With Ontario hitting the one-million mark for COVID-19 vaccinations today, the province said plans are in the works to step up the vaccine rollout plan across the province by getting pharmacies and physicians involved.
The details were outlined in a live teleconference Wednesday afternoon from the Toronto Congress Centre vaccination venue with Premier Doug Ford, health minister Christine Elliott and retired general Rick Hillier, who is in charge of the Ontario COVID-19 vaccination task force.
Ford said the Toronto vaccination clinic is just one example of more than 120 mass vaccination venues that will be open across Ontario before the end of March.
He said it would allow Ontario “the capacity to deliver up to 150,000 doses a day” dependent on supply from the federal government.
“This is an absolute game changer,” said Ford. He added that on Tuesday, Ontario received 194,500 doses of the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine.
He said in order to deliver the vaccines as quickly as possible, more players on the rollout team are stepping up.
“As of Friday over 325 pharmacies will begin offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to Ontarians, between the ages of 60 and 64,” said Ford.
He said the program will begin in three Southern Ontario public health unit areas, which includes Toronto, the Windsor and Essex areas and the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington areas.
Ford said there is an Ontario vaccine pharmacy search website for finding pharmacies that are participating. Currently there are no pharmacies listed for Northern Ontario.
Also beginning this coming weekend are a series of primary care locations, such as doctors’ offices, where vaccines will be offered to patients aged 60 to 64. This takes place in Southern Ontario. Only the AstraZeneca vaccine will be provided.
Ford said the vaccine program keeps improving and he asked Ontario residents to please be patient.
Task force chair Rick Hillier said the other big development is the creation of an online appointment system.
“On Monday of next week our customer service desk and the online booking system will go live,” said Hillier. He added that every other live vaccine booking system in Canada, and elsewhere in the world, has had problems.
Hillier said he expects some problems might creep up with the new Ontario system, but he too asked for patience.
“I ask all of you to give us a chance to roll that out,” said Hillier. He added that it was vital that anyone not in line for a vaccine to stay away from the online web page and not to telephone the call centre.
“If you’re not 80 years old on Monday or if you’re not representing somebody who is 80 years old or older, please do not call the customer service desk, do not go online to check what is there and if you’re in the media, stay off those sites,” Hillier said.
He said it is important to let the right people have the chance to get through to book their appointments.
Hillier said Ontario is stepping up the rollout program owing to the fact that more vaccine choices are available and greater numbers are being delivered to Ontario.
On Friday, March 5, Health Canada also approved the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine for use in adults 18 years of age and over, said the Ministry of Health news release.
It said more information on Ontario’s distribution of this single-dose vaccine will be released shortly, pending guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and more information from the federal government about provincial allocations.
Also, for the month of March, Ontario is expecting to receive 1,454,310 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 483,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine. The release said Ontario residents who are 80 and older and do not live in a congregate care setting, should be able to book a vaccine appointment through your public health unit.
PHSD also has a site where residents can register for vaccines. PHSD said “once you pre-register, you will be contacted to book an appointment when vaccine becomes available. Due to high demand and limited supply, pre-registering does not mean you will get an appointment immediately.”
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com, covering health care in Northern Ontario. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the federal government.
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.
