This story is part of Watching Washington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians.
What’s new
News Tuesday that the United States is racing ahead to mass-vaccination against COVID-19 months faster than expected is a big deal not only for Americans but could also have implications for Canada, which has so far been prevented from importing U.S.-made vaccines.
U.S. President Joe Biden tweeted Tuesday that the U.S. should have enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of May, two months sooner than the previously announced target.
So, where will massive American production volumes shift next?
One U.S. lawmaker’s suggestion: Canada and Mexico.
Vicente Gonzalez, a member of the House of Representatives, says the U.S. must make it a priority to ship vaccines across the border to its neighbours once Americans are inoculated.
The Texas Democrat says he’s looking forward to when the U.S. can ease up on an export ban that has prevented foreign shipments of doses produced in the country.
Biden’s administration, like the Trump administration before it, has blocked exports and rebuffed requests from Canada and Mexico for supplies.
“The borders are closed in my district,” the Democratic lawmaker, whose district sits along part of the U.S.-Mexico border, told CNN Monday.
“Mexican nationals with visas who normally travel here or own second homes [or] come and do business here are not allowed across the border right now.
“So, we definitely need to immunize our friends across the border at some point, once we’re finished doing it here in our country.”
Gonzalez said the U.S. will only truly recover from the pandemic when its neighbours are safe, too.
Vicente Gonzalez, seen here at an August 2020 press conference, serves a Texas-Mexico border community in the House of Representatives, and says the U.S. should lift its ban on the export of COVID-19 vaccines. (Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP)
“I think we have five vaccines for every American, so we certainly have some extra vaccines that we could share with other countries — especially somebody like Mexico or Canada, who we do a lot of business with … where a lot of commerce and tourism flow on a regular basis,” Gonzalez said in the interview.
“So we don’t live in this world, isolated. It’s a global community, and certainly, North America is a very tight-knit community. We have relatives on both sides of the border, we do business on both sides of the border, whether it’s Canada or Mexico.”
What’s next
Gonzalez’s comments point to a question that will only intensify over the coming months about what happens to the big production capacity within the United States once export bans are lifted on plants such as Pfizer’s in Michigan and Moderna’s in New England.
The United States has vaccinated residents at quadruple the rate of Canada. Biden has said in the past that there should be enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of July before revising that to late May on Tuesday.
That puts the U.S. schedule several months ahead of Canada’s.
Biden says vaccines arriving faster than expected:
Three weeks ago, I announced we would have enough vaccine supply for all Americans by the end of July.<br><br>Now, with our efforts to ramp up production, we will have enough vaccines for every American by the end of May.
PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby plans to remain a Pittsburgh Penguin for at least three more years.
The Penguins announced on Monday that they re-signed the 37-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., to a two-year contract extension that has an average annual value of US$8.7 million. The deal runs through the 2026-27 season.
Crosby was eligible to sign an extension on July 1 with him entering the final season of a 12-year, $104.4-million deal that carries an $8.7-million salary cap hit.
At the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas last Monday, he said things were positive and he was optimistic about a deal getting done.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion is coming off a 42-goal, 94-point campaign that saw him finish tied for 12th in the league scoring race.
Crosby has spent all 19 of his NHL seasons in Pittsburgh, amassing 592 goals and 1,004 assists in 1,272 career games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VICTORIA – British Columbia Premier David Eby has announced his government has committed to earlier and enhanced pensions for wildland firefighters, saying the province owes them a “deep debt of gratitude” for their efforts in battling recent fire seasons.
Eby says in a statement the province and the BC General Employees’ Union have reached an agreement-in-principle to “enhance” pensions for firefighting personnel employed directly by the BC Wildfire Service.
It says the change will give wildland firefighters provisions like those in other public-safety careers such as ambulance paramedics and corrections workers.
The statement says wildfire personnel could receive their earliest pensions up to five years before regular members of the public service pension plan.
The province and the union are aiming to finalize the agreement early next year with changes taking effect in 2026, and while eligibility requirements are yet to be confirmed, the statement says the “majority” of workers at the BC Wildfire Service would qualify.
Union president Paul Finch says wildfire fighters “take immense risks and deserve fair compensation,” and the pension announcement marks a “major victory.”
“This change will help retain a stable, experienced workforce, ready to protect our communities when we need them most,” Finch says in the statement.
About 1,300 firefighters were employed directly by the wildfire service this year. B.C. has increased the service’s permanent full-time staff by 55 per cent since 2022.
About 350 firefighting personnel continue to battle more than 200 active blazes across the province, with 60 per cent of them now classified as under control.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. says it has signed a deal with U.K. rail infrastructure owner Network Rail to help upgrade and digitize its signalling over the next 10 years.
Network Rail has launched a four-billlion pound program to upgrade signalling across its network over the coming decade.
The company says the modernization will bring greater reliability across the country through a mixture of traditional signalling and digital control.
AtkinsRéalis says it has secured two of the eight contracts awarded.
The Canadian company formerly known as SNC-Lavalin will work independently on conventional signalling contract.
AtkinsRéalis will also partner with Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, S.A.(CAF) in a new joint venture on a digital signalling contract.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
