The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times Eastern):
2:05 p.m.
Canada has signed on to a joint declaration with 13 other countries voicing concerns with an international report on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The statement outlines the nations’ unease after World Health Organization experts went to study the original outbreak of the virus in China’s Wuhan province.
The countries decry what they call the significant delays and lack of access to complete, original data and samples that the international study team faced in China.
The statement goes on to say that the international community must understand how COVID-19 began circulating in the local population to improve future pandemic responses.
Such a response can only happen if experts can study the origins of COVID-19 free from interference and undue influence, the statement adds.
Aside from Canada, other signatories include the United States, Australia, Israel, Japan, Denmark and the U.K.
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2 p.m.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government is considering additional restrictions to combat a surge in COVID-19 and is urging people not to gather over the Easter weekend.
Ford says he is “extremely concerned” about rising infections and stressed that residents must follow public health rules.
He would not specify what measures are being considered but says he will consult the province’s top doctor before making a decision.
The province has seen rising COVID-19 rates for weeks, fuelled by the spread of more transmissible variants of the virus.
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1:40 p.m.
Manitoba is reporting no new deaths and 77 additional cases of COVID-19 today.
The majority – 43 – are in Winnipeg and 27 are in the northern health region.
Screening has also identified 11 additional cases involving variants of concern.
The province says 150 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 31 are in intensive care.
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1 p.m.
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting two new confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Officials say both cases involve men in their 40s and are related to domestic travel.
There are now four active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and no one is in hospital due to the disease
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Newfoundland and Labrador has had 1,018 confirmed cases and six deaths.
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12:40 p.m.
Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand says delivery of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will begin at the end of April.
The New Jersey-based company has been plagued with production issues that have slowed all deliveries, including in the United States.
Canada has bought 10 million doses of Johnson & Johnson, with the option of securing up to 28 million more.
Anand says the government is still finalizing the delivery schedule, but she confirmed in correspondence with the company last night that shipments will start to arrive in Canada within a month.
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12:25 p.m.
New Brunswick is reporting 14 new cases of COVID-19 today.
Health officials say eight of the new cases are in the Edmundston region and involve contacts of previously reported infections.
Officials say the six other cases are travel-related: four are located in the Moncton region while the Fredericton and Saint John areas each have one new case.
New Brunswick has 126 active reported COVID-19 infections and five people in hospital with the disease, including two in intensive care.
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11:55 a.m.
Canada’s chief public health officer says COVID-19 variants are driving a weeks-long spike in new cases and hospitalizations as the third wave of the pandemic continues to surge.
Dr. Theresa Tam says an average of more than 2,200 COVID-19 patients were in hospital last week, with more than 660 in intensive care, representing week-over-week increases of six per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
She says a 64 per cent increase in the number of COVID-19 variant cases over the past week marks the “most concerning” development.
Tam says the country has logged more than 9,000 cases of variants in the past week, with the B.1.1.7 mutation accounting for more than 90 per cent.
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11:40 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Pfizer-BioNTech has confirmed it will move up delivery of five million vaccine doses to June from later in the summer.
The earlier shipment period will boost the number of Pfizer doses received by the end of that month to 18 million doses.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says the accelerated schedule means Canada will receive about 44 million vaccine doses in total by the end of June, more than enough for every Canadian to receive at least one shot.
By the end of this week, Canada will have received about 9.5 million vaccine doses from three manufacturers, with 3.2 million doses arriving this week alone.
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11:05 a.m.
Quebec is reporting 864 new cases of COVID-19 today and seven additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus, including one within the past 24 hours.
The Health Department says the number of hospitalizations rose by 10 to 487, while the number of people in intensive care rose by six to reach 126.
Health authorities say 38,801 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday for a total of 1,261,855.
Quebec has reported 310,066 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10,658 deaths linked to the disease.
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10:45 a.m.
Ontario reports 2,336 new cases of COVID-19 today and 14 more deaths linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says that there are 727 new cases in Toronto, 434 in Peel Region and 229 in York Region.
She also says there are 194 new cases in Durham Region, 144 in Ottawa and 123 in Hamilton.
Ontario says that 1,090 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, 387 are in intensive care, and 249 people are on a ventilator.
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10:45 a.m.
Health officials in Prince Edward Island are reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today.
They involve two people under 19 and one person in their 40s who are all close contacts of previous cases.
There are now 14 active cases in P.E.I. and 94 close contacts are in isolation.
There have been 159 positive cases of COVID-19 in the province since the onset of the pandemic.
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10:50 a.m.
Nova Scotia health officials are reporting three new cases of COVID-19.
They say one case is in the health zone including Halifax and is a close contact of a previously reported case.
The second case is in the northern part of the province and is under investigation, while the third was identified in the eastern region and is related to travel outside Atlantic Canada.
Officials say Nova Scotia now has 24 active infections.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2021.
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.
