Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that companies across the country are now producing medical supplies, including hundreds of ventilators, as part of Canada’s battle to increase desperately needed equipment in the fight against COVID-19.
Since the federal government announced its strategy to tap into the private sector to produce medical supplies, Trudeau said the government has spoken directly with almost 3,000 Canadian companies that have offered their expertise and capacity to meet the country’s need for personal protective equipment (PPE).
“We are seeing the best of what it means to be Canadian,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday. “In tough times, we pull together. We are there for each other. We put our hands and ask: ‘How can I help?’”
The federal government has signed three contracts with companies since March 20 to produce equipment like masks and rapid tests for the new coronavirus as part of the government’s $2-billion effort to buy PPE.
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Thornhill Medical, based in the Greater Toronto Area, is making 500 ventilators that will arrive at hospitals and health-care facilities in early April.
Meanwhile, Spartan Bioscience Inc. of Ottawa, which makes portable testing kits that can produce results for in 30 minutes, has signed a $78-million order with Ottawa to provide 100 of the machines and one million test kits in the next month alone.
Canada now has 7,727 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, with 92 deaths, as of 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
Trudeau also said he had signed a contract with Quebec-based AMD Medicom Inc. to open a domestic manufacturing facility to make N95 protective masks and surgical masks in vast quantities for the Canadian market.
“The entire world is trying to get its hands on the various equipment needed to fight this virus,” Trudeau said. “That’s why we know it’ll be important to be able to have made-in-Canada solutions … it has been a truly amazing and inspiring story to see how many factories and suppliers are stepping up.”
Ottawa has also signed letters of intent with five companies — Precision Biomonitoring, Fluid Energy Group Ltd., Irving Oil, Calko Group and Stanfield’s — to produce additional test kits, hand sanitizer and protective apparel including masks and gowns.
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Trudeau also thanked companies for their donations of PPE and sanitizing supplies to health-care workers in Canada, naming Magna International, General Motors of Canada Company, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd., Linamar Corp., Shell Canada Ltd., Suncor Energy, Alibaba Group and Home Depot have helped Canada’s health-care professionals by donating personal protective and safety equipment and sanitizing supplies.
5:36 Some hospitals are locking up PPE which nurses need: Silas
Some hospitals are locking up PPE which nurses need: Silas
News of an increase in medical supplies comes as front-line health-care workers have sounded the alarm over potential shortages of PPE.
In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said Monday that province would be “severely challenged” if there is a major spike in COVID-19 cases.
“It will take time for local production to ramp up and for new supplies to reach us,” Ford said.
“The reality is if there’s a massive surge of people coming into our hospitals in the next two weeks, our supply lines will be seriously challenged.”
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Trudeau said he’s “hopeful” the equipment will be available in the “coming weeks.” Asked how the equipment will be allocated, the prime minister said he was in close contact with the provinces.
“We don’t decide around the cabinet table. It is not politicians who decide how resources are allocated. We rely on experts, on medical officials, on co-ordination between medical officials in different provinces,” Trudeau said. “We follow the direct advice of medical experts.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
