EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated twice to reflect two sets of clarifications made by an Ontario government source and Premier Doug Ford about the number of ordered/blocked masks.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province ordered roughly three or four million medical masks from American supplier 3M only to have them blocked at the border on Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But Ford said he was told Monday that 500,000 of those masks are being released to Ontario.
All of this comes on the heels of a statement last week by 3M saying that the Trump administration had ordered the company to stop exporting N95 respirators to Canada and Latin America.
Ford said in interviews with media on Monday morning that an order of three million masks had been blocked at the U.S. border on Sunday.
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An Ontario government source then clarified that it was actually 500,000 — not three million — medical masks held up at the border, but said they had since been released.
Then after that, Ford spoke to media at his daily press conference to offer additional explanation.
“What I understand is we had three million masks that were stopped by U.S. officials coming out of 3M in South Dakota,” Ford said.
“I just was briefed not long ago saying we were able to get 500,000 N95 masks moving forward that should be released today coming into Ontario.”
3:17 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says they expect equipment shipments from U.S. to be delivered
Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says they expect equipment shipments from U.S. to be delivered
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earlier on Monday declined to confirm that the shipment was blocked, saying only that Canadian officials continue talks with U.S. officials about the situation.
“We are working very closely with all provinces and monitoring the levels of personal protective equipment and the challenges they’re facing,” Trudeau said in his daily media briefing.
“We continue to have productive and positive conversations with the United States emphasizing for them that health-care supplies and workers across the border are very much a two-way street.”
Earlier on Monday, Ford had called the blockage at the border “unacceptable.”
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“We had three million masks stopped at the border this weekend coming up to Canada. That’s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable that they’re doing this,” Ford said in an interview with Global News.
“Hopefully we’re going to work through it and get an exemption for Canada.”
As a result, Ford said the province now expects to run out of masks and other personal protective equipment for healthcare workers next week.
He later added during his press conference that the 500,000 masks being released should buy Ontario healthcare workers an extra week of personal protective equipment, but that the situation was still dire.
“I don’t want to be crying wolf unless it’s real, and I’m being serious,” he said.
2:37 Coronavirus outbreak: Ford calls it ‘unacceptable’ for Trump to order 3M to stop exporting N95 masks to Canada
Coronavirus outbreak: Ford calls it ‘unacceptable’ for Trump to order 3M to stop exporting N95 masks to Canada
Ford and provincial health professionals shared modelling on Friday of how hard the coronavirus could hit Ontarians over the next two years.
That modelling suggests 1,600 Ontarians could be dead by the end of the month, with between 3,000 to 15,000 dead within 18 months to two years.
Ford used the numbers to urge Ontarians to stay in their homes and practice strict physical distancing, citing that without the measures taken so far to try to contain the spread, the death toll projections for April in Ontario would be 6,000 individuals.
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The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 1.2 million people worldwide and killed 70,356.
In Canada, there are 15,496 confirmed cases and 280 deaths so far.
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.
