Ontario is reporting 184 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday — the lowest daily case count since mid-September — as the province moves into Step 2 of its reopening plan.
The new numbers come as the province slowly rolls back COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, with more outdoor activities and indoor services like haircuts resuming as part of the second stage.
Outdoor concerts, theatres, water parks, fairs, festivals and amusement parks are also allowed to reopen, with up to 25 per cent capacity.
Meanwhile, essential retail stores can open to 50 per cent capacity. For a full list of what’s allowed, click here.
‘Ready to get back into the world safely’
The loosening of restrictions marks a welcome change for many residents across the province, who have already started taking advantage of newly-opened services.
When Daksha Pater’s nail salon — Nice One Nails — called her to say they were reopening, she jumped at the chance.
“She called me saying ‘When do you want to come?'” said Pater, a Toronto health-care worker.
“I said, ‘First appointment — I’ll be there.'”
Like Pater, Marla Cosburn was able to once again return to her salon after seven months, taking the first appointment she could get.
“It’s great — so good being back here. [I’m] double vaxed and ready to get back into the world safely,” she told CBC News during her appointment on Wednesday morning.
Marla Cosburn gets her nails done on Wednesday at her salon, Nice One Nails, located across from CF Sherway Gardens. (Paul Smith/CBC)
While some are rushing out to get manicures, Peter Kalamaris has already started welcoming customers back to his Weston barber shop.
“It’s a great day to be back cutting hair, it’s been a long time waiting for this to happen,” he told CBC’s Metro Morning host Ismaila Alfa on Wednesday.
Kalamaris’s family has owned World Famous Peter’s Barber Shop on John Street for more than 60 years. Like many, the pandemic has been challenging for his business.
Kalamaris was able to reopen his shop briefly earlier this year and then had to close down shortly after. While closing was hard, he’s trying to stay positive about the months ahead.
“We have a great client base, they have been throwing out the love and support,” Kalamaris said.
New high for vaccinations, delta variant still a concern
Today’s count comes as health units across Ontario collectively administered 268,397 doses of vaccines yesterday — a new high.
The province also recorded 14 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the official death count to 9,168.
More than 77 per cent of people had at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday morning and 37 per cent were fully vaccinated. According to the province’s own indicators, these vaccination rates meet targets set for Step 3 of reopening.
But the province’s new top doctor said Tuesday he’d prefer to wait a full 21 days before rolling back restrictions further.
WATCH | Delta variant remains a concern as Ontario enters Step 2, says Dr. Moore:
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health described the delta variant as “aggressive” and “spreading rapidly.” Dr. Moore warns that staying in Step 2 of reopening for at least 21 days is essential to determine the impact of opening on the community. 1:05
“The two-to-three-week cycle is very important to maintain so that we do the opening of Ontario in a stepwise manner, always going forward and not having to take a step back,” Dr. Kieran Moore said.
Moore made the comments at his first pandemic briefing since he officially took on the job as Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.
Waterloo Regions remains in Step 1
The province set 21 days between each step of its economic reopening to observe public health trends and allow vaccines to take full effect.
It moved up the second step of the plan by a few days based on vaccination rates and other positive COVID-19 trends.
Ontario has also passed the goal set for entering the third step of the reopening plan, which would further expand capacity for indoor gatherings.
Moore, like his predecessor Dr. David Williams, maintained on Tuesday that vaccination isn’t the only metric for reopening. He advised proceeding with caution with the more infectious delta variant spreading.
People with one vaccine dose are less protected against that variant and it’s contributed to local infection spikes in Grey Bruce and Waterloo Region.
Moore said he’s watching the variant’s impact locally and internationally and that reopening must be done cautiously to avoid losing progress made in the fight against the virus so far.
“It is a difficult adversary. It’s aggressive, it wants to spread rapidly,” he said of the variant.
Waterloo isn’t reopening with the rest of the province today as it manages the rise in infections. Moore said travel from Waterloo into other areas with looser public health rules is discouraged.
27,258 tests completed
Today’s case count a new low since Sept. 10, 2020, when 170 cases were reported.
The new cases come following 27,258 tests completed since the previous update. Public Health Ontario logged a test positivity rate of one cent — the lowest that figure has been in months.
The province’s seven-day average currently sits at 255.
As of yesterday, 271 people were being treated for COVID-related illnesses in intensive care units. Some 181 of those patients were on ventilators.
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.
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