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How big grocers in Canada are preparing for COVID-19 – CBC.ca

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Grocery stores across Canada are preparing for customers stockpiling supplies to get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Across the country, customers have been heading to stores in droves to pick up items like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and non-perishable items.

In Canada, some local stores have had to ration items like hand sanitizer because of COVID-19 concerns. Outside Canada, some stores have turned to rationing items amid coronavirus panic buying.

“The practice, if done at the right time, will be seen as a responsible one,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“People will understand because we’ve seen a lot of reports of erratic behaviour, people just not being able to explain what they were doing as they were buying toilet paper.

“We do go through cycles of public education. People will go out and buy things and then all of a sudden they realize, ‘Well, maybe I should have left a few for others.'”

What big grocers are saying

In an email to CBC News, Walmart Canada said it will continue to keep its stores stocked with items its customers are looking for, like hand sanitizer, paper products, cleaning supplies and non-perishables.

Walmart said it also plans to keep prices of those items “fair.”

The company said any of its employees who are not feeling well can stay home. It also initiated a policy that provides additional financial support for “associates that are under ‘mandated quarantine’ or are a confirmed case of COVID-19.”

Walmart said associates unable to work remotely will be placed on paid leave and will be eligible to receive pay for scheduled work hours during a two-week period.

CBC News contacted Loblaw, the company behind grocery stores like Superstore and No Frills, for comment on Thursday, but did not receive a response.

However, an email sent to customers of its grocery pickup service, PC Express, goes over some of the steps it is taking. It said due to increased demand, there may be limits on certain products, such as toilet paper. Given reduced product availability, there may also be more substitutions with grocery orders.

Costco did not answer questions regarding rationing and customer stockpiling, but a spokesperson for the company acknowledged there has been a surge of interest in purchasing emergency supplies in response to COVID-19.

Sobeys did not respond for a request for comment on Thursday.

Charlebois said he wouldn’t be surprised if chain stores began implementing rationing.

But he said the supply chains of those stores are “quite resilient.”

“They’ve learned from past mistakes, they’ve become smarter, they have more options,” he said.

Dalhousie University professor Sylvain Charlebois says event cancellations and news of celebrities coming down with COVID-19 could help fuel panic buying. (Radio-Canada)

In the case of a pandemic, Charlebois said the consumer psyche changes from being panicky to being more civil and responsible.

“Every market will go through a cycle. I would say right now, out west in Alberta and B.C., because they’ve had their first death and there have been several cases there, they actually did go through a cycle of panic buying,” he said.

For Quebec and Atlantic Canada, Charlebois anticipates the panic buying hasn’t started yet. He estimates the brunt of this will happen in two to four weeks, after March Break is over.

He said event cancellations and news of celebrities coming down with COVID-19 could also fuel panic buying.

‘Make sure everyone is taken care of’

Charlebois said he encourages people to be reasonable in the quantities they buy. He said COVID-19 is a virus that could last a long time.

“Not only will this allow people to make sure everyone is taken care of in a community, but it will also give the entire supply chain a chance to recover and adapt,” he said.

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Canada’s response to Trump deportation plan a key focus of revived cabinet committee

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OTTAWA, W.Va. – U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s promise launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants has the Canadian government looking at its own border.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday the issue is one of two “points of focus” for a recently revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations.

Freeland said she has also been speaking to premiers about the issue this week.

“I do want Canadians to know it is one of our two central points of focus. Ministers are working hard on it, and we absolutely believe that it’s an issue that Canadians are concerned about, Canadians are right to be concerned about it,” Freeland said, after the committee met for the first time since Trump left office in 2021.

She did not provide any details of the plan ministers are working on.

Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc, whose portfolio includes responsibility for the Canada Border Services Agency, co-chairs the committee. Freeland said that highlights the importance of border security to Canada-U.S. relations.

There was a significant increase in the number of irregular border crossings between 2016 and 2023, which the RCMP attributed in part to the policies of the first Trump administration.

The national police service said it has been working through multiple scenarios in case there is a change in irregular migration after Trump takes office once again, and any response to a “sudden increase in irregular migration” will be co-ordinated with border security and immigration officials.

However, Syed Hussan with the Migrant Rights Network said he does not anticipate a massive influx of people coming into Canada, chalking the current discussion up to anti-migrant panic.

“I’m not saying there won’t be some exceptions, that people will continue to cross. But here’s the thing, if you look at the people crossing currently into the U.S. from the Mexico border, these are mostly people who are recrossing post-deportation. The reason for that is, is that people have families and communities and jobs. So it seems very unlikely that people are going to move here,” he said.

Since the Safe Third Country Agreement was modified last year, far fewer people are making refugee claims in Canada through irregular border crossings.

The agreement between Canada and the U.S. acknowledges that both countries are safe places for refugees, and stipulates that asylum seekers must make a refugee claim in the country where they first arrive.

The number of people claiming asylum in Canada after coming through an irregular border crossing from the U.S. peaked at 14,000 between January and March 2023.

At that time, the rule was changed to only allow for refugee claims at regular ports of entry, with some specific exemptions.

This closed a loophole that had seen tens of thousands of people enter Canada at Roxham Road in Quebec between 2017 and 2023.

In the first six months of 2024, fewer than 700 people made refugee claims at irregular crossings.

There are 34,000 people waiting to have their refugee claims processed in Canada, according to government data.

In the first 10 months of this year, U.S. border officials recorded nearly 200,000 encounters with people making irregular crossings from Canada. Around 27,000 encounters took place at the border during the first 10 months of 2021.

Hussan said the change to the Safe Third Country Agreement made it less likely people will risk potentially dangerous crossings into Canada.

“Trying to make a life in Canada, it’s actually really difficult. It’s more difficult to be an undocumented person in Canada than the U.S. There’s actually more services in the U.S. currently, more access to jobs,” Hussan said.

Toronto-based immigration lawyer Robert Blanshay said he is receiving “tons and tons” of emails from Americans looking at possibly relocating to Canada since Trump won the election early Wednesday.

He estimates that about half are coming from members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I spoke to a guy yesterday, he and his partner from Kansas City. And he said to me, ‘You know, things weren’t so hunky-dory here in Kansas City being gay to begin with. The entire political climate is just too scary for us,'” Blanshay said.

Blanshay said he advised the man he would likely not be eligible for express entry into Canada because he is at retirement age.

He also said many Americans contacted him to inquire about moving north of the border after Trump’s first electoral victory, but like last time, he does not anticipate many will actually follow through.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024



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Surrey recount confirms B.C. New Democrats win election majority

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VANCOUVER – The British Columbia New Democrats have a majority government of 47 seats after a recount in the riding of Surrey-Guildford gave the party’s candidate 22 more votes than the provincial Conservatives.

Confirmation of victory for Premier David Eby’s party comes nearly three weeks after election night when no majority could be declared.

Garry Begg of the NDP had officially gone into the recount yesterday with a 27-vote lead, although British Columbia’s chief electoral officer had said on Tuesday there were 28 unreported votes and these had reduced the margin to 21.

There are ongoing recounts in Kelowna Centre and Prince George-Mackenzie, but these races are led by John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives and the outcomes will not change the majority status for the New Democrats.

The Election Act says the deadline to appeal results after a judicial recount must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Andrew Watson with Elections BC says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Eby has said his new cabinet will be announced on Nov. 18, with the 44 members of the Opposition caucus and two members from the B.C. Greens to be sworn in Nov. 12 and the New Democrat members of the legislature to be sworn in the next day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Port of Montreal employer submits ‘final’ offer to dockworkers, threatens lockout

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MONTREAL – The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.

The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.

The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”

Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity.

A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.

The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance. Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.

Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.

The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.

On Thursday, Montreal port authority CEO Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling capacity at international terminals at “a standstill.”

“I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table,” she said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”

Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, prior to the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of talks at the ports in Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since Nov. 4.

“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved,” he wrote on the X social media platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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