fast Omicron can spread is still being studied, but Canadians officials have projected that if it replaces Delta as the dominant strain in the country, daily infections could hit 26,600 a day nationally by mid-January.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged Wednesday that Canadians may have been looking forward to getting away over the holiday, but “the reality is, we have to think about COVID.”
“Omicron means we have to be more careful,” he said. “Now is not the time to travel.”
“We are asking Canadians to be cautious heading into the holiday season,” said Dominic LeBlanc, minister of intergovernmental affairs, infrastructure and communities.
“If you do not have to travel internationally, please do not.”
2:22 Canadian government advises against non-essential international travel
Canadian government advises against non-essential international travel
If you must travel, the government advises travellers to check Canada’s entry requirements and to pay close attention to the COVID-19 situation at both home and abroad.
“The COVID-19 situation can change rapidly and can vary a lot from one country to another, even within regions of a country,” the official advisory reads in part.
“This advice provided by the Government of Canada will continue to be re-evaluated based on the evolving situation in Canada and in other countries.”
The travel industry did not react kindly to the news on Wednesday.
WestJet CEO Harry Taylor said it will create “unnecessary disruption and chaos” ahead of the holiday travel season and will put “tens of thousands of recently recalled Canadian travel and tourism jobs at risk.”
“Fully vaccinated Canadians should not be singled out for choosing to take part in a safe activity,” Taylor said in a statement.
Airline customers have already been cancelling in the thousands, according to Air Transport Association of Canada CEO John McKenna, due to uncertainty of restrictions on the return home.
“I think they’re more afraid of the bureaucracy than of Omicron,” he said.
The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies warned that the advisory will have a “devasting impact” on the industry.
In addition to the travel advisory, government officials announced 85 million COVID-19 tests have been sent to provinces and territories prior December, and 35 million more are on the way. Furthermore, 16 million booster doses are available and in Canada, whether it be in federal stockpiles or provincial freezers, and more are on the way.
Two years into the pandemic, it is not clear how an exhausted and burnt-out public will tolerate additional restrictions — but what is clear is that scientists are worried about what a rapid spike in cases will mean for the availability of hospital beds.
“Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant,” said WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference on Tuesday.
He also expressed concern that people were dismissing Omicron as mild, given some early reports from South Africa showing lower rates of hospitalization among Omicron patients.
“Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”
Trudeau on Tuesday called the Omicron variant “scary” and has said health officials are “really concerned” about the potential for it to spread rapidly in Canada.
4:37 ‘We must learn from our past’: Hinshaw on not repeating past mistakes with Omicron COVID-19 variant
‘We must learn from our past’: Hinshaw on not repeating past mistakes with Omicron COVID-19 variant
He suggested that “if we keep getting vaccinated and people get their booster shots and we get kids vaccinated and we continue to follow public health rules, we’re going to make it through this winter and into a much better summer.”
The comments mirrored remarks he offered almost exactly one year ago, telling Canadians they needed to hang on for “a few more months.”
— With files from Global News’ Leslie Young, Eric Stober, and the Canadian Press
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.
