HALIFAX —
Nova Scotia will be tightening the border with New Brunswick, effective Saturday.
As of 8 a.m. Saturday, anyone coming into the province from New Brunswick must complete the Nova Scotia Safe Check-in form before arriving and self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
“What we are saying is, do not go to New Brunswick, and New Brunswickers, do not come here, unless it is for essential purposes,” said Premier Stephen McNeil during Friday’s news conference.
Nova Scotians returning from New Brunswick must also self-isolate for 14 days, unless they are exempt from the order.
Any Nova Scotian who has returned from New Brunswick in the last two weeks is asked to self-isolate immediately and go online and book a COVID-19 test, even if they don’t have symptoms.
The tightened border restrictions were announced following a surge of cases in New Brunswick this week, with the province reporting a single-day record of 31 new cases on Wednesday.
Nova Scotia reported only two new cases on Friday.
“Our case numbers are improving in Nova Scotia and we want to keep it that way,” added McNeil. “Given the sharp rise in cases in New Brunswick, we are taking the step of tightening our border to limit opportunities for the virus to spread.”
The public health order exempts some people from self-isolation if they do not have symptoms:
certain workers who must travel for their jobs, including people who routinely cross the land border for work
people who are dropping off or picking up a child within about 24 hours as part of a legal custody agreement
people travelling to and from essential health services, with one accompanying support person
people can participate in a legal proceeding but must otherwise self-isolate
“While our case numbers are improving, we are not out of the woods yet, especially given the risk of importing cases through travel from other jurisdictions,” said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health. “We continue to ask people not to travel unless it’s necessary, follow all the public health measures, and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms, to help protect your families, friends and communities.”
Travel into the province from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador is still permitted, and residents do not have to self-isolate, provided they drive straight through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia with no, or minimal stops.
SCHOOLS TO REOPEN MONDAY
Schools in Nova Scotia will reopen on Monday as scheduled.
Sports and arts activities involving multiple schools will not resume at this time. Community use of school gyms for sport and physical activity can resume, as long as provincial guidelines are followed.
The province also announced new guidelines for schools, which will allow for increased access to music education, allowing singing and playing instruments.
RETAIL CAPACITY INCREASED, CASINOS ALLOWED TO REOPEN
Retail establishments in Nova Scotia will now be able to increase their capacity to 50 per cent of their usual, up from 25 per cent.
“All the other COVID protocols that are in place in stores have to be maintained. That seems to me to be a very low-risk way to allow them to accommodate some more business. They were very tightly restricted over the holidays with significant impacts, but in my mind, it is not introducing a significant increase of COVID spread,” said Strang.
As well, the Halifax casino, VLTs and First Nations gaming establishments can reopen in areas of the Halifax Regional Municipality and Hants County.
TWO NEW CASES
Nova Scotia reported two new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. With one previously-reported case now considered recovered, the number of active cases in the province has increased to 29.
One case is in the province’s Central Zone and the other case is in the Eastern Zone. Both cases are related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada and the individuals are self-isolating.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority’s labs completed 1,831 Nova Scotia tests on Thursday.
There were 558 tests administered between Sunday and Thursday at the rapid-testing pop-up sites in Halifax.
“This week has started to paint a picture of the impact of the holiday season and what it has done related to our COVID-19 numbers but it is still early. It’s been two weeks since Christmas but just one week since New Year’s. The good news is that the numbers are still encouraging,” said Strang. “Most of our numbers are linked to other known cases or to travel outside of the province, and the number of close contacts or potential exposures continues to remain low.”
CASE BREAKDOWN
Since Oct. 1, Nova Scotia has completed 124,483 COVID-19 tests and confirmed 437 positive COVID-19 cases. Of those, 408 cases are now considered resolved, leaving 29 active cases.
No one has died during the second wave.
There is no one in hospital as a result of COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, Nova Scotia has completed 247,661 tests, and reported a total of 1,526 cases of COVID-19. Of those, 1,432 cases are now considered resolved and 65 people have died as a result of the novel coronavirus.
The province’s confirmed cases range in age from under 10 to over 90.
Fifty-five per cent of cases are female and 45 per cent are male.
There are cases confirmed across the province, but most have been identified in the Central Zone, which contains the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The provincial government says cumulative cases by zone may change as data is updated in Panorama, the province’s electronic information system.
The numbers reflect where a person lives and not where their sample was collected.
Western Zone: 87 cases
Central Zone: 1,256 cases
Northern Zone: 112 cases
Eastern Zone: 71 cases
The provincial state of emergency, which was first declared on March 22, has been extended to Jan. 24.
POTENTIAL EXPOSURE NOTIFICATION
Anyone present at the following location on the specified date and time is asked to go online or call 811 to book a COVID-19 test regardless of whether or not they have COVID-19 symptoms.
Starbucks Windmill Road (11 Cuddy Ln, Dartmouth)
Jan. 3 between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
May develop symptoms up to, and including, Jan. 17, 2021.
COVID ALERT APP
Canada’s COVID-19 Alert app is available in Nova Scotia.
The app, which can be downloaded through the Apple App Store or Google Play, notifies users if they may have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
LIST OF SYMPTOMS
Anyone who experiences a fever or new or worsening cough, or two or more of the following new or worsening symptoms, is encouraged to take an online test or call 811 to determine if they need to be tested for COVID-19:
Sore throat
Headache
Shortness of breath
Runny nose/nasal congestion
SELF-ISOLATION AND MANDATORY MASKS
Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is required to self-isolate at home, away from the public, for 14 days.
Anyone who travels to Nova Scotia from outside the Atlantic region for non-essential reasons is required to self-isolate for 14 days and must fill out a self-declaration form before coming to the province. Travellers must self-isolate alone, away from others. If they cannot self-isolate alone, their entire household must also self-isolate for 14 days.
Residents of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are not required to self-isolate when travelling to Nova Scotia, but they must be prepared to provide proof of their place of residency at provincial borders.
Visitors from outside the Atlantic region who have already self-isolated in another Atlantic province for 14 days may travel to Nova Scotia without having to self-isolate again.
It is mandatory to wear a face mask in indoor public spaces in Nova Scotia.
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.
