Opinion

Florida’s largest hospital systems are expanding their coronavirus units, limiting visitors and fearing staffing shortages as they deal with the statewide surge that is breaking records set last year for both cases and hospitalizations.Hospitalizations have grown tenfold around the state in just over a month as the more contagious Delta...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday played down a spike in COVID-19 cases that’s shattered state hospitalization records and strongly reiterated his vow not to impose a mask mandate or any business restrictions.With the much more contagious Delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida hit 11,515 hospitalized patients Tuesday, breaking last...

On Tuesday, Florida had 11,515 people in hospital with COVID-19. A Delta-powered wave that started building there in June has now reached higher than the heights of the state’s January third wave. Hospitalizations are up sixfold in six weeks, and are on the verge of topping last summer’s summit.Several other...

Canadian energy company Pieridae Energy Ltd will evaluate options for its proposed Goldboro liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Nova Scotia, as pandemic-led disruptions have made the current version of the project impractical.The company said on Friday it had not been able to meet the key conditions necessary to...

A $14-billion project that would have seen natural gas from Western Canada exported to Europe and Asia through Quebec has been rejected by the Quebec government.Environment Minister Benoit Charette told reporters in Saguenay – the region where a natural gas plant would have been built – that the provincial government...

The history of liquefied natural gas in Canada is littered with multibillion-dollar schemes that churn through years of development but eventually founder when backers realize a project’s economics don’t add up.Recent examples are big and small.In March, Chevron abandoned plans for Kitimat LNG in northwestern British Columbia. In July, Pieridae,...

The hottest debate among economists this year is whether a recent jump in inflation in Canada, the United States and elsewhere is a transitory phenomenon, caused mostly by the COVID-19 pandemic and soon to disappear, or whether – to use the term economists like – it’s “sticky.”The mainstream consensus is...

Alberta Health says 71 cases of COVID-19 are likely to have been acquired at the Calgary Stampede but community spread as a result of those cases is unknown.Ministry spokesman Tom McMillan says the 10-day rodeo and festival attended by about 529,000 people isn’t a significant driver, so far, in rising...

Alberta’s plan to lift almost all COVID-19 public-health measures by mid-August is being decried by medical experts and has left cities, schools and businesses wondering what to do to guard against the virus.Officials announced this week that the province will end routine contact tracing outside of high-risk settings and no...

It was controversial but not surprising when Jason Kenney made Alberta the first province to lift major pandemic health restrictions a month ago. The conservative Premier only reluctantly imposed the measures in the battle against COVID-19, and telegraphed that he wanted his province to be the first to allow long-suffering...

Test-Trace-Isolate is the age-old public health mantra. It’s what every country, province and local government has tried to do in the fight against COVID-19. It’s what successful places such as Atlantic Canada, which managed to keep a lid on the virus even before the development of vaccines, did and did...

Mistakes were made.That is how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rationalized his government’s announcement this week of a $5.2-billion bailout for the disastrous Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project that threatened to send provincial power rates through the roof without more federal subsidies.“The pressures and challenges faced by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians for the...

When a columnist at Montreal’s La Presse recently suggested Hydro-Québec buy Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to help extricate the Atlantic province from the Muskrat Falls fiasco, Newfoundlanders responded in no uncertain terms.Popular the idea was not.Many residents of Newfoundland harbour deep resentment toward Quebec over the lopsided 1969 contract that...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Newfoundland and Labrador this week on his “Election? What Election” campaign tour, and when he landed he bailed out the province’s disastrous Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.Wait. Did we say “bailed out”? Sorry. This wasn’t a bailout, according to Mr. Trudeau.This was, he said, a...

In late May, a parliamentary motion put forward by the Bloc Québécois passed by an overwhelming majority of 327 to one. The question? “In the opinion of the House, holding an election during a pandemic would be irresponsible.”Among the chorus of yeas was every member of the Liberal caucus who...

Practically speaking, proof of vaccination is going to be required in many places in the coming months, maybe even years.No one wants a resurgence of COVID-19, especially after all the effort and sacrifice we have made, individually and collectively, to combat the spread of coronavirus and get people vaccinated.No employer...

Ontario’s top doctor says children will not be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine until the day they reach their 12th birthday, meaning the province won’t distinguish between those born earlier or later in the calendar year – a source of frustration for some doctors and parents who were hoping for...

On Tuesday, a Prime Minister in full election mode delivered his campaign Message of the Day: This country has now received enough doses of vaccine to double-dose everyone 12 years of age and older.After early stumbles, the Trudeau government did its job. There is no shortage of vaccines in Canada....

Here we are still in the grips of a global pandemic and suddenly, mercifully, the daily headlines aren’t entirely about cases and deaths.Instead, the Tokyo Summer Games are finally on, and we all get to share in the athletes’ inspiring successes. It’s a beautiful distraction.But given that there is currently...

Out-of-state crews headed to Montana Saturday to battle a blaze that injured five firefighters as the West struggled with a series of fires that have ravaged rural lands and destroyed homes.Progress was being made on the nation’s largest blaze, the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, but additional mandatory evacuations were ordered...