Air Canada has rejected claims by the province that it is not providing adequate information for COVID-19 tracers to locate and warn passengers who may have been exposed to the disease.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix and the provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry both slammed the efforts of airlines to provide passenger manifests when requested.
Henry said it “would shock you to see what we get from the airlines when we request a flight manifest.
“We rarely get accurate information about contacts, even where people live … it really is a disconnect in the system and this is something that we’ve made recommendations to Transport Canada and to our federal counterparts.
“During this COVID time we need to be able to find people quickly.”
Dix said he had been told by contact tracers that the information they were getting from airlines was inadequate.
“This is an issue, getting better access to more complete information,” he said.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control is responsible overall for contact tracing – finding people who may have been exposed to a COVID-19 infected person.
It also provides a list of flights that have either arrived at Vancouver International Airport or departed that have had an infected person on board. Since June 3, there have been 36 of these flights reported. Eight of the last nine flights reported were Air Canada.
An Air Canada spokesperson told Postmedia News that the airline was “baffled” by Henry’s comments.
“Both Air Canada and the National Airlines Council of Canada … have reached out to Dr. Bonnie Henry’s as well as Adrian Dix’s offices on multiple occasions to discuss any concerns they may have, and they have so far refused to get back to us,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that B.C. has only recently requested confirmation of seat numbers for specific passengers and that information was provided within a few hours.
“Passenger contact information is requested when bookings are made and again at check in,” the spokesperson said, adding that cases of transmission of communicable disease on aircraft was “exceedingly low.”
TORONTO – Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported net income of US$357 million for its third quarter, down from US$364 million in the same quarter last year.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit amounted to 79 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 79 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, totalled US$2.29 billion, up from US$1.84 billion in the same quarter last year.
Consolidated comparable sales were up 0.3 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands says it earned 93 cents US per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 90 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Fortis Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $420 million, up from $394 million in the same quarter last year.
The electric and gas utility says the profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 81 cents per share a year earlier.
Fortis says the increase was driven by rate base growth across its utilities, and strong earnings in Arizona largely reflecting new customer rates at Tucson Electric Power.
Revenue in the quarter totalled $2.77 billion, up from $2.72 billion in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Fortis says it earned 85 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 84 cents per share in the third quarter of 2023.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 82 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
TORONTO – Thomson Reuters reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue rose eight per cent.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says it earned US$301 million or 67 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The result compared with a profit of US$367 million or 80 cents US per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled US$1.72 billion, up from US$1.59 billion a year earlier.
In its outlook, Thomson Reuters says it now expects organic revenue growth of 7.0 per cent for its full year, up from earlier expectations for growth of 6.5 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Thomson Reuters says it earned 80 cents US per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 82 cents US per share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 76 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
