Nova Scotia announced this week that it would delay entering Phase 5 of its reopening plan until Oct. 4 following a spike in new COVID-19 cases. That date coincides with the province’s proof-of-vaccination policy coming into effect.
Matt Galloway of CBC Radio’s The Current spoke to Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, about the province’s decision to delay reopening and how he expects people to react to changes in restrictions.
This discussion has been edited for length and clarity.
How would you describe the mood in this province right now when it comes to the pandemic?
I think in general, people are understanding that we’ve worked really hard and we’re in a relatively good place. But also just in this last week, things are shifting in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and P.E.I.
I think people are feeling comfortable with what we’ve done and are willing to follow along with it because they know that’s worked.
The Current19:05Dr. Robert Strang on why Nova Scotia is putting its reopening plan on hold
Life for Nova Scotians looks almost back to normal, even while other regions look at reviving restrictions to combat the delta variant of the coronavirus. But the province’s chief medical officer of health isn’t ready to fully reopen just yet. Dr. Robert Strang talks about how the province has managed. 19:05
Tell me a little bit about that decision-making.There was a lot of excitement that essentially all of the pandemic restrictions would be lifted. What is that actually going to look like in the days and weeks ahead, given the fourth wave that’s around us now?
We know it’s vaccine plus epidemiology, and things are evolving quickly and now in the Maritime provinces. We’re going to slow down and Oct. 4 is when we’re bringing in our proof-of-vaccination policy.
So when we do bring more people together, it’s vaccinated people.
So how do you think people are going to respond to that?
I’ve been getting a lot of correspondence in the last two or three days. People saying, ‘Please slow down.’
I think most people will understand that they’ll be disappointed. But I think most people will see the reason why we need to do this, and we’re really saying it’s for the next 2½ weeks.
What are you seeing around the province and in neighbouring jurisdictions that has led you to slow things down?
It’s really because what we’re seeing now, is the pandemic of the unvaccinated. We have really good vaccination rates, but we’ve got about 10 per cent of our population that is not vaccinated.
We’re almost 80 per cent of our full population with one dose and getting to 75 [per cent] with two doses. But I think we’re going to end up with 10 per cent of adults who could get vaccinated, but aren’t. And even that is enough to spark significant spread and outbreaks, and we’re seeing that in other provinces with lower vaccination rates.
In Nova Scotia, like others, especially smaller provinces, our health system is already pushed to capacity. So we have very little ability to absorb any significant number of hospitalizations due to COVID.
We’ve seen with the return to school, for example on P.E.I., a number of schools shut down, kids sent home. How worried are you about that manifesting here in Nova Scotia?
We’ve got a big outbreak in a confined community in northern Nova Scotia, but we’re seeing some early signs of some community spread, mostly in younger adults unvaccinated in the Halifax area. But that has the risk of spilling into other populations, spilling into the under 12s, especially who are in schools.
Is the reopening of schools putting what you have accomplished in jeopardy?
Schools have not shown themselves to be a major source of transmission within schools.
I always say our schools are safe when our community’s safe, so it’s really a plea to say, let’s do what we need to do to keep our community safe for a number of reasons. But one of those key ones is for our children and youth. The best place for most of them to learn is in school.
You have said this new normal is going to be learning to live with COVID. What does that mean?
Ultimately, we need to be at a place where we can tolerate circulation of the virus like we do with something like influenza.
I keep saying to people that if we should all continue to wear masks in indoor places, especially during the winter months when we’re around other people, whether they’re mandated or not, that keeps us all more healthy.
This province has been the envy of many jurisdictions across the country. What do you think you got right over the course of the pandemic?
Certainly we have some geographic and demographic advantages. We don’t have great, big … dense cities.
We used border measures very early on knowing we needed to slow the virus down.
We’ve also learnt that through these first and second waves especially, and now we’re seeing it from even the third wave, that the economy and public health are actually not in opposition. The phrase we use is, ‘Good public health is good economics,’ because you minimize the time that you need tight restrictions and come out as early as possible.
What goes through your mind when you see what’s happening in other jurisdictions where people are protesting?
What people are taking around this is a very self-centred, me-focused approach, not appreciating at all about the implications of what they’re doing and how it plays out in a very negative way in others’ lives.
It’s both disturbing and also disappointing.
Do you worry that mandatory vaccination requirement could exacerbate those tensions, could exacerbate those divisions?
It already is.
I am concerned about the division becoming worse and I’ll do whatever I can to try to speak a more caring, compassionate approach into that space.
Do you worry that your own health-care workers could be attacked? We’re seeing this in other jurisdictions.
It actually makes my blood boil that particular point targeting health-care workers. It is just not OK.
I saw people protesting at our pediatric hospital. There are sick kids going in there and it really disturbs me that some people in our society are OK with taking that kind of action.
It’s been a busy 18 months. What’s one thing that you have learned over the course of this pandemic?
I’ve learnt the resilience and dedication of my colleagues in health care.
I’ve experienced and heard of so many stories about kindness and compassion, those are my three Cs: caring, community and common sense.
I’ve really pushed at how people have responded in so many positive ways about looking out for each other as we get through the difficult time in the pandemic, and that will stay with me.
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.
