Canada surpassed 15,000 COVID-19 deaths on Monday, and at least one infectious disease expert says the somber milestone should be a wake-up call to anyone who thinks the dangers of the disease are overhyped.
Quebec reported 37 deaths Monday, pushing Canada past 15,000. Health officials in that province said seven deaths took place in the last 24 hours, 27 occurred between Dec. 21 and Dec. 26, and three were from unspecified dates.
Alberta followed later in the day, announcing that 112 people died over the course of the holidays between Dec. 23 and Dec. 27, with a high of 30 deaths on Dec. 23 and a low of 17 on Christmas.
More than 1,000 people have now died in Alberta since the pandemic began.
“This tragic milestone is more than a number or statistic,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
“It represents more than 1,000 mothers, wives, fathers, husbands — empty spaces around the table that can never be filled. Each one means that there is a family that is grieving, a friend who has lost someone they loved, a child who lost their parent, a partner who lost their true love.”
Reaching more than 15,000 deaths in the nine months since the pandemic began highlights just how serious COVID-19 is, said Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of the infectious diseases division at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
Canada had earlier surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths on Oct. 27 and passed the 5,000 mark on May 12.
“We are seeing exactly what’s being seen around the world, which is that there are substantially large numbers of deaths from this virus. It’s not the flu,” Evans said in an interview on Monday.
“I would hope that it would reinforce to these people who are saying that it’s a big hype,” he said. “It’s not a hype. People are dying from this. This is a deadly disease.”
Quebec also reported 2,265 new cases of COVID-19 — the second day in a row the province recorded more than 2,200 new infections.
“The situation is critical in hospitals,” Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube tweeted Monday, urging Quebecers to respect a provincewide lockdown over the holiday period.
The province has 1,124 COVID-19 hospitalizations, including 150 people in intensive care, and officials warned that many hospitals were full.
Manitoba reported 107 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and nine additional deaths linked to the virus, increasing the provincial total to 654 deaths since the pandemic began.
Nunavut reported one new infection in Whale Cove, a community that went into lockdown on Christmas Eve. The territory now has nine active cases of COVID-19.
In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador reported two new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, while New Brunswick said one new infection was detected in the Fredericton area.
After a break in reporting, authorities in Nova Scotia also said they had identified 13 new cases of COVID-19 since Dec. 25. The new infections are all linked to close contact with a previous case or to travel outside of Atlantic Canada.
Officials in N.L. said one of the new infections related to international travel, while the other is a man who returned from working in Alberta.
The province had 19 active cases of COVID-19 with one person in hospital.
New Brunswick had 33 active cases, including three hospitalizations.
“Non-essential travel is very risky right now,” New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, said in a statement.
“We are seeing more travel-related cases and transmission to household members when self-isolation measures are not strictly adhered to,” Russell said, calling on people who need to self-isolate to do so for the full 14 days as per public health directives.
Ontario was not reporting new COVID-19 case numbers on Monday after registering 2,005 new infections on Sunday, as well as 18 more deaths.
Meanwhile on Monday, Alberta became the third province in Canada to report a case of a more contagious strain of the virus.
Provincial medical health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said that person started showing symptoms after returning from the United Kingdom, where the variant was first seen, and did everything correctly in terms of isolating upon their return.
Cases of the new variant have also been detected in the Toronto area, Ottawa and on Vancouver Island in B.C.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said while early data suggests the new variant may be more transmissible, there is no evidence the variant causes more severe symptoms or impacts vaccine effectiveness.
B.C. didn’t update its numbers Monday, but three regional health authorities reported new outbreaks in assisted-living and long-term care facilities.
— With files from Denise Paglinawan in Toronto, Sarah Smellie in St. John’s and Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2020.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
