TORONTO —
The head of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine task force says the province is ready to begin its first COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday ahead of the arrival of 30,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine across the country.
Retired Canadian Armed Forces Gen. Rick Hillier told CTV News Channel on Sunday that Ontario has a plan in place to start vaccinating health-care workers immediately, while maintaining the second dose required for the vaccine’s efficacy.
“Tuesday is V-Day, Vaccination Day, and in Toronto and in Ottawa we’ll start with a vaccination of 1,500 people from those 3,000 doses and the reason we are doing it that way is to absolutely ensure that we have the second dose,” Hillier explained.
The first vaccines arriving in the province will be given at the Ottawa Hospital and the University Health Network in Toronto. The doses are going to health-care workers providing care in long-term care homes and other high-risk settings.
Hillier said the vaccine task force “would love” to vaccinated everyone in Ontario, but given the limited number of doses currently available, decided these areas hit hardest by the coronavirus should get the vaccines first.
“We are reacting to the delivery schedule when we get the vaccines, what quantities they arrive in, and that’s going to take place again throughout 2021,” he said. “We’ll get to the most vulnerable as quickly as we possibly can and then fan our work out from there.”
Despite only being able to vaccinate 1,500 of the 15 million people living in Ontario, Hillier said the first round of shots will help the province expand its vaccine rollout as more doses become available.
“What we want to do is really learn from this program, learn from the smaller doses, get more in December, learn from that, get through the speed bumps and be ready for the much greater numbers that we’ll see in January, February, right through to June, and later summer,” Hillier said.
He added that the province expects there to be some hiccups with the administering of the first doses such as communicating on vaccine storage and distribution, but said Ontario “will get through them.”
“This is a massive program; it’s the biggest vaccination program in history. There will be speed bumps, we’ll learn from them, and our commitment is on the other side of the bump we’ll be better and more efficient than we are on this side of the bump,” Hillier said.
VACCINE LOGISTICS
Hillier said the Ontario government will be setting aside the required second dose of the vaccine for those who are vaccinated first, but says it “comes down to the individual” to return after the 21 days for the second shot.
He explained that the first round of vaccinations are by appointment only, and those booked will automatically be scheduled for a follow-up appointment for the second dosage.
“When you leave you’ll have a piece of paper saying, ‘here is my second appointment to come back,’ and so then the individual has a responsibility to come back also,” Hillier said.
He added that these first doses are specifically for those in Ottawa and Toronto, and health-care workers from other regions will not be permitted to travel to these areas in hopes of getting a shot.
Hillier said Ontario is expected to receive 2.4 million vaccines in the first quarter of 2021 from Pfizer and Moderna allowing the province to expand its inoculations then, but the specific timing of the arrival of those doses is unknown.
With Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate having yet to be approved, Hillier said the province does not yet know what to expect in administering and storing that vaccine. However, he acknowledged that distribution will be easier with the Moderna vaccine as it does not require freezing temperatures to maintain efficacy, unlike Pfizer’s.
“Moderna gives us flexibility, it will allow us to distribute much more widely, and as the numbers build up the doses that we receive, we’ll start getting out to the population,” he said.
Hillier said once Moderna’s vaccine is cleared by Health Canada, health-care workers will be able to go into long-term care homes and isolated communities to vaccinate residents. He said it is important that those who plan to administer inoculations in these vulnerable populations must first and foremost be vaccinated themselves.
“We want to ensure that anybody that goes in there has received a vaccination so we’re laying out our plan now for that in detail. We want to identify people, get them vaccinated so we don’t visit a tragedy upon one of those isolated communities accidentally by taking the COVID-19 virus with us,” Hillier said.
While the province has vaccine rollout plans in place, Hillier said the average Ontarian shouldn’t plan to get vaccinated anytime soon.
“The first quarter of 2021, we’re going to be focused on those in most vulnerable circumstances and the health-care workers,” Hillier said. “That’s 1.2 million people in Ontario in those categories, and we will not be able to do all of them, even in the first quarter as we see now with the delivery schedules.”
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
