TORONTO —
As leaders in many provinces start talking about loosening movement restrictions, new data suggests Canadians may already be deciding on their own to head out of the house a little more often.
Physical distancing has been a key weapon in the battle against COVID-19 in Canada and around the world. Because the virus can be transmitted from person to person, entire populations have been urged to never get within two metres of anyone who is not a part of their household.
Canadians started to hear these messages be directed at them in mid-March. They intensified as the month went on, with every province or territory declaring states or emergency and several ordering all their residents to always stay home unless absolutely necessary. To help facilitate this, many provinces ordered closures of “non-essential” businesses for which working from home is not an option, including large portions of the country’s retail and service-industry sectors.
Publicly available data suggests the message got through. Tech giants Google and Apple have both been tracking public mobility via information from mobile devices, and both found sharp drop-offs in Canadians’ movement levels as March gave way to April.
Google’s Community Mobility Report for Canada found that activity in Canadian parks was down nearly 40 per cent from baseline levels by the end of March. Time spent in places affected by government closure orders was down even more substantially – over 50 per cent for retail and recreation destinations and close to 60 per cent for workplaces. Time spent at home, meanwhile, was about 30 per cent above what Google normally measures.
Apple’s Mobility Trends Reports tracked similar conclusions for Canada despite reporting data differently. While Google is tracking location data on phones and comparing one place’s current traffic level to its pre-pandemic activity, Apple bases its reports on requests for directions in Apple Maps.
Looking at searches for walking and driving routes, Apple measured Canadians’ movement activity as being 50 per cent or more below usual levels for most of late March and early April, while public transit-related activity was down by more than 80 per cent.
Both reports show increased movement in the days leading up to Easter – when many of the retailers allowed to stay open chose to close for two statutory holidays – and unsurprising new lows in movement activity on Easter weekend, then a return to normal pandemic-era activity the following week.
Apple and Google both say they are preserving privacy in the gathering of this data, collecting it without making personally identifiable information available at any point in the process.
A report earlier this month from Environics Analytics concluded that there is more outdoor foot traffic during the pandemic in areas associated with lower incomes, suggesting those leaving their homes more often may have lower incomes and be unable to work from home or employed at workplaces that have been deemed essential.
Google’s data currently stops on April 17, with activity in parks, grocery stores and pharmacies 22 per cent below normal levels, retail and recreation down by 53 per cent, and workplace activity down by 59 per cent.
Apple’s data continues on for another week, showing a significant increase in requests for both driving and walking directions. Although both were still well below Apple’s baseline levels – 31 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively – they were at their highest points since mid-March, when other provinces were just starting to follow Quebec’s lead in declaring states of emergency.
If this trend continues, and if Google and other measures of public mobility show similar findings, it could suggest a very real possibility of complacency – Canadians chafing under physical distancing requirements and starting to ignore them in a way that, up until this past week, had not been happening.
The increase in requests for directions from Apple Maps comes as the weather is warming in many parts of the country, making the idea of spending time outdoors more tempting, and as the national conversation around COVID-19 is increasingly dominated by talk of starting to reopen the economy.
New Brunswick loosened some of its rules on Friday, reopening parks, beaches, golf courses and places of worship – but still requiring physical distancing in all these places – after not detecting any new cases of the novel coronavirus for seven days. The first phase of Saskatchewan’s reopening will begin May 4, while provinces including Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and the hard-hit Ontario and Quebec have announced that reopening plans are in the works.
Both Google and Apple have made available limited geographic breakdowns of their findings within Canada. Neither shows any significant correlation between their data and the list of provinces working toward reopening.
There are a few notable trends in the regional data, including that Ontarians and Quebecers appear more likely to have started working from home, while parks in British Columbia are actually seeing more activity than usual – more than 40 per cent more for most of the past two weeks, according to Google.
Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal residents are much more likely than most Canadians to have stopped asking Apple Maps to find driving or walking routes, while there have been major upticks in searches for pedestrian directions in Calgary and Edmonton since Easter weekend.
EDMONTON – Ontario country artist Jade Eagleson has won album of the year at the 2024 Canadian Country Music Association Awards in Edmonton.
The singer from Bailieboro, Ont., was up for six awards alongside Alberta’s MacKenzie Porter.
Eagleson took home album of the year for “Do It Anyway” and says he’s thankful to his wife and management team for helping him reach the level he’s at.
The James Barker Band from Woodville, Ont., also won fans’ choice and group of the year at the award show, held in Edmonton.
During their acceptance speech, frontman Barker hinted at new music and a possible tour in 2025.
Another Ontario crooner, Josh Ross, has taken home a trio of awards, receiving entertainer of the year, male artist of the year and single of the year.
He says he and his band play roughly 150 shows every year and are never home, but says taking home entertainer of the year makes the hard work worth it.
Porter took home female artist of the year, ending the five-year streak of Tenille Townes being awarded the coveted hardware.
Porter had been nominated seven times previously for the award in the past decade but hadn’t won until tonight.
The artist from Medicine Hat, Alta., says it takes a lot of hard work and hustle to succeed as a female in the country music industry and gave a shout out to her fellow singers and her newborn daughter.
Joining the two artists in the winners’ circle was Ontario singer-songwriter Owen Riegling, who won for breakthrough artist of the year.
The show began with American artist and co-host Thomas Rhett being dubbed an honorary Canadian by Edmonton Oilers players Corey Perry and Leon Draisaitl.
Rhett donned an Oilers jersey that was gifted to him by the pair.
The return of k.d. lang and the Reclines was expected to be a highlight of the show.
The appearance will mark the first time the Alberta songstress has teamed up with the band in 35 years and is tied to lang’s induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
The awards show is back in Alberta’s capital for the first time since 2014. It was held in Hamilton last year and in Calgary in 2022.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservatives are promising changes they say will bring more stability to the province’s struggling forest industry.
Leader John Rustad announced his plan for the sector a week before the official launch of the provincial election campaign, saying a Conservative government would do away with stumpage fees paid when timber is harvested and instead put a tax on the final products that are produced.
Rustad said Saturday that under a provincial Conservative government, a small fee may be charged upfront, but the bulk would come at the end of the process, depending on what type of product is created.
He also promised to review how wildfires are managed, as well as streamline the permit process and review what he calls the province’s “uncompetitive cost structure.”
“British Columbia is by far the highest cost producers of any jurisdiction in North America. We need to be able to drive down those costs, so that our forest sector can actually be able to do the reinvestment, to be able to create the jobs and make sure that they’re still there to be able to support our communities,” he said.
The governing New Democrats meanwhile, say eliminating stumpage fees would inflame the softwood lumber dispute with the United States and hurt forestry workers.
In a statement issued by the NDP, Andrew Mercier, the party’s candidate in Langley-Willowbrook, said Rustad failed to support the industry when he was in government under the former BC Liberals.
“Not only will Rustad’s old thinking and recycled ideas fail to deliver, his proposal to eliminate stumpage would inflame the softwood lumber dispute — punishing forestry workers and communities,” Mercier said, accusing Rustad of ignoring the complexity of the challenges facing the industry.
The softwood lumber dispute between the U.S. and Canada stretches back decades. In August, the U.S. Department of Commerce nearly doubled duties on softwood lumber.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng has said Canada has taken steps to launch two legal challenges under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
Rustad said a provincial Conservative government would push hard to get a deal with the United States over the ongoing dispute “whether it’s with the rest of Canada or by itself.”
He said his party’s proposed changes are in the name of bringing “stability” and “hope” to the industry that has seen multiple closures of mills in rural communities over the last several years.
Most recently, Canfor Corp. decided to shutter two northern British Columbia sawmills earlier this month, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed by the end of the year.
According to the United Steelworkers union, Canfor has closed 10 mills in the province since November 2011, including nine in northern B.C.
Jeff Bromley, chair of the United Steelworkers wood council, said Saturday the idea of changes in favour of taxing the final product has been floated in the past.
He said the finer details of the Conservative plan will be important, but that the system needs to be improved and “new ideas are certainly something I’d be willing to entertain.”
“Something needs to happen, or the industry is just going to bleed and wither away and be a shadow of its former self,” Bromley said.
“Politics aside, if (Rustad) can come up with a policy that enables my members to work, then I would be supportive of that. But then I’m supportive of any government that would come up with policies and fibre for our mills to run. Period.”
When Canfor announced its latest closures, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said the sector was a “foundational part” of the province and the current NDP government would work to support both local jobs and wood manufacturing operations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers placed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve because of his lingering calf and Achilles tendon injuries.
The move made Saturday means McCaffrey will miss at least four more games after already sitting out the season opener. He is eligible to return for a Thursday night game in Seattle on Oct. 10.
McCaffrey got hurt early in training camp and missed four weeks of practice before returning to the field on a limited basis last week. He was a late scratch for the opener on Monday night against the Jets and now is sidelined again after experiencing pain following practice on Thursday.
McCaffrey led the NFL last season with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and was tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns, winning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets. Mason is set to start again Sunday at Minnesota.
After missing 23 games because of injuries in his final two full seasons with Carolina, McCaffrey had been healthy the past two seasons.
He missed only one game combined in 2022-23 — a meaningless Week 18 game last season for San Francisco when he had a sore calf. His 798 combined touches from scrimmage in the regular season and playoffs were the third most for any player in a two-year span in the past 10 years.
Now San Francisco will likely rely heavily on Mason, a former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who had 83 carries his first two seasons. He had at least 10 touches just twice before the season opener, when his 28 carries were the most by a 49ers player in a regular-season game since Frank Gore had 31 against Seattle on Oct. 30, 2011.
The Niners also have fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. on the active roster. Guerendo played three offensive snaps with no touches in the opener. Taylor had 65 carries for Green Bay from 2021-23.
San Francisco also elevated safety Tracy Walker III from the practice squad for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.
