Right now that largely depends on how old you are, your occupation, and your health. Until the end of March the focus is on vaccinating health-care workers and seniors, though as each province expands its vaccination efforts, additional groups are becoming eligible.
Generally speaking, over the next few months, expect older Canadians to continue to be prioritized. After that, as the age scale moves down, expect more doses to be administered to people in higher-risk or essential jobs that have them on the front lines of the pandemic or often interacting with others.
With the recent pivot prompted by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI)’s recommendation to delay second doses of the two-shot vaccines for up to four months, some provinces are promising that every adult should be able to have at least their first shot around June.
Prior to NACI’s update, the federal government estimated that up to 24.5 million Canadians could be fully vaccinated by the end of June, following the pharmaceutical companies’ approved intervals between doses. Since this shake-up to vaccine strategies, there hasn’t been an overall federal update on these projections.
As for how you will find out, provinces continue to hold regular press conferences updating on who is next in line for vaccinations. Also, for the most specific and up-to-date local information, visit our national roundup for details on the plan in or around your community.
Insert Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin. He is the military general leading the logistical rollout from inside the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Fortin and his team are responsible for receiving the shipments and then co-ordinating with each province and territory about the portion of each delivery that is being sent to each region, and ensuring they have the storage capacity and other requirements to receive them.
While this task seemed daunting enough with a small number of approved delivery and administration sites, new locations are regularly being set up as vaccine clinics, from Canada’s Wonderland amusement park near Toronto to Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
Other logistical factors to be considered include having enough immunizers to staff all the sites and the ability to quickly add more if one week’s delivery is particularly sizeable, as well as having adequate space for everyone passing through these facilities to be monitored for 15 minutes after their shots, said Mahesh Nagarajan, operations and logistics professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, in an interview with CTV News.
“There is going to be disruption, there is going to be changes, there is going to be a big shipment at one time and then nothing for a while. That’s the nature of supply. So you want to have your vaccination centers be able to absorb the variability in supply,” Nagarajan said.
In terms of how the doses are travelling, it depends on the vaccine. Because of the extreme cold storage requirements for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Pfizer contracted UPS to handle their deliveries and that’s been done through specialized containers designed to keep the shots cold enough. However, the vaccine transportation requirements have recently eased, allowing this shot to be transported at warmer temperatures, making it easier to move to more sites across Canada.
As for how the other vaccine doses are being transported, the federal government has contracted FedEx Express Canada and Innomar Strategies for an “end-to-end, COVID-19 vaccine logistics solution.”
This includes transporting the boxes of vaccines to administration points across Canada at the unique temperature requirements for the Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
At the time the contract was unveiled, president of Innomar Strategies Guy Payette told CTV News in an email that the storage facilities used along the cold chain “are equipped to store complex pharmaceutical products… are temperature-mapped and have a validated monitoring system to protect against temperature excursions.”
The biggest portion of the federal responsibility has been on the procurement end; from securing vaccine contracts to ensuring there are enough bandages, needles, syringes, alcohol swabs and any other immunization accoutrements in stock across Canada to support the vaccination effort. They are also collecting immunization data on a national level, and have offered to support provinces in their rollouts if needed.
Because Canada does not have sufficient domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, there has been a reliance on other nations in this push to get to the other side of this pandemic. The federal government has come under fire for that, after Canadian vaccine-making capabilities deteriorated over decades.
In an effort to be ready for the years ahead, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in February a deal with Novavax to produce its COVID-19 vaccine at a new facility that is under construction in Montreal, but the pharmaceutical company isn’t expected to be ready to roll out doses domestically until the fall at the earliest.
While the prime minister has called it a “major step forward” it could be 2022 before this potential first made-in-Canada vaccine candidate is approved. There’s been some suggestion that the facilities under development could also be used should COVID-19 booster shots be required in years ahead. More on that below.
Yes, the provinces and territories are leading the decision making about where they want to see vaccine doses going, but it’s being largely based on national advice from NACI. Their recommendations are focused on prioritizing who is most at risk based on the availability of vaccines.
From there, the priority groups are also being narrowed down and specified based on the unique demographic situations in certain areas, like in the North or in communities where the variants are spreading.
This means that in the weeks ahead, people who are of a certain age group, work in certain occupations, or have underlying health conditions considered to put them at higher risk if they contracted COVID-19 could be getting vaccinated in one city, while people in the same situation two towns over may not.
According to NACI chair Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh, having varying categories of vaccinated people isn’t the issue, the holes in immunity will continue to be there, and communities will be vulnerable to new outbreaks as long as there are people who haven’t been vaccinated.
“No one is happy with anything these days, but you have to start somewhere. And so the largest risk factor was age, regardless of everything else,” she said.
However, a difference in vaccine prioritizations could play a role down the line around the restrictions in place and whether those who are vaccinated are able to access aspects of pre-pandemic life before people who have yet to be immunized. More on that below.
It’s possible, and again it may depend on where you live. Some provinces, such as Nova Scotia, are offering certain demographics the choice between certain shots when booking their appointments.
With more vaccines becoming available, there have been ongoing questions around whether there will be an option depending on a person’s comfort level with the various degrees of efficacy demonstrated in clinical trials.
So far, while no one is going to be forced to take a shot they aren’t comfortable with, medical experts are cautioning against being choosy.
In an interview on CTV’s Question Period that aired on Feb. 28, senior Health Canada adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said that people should feel confident in all of the authorized vaccines, and that all have shown to provide protection against COVID-19.
“Get the vaccine that is offered to you, it will provide some protection,” she said, noting that all of the vaccines given the green light so far have been shown to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.
Only time will tell. While Canada is set to start seeing a marked increase in the number of vaccines arriving, the question then becomes how quickly can the doses get into arms.
The other factor is, Canada’s vaccine campaign is getting a shot in the arm by having four approved vaccines to use and the pharmaceutical companies ramping up production — both factors at play in other countries as well.
So while Procurement Minister Anita Anand has said Canada should start to move up the list—one we slid considerably down over the winter—it’s possible we’ll continue to be outpaced. The United States, for example, has recently committed to having enough doses available in that country to wrap up its mass immunization effort in May. You can keep an eye on our international standings here.
No. Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo has said he’s optimistic the desire to get vaccinated will snowball as more people are able to be immunized. Generally speaking, he said, the number of people who are vaccine-hesitant is small, but PHAC is monitoring it and working on ways to solicit more buy-in.
“We don’t want to ignore them, we want to make sure that their vaccine confidence is reinforced by giving them the right information,” Njoo said about so-called “anti-vaxxers.”
As Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research, said on an episode of Trend Line released March 11, based on a recent survey, around eight out of every 10 Canadians say that they are definitely or probably going to get vaccinated when it’s their turn.
It’s possible down the line Canadians will have to receive a new needle to address a variant of concern that the existing vaccines show not to be effective at combating. It’s also possible people will need a to top-up on immunity over time, since it remains unclear how long the antibodies last from the currently approved vaccines. This is because they have only been in existence and in use for such a short period of time.
Quach said that NACI anticipates they will be called on to advise about a follow-up dose at some point down the line.
“The longest we have is three months in the clinical trials. And in real life, I mean, people started to get really vaccinated in January… So we’ll have to follow up on that as well,” she said. “We’re monitoring the data… We’ll see what the companies move forward with.”
As for whether Canada is ready to handle a mass booster or second major procurement effort, the jury is still out. As learned from an exchange between Conservative MP and health critic Michelle Rempel Garner and Dr. Roman Szumski of the vaccine acquisitions branch at PHAC at the House of Commons Health Committee on Feb. 19, the contracts currently in place make no mention of future booster shots.
“The current contracts that are in place do not reference the need for boosters. Those would be new conversations that we would enter into with the suppliers,” Szumski said, adding that there aren’t currently booster vaccines available.
“It’s going to be a while yet before that’s in play, but the discussions with them are on a rolling basis,” he said.
The specific percentage threshold hasn’t been settled on in Canada, with experts saying it’s going to depend on more than the percentage of people who are vaccinated. The spread of variants and number of hospitalizations will also play a role in the gradual rollback of restrictions.
“At this point, no one knows how many people need to be vaccinated, you know, what might be the sufficient level of vaccine coverage to get herd immunity, so that’s why I think we can’t just rely on vaccination,” Njoo said.
Public health officials have signalled that even when vaccines become widespread, there will need to be precautionary measures like frequent hand-washing, physical distancing and mask-wearing in place for some time.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get back to what normal was, you know, pre-COVID, I think it’d be a different kind of what normal is,” said Njoo.
Further, as Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said on the March 11 episode of CTV News Channel’s Power Play, with so few people vaccinated so far, now is not the time to start talking about measures easing up, even for those who have been immunized.
It’s looking likely, at least when it comes to international travel. As Health Minister Patty Hajdu said on an episode of CTV’s Question Period that aired on March 7, discussions about introducing some form of vaccine passport are “very live” among the G7 countries.
While Hajdu wouldn’t say if it’s an idea Canada is pushing for—requiring some form of proof of vaccination to travel to Canada—she said other nations and industry groups are looking into the kind of evidence or documentation that could be requested in order to travel internationally.
It remains to be seen if some kind of domestic vaccine passport system could be developed, whether when it comes to travelling from province to province or to establish what activities like large sporting or cultural events would require showing proof of immunization to enter.
Some provinces have already said that there are plans in the works, but there hasn’t been a widespread Canadian conversation about the idea.
In an interview with CTV News, University of Toronto public health ethicist Alison Thompson said that there should be mass access to vaccines before vaccine passports come into play, or the country will start to see a two-tier system of people who can and can’t do certain things.
“Until we can ensure that everybody has an equal chance to get vaccinated, that that’s really going to create inequities in our society,” she cautioned. “It’s really tricky and I think it’s a conversation that I think needs to be happening in the public discourse, not just amongst policymakers and lawmakers, because it really will impact all of us.”
Edited by CTVNews.ca’s Ryan Flanagan and Sonja Puzic
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.
