Business
Ontario changes COVID-19 vaccination plans after slowing rollout – The Globe and Mail
Ontario has changed its COVID-19 vaccination plan to give a first dose to as many people as possible and no longer hold second doses in reserve as the province has lagged behind Canada’s already-slow immunization pace.
The province announced the change Monday, 14 days after the launch of Canada’s vaccination campaign. Ontario has administered 13,200 of its allotted 96,000 doses and faced criticism for shutting down clinics over the holidays.
“We are not holding or reserving doses, and are vaccinating as many people as possible, counting on confirmed shipments of the vaccine that will arrive over the coming weeks for second doses,” said Ontario Ministry of Health spokeswoman Alexandra Hilkene in an e-mail statement.
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The change came amid conflicting practices between the provinces and evolving guidelines from the vaccine’s manufacturer.
Quebec’s Health Ministry said in a statement Monday it is still following the guidelines of vaccine manufacturer Pfizer-BioNTech by holding back half of the doses it has received for second doses. Those are expected to start at the end of the week, following the manufacturer guidelines that the second vaccination be administered 21 days after the first. Quebec has so far administered 19,643 of its 56,000 shots.
Other provinces including Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and British Columbia are not holding back doses and giving a first shot to as many people as possible. Others are still making plans.
Pfizer recommended holding back second doses for the first shipment of the vaccine, Christina Antoniou, director of corporate affairs for Pfizer Canada, said Monday.
“As we move into the first quarter of 2021 and are bringing in larger volumes of vaccine doses, there is greater predictability of expected volumes so we are a little more flexible on this guideline,” Ms. Antoniou said. “However, we still consider it to be a safe approach for the points of use to continue storing a portion of the doses received, to ensure no delay in the second dose deployment.”
Last week, researchers from the University of Toronto published modelling that showed giving a first dose to as many people as possible would give more people partial immunity and decrease serious illness and death, compared with holding back second doses.
Canada has vaccinated slightly fewer than 4,000 people a day since the first of 249,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine began arriving in the country Dec. 13. The provinces combined have administered about 55,540 vaccines. Moderna Inc. is expected to ship 168,000 doses of its vaccine by the end of December. No other shipments have been publicly confirmed.
A representative of Health Canada did not answer a request for information on new vaccine shipments Monday, saying in an e-mail that the offices were closed.
Canada is lagging behind the United States, Britain and Israel in vaccination rates but is ahead of Denmark and Germany. Much of the rest of the world has yet to start.
Maxwell Smith, bioethicist and assistant professor at Western University and member of the province’s vaccine distribution task force, said that when Ontario received its first shipment of vaccines in December, it was unclear whether there would be enough supply of the vaccine to rely on steady shipments when the province launched its vaccination program on Dec. 14. When the province received 90,000 vaccines last week, it reassured officials that the province will reach its goal of receiving 2.4 million doses by March, he added.
The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine gives 50 per cent of people immunity while the second dose provides 95-per-cent immunity, vaccine trials showed.
“On the one hand, it might be the case that if you used all available doses as soon as you get them, then it’s true that you could vaccinate more people,” Dr. Smith said. “But if we don’t have a guarantee that we’ll get a second dose in time for those who already got a first dose, we don’t have the evidence to suggest that the second dose would be effective at such a high interval.”
While Quebec and other provinces continued to vaccinate through the Christmas holidays most vaccine clinics in Ontario were closed, prompting criticism from public health experts that vaccinations should not be interrupted at a time when infections are at record highs.
The COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Toronto’s University Health Network was closed during the holidays, but the clinic is on pace to finish administering all vaccines reserved for first doses by the end of this week, according to Susy Hota, medical director for infection prevention and control at the UHN.
“We’re at a bad point in this pandemic, so the greater impact would be to get broader coverage and try to vaccinate as many people as possible with the first dose, recognizing that worst-case scenario is that people can’t get the second dose,” Dr. Hota said.
Immunization experts say it is important to refine immunization regimes but supply is the most urgent problem.
“The biggest issue is and has always been, when will they get the number of vaccines that will allow them to ramp up administration?” said David Levine, the former director of the Montreal health region who was in charge of vaccinating the city’s population during the H1N1 outbreak 11 years ago. “The key moment will be when millions of doses start arriving, not thousands. We vaccinated a million people in nine weeks in Montreal in 2009. The key factor was that the vaccine was there.”
Caroline Quach, an infectious-diseases specialist and microbiologist at the University of Montreal, said Quebec’s choice to vaccinate residents and staff at nursing homes has slowed rollout of the limited vaccines available. Vaccinating health care staff in the next phase will go more quickly but still will not move as fast as mass clinics that will come with larger vaccine shipments.
“A big problem is nobody knows when the next shipment will come,” she said. “It’s supposed to be in the first quarter of 2021, so let’s hope it’s in January and not March.”
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Business
Wildfire sparked by TC Energy pipeline rupture under control – Yahoo Canada Finance
CALGARY — A wildfire in west-central Alberta that was sparked by a natural gas pipeline rupture is under control, but an investigation into what caused the pipeline to break could take months or even years.
As of Wednesday morning, there was very little fire activity left in Yellowhead County, where a 10-hectare fire burned on Tuesday about 40 kilometres northwest of Edson.
“But for it to be considered extinguished, we’re going to have to hot spot,” said Caroline Charbonneau, area information co-ordinator with Alberta Forestry and Parks.
“That means we’ll have to dig into the ground, look and feel for hot spots, and then douse it with water. And that could take several days.”
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The fire on Tuesday, which occurred as much of Alberta is dealing with extremely dry early spring conditions, was sparked when a natural gas pipeline owned by TC Energy Corp. ruptured.
There were no injuries, and the fire was never a threat to any surrounding communities. The affected pipeline segment was isolated and shut in and there is no more gas leaking from the pipeline.
The Canada Energy Regulator had inspectors on site Wednesday to monitor the company’s response and the Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
According to CER, there have been 12 natural gas pipeline ruptures in Canada since 2008, and Tuesday’s incident near Edson was the first rupture on that particular pipeline within that time period.
The 36-inch diameter pipe that ruptured is part of TC Energy’s NGTL pipeline system, which transports natural gas from Alberta and northeast B.C. to domestic and export markets. The system spans 24,631 kilometres and connects with TC Energy’s Canadian Mainline system, Foothills system and other third-party pipelines.
The NGTL pipeline system is like a web made up of different lines that have been developed in stages.
In 2022, there was a rupture on a separate part of the system that resulted in an explosion and fire near Fox Creek, Alta. There were no injuries.
A TSB investigation into that incident took more than 14 months, and concluded that the pipeline ruptured due to reduced pipe wall strength caused by external corrosion.
While the primary risk of a crude oil pipeline leak is an oil spill that harms the local ecosystem, natural gas pipeline ruptures can and do result in fires or explosions, said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a U.S.-based non-profit organization.
“The chances are extremely high that a molecule of natural gas that enters a pipeline will go through that pipeline without a failure. Pipelines are quite safe, and when you look at incident rates compared to other modes of transportation like rail or truck, they are much less likely to have a failure,” Caram said.
“But what you don’t get a sense of by looking at the risks of pipelines in that way is how catastrophic a failure can be when it does happen.”
According to the TSB, there were 19 recorded incidences of fires related to pipelines in Canada between 2012 and 2022.
The TSB’s most recent report on pipeline transportation safety in Canada states that in 2022 there were 100 companies transporting either oil or gas or both in the federally regulated pipeline system, which includes approximately 19,950 km of oil pipelines and approximately 48,700 km of natural gas pipelines.
That year, there were 67 pipeline transportation accidents and incidents on federally regulated pipeline systems, according to the report.
That number was well below the 10-year average of 112 occurrences, and was also the lowest number of occurrences since 2019, when 52 pipeline accidents or incidents were recorded by the TSB.
The TSB defines a pipeline “accident” as an incident that results in a person being injured or killed, a fire or explosion, or significant damage to the pipeline affecting its operation.
Less severe pipeline events that involve the uncontrolled release of a commodity or a precautionary or emergency shutdown are classified by the TSB as “incidents.”
There have been no fatal accidents directly resulting from the operation of a federally regulated pipeline system since the inception of the TSB in 1990.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
Business
Pearson airport gold heist: Police announce 9 arrests – CTV News Toronto
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
At a news conference Wednesday on the one-year anniversary of the heist, police confirmed that five suspects were arrested and four others are facing charges in connection with the largest gold theft in Canadian history.
Police said the suspects face a total of 19 charges and Canada-wide warrants have been issued for the arrest of three of the suspects who have not yet been apprehended. All of the suspects arrested in connection with the heist have been released on bail, police confirmed in a news release issued Wednesday.
Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said the heist was “carefully planned” by a “well-organized group of criminals.”
“This story is a sensational one and one which probably, we jokingly say, belongs in a Netflix series,” he said.
Police said 6,600 gold bars were stolen from Air Canada’s cargo facility on the evening of April 17, 2023 by a suspect who arrived at the warehouse in a five-tonne delivery truck.
The gold, along with about $2.5 million in foreign currency, had been shipped to Toronto from Zurich in the hull of an Air Canada plane and was offloaded to an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after the flight landed at Pearson Airport that afternoon.
Police allege that the suspect came into possession of the stolen gold and bank notes after presenting Air Canada personnel with a fraudulent airway bill.
“The airway bill was for a legitimate shipment of seafood that was picked up the day before,” Det.-Sgt. Mike Mavity, the major case manager for the joint investigation, dubbed Project 24K, told reporters on Wednesday.
“This duplicate airway bill was printed off from a printer within Air Canada cargo.”
Brinks Canada, which was hired to provide security and logistics services for the transportation of the shipment, showed up at the facility a few hours later to pick up the items, police said.
According to investigators, when Air Canada employees tried to locate the container, they realized it was missing and quickly launched an internal investigation. Police were notified about the stolen goods shortly before 3 a.m. the following day, Mavity said.
Air Canada launches probe
An exhaustive investigation followed, police said, with officers reviewing video surveillance footage from 225 businesses and residences in an effort to track the path of the truck, which has since been recovered.
Mavity said that last summer, they identified 25-year-old Durante King-McLean as the driver of the truck but were unable to locate him.
In September 2023, Mavity said King-McLean was stopped in rental vehicle by Pennsylvania State Police near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
“After a brief foot chase, he was detained and troopers located 65 illegal firearms in the vehicle,” Mavity said Wednesday.
According to Mavity, investigators believe that the stolen gold was melted down and sold and the proceeds were used to purchase illegal guns for a firearms trafficking operation.
He said members of Project 24K have been liaising with the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau (ATF) with respect to this aspect of the investigation.
Speaking at the news conference on Wednesday, a representative from the ATF said the law enforcement agency believes the 65 guns seized during the arrest of King-McLean were bound for Canada.
While King-McLean is currently in custody in the United States, he is now wanted on multiple charges in connection with the gold theft.
“We are alleging that some individuals who participated in this gold theft are also involved in aspects of this firearms trafficking,” Mavity added.
Two “debt lists” were found by investigators at separate locations during the investigation, police said.
“A common term in drug trafficking investigations, we believe these lists actually show where the money was distributed when the gold was sold by the suspects,” Mavity said.
He said the names on both lists are “consistent” and police are trying to identify all of those identified.
‘They needed people inside Air Canada’
Police said one current Air Canada employee, identified as 54-year-old Brampton resident Parmpal Sidhu, has been charged with theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. A Canada-wide warrant has been issued 31-year-old Simran Preet Panesar, who police said resigned from his position as a manager at Air Canada back in the summer.
“He has been known to us since early on in the investigation. He actually led a tour for Peel Regional Police before we knew his involvement,” Mavity said Wednesday.
He added that police have an idea where Panesar may be but did not elaborate on a possible location.
Mavity said he believes the suspects needed employees on the inside to carry out the heist.
“Because of their position within Air Canada, in my opinion, yeah they needed people inside Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” he said.
Business
Gas prices expected to rise 14 cents on Thursday
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Drivers are bracing for a double-digit spike at the gas pumps on Thursday, as the price is expected to rise 14 cents at midnight.
Roger McKnight, chief petroleum analyst withEn-Pro International Inc., tells CityNews the price at gas pumps is set to rise to 178.9 cents/litre at local stations. The price as of Wednesday is 164.9 cents/litre.
The last time gas prices were this high was back in August 2022.
McKnight says the spike is due to price increases for wholesale gas and only applies to gasoline. He adds the price for diesel will increase by 0.4 cents.
Earlier this month, the price rose to its highest levels in six months following the implementation of the federal carbon price, also referred to as the carbon tax.
That saw the carbon tax on gasoline go up by 3.3 cents per litre, while diesel increased by 4.1 cents per litre.
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