Canada’s vaccination campaign is facing yet another hurdle in the race to inoculate people against the deadly novel coronavirus with the announcement today that Moderna will delay some shipments of its product next month.
The Massachusetts-based company was set to send some 230,400 shots to Canada next week, with 249,600 shots to follow three weeks later, but those forecasts have now been up-ended, a testament to just how uncertain the government’s vaccine projections have become.
Moderna is expected to ship between 20-25 per cent less product to Canada in February than originally planned, much like the delays that France and Italy also reported today after conversations with the drugmaker. Next week’s shipment has been revised down to 180,000 doses.
The delays mean tens of thousands of doses will be punted to a later date as COVID-19 related deaths in Canada near the 20,000 mark.
“We will always share the most accurate information we have, but in the short-term those numbers can fluctuate. But as global production continues to pick up, there will be more stability in the system,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Friday.
Trudeau said the Moderna disruptions are tied to “certain concerns around the manufacturing process.”
“This temporary delay doesn’t change the fact that we will still receive two million doses of the Moderna vaccine before the end of March, as we’ve been saying for months,” he said. “We know that this is something that we’re going to have to keep watching very, very closely.”
WATCH | Trudeau updates Canadians on COVID-19 vaccine delays:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Friday. 1:38
Second vaccine delivery delay
This is the second time in less than a month that Canada has had to contend with delivery delays from a pharmaceutical company.
Pfizer is shipping roughly 80 per cent fewer shots than it initially promised over the next four weeks as it grapples with the fallout from upgrades to its manufacturing plant in Puurs, Belgium.
Despite Trudeau’s assurances, the delays mean that Canada will struggle to meet its target of six million Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots delivered by the end of March, a rosy forecast that was already in doubt because of the Pfizer supply issues.
To meet that target, more than 3.5 million doses of the two products will have to be delivered in the month of March alone — or roughly 885,000 doses a week.
Pfizer may send some doses ahead of schedule
Trudeau also said Friday he had another “very positive” and “encouraging” call with Dr. Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, and the two discussed “Canada receiving more doses ahead of schedule starting in the spring.”
“We’ll have more details to share on that next week,” Trudeau said of the possibility of more Pfizer doses arriving in the second quarter of this year. He said Pfizer may be able to move up the delivery of some doses that were earmarked for later in the year.
WATCH: Trudeau speaks about delays to the Moderna shipments
The CBC’s Tom Parry asks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau what’s causing Moderna to delay its COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Canada. 2:46
“Production lines around the globe are adapting to high demand from every country,” Trudeau said.
The upgrades at the Belgian facility will give the company the capacity to pump out up to two billion shots this year — up from its initial projection of 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
EU introduces export controls on shots
The Moderna delays also come on the day the European Union released details about new export controls, temporary measures designed to track vaccines leaving the 27-member bloc to ensure supply on the continent.
The measure will require companies seeking to ship shots outside the Eurozone to obtain prior authorization. The rules will allow countries to block exports or impose conditions on companies if they aren’t delivering a sufficient number of dosage to EU members.
EU political leaders say they are concerned the companies are cutting supplies intended for EU countries in order to sell doses to other nations at higher prices.
AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company headquartered in Cambridge, England, has delivered millions of shots to the U.K., but has warned it wouldn’t be able to meet EU delivery targets — prompting anger from European leaders.
“We now need transparency on where the vaccines we secured are going and ensure that they reach our citizens. We are accountable towards the European citizens and taxpayers — that is a key principle for us,” Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health and food safety commissioner, said in a statement.
These new regulations could prove disruptive to Canada’s supply, as all of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots destined for this country are shipped from the company’s Belgian facility.
Stella Kyriakides, the European Union’s health commissioner, said export controls on vaccines are necessary to ensure supply on the continent. (Johanna Geron/Pool via AP Photo)
While the EU exempted products destined to some countries — including some neighbouring non-EU states and Middle Eastern countries, among others — Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. were not on that list.
However, International Trade Minister Mary Ng said in the Commons Friday that she doesn’t expect the new export controls to impact Canada’s shipments.
Health Canada decision on AstraZeneca expected ‘in the coming days’
Beyond the two products already approved, Health Canada regulators are reviewing the clinical trial data for the AstraZenenca shot, and another promising vaccine candidate from Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical division, Janssen.
The EU’s medicines agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine Friday, following the lead of other countries around the world that have given the green light to a shot that was co-developed with researchers at the University of Oxford.
The shot has an efficacy rate between 70 per cent and 90 per cent, depending on the manner in which the doses are given.
The EU’s medicines agency approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Friday. Health Canada regulators are expected to make a decision about its use in Canada ‘in the coming days,’ a spokesperson for the department said. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
Health Canada has been reviewing the product on a rolling basis since Oct. 1 — collecting and analyzing data as it becomes available rather than waiting for a final submission — and the department is expected to make a decision about the product “in the coming days,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“While the department collaborates with other regulators, it remains committed to conducting an independent and thorough scientific review of all COVID-19 vaccines,” the spokesperson said.
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.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Employers and the union representing supervisors embroiled in a labour dispute that triggered a lockout at British Columbia’s ports will attempt to reach a deal when talks restart this weekend.
A spokesman from the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has confirmed the minister spoke with leaders at both the BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, but did not invoke any section of the Canadian Labour Code that would force them back to talks.
A statement from the ministry says MacKinnon instead “asked them to return to the negotiation table,” and talks are now scheduled to start on Saturday with the help of federal mediators.
A meeting notice obtained by The Canadian Press shows talks beginning in Vancouver at 5 p.m. and extendable into Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The lockout at B.C. ports by employers began on Monday after what their association describes as “strike activity” from the union. The result was a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint against the employers for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, a charge that employers call a “meritless claim.”
The two sides have been without a deal since March 2023, and the employers say its final offer presented last week in the last round of talks remains on the table.
The proposed agreement includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term along with an average lump sum payment of $21,000 per qualified worker.
The union has said one of its key concerns is the advent of port automation in cargo operations, and workers want assurances on staffing levels regardless of what technology is being used at the port.
The disruption is happening while two container terminals are shut down in Montreal in a separate labour dispute.
It leaves container cargo traffic disrupted at Canada’s two biggest ports, Vancouver and Montreal, both operating as major Canadian trade gateways on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
This is one of several work disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, where a 13-day strike stopped cargo last year, while labour strife in the rail and grain-handling sectors led to further disruptions earlier this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
