The head of Ontario’s vaccine task force will leave his job in the coming weeks, Premier Doug Ford said Monday.
The news about retired general Rick Hillier comes with Ontario reporting an additional 1,268 COVID-19 cases, and the province’s vaccine booking system launching both by phone and online for those over the age of 80.
During the province’s news conference Monday, Ford said Hillier will only be around “for a couple more weeks,” as his Order in Council is running out.
“I tried to get him to renew it, but as he said, ‘Doug, I did the job I came for, and we got everything set up,'” said Ford, who indicated he agreed with that sentiment.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Ford spokesperson Ivana Yelich said Hillier’s contract expires on March 31.
“The general was tasked with overseeing the development of Ontario’s vaccine rollout plan and associated infrastructure,” she said. “The plan and infrastructure are now in place, and the province is administering more and more vaccines each day.”
Thousands of people logged on to Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine booking system within minutes on Monday morning, with many reporting long wait times and error messages.
Toronto nurse Stephanie Prosper told CBC News this morning she was able to get onto the system and fill out the required information by 8:05 a.m. — just five minutes after the government website and an accompanying phone line officially went live.
She had been trying to book vaccine appointments online for her aunt, uncle and their neighbour, who are all seniors living in Niagara.
By then, there were already 10,000 people ahead of her in the queue, with her wait time estimated to be “more than an hour.”
Prosper, who works in a COVID-19 assessment centre, said she is worried about people navigating the site who aren’t tech savvy.
“A lot of the seniors don’t really have computers, some of them don’t have family members to help them,” she told Metro Morning host Ismaila Alfa on Monday morning.
Ford said Monday he was a little nervous when the new system launched, but that thus far he’s happy with what he’s seen.
“I was just praying all night this thing wasn’t going to crash,” Ford said, while promising to “iron out” any issues.
WATCH | Premier addresses problems with vaccination bookings:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised to tackle a series of reported delays in the new COVID-19 vaccine booking system after touting its success for booking hundreds of people every hour. 0:48
Reports of error message
Some who used the site shared their successes on social media, while others complained of attempting to book appointments online, only to get an error message informing them that “the form has been tampered with.”
Sue Gowans, a Toronto resident hoping to book an appointment for an elderly relative, said she received the error message.
She then called the phone line for the portal, where she was transferred to the booking system for the Niagara Public Health Unit. After waiting for someone to pick up, she was then told they couldn’t book an appointment for her.
“This has escalated to ridiculous,” Gowans wrote in a message to CBC Toronto.
Website fails with ‘form has been tampered with’ 🙁
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Ministry of Health spokesperson Alexandra Hilkene said the error message people had received while trying to book online was resolved.
She said that as of 3 p.m., more than 92,000 appointments for first and second doses had been booked.
Only try to book an appointment if you’re eligible, province warns
Ford said Sunday it’s crucial that only eligible residents make use of the system. For now, that group consists solely of those 80 and older.
While many of Ontario’s 34 public health units have already established their own systems for booking vaccination appointments, the provincial portal will now either enhance or fully replace those setups in many areas.
In addition to allowing vaccine-seekers to book their shots, the portal also provides instructions on how to schedule appointments based on protocols in place in each specific health unit.
The province said people who are eligible to get vaccinated can book online here, while those wishing to schedule by phone can call 1-888-999-6488.
First and second vaccination appointments will be arranged at the same time, the government said, noting people will be asked to provide their provincial health card details, birth date, postal code and email address or phone number.
Ford said the booking system will be open to other age groups in April as part of the next phase of Ontario’s vaccine rollout.
“Everyone will have their chance to get vaccinated, but we’re prioritizing our most vulnerable,” he said.
Vaccines rolling out at quarter of Ontario’s capacity: Ford
The launch of the provincial portal marks the latest step in Ontario’s mass immunization drive, which introduced new elements targeting some 60- to 64-year-olds in recent days.
Both pilot projects will see eligible residents receive shots of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
Ontario has the resources to administer 4.8 million vaccines per month, said Ford, but the rollout is running at about a quarter of that capacity because of limited supply. He said the province needs more vaccines.
“The infrastructure is in place, and I can tell you folks we are ready,” he said.
According to the ministry, health units across Ontario administered 33,198 vaccines yesterday. A total of 287,283 people in Ontario have now been given both shots of a vaccine.
9 straight days of more than 1,000 new cases
This is the ninth straight day Ontario has reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases. The seven-day average now stands at 1,350.
Monday’s new cases include 366 in Toronto, 220 in Peel Region and 147 in York Region.
The Ontario Hospital Association said in a statement Monday the province is now in the midst of a third wave of the virus, citing data from Ontario’s Science Advisory Table.
Provincial Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said at a press conference Monday that Ontario could be in a “slight undulation,” or a smaller wave, but the province is monitoring the situation.
“You can always tell when you’re in it after it’s over,” he said.
The province also said Monday COVID-19 has been linked to nine additional deaths.
Officials say 699 people are being treated in hospital for COVID-19, an increase of 98 from Sunday.
Of the patients currently in hospital, 298 are in intensive-care units. However, data provided by Critical Care Services Ontario, which provides a more up-to-date look at critical care data, shows there are now 349 people in intensive care.
Other public health units that saw double-digit increases in cases were:
Hamilton: 71
Thunder Bay: 61
Ottawa: 57
Durham Region: 53
Halton Region: 47
Simcoe Muskoka: 33
Sudbury: 33
Niagara: 27
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District: 19
Waterloo Region: 18
Brant County: 17
Lambton: 14
Eastern Ontario: 13
Windsor-Essex: 10
Labs also confirmed 70 more cases linked to the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, bringing the total thus far to 1,106.
Ontario’s lab network completed 33,875 test samples since the last update and logged a test positivity rate of 3.8 per cent.
Ontario also reported an additional 110 school-related cases on Monday. Of those, 91 were among students, 15 were among staff, and four were reported among individuals not identified by the province.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.
Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.
“Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
The 33-year-old from Sweden was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.
Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.
TORONTO – While Toronto FC is looking to improve its position on the pitch, general manager Jason Hernandez is trying to do the same off it.
That has been easier said than done this season.
Sending winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to CF Montreal for up to $1.3 million (all dollar figures in U.S. funds) in general allocation money before the secondary transfer window closed in early August helped set the stage for future moves.
But there have been plenty of obstacles, which Hernandez has been working to clear.
“We feel a lot more confident going into this upcoming off-season that we did the one prior,” said Hernandez. “There’s a level of what I would say booby-traps that were uncovered when I first got the (GM) role at the end of last summer.”
The club is paying off departed forwards Adam Diomande and Ayo Akinola as well as a $500,000 payment due in 2024 to Belgium’s Anderlecht for Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence. That payment was part of the transfer fee for Lawrence, who joined TFC from Anderlecht in May 2021 and was traded to Minnesota United in March 2022.
Diomande was waived while Akinola’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.
“That comes to an end in ’25, which is nice,” said Hernandez. “We had to suffer from a salary cap perspective this season. But those things coming off, the Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty money coming in, we’re going to be in a position to make some good additions, which is positive.”
While MLS clubs are allowed one contract buyout per year, Toronto had already used its on former captain Michel Bradley, who retired after last season. Bradley had previously restructured his contract, deferring money.
TFC’s only other move during the summer transfer window was the signing of free-agent defender Henry Wingo. Hernandez said the club knew going into the window that it was likely limited to the one acquisition “unless other business happened”
“We knew we had this bucket of money and we knew we were going to go get Henry,” said Hernandez.
While the sale of the highly touted Marshall-Rutty opened up other possibilities, it came on the eve of the transfer window closing. And the team did not like what it saw in the free-agent market.
“A lot of the opportunities we were presented in the free agency space felt more like a short-term, Band-Aid decision versus what actually the club probably needs.”
Hernandez was not willing to take in players who came with a “club-friendly” salary cap charge in 2024 and a much bigger number in 2025.
Instead, Toronto promoted forward Charlie Sharp and wingback Nate Edwards to the first team from TFC 2 ahead of last Friday’s roster freeze.
MLS teams are operating on a salary budget of $5.47 million this season, which covers up to 20 players on the senior roster (clubs can elect to spread that number across 18 players). But the league has several mechanisms that allow those funds to go further, including using allocation money (both general and targeted) to buy down salaries.
Designated players only count $683,750 — the maximum salary charge — against the cap no matter their actual pay. Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne is actually earning $15.4 million with fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi collecting $6.295 million and Canadian Richie Laryea $1.208 million.
Hernandez says Laryea’s contract can — and “very likely” will — be restructured so as to remove the designated player status.
There are benefits in going with just two designated players rather than three.
Teams that elect to go with two DPs can sign up to four players as part of the league’s “U22 Initiative.” The pluses of that structure include a reduced salary cap charge for the young players and up to an extra $2 million in general allocation money.
Hernandez says the club is currently pondering whether that is the way to go.
Captain Jonathan Osorio who is earning $836,370 this season, restructured his deal to allow the team to sign Laryea as a DP. In doing so, Osorio had his option year guaranteed so his contact runs through 2026.
Hernandez and coach John Herdman will have decisions to make come the end of the year.
The contracts of goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ($94,200), defenders Kevin Long ($277,500), Shane O’Neill ($413,000) and Kobe Franklin ($100,520), midfielder Alonso Coello ($94,050) and Brandon Servania ($602,710), and forward Prince Owusu ($807,500) — all on the club’s senior roster — expire at the end of 2024 with club options to follow.
While there is more work to do, Hernandez believes TFC is on the right road.
Toronto, which finished last in the league at 4-20-10 in 2023, went into Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus in a playoff position at eighth in the East at 11-15-3.
“By every metric, we are miles ahead of where we were at this point last year,” said Hernandez.
“That’s a low bar, so that’s not saying much,” he added.
But he believes TFC is “quite competitive” when it has all its players at its disposal.
“To get results in this final stretch, we’re going to need our prominent players to really show up and have big performances, and be supported by the rest of the cast.”
After Columbus, TFC plays at Colorado and Chicago and hosts the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami. The club also travels to Vancouver for the Canadian Championship final.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
Mackenzie Hughes might just be what the International team needs as this year’s Presidents Cup.
Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., is one of three Canadians on the squad competing in the match-play event at Royal Montreal Golf Club next week.
His putting skills, cool demeanour under pressure, pre-existing connections with teammates and clubhouse leadership could help the team — made up of non-American players outside Europe — end a nine-tournament losing skid to the United States at the biennial event.
“I’ve had this one circled on the calendar for a few years now,” said Hughes on joining fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners as captain’s picks on the 12-player International team. “I pretty much knew that when it was announced the tournament would be in Canada and that Mike Weir was going to be the captain, you pretty much knew where that was going to go.
“To get that call from (Weir) is really special because he’s the guy that I looked up to, we all looked up to, as Canadian golfers.”
Pendrith and Conners are returning to the team after a disappointing 17 1/2 to 12 1/2 loss to the United States at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. in 2022.
Hughes was ranked 14th on the International team standings in 2022 and could have easily been included on that squad after Australia’s Cameron Smith and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann were ruled ineligible after jumping ship to the rival LIV Golf circuit.
However, captain Trevor Immelman of South Africa instead chose the lower ranked Christiaan Bezuidenhout (16th) of South Africa, Pendrith (18th), South Korea’s Kim Si-woo (20th) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (25th).
“I certainly wanted to be on that team but also I understood the picks,” said Hughes, who lives in Charlotte and plays at Quail Hollow regularly. “I think that like a lot of guys that don’t get picked you more so look back on your own play and I wish I had made that selection easier for them.
“I didn’t do myself any favours in the six weeks leading up to it and that’s a hard pill to swallow.”
It may have been a costly oversight on Immelman’s part, as finishing holes was an issue for the International team in 2022 and Hughes is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. This season he’s third in shots gained around the green and fifth in shots gained from putting.
“It doesn’t mean that just because I was there it would have turned the tide, but I’d like to think maybe I could have helped,” said Hughes. “That’s why you play the matches. You have to get out there and do it.”
This year Hughes made it easier for Weir, the Canadian golf legend from Brights Grove, Ont., to choose him. Hughes is 51st in the FedEx Cup Fall standings and has made the cut seven tournaments in a row, including a tie for fourth at last week’s Procore Championship.
“Mac played very solidly all year. Really like his short game, an all-around short game,” said Weir on Sept. 3 after announcing his captain’s picks. “He’s one of the elite and best short game guys on the PGA Tour
“I also love Mac’s grit. So that was the reason I picked him.”
Hughes’s intangible qualities go beyond grit.
He, Pendrith and Conners will arrive at Royal Montreal as a unit within the International squad, having become close friends while playing on Kent State University’s men’s golf team before turning pro. They’re also part of a group of Canadians, including Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., that regularly practice together before PGA Tour events.
“To have those guys with me is really icing on the cake, it’s very special,” said Hughes. “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often: to play this kind of team competition, which is already hard to do, but to play with some of your best friends, it almost seems scripted.”
An 11-year professional, Hughes has also been a member of the PGA Tour’s player advisory council the past two years and has been an outspoken advocate for making professional golf more accessible to fans.
Although Weir relied heavily on analytics to make his captain’s selections, Hughes’s character came up again and again when asked why he was named to the team.
“I just have a gut feeling with Mac that he has what it takes in these big moments,” said Weir. “They’re big pressure moments, and I have a feeling he’s going to do great in those moments.”
DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., continues his chase for a spot in the Europe-based DP World Tour’s playoffs. The top 50 players on the Race to Dubai standings make the DP World Tour Championship and Cockerill moved eight spots up to 39th in the rankings after tying for ninth at last week’s Irish Open. He’ll be back at it on Thursday at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.
KORN FERRY TOUR — Myles Creighton of Digby, N.S., is ranked 38th on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. He leads the Canadian contingent into this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He’ll be joined at Ohio State University Golf Club — Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio by Edmonton’s Wil Bateman (53rd), Etienne Papineau (65th) of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Sudarshan Yellamaraju (99th) of Mississauga, Ont.
CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary’s Stephen Ames is the lone Canadian at this week’s Pure Insurance Championship. He’s No. 2 on the senior circuit’s points list. The event will start Friday and be played at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Monterey, Calif.
LPGA TOUR — There are four Canadians in this week’s Kroger City Championship. Savannah Grewal (97th in the Race to CME Globe Rankings) of Mississauga, Ont., Hamilton’s Alena Sharp (115th), and Maude-Aimee Leblanc (142nd) of Sherbrooke, Que., will all tee it up at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio.
EPSON TOUR — Vancouver’s Leah John is the low Canadian heading into the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. She’s 54th in the second-tier tour’s points list. She’ll be joined by Maddie Szeryk (118th) of London, Ont., and Brigitte Thibault (119th) of Rosemere, Que., at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Ark.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
