Dr. Amy Tan has worked as a family physician in Alberta for 16 years.
Tan, who practices at a teaching clinic and provides palliative care in Calgary, had planned to keep working in the province for many more — at least until her 11-year old son finished high school.
Tan said she loves her work in Calgary, but it couldn’t buffer her from the political fight — particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The dispute started in February when Health Minister Tyler Shandro tore up a master pay agreement with the Alberta Medical Association.
Total physician compensation remains flat at $5.4 billion in the government’s 2020-21 budget, but a new funding framework changes how doctors are paid.
Doctors have said it will force hundreds of clinics across the province, particularly in rural areas, to reduce staff or close.
2:04 42% of Alberta doctors considering leaving the province for work: survey
42% of Alberta doctors considering leaving the province for work: survey
Some changes were reversed during the pandemic, but a July survey by the medical association showed at least 40 per cent of physicians have considered moving out of the province.
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Shandro has called it questionable that doctors would leave for other provinces, where they would earn less money. His press secretary, Steve Buick, added this week that he doesn’t believe the “rhetoric” that doctors are leaving.
“There is no trend of overall losses of doctors,” Buick said.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta said it does its annual registration at the end of December, so it doesn’t have current statistics. Buick said Alberta Health has access to the college’s quarterly figures, which he said show the number of doctors working in Alberta hasn’t changed.
“Hundreds come and go every year,” he said. “Overall, we’ve had net gains.”
In 2019-20, he said, 382 doctors left Alberta and 644 started _ for a net gain of 262. The latest data through June shows the same trend of net increases, said Buick.
He also provided an Alberta Health Services risk assessment from Sept. 25 that showed 80 rural doctors had provided a notice of intent to leave, but said only 12 of them have given formal notice.
“We do not expect shortages overall or in any specific community, apart from the normal staffing challenges in smaller centres,” Buick said.
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Still, the Alberta College of Family Physicians said it’s hearing from an increasing number of doctors who are weighing their options.
“Physicians don’t feel like they are a valued part of the team,” said executive director Terri Potter. “They’ve been told publicly that they are greedy.
“Physicians are just feeling powerless.”
The advocacy organization, which represents about 5,200 family doctors, has started an online campaign to showcase the importance and value of their role.
Potter said some doctors have taken steps to get licences in other provinces and others have decided to retire two or three years early.
“There will be a lot of movement,” said Potter, who noted many who are leaving did their medical training in Alberta. “I really worry there will be a bit of brain drain.”
Dr. Cian Hackett, a family physician, moved to Sylvan Lake, and started working in Rimbey two years ago after graduating from the University of Alberta. He said he planned to stay in central Alberta until retirement.
“When the government changes started coming out, my wife and I talked about would we consider moving to a different province,” he said. “We decided for the time being to split our time between Alberta and Ontario.”
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Hackett said he and his wife, who’s a nurse, plan to move to Ontario after the pandemic ends.
“We don’t see an Alberta that matches our values — one that values public health care and education, vulnerable populations,” he said. “We’ve stopped seeing it as a place with an economic or moral future when we think of raising a family.”
Hackett said he’s not only concerned about the lack of stability for his practice without a master agreement, but also the government’s moves to reduce supervised drug consumption sites and review eligibility criteria for the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped.
“There’s no shortage of job opportunities — all of which pay well,” he said. “The government wants to make it about physician pay.
“At a certain point, it becomes about other things.”
Tan, who also did her training in Alberta, said the pandemic has been stressful enough for doctors and attacks from the government have made it worse.
“I only had so much fight in me left and I needed my bandwidth back to actually do the work, to contribute to society in the way I want to.”
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.
