The closure of a poultry plant in Berwick, N.S., where an outbreak of COVID-19 was detected this week is a blow to operators, employees, the town and could even be felt by Nova Scotians looking to buy a Christmas turkey — but all those involved say it was the right thing to do.
Berwick Mayor Don Clarke said the shutdown has had an immediately noticeable impact on the town, causing business and traffic to go quiet.
Eden Valley Poultry is Berwick’s biggest employer and the biggest customer for the town’s self-owned electric utility, according to Clarke. It also draws its employees, about 450, from around the Annapolis Valley.
Clarke said the economic impact of the two-week closure isn’t measurable yet from the town’s perspective, but he expects that in the long-term, it will have been worth it.
“Having COVID in a plant that size with that many people in confined spaces and so on, is a serious situation,” said Clarke.
“What they’re doing is the necessary thing to do.”
Public Health ordered the closure of the poultry facility earlier this week after finding two cases of the virus among employees. Widespread testing has since revealed four more, with some results still pending and plans to re-test all employees next week.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang announced Friday the plant would have to stay closed for at least two weeks in an effort to disrupt the cycle of transmission.
That two-week order runs until Christmas day, but Eden Valley president Werner Barnard said they’ll wait until the following Monday, Dec. 28, to reopen.
‘Devastating’ impact for the business
“I think any business that shuts its doors for two weeks has a devastating financial impact, that’s a given,” said Barnard.
But, he added, the nature of Eden Valley’s business means the impact extends to every other business in the supply chain.
Over the course of the planned closure, Barnard said the plant would have processed more than 800,000 chicken and turkey. Eden Valley works with about 60 producers in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and has customers across the country and internationally.
Werner Bernard says Eden Valley Poultry typically processes about 400,000 turkey and chicken weekly from producers in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
Barnard said even though the plant isn’t operating, there’s still lots of work happening with producers, customers and other processors to mitigate the effects of Eden Valley’s closure.
As the only federally regulated poultry processor in Nova Scotia, Barnard said birds that would have gone through Eden Valley will likely now be shipped out of province for processing, possibly limiting the local supply.
He called that “a blow to the community,” in light of the upcoming Christmas demand for turkeys, and a concern for food security.
Employee paycheques in limbo
While employees await the second round of testing, Public Health has instructed them to self-isolate.
Among those waiting for test results is Lee Gee, who has worked at the plant for 40 years, including more than 30 years under a previous owner.
While he waits, Gee said he’s being kept busy with phone calls from other Eden Valley labourers. Gee is the president of Unifor Local 2261, which represents about 360 Eden Valley employees.
“Everybody is concerned about their health … and this close to Christmas, with everything going on, with their pay,” Gee said in an interview.
Eden Valley Poutry works with about 60 producers from around Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. (Mike Heenan/CBC)
Barnard said he could not guarantee paycheques would be going out as usual during the closure, but “employee welfare and financial security” were on his mind.
“Obviously this time of year it’s devastating for employees not to be able to work and earn money … we’re busy investigating all options but yes, the intent is to do right by the employees.”
Otherwise, Gee said he was satisfied with Eden Valley’s response to the outbreak, and he felt the necessary preventive steps had been taken, like scanning employees’ body temperatures as they enter each day, installing Plexiglas barriers and enforcing masking and physical distancing.
Public Health says there’s no evidence of community spread in Western Nova Scotia, but there was another case of COVID-19 detected in Berwick earlier this week, in addition to the cases at the poultry plant.
A case connected to the Berwick and District School meant that school closed for deep cleaning and contact tracing for several days.
Public Health has since increased testing opportunities in the area, sending one of the province’s mobile testing vans and setting up walk-in testing sites.
The walk-in testing will be available at two sites in the area, beginning Sunday:
The Berwick Fire Hall (300 Commercial St., Berwick) on Sunday, Dec. 13 and Monday, Dec. 14 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The site will be closed between 4:30-5:30 p.m.
The Mobile Unit at the Middleton Fire Hall (131 Commercial St., Middleton) on Monday, Dec. 14 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
