The situation can turn deadly: Two people died while waiting for care at the Anna-Laberge hospital in Châteauguay, Que., just last week.
And as health-care teams remain dangerously overstretched, they’re also grappling with the pressure of what some physicians are calling a “new norm” for seasonal illnesses — a range of viral and bacterial infections all back in circulation, with COVID-19 still chief among them.
“This is probably the first year since COVID started where we are seeing the anticipated viruses, the anticipated escalation of volumes, that we saw before we were faced with a pandemic,” warned Dr. Laurie Plotnick, medical director of the emergency department at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, where the average occupancy rate was close to 160 per cent throughout much of November.
Two pediatric facilities in Montreal held a joint news conference on Wednesday to hammer home the challenges ahead, while urging families to rely on community-based clinics rather than overflowing emergency departments whenever possible.
Children are coming in with an array of ailments, from fevers to bronchitis to pneumonia, officials said. Those high volumes add pressure at a time when hospitals are short-staffed on their inpatient units, leaving few beds available when children need to be hospitalized on the wards.
Lack of primary care providers
But telling families to avoid emergency rooms and seek care elsewhere may be a tough pill to swallow. Plenty of children simply don’t have family physicians, Plotnick noted.
It’s a Canada-wide problem: Data shows millions of Canadians don’t have a regular health-care provider, while a new report from Ontario’s acting auditor general suggests in that province, one in five patients who visited emergency departments were only there because they lack a family doctor.
Meanwhile emergency departments from Alberta to Ontario to Quebec are reporting hours-long wait times in the face of those ongoing pressures.
Against that backdrop, federal data shows the country’s respiratory virus season is well underway, adding fuel to the fire.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity is rising and above expected levels, and flu activity is increasing as well.
“On top of an already elevated baseline, now we’re seeing all of the usual fall respiratory illnesses coming in, plus COVID, which never existed four years ago,” Dr. Lisa Salamon, an emergency physician in Toronto, told CBC News.
“That’s making a situation that’s always bad in the fall even worse. I think we have to get used to this new norm.”
Dr. Lisa Salamon, an emergency room physician with the Scarborough Health Network, is pictured outside Birchmount Hospital, in Scarborough, Ont., on March 18, 2021. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Pneumonia makes a comeback
Multiple countries are also reporting unusual upticks in mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes a bacterial infection commonly known as “walking pneumonia” that’s typically a milder form of the disease.
Parts of the U.S., China, Denmark, and several other European countries are all reporting higher levels of pneumonia infections, while South Korean health officials announced hospitalizations for the illness have doubled in the last month, mostly among children.
“Could it be going on in Canada? The answer is, almost certainly,” said Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious diseases specialist with McGill University.
“There’s nothing special about our borders, that’s for sure, but it’s tough to know because you need an active surveillance program to know what’s going on. And if there’s no surveillance program, either at the provincial or national levels, it could very well be in our backyard — and we don’t know.”
While there is no formal laboratory-based monitoring happening here in Canada, public health laboratories will be on the lookout for any unusual mycoplasma pneumonia activity, the Public Health Agency of Canada told CBC News.
Medical experts say this bacteria typically rears its head every few years, with this season potentially worse than usual because of a lack of exposure to this pathogen throughout the pandemic, much like how RSV surged last year following the lifting of COVID-related restrictions.
“Immunity to mycoplasma may have fallen, because many people may not have been exposed to it during times of social distancing,” explained Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“And now, people are interacting normally again, so we see mycoplasma coming back. And that’s kind of synergizing with the natural cycles that this bacteria has as well.”
WATCH | What seniors need to know about vaccines this fall:
What seniors need to know about vaccines this fall
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Four key vaccines are available for seniors this fall, including an updated COVID-19 shot and Canada’s first vaccine for RSV. CBC health reporter Lauren Pelley breaks down what seniors — and those who care for them — need to know.
System-level solutions needed
Though it’s clear a slate of infectious diseases is putting pressure on hospitals, Salamon said clinicians are hopeful that various seasonal illnesses will surge at different times. COVID seems to be spiking this fall, she said, while flu season hasn’t quite taken off.
But there’s a downside to that possibility: The potential for another long, drawn-out respiratory virus season that strains the health-care system for months on end.
There is no quick fix, but Salamon said there need to be system-level solutions from policymakers and government officials to prevent deaths and ease overcrowding — both this year, and in the years to come.
Adalja said the current situation isn’t surprising, given that respiratory infections were always a challenge in the winter, with COVID now firmly in that mix.
“This is sort of going to be the new norm going forward that we’re going to have this level of infection,” Adalja said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
