Despite a handful of delivery delays, Canadian officials remain confident that the country is on track to hit its vaccination targets.
Canada still expects to get four million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and two million doses from Moderna by the end of March, as well as a subsequent 20 million in the spring.
The ultimate goal — as promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — is that everyone who wants to be vaccinated will be by September.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who is overseeing logistical planning for Canada’s vaccine distribution efforts, reiterated Thursday that Canada is still very much on track to meet all aforementioned goals.
“We’re currently in a period of more restricted numbers for the first quarter. We’ve done what we can to stretch it out — everyone has tried to stretch out the results of the production, given the demand — but production is increasing, and there is no indication that the opposite will take place,” he told reporters at a virtual press conference.
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Federal officials are cautiously optimistic that the delivery headaches will soon be behind Canada.
The month-long slowdown of deliveries should end next week, according to Fortin, triggering the single biggest shipments from Pfizer to date.
1:00 Coronavirus: Canada’s vaccine strategy to ramp up at end of Q1, Njoo says
Coronavirus: Canada’s vaccine strategy to ramp up at end of Q1, Njoo says
Starting Monday, Pfizer will deliver just over 400,000 doses to Canada.
That will scale up to 475,000 doses for the week of Feb. 22. Throughout the first two weeks of March, Fortin said Pfizer has confirmed it will ship 444,000 doses.
In total, over the next four weeks, Canada is expected to receive nearly 1.8 million doses from Pfizer.
All of the above deliveries will reflect the recent label change authorization, which will permit vaccinators to draw six doses from a single vial, instead of five. Health Canada approved Pfizer’s request to change the regimen on Feb. 9, coming about a month after the U.S. and the European Union did the same. The change will require vaccinators to administer the shots using a special syringe, which Fortin and Arianne Reza, the associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada, say are also already in circulation and being distributed.
Fortin acknowledged there will be a “fair bit of synchronizing” to do with provinces and territories as the vaccination campaign ramps up, but said they’re working “tirelessly” to ensure the right information is provided to provinces so they can prepare.
“Despite temporary delays, efforts are going as expected thanks to the collaboration from all levels of government,” he said. “We expect to share information with provinces as soon as possible.”
As for Moderna, Fortin provided a slightly clearer picture of shipments.
The company ships its drug on a three-week cycle. Canada expects to receive 168,000 doses the week of Feb. 22 — but that’s only two-thirds of what it was supposed to be.
2:18 Coronavirus: Canada to see “significant increase in vaccine supply” from April-June, Fortin says
Coronavirus: Canada to see “significant increase in vaccine supply” from April-June, Fortin says – Feb 4, 2021
Previously, Fortin was unable to provide an estimate of the quantities expected from Moderna. He insisted it was a temporary issue, but offered no details as to why Moderna alerted Canada of the reduction.
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At the time, Fortin acknowledged that Moderna would not hit its previously projected target of 249,000 doses for that last week of February.
According to The Canadian Press, the company is struggling to ramp up production with its Swiss manufacturing partner Lonza.
Fortin said Canada does not have delivery estimates from Moderna past the next two weeks but insisted they’re in regular communication with the company.
“Moderna has assured us that we will have received the two million total by the end of March. That is the information I am working off today. That is the information the government of Canada is working with. We are confident that we are working well with Moderna… If there were any problems, they’d raise them.”
Pfizer previously had to reduce its shipment targets to Canada and other countries while the pharmaceutical company completed upgrades to its plant in Belgium. Those delays have since passed for Canada.
A spokesperson for Pfizer Canada told The Canadian Press that those upgrades are complete and that production is back on track to meet Canada’s order of four million doses by the end of March.
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.
