Snowbirds who headed to Florida this winter — despite Canada’s advisory not to travel abroad during the pandemic — have discovered an unexpected perk: They can sign up to get the COVID-19 vaccine potentially months before it’s available to seniors in Canada.
Canadian snowbird Perry Cohen, 74, of Toronto said that he and his wife, Rose, 71, each got the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Florida on Tuesday.
The couple are spending the winter at a condo they own in Deerfield Beach, Fla. On New Year’s Day, they were invited to sign up for a vaccination clinic set up in their gated community.
“I guess we were in the right place at the right time,” Cohen said, adding they’re both booked to get their followup dose of the vaccine in three weeks.
“What a nice way to start the new year.”
Canadian snowbirds Rose and Perry Cohen of Toronto received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Florida on Tuesday. (Submitted by Perry Cohen)
Unlike many other U.S. states and Canadian provinces, Florida is offering COVID-19 vaccinations to seniors aged 65 and older during the first phase of its vaccine rollout.
On top of that, the state is allowing non-residents — including Canadian snowbirds — to get the shot.
“Anyone that can prove they are 65 years of age and older is eligible to receive a vaccine at no cost in Florida,” the Florida Department of Health said in an email to CBC News.
Those 65+ will continue to be prioritized for vaccination in Florida. By putting seniors first, we are protecting a high-risk population from COVID-19. <a href=”https://t.co/A2Z9yBrSwM”>pic.twitter.com/A2Z9yBrSwM</a>
Despite Canada’s plea for Canadians to stay home during the pandemic, Cohen said he feels safe living within the confines of his gated community in Florida. He also believes that if he had stayed in Toronto this winter, he would have had to wait months to get the vaccine.
“I was figuring April probably to July, and then this comes along — it’s a bonus,” he said. “It fell in our lap.”
Although Ontario has also started to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, seniors not living in a care facility must wait until Phase 2 of the rollout — currently scheduled between April and July. Meanwhile, the province faces mounting criticism that its vaccine program is moving at a sluggish pace.
Heading to Florida for the vaccine
Florida’s vaccination program has also faced criticism. Although the state started offering shots to seniors last month, there have been complaints about long lineups at vaccine centres and difficulties pre-booking appointments due to high demand.
Snowbird Shelton Papple, 66, of Brantford, Ont., said a Canadian couple in his gated community in Fort Myers got the vaccine on Tuesday. But Papple said the region has temporarily run out of doses, so he will likely have to wait until next week, when supplies are replenished, to try to score an appointment.
“I’m going to get it,” a determined Papple said. “I can see the carrot on the end of the stick.”
Travel insurance broker Martin Firestone said he doesn’t recommended flying to Florida just to get the COVID-19 vaccine due to the risks of travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Submitted by Martin Firestone)
Toronto-based travel insurance broker Martin Firestone, who caters to snowbirds, said about 50 of his clients who travelled to Florida this winter have either already received their first dose of the vaccine or have an appointment booked.
“They’re excited,” said Firestone, president of Travel Secure Inc. “Their attitude is, ‘I will probably be waiting till summer at the earliest'” in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that he was troubled by the slow pace of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and vowed to address the problem.
So it may come as no surprise, Firestone said, that about 30 of his snowbird clients who previously decided not to travel Florida this year due to the pandemic are now considering going, for the sole purpose of getting inoculated.
“It’s the craziest reason to head down to another country,” he said.
WATCH | Trudeau troubled by slow pace of COVID-19 vaccine rollout:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s frustrated with the pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Canada and plans to address the issues with the premiers this week. Only 35 per cent of available doses in the country have been administered so far. 1:56
Firestone said he doesn’t recommend travelling abroad right now — even to get the vaccine — because travelling during a pandemic carries risks.
He said that even if a traveller has adequate medical insurance, they could still face problems if they have an ailment and hospitals are overrun with COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 infections and related deaths continue to soar in the U.S.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also doesn’t recommend visitors coming to Florida to get the vaccine.
“Someone just showing up and saying, ‘Give me a shot’ and then they’re going to fly back somewhere — we obviously are not going to do that,” he said at a news conference in Miami-Dade County on Monday.
“But for seasonal residents who are going to be here, I think it’s totally fine.”
Canadian snowbirds in Arizona may also be able to snag the vaccine during their stay.
“Winter visitors can be vaccinated at no cost in Arizona,” Holly Poynter, a spokesperson for Arizona’s Department of Health Services, said in an email.
She said the state is set to start vaccinating seniors who are 75 and older by mid to late January and those between the ages of 65 and 74 by the end of February or early March.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
