The provincial total is now 3,401 cases, one of which is the first case on a First Nation
Outbreaks of COVID-19 at a High River meat processing plant and at long-term care facilities in the Calgary zone are dominating the provincial tally of novel coronavirus cases.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, on Wednesday announced there have been 375 COVID-19 cases and 44 deaths in continuing-care facilities across Alberta. Meanwhile, a single High River business — the Cargill meat-packing plant — now has 440 workers who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and one death.
“I know many Albertans, including me, want the numbers to stop growing and for outbreaks to end as soon as they are identified. Believe me when I say we are doing everything possible to limit the spread of this virus both within outbreak settings and across Alberta,” said Hinshaw.
She said that many of the 306 new COVID-19 cases announced Wednesday are linked to outbreaks at the Cargill plant, the JBS beef production facility in Brooks and other breakouts of the deadly virus.
Operations have temporarily been halted at the Cargill plant, but the union representing its workers said the decision came too late. The Alberta Federation of Labour is now calling for a criminal investigation into the death.
An Occupational Health and Safety probe is already underway, government officials said Wednesday.
The provincial total is now 3,401 cases, one of which is the first reported on a First Nation. The individual, from the Sucker Creek First Nation, was in contact with a case in nearby High Prairie and is currently in self-isolation. There is no outbreak in the community.
Five more people have died from the deadly virus, bringing the provincial death toll to 66. One of the five deaths was in the Calgary zone, though it was not linked to any outbreaks in the area.
Hinshaw announced Tuesday the province is now publicly sharing the name and location of long-term care, acute-care and supportive-living facilities with “active outbreaks.”
These are defined as having two or more cases in a single facility, indicating transmission has occurred.
An outbreak is only declared over after one month without any new cases.
Signs are hung as friends and family are seen outside the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre. The seniors facility is Alberta’s worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Monday, April 13, 2020. Brendan Miller/Postmedia
More than 70 per cent of Alberta cases are in the Calgary zone, which extends north to Didsbury, east to Gleichen, south to Claresholm and west to the Rocky Mountain parks.
A provincial order by Hinshaw has restricted staff from working at more than one health-care facility, defined as a nursing home, auxiliary hospital or designated supported-living centre. The mandate began April 16 but staff have been given until Thursday to adhere to the order.
However, the union representing 30,000 nurses across the province said Hinshaw and medical officials have failed to provide clarity on how they will restrict movement among worksites and who is affected.
David Harrigan, a spokesman with United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), said that without a clear understanding of how the order applies to employees, it could result in confusion and staff shortages.
“The last thing we need right now is this kind of chaos and confusion,” said Harrigan.
“Now, for reasons that we don’t know, neither the department of health nor Alberta Health Services is prepared to give us an answer. We’ve been asking ever since the order came out and as late as (Wednesday) morning.”
He said there are acute-care hospitals that are also designated as nursing homes or auxiliary hospitals in Alberta, which prompted the union’s push for clarity to understand whether those are included in the order.
Additionally, there are places such as the Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary that isn’t designated as a nursing home or an auxiliary hospital, but has transition units for residents that are awaiting long-term care placement.
“It appears the order doesn’t apply there but, again, we’ve asked and asked and asked and there doesn’t appear to be any clarity on that,” said Harrigan. “The last thing we want is for our members to do something that medical experts have determined they shouldn’t be doing.”
UNA has filed a provincewide grievance seeking immediate clarity from Alberta Health Services.
Hinshaw said she learned of the grievance Wednesday and that details of the order are still being worked out.
“We do know that some staff work in other settings such as acute care or home care and then in a long-term care site. It would be ideal to restrict people to as few sites as possible, however, the intent of the order is to start with those sites that are the highest risk,” said Hinshaw.
Alberta donates additional supplies to harder-hit provinces
Premier Jason Kenney on Wednesday also announced additional donations to harder-hit provinces in the nation.
The province donated personal protective equipment and ventilators to Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia earlier this month. As Alberta continues to perform better than projected, Kenney said Alberta will be giving 25 ventilators to Quebec and 20,000 procedural masks to the Northwest Territories.
“Our stockpile of medical equipment, including ventilators, remains far larger than both our current or anticipated needs,” said Kenney. “We project that we will have a margin of several hundred ventilators even at the peak of the pandemic in Alberta.”
He said Albertans cannot stand by “indifferently” while COVID-19 threatens the lives of other Canadians, notably Quebec where more than 1,100 people have died of the virus.
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.
