Despite tough new measures imposed by Ottawa to curb travel abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, some snowbirds are still flying to U.S. sun destinations.
That’s because they can.
The federal government’s new measures, which were announced last week, include a hotel quarantine stay for air passengers and an agreement with Canada’s major airlines to cancel all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico until May.
However, Ottawa didn’t pull the plug on flights to the United States, so snowbirds still have plenty of flights to choose from that will take them to U.S. sunbelt states.
“People are still interested in heading down there and they’re not scared to do it,” said Jeremy Rood, a pilot with Great Lakes Helicopter in Cambridge, Ont.
Due to the Canada-U.S. land border closure to non-essential traffic, Canadian leisure travellers can only enter the U.S. by air. So Rood’s company flies snowbirds — up to three passengers at a time — by helicopter from Hamilton to Buffalo, N.Y., and transports their cars across the land border.
Upon arrival, passengers pick up their vehicle and drive the rest of the way to their sun destination.
Pilot Jeremy Rood flew his mother, Diane, her dog and his father from Hamilton to Buffalo, N.Y., in October. He also transported their car, so the snowbird couple could have it during their winter in Florida. (Submitted by Jeremy Rood)
After the government announced its new travel rules, Rood said he had a few cancellations, but that business remains brisk. His company is averaging 18 bookings a week for February, he said.
“The bookings have stayed strong and we’ve even been taking on new bookings every day,” he said. “People want to be free and live their life and that’s just what they’re doing.”
Still abiding by the rules
As more contagious COVID-19 variants spread globally, the government introduced its latest round of travel measures to discourage travel abroad.
Along with cancelling flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, the government says it will soon make most air passengers take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Canada. They will also have to spend up to three days of their 14-day quarantine in a designated hotel, which could cost travellers upwards of $2,000.
Meanwhile, non-essential travellers entering Canada by land will soon have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test at the border.
Rood, right, continues to fly snowbirds to the U.S. because Ottawa’s tough new rules curbing travel don’t affect flights to the States. (submitted by Jeremy Rood)
Rood said most of his customers are shipping their cars and plan to drive back to Canada, so they hope to avoid the hotel quarantine rule which currently will only applies to air passengers. However, the government has warned tougher measures for land border travellers could be coming soon.
As for offering helicopter rides across the border during the pandemic, Rood said his company is no different from Canada’s major airlines which still fly to the U.S.
“We’re abiding by all the rules, laws and regulations.”
Transport Canada told CBC News the government didn’t arrange to shut down flights to the U.S. because not all U.S.-bound passengers are leisure travellers.
“It is important to maintain the supply chain as some essential workers and services still have to move across the US border,” said spokesperson Amy Butcher in an email.
She added that Ottawa is in talks with the U.S. to strengthen travel measures at the border.
In response to snowbirds continuing to travel, Butcher said that “it is expected that the vast majority of people will make the responsible choice to postpone their plans.”
Be wary of the risks
Great Lakes Helicopter isn’t the only company still flying snowbirds to the U.S. and shipping their cars.
Quebec’s Transport KMC offers a similar service, but instead of transporting snowbirds by helicopter, it flies them in a nine-seater plane from an airport just outside Montreal to nearby Plattsburgh, N.Y.
KMC told CBC News it’s currently operating two to three sold-out flights a week.
Meanwhile, Toronto-based travel insurance broker Martin Firestone said none of his dozens of snowbird clients who booked trips to U.S. Sunbelt states this month has cancelled their plans.
“What really happened that should have made them cancel?” said Firestone, referring to Ottawa’s new travel rules.
He said his clients hope to avoid the hotel quarantine rule when returning to Canada by either driving home or extending their stay down south until the new measures are lifted.
But Firestone, who is president of Travel Secure Inc., warns that both plans carry risks — on top of those associated with travelling abroad during a raging pandemic.
New federal travel restrictions take effect this week, including mandatory quarantine in a hotel and a temporary suspension on Canadian airline flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, but some experts already say the plan has too many holes to be truly effective. 2:48
Although land border travellers currently don’t face a hotel quarantine, the government could impose harsher rules for them at any time, said Firestone.
“That is an ever-changing situation.”
He also said that snowbirds prolonging their stay could face problems because, typically, Canadians can only spend around six months abroad without facing repercussions, such as losing their provincial health coverage.
So if the government chooses to impose the hotel quarantine rule for a number of months, some snowbirds extending their stay may run out of time.
“You can only be out of the country so many days,” said Firestone. “They have to be wary of that.”
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.
