Canada reported nearly 400 coronavirus cases and 20 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours.
The new numbers bring the national tally to more than 102,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 — the bulk of them in Ontario and Quebec — and a death toll of 8,504.
More than 65,000 people are considered recovered across the country, as active cases number a little over 28,500.
Ontario saw 189 new cases and 10 fatalities on Thursday. The province now has more than 34,000 cases, including more than 2,600 deaths and close to 30,000 recoveries.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday he doesn’t want to see the Canada-U.S. border reopened once the current closure expires on July 21.
“You see what’s happening down in the states, you look at Florida, you look at Texas, Arizona, California — I don’t want to be those states,” he said. Earlier this week, a number of states set single-day records for COVID-19 cases.
Quebec reported 142 new cases on Thursday — more than double the 53 cases reported a day earlier — bringing its total to more than 55,000 cases. The province also recorded six new deaths in the past 24 hours, leaving its death toll at just under 5,500 fatalities.
4:30 U.S. insurance industry spends big on discrediting Canadian health care: advocate
U.S. insurance industry spends big on discrediting Canadian health care: advocate
Ontario and Quebec, the country’s most populous provinces, have consistently been the regions reporting the most number of cases and deaths for months, with numbers trending downward in recent weeks.
Alberta remains a distant third in terms of overall caseload and death toll in Canada, with a little more than 7,800 cases of COVID-19 and 154 deaths so far. On Thursday, the province reported 26 new cases and one new death.
British Columbia reported 19 lab-confirmed cases and two new deaths. One of the new cases is a public school teacher — the second such case connected to schools since B.C. reopened classrooms on June 1. The province currently has nearly 2,900 cases and 173 deaths.
Saskatchewan saw three new cases, for a total of 759 cases. It also reported its highest hospitalization rate for COVID-19 since May, with nine people in hospital. Thirteen people have died since the pandemic began.
3:19 Manitoba plans to resume in-class learning in September
Manitoba plans to resume in-class learning in September
Manitoba’s curve has remained relatively flat for a while now, with just one new case reported Thursday. The province has seen 305 cases in total and seven deaths since the pandemic began. It is now examining how schools might be able to reopen in September.
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Atlantic provinces
All four Atlantic provinces had no new cases or deaths to report on Thursday.
As of July 3, travel restrictions in the region were set to ease, allowing interprovincial travel between all four Atlantic provinces without self-isolation.
Nova Scotia is set to announce further reopening measures on Friday. It has seen no new cases for 16 days straight, and currently has zero active cases. More than 60 people have died in the province, which has seen more than 1,000 cases since the pandemic began.
New Brunswick has seen 149 of 165 cases recover from the virus, while two people have died. Newfoundland and Labrador has no active cases. Three people have died out of 261 cases.
Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon have seen all their cases resolved for some weeks now. Nunavut remains the only region in Canada with no confirmed case of COVID-19 reported so far.
Numbers tallied by Johns Hopkins University show the coronavirus has resulted in more than 9.5 million cases around the world and more than 486,000 deaths, with the highest caseload and death toll in the U.S. followed by Brazil.
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— With files by The Canadian Press, Global News staff
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.
