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Canada Has Placed Its First Vaccine Order, but Don’t Expect a ‘Silver Bullet’ – The New York Times

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For Canadians anxiously craving an inoculation against the coronavirus, this week brought both optimism and words of sobering caution.

Credit…Tony Luong for The New York Times

The federal government on Wednesday announced the first of many major deals to buy vaccines from two U.S.-based multinational drug companies: Pfizer and Moderna.

There will be “millions” of doses, Anita Anand, the cabinet minister responsible for the deal, said at a news conference. She did not offer any more details. But she and another cabinet minister said the government was negotiating deals with other vaccine makers, including some in Canada.

The catch in all of this is that neither Pfizer nor Moderna, nor anyone else, actually has a proven vaccine. The situation is similar to what happened with the Salk polio vaccine in the mid-1950s. As I wrote in last week’s newsletter, to speed up that vaccine, the federal government gambled and placed a bulk order to start production at Connaught Laboratories before trials on patients had proved that it was safe and effective.

Connaught, which played a crucial role in bringing the Salk vaccine to production, was the only game in Canada back then. This time around, many more companies are vying to make the coronavirus vaccine. The World Health Organization counts 28 possible vaccines now undergoing trials. Many more, including some Canadian candidates, are in earlier phases.

To guide its vaccine shopping, as well as its investments in Canadian vaccines and vaccine production, the federal government has turned to a panel of experts with backgrounds in science, medicine, public health and vaccine manufacturing.

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As bets go, choosing Pfizer and Moderna is relatively conservative. Late last month, both companies began the first large-scale trials of their candidate vaccines in the United States.

[Read: Moderna and Pfizer Begin Late-Stage Vaccine Trials]

Assuming all goes well, Ms. Anand said, the first deliveries should appear next year.

But earlier in the week, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, warned against making too many assumptions about the power of vaccination to end the current pandemic.

At this stage, she said, vaccines are not “the silver bullet solution.”

She said many vaccines for other viruses only lessen the consequences of infection; they don’t prevent it.

As a result, she said, public health officials are working on the assumption that many of the measures now in place will be around for upward of two years.

Reggie Lo, a professor emeritus at the University of Guelph who focuses on vaccine development, told me this week that the first vaccine candidates, which may not be the most effective ones, may appear by the end of the year, but scaling up their production to inoculate billions will be a formidable challenge.

He also stressed that with the exception of smallpox, other deadly viruses have not been wiped out by decades of vaccination.

“The public needs to deal with this ‘forever,’” Dr. Lo said in an email. “Anyone who thinks the epidemic is over with development of a vaccine failed to grasp the enormity of the problem.”

Last week’s newsletter prompted the former Prime Minister Paul Martin to call me. His father, also Paul Martin, was, as federal health minister, the main player in Canada’s rollout and participation in development of the Salk vaccine.

Credit…Dave Chan for The New York Times

The younger Mr. Martin, who was infected with polio as a child, had a memory of that time that captures the uncertainty around vaccines.

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His father, he said, was usually good spirited at home. But one afternoon in 1955 when Mr. Martin went into his library, his father was unusually distracted and testy. He was told to leave and go see his mother.

From her, Mr. Martin learned that his father was grappling with perhaps the most difficult decision of his life: whether to continue with plans to vaccinate Canada. A batch of vaccines made by Cutter Laboratories, an American company, had been determined to be defective and ended up infecting 40,000 children. About 200 of them were left paralyzed, and 10 died.

As a result, the United States suspended polio vaccination for several months, a decision that led to infections, deaths and paralysis. Ultimately, the elder Mr. Martin was convinced that Connaught’s vaccine was safe, and Canada continued its inoculations without incident.

The stakes, if anything, are greater now as the world rushes to produce a coronavirus vaccine. We all may be called to have patience and realistic expectations.

Credit…Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times
  • Even before it opened, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg had prompted heated debate. Now a stinging review has concluded that racism is systemic and widespread within its walls.

  • President Trump reinstated tariffs on aluminum from Canada, just a month after the new trade deal between Canada, the United States and Mexico came into effect.

  • In skeleton, the headfirst Olympic sledding sport, the opportunity for unlimited training on the track can be a huge advantage. But Canadian Olympians who had such access believe it was bad for their brains, Matthew Futterman reports.

  • A former top Saudi intelligence official filed a lawsuit in Washington claiming that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a team of agents to Canada to kill him shortly after another team of Saudi operatives killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi writer.

  • Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima 75 years ago and a resident of Toronto, is using her personal story to push countries, including Canada, to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was formally adopted at the United Nations three years ago.

  • Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena is empty inside and out, as the N.H.L. playoffs take place there (and in Edmonton) without fans, under a system that requires even the hometown Leafs to stay in hotels.

  • Karen Schwartz, a dual U.S.-Canada citizen, traveled from Colorado to visit her father in Calgary. She found that a lot of Canadians are keeping tabs on American visitors.


A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.


We’re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.

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Telus prioritizing ‘most important customers,’ avoiding ‘unprofitable’ offers: CFO

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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.

The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.

Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.

The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”

“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.

“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”

Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.

The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.

It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.

It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.

“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.

Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.

The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.

Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.

The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.

“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.

Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.

“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.

“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”

Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.

On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.

That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.

Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”

“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”

French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.

“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.

“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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