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Canada’s coronavirus cases rise past 103K as Ontario sets testing record

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Canada’s novel coronavirus cases grew by 234 on Saturday while eight deaths were reported, all from Ontario.

The country now has over 103,000 cases of COVID-19. More than 8,500 people have died, with nearly 5,500 of them in Quebec.

The day’s figures do not include any data from Quebec — which will resume daily reporting on Monday — and British Columbia, which has not reported data on weekends for a while.

Nearly 66,000 people are considered recovered around the country. There are currently more than 28,000 active cases.

Ontario set a record by processing nearly 33,500 tests on Friday, resulting in an all-time low positivity rate.

The province now has nearly 34,500 cases, of which almost 30,000 are considered recovered. More than 2,600 people have died, including eight deaths reported on Saturday.

Ontario made up the majority of new cases reported, with 160 recorded Saturday.

In the absence of daily data from Quebec, the province of Alberta wound up with the second-highest number of new cases on Saturday, at 69 infections. No new deaths were recorded, leaving Alberta with a death toll of 154 and close to 8,000 cases of COVID-19.

Saskatchewan reported six new cases and no new deaths, leaving it with 777 cases overall and 13 deaths.

Quebec, as of Friday, had just over 55,000 cases, while B.C. had nearly 2,900 cases and 174 deaths.

Manitoba reported four new cases on Saturday but it is unclear if those are all lab-confirmed or probable. The province has more than 300 cases so far, including 300 recoveries, and seven deaths.

For the third day in a row, all four Atlantic provinces had no new cases or deaths to report on Saturday.

Nova Scotia saw its 18th day in a row with no new cases. It has no active cases at the moment. Neither does Newfoundland and Labrador.

New Brunswick has nine active cases out of a cumulative total of 165. Prince Edward Island has seen all 27 of its cases resolved for some time now.


The Northwest Territories and the Yukon have also gone several weeks without any new cases. Nunavut is still the only region in Canada that has yet to report a confirmed case of COVID-19.

Worldwide, the coronavirus is on its way to marking 10 million cases in the near future, with nearly half a million deaths reported so far, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. alone accounts for more than 2.5 million cases and nearly 126,000 deaths. Brazil is second, with more than 1.3 million cases and 57,000 deaths.

 

Source: globalnews-ca

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MEG Energy earnings dip year over year to $167 million in third quarter

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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.

Companies in this story: (TSX:MEG)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Eby wants all-party probe into B.C. vote count errors as election boss blames weather

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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.



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Memorial set for Sunday in Winnipeg for judge, senator, TRC chair Murray Sinclair

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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