“I’m very very hopeful that come summer we will have met our objectives,” said Premier John Horgan on Friday.
Horgan’s comments came the same week Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said everyone in the province could receive a first shot by early July, or even late June.
The B.C. government says an updated rollout plan to help people understand those claims is coming. In the meantime, here’s a look at why those timelines are feasible — and what could happen to scuttle them.
As a single dose COVID-19 vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson product will be especially helpful for people who sometimes have difficulty accessing health care, says Dr. Lisa Bryski, a retired ER doctor in Winnipeg. 1:23
How we get to 4 million
Three things happened this week to allow B.C.’s timeline for first doses to go from the end of September to the beginning of July.
The first was the decision to extend the maximum amount of time between giving the first and second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from six weeks to four months.
The other two events took place on Friday: the approval by Health Canada of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and an additional 3.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the next three months.
What does all that mean?
There are around 3.8 million British Columbians who are eligible for the vaccine but have yet to receive a shot. Between March and the end of June, Canada has been promised approximately 30.5 million vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.
The federal government is distributing vaccines according to population, and approximately 13.22 per cent of the country lives in B.C. Do the math, and that adds up to just over four million doses coming to the province by the end of June.
That’s enough to give a first dose to every adult in the province who can receive it, and complete the second dose for the approximately 200,000 who have only received one so far. And in theory, it would allow new supply from July onwards to be reserved for second doses.
What could go wrong?
It’s an estimate, relying on companies providing the amount of vaccine promised to Canada at promised schedules.
And it’s contingent on the B.C. government creating an operation that will have the capacity to vaccinate more than 50,000 people a day at its peak.
“In April … we’ll have a lot more information on whether we’re able to vaccinate the 10,000 to 20,000 a day first, and then scale it up rapidly to a much higher number. This is no mean feat,” said Mahesh Nagarajan, a professor of operations and logistics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
“Clarity on the hiring plan, the location plan, the processes that are going to happen, the call centre plan, the IT plan … those are the things we’re waiting to see.”
At the same time, the available supply doesn’t factor in the amount that could be provided by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca in the coming months, beyond the 500,000 or so doses of AstraZeneca provided this week. Those doses could accelerate the timeline further, or give contingencies in case there are delays to Pfizer or Moderna supplies.
They’re all reasons why Health Minister Adrian Dix hasn’t yet committed to a new target date, saying the government has been working on new timelines given the new information this week.
“We’re hopeful that we could get everyone who wants their first dose by July, and maybe that time can move up now that we’ve seen more vaccines,” Dix said.
And he cautioned that in the meantime, the province continues to see a rise in transmission.
“Things will get better in the summer, but right now people absolutely have to follow the rules.”
CBC British Columbia is hosting a town hall on March 10 to put your COVID-19 vaccine questions to expert guests, including Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. You can find the details at cbc.ca/ourshot. Have a question about the vaccine, or the rollout plan in B.C.? Email us: bcasks@cbc.ca
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
