Recent Posts
Connect with:
Sunday / March 9.
  • No products in the cart.
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 153)

Bob Mackin

On April 2, at the Legislature, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix announced six more British Columbians died of the novel coronavirus.

The province’s death toll reached 31.

Public employees appearing in Pandemic: a shark’s story (B.C. Ministry of Health)

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at the Ministry of Health headquarters, shark shenanigans during business hours on the day after April Fool’s Day.

theBreaker.news exclusively obtained a copy of a five-slide presentation titled “Pandemic: a shark’s story,” which was produced in the Ministry of Health and circulated by employees on April 2.

It tells the story of a shark that came to Victoria to help humans deal with the pandemic.

A bureaucrat dressed-up in a shark suit was photographed walking across Blanshard Street in downtown Victoria, in a hallway with a senior bureaucrat and beside the 2018-erected Crossing Cultures and Healing totem pole outside the ministry headquarters at the Richard Blanshard Building.

The penultimate slide of Pandemic: a shark’s story (B.C. Ministry of Health)

In the penultimate slide, the shark character has an epiphany beside the shark-less totem pole: “Shark realizes that sharks are not appreciated by humans,” reads the thought balloon.

So the shark character changes plans and “decides to eat last human in Victoria.”

The last slide shows the shark-suited bureaucrat chasing a female employee on a downtown sidewalk.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the province, a state of emergency continues.

Offices, stores, restaurants and schools are shut indefinitely. Layoffs are multiplying.

Five million citizens are warned to stay home. Dix did not respond to a text message seeking his comment. Ministry communications staff did not call theBreaker.news to ask a question during the teleconference on April 3. Prior to taking limited questions, Dix lauded staff “who everyday are working their guts out.” He did not refer to Pandemic: a shark’s story.

“The people who work here in the Ministry of Health in Victoria, on Blanshard Street and across B.C., have been doing unbelievable amounts of overtime everyday working hard,” Dix said. “Sometimes from home, sometimes in office, but are doing exemplary and extraordinary work,  I’m very proud of them. I think they’re an exceptional group of people, they provide enormous support to Dr. Henry and to our deputy minister Steve Brown, and I’m very, very proud of the work that they do.”

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin On April 2, at the Legislature,

First it was toilet paper disappearing from store shelves across the province.

Now it is the Nanaimo Bar, British Columbia’s delectable, chocolate-topped dessert bar.

The Nanaimo Bar, a B.C. masterpiece. (City of Nanaimo)

Or, more precisely, the butter that forms an integral part of the venerable recipe.

Many quick serve bakeries and cafes are closed because of the coronavirus public health emergency. British Columbians are rediscovering home cooking while obeying orders to stay home, which has led to a butter shortage at supermarkets. For those reasons, the beloved Nanaimo Bar has suddenly become harder to find and harder to make.

How much butter is needed?

Joyce Hardcastle’s recipe that won her the best in Nanaimo in a 1986 civic contest calls for 1/2 cup of butter on the bottom layer, 1/2 a cup on the second layer and 2 tablespoons of butter on the third layer.

Mike Farnworth

Under the Emergency Program Act, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth has the power to ration butter and classify Nanaimo Bar bakers an essential service.

An announcement on the NDP government’s Nanaimo Bar plan, which theBreaker.news has been told will be called #ButterBC, is scheduled at The Bastion in Nanaimo for just before noon today, with associate deputy minister of public safety, Prima A. Prilis.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

First it was toilet paper disappearing from

Bob Mackin

When British Columbia hospitals treating coronavirus patients began running low on personal protective equipment, the People’s Republic of China consulate in Vancouver turned to mask diplomacy.

theBreaker.news previously reported that Consul General Tong Xiaoling and her deputies and staff packaged masks and gloves in Ziploc bags for distribution to Chinese students at area universities.

Dr. John Yee (left) and Consul-Gen. Tong Xiaoling (PRC Consulate Vancouver)

On March 26, the consulate published a statement and photographs on its Chinese website about the donation of  N95 masks to two hospitals. A translation of the statement says the diplomats “urgently donated some” to Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital. The statement does not appear on the consulate’s English website, nor did it mention the quantity of the donation.

Tong was photographed outside the golden door of the government of China’s Shaughnessy mansion handing over two large boxes to Dr. John Yee, director of thoracic surgery with Vancouver Coastal Health. Another photograph shows a consular official presenting two smaller boxes to an unnamed physician outside St. Paul’s.

By email, Yee told theBreaker.news that the consulate donated 500 N95 masks. 

The self-congratulatory statement on the consulate website cast China as the hero in the battle against coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan last November and was declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization.

“With a highly responsible attitude towards the health and safety of the people, the Chinese government, with the resolute support and joint efforts of the people across the country, quickly adopted scientific and effective prevention and control measures, effectively cut off the virus transmission channels, and effectively curbed the spread of the epidemic,” a translation of the statement reads.

(PRC Consulate Vancouver)

“Facts have proven that China’s measures taken in a timely and effective manner have earned valuable time for curbing the development of the epidemic and achieving the current results of the epidemic, and also for the world to respond to the epidemic. Of course, China’s fight against the epidemic also received support from many countries, including Canada, and the Chinese people are grateful.”

However, evidence shows that China’s response lagged while millions of people began travelling inside and outside the country, in anticipation of Lunar New Year.

The government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, on Jan. 23. Initially, Wuhan officials spent more time censoring the virus than containing it. 

Doctors blew the whistle on a WeChat group in December after seven people from a seafood market were hospitalized with SARS-like symptoms. Chinese police detained Dr. Li Wenliang and accused him of rumour-mongering. In a tragic twist, Li was diagnosed with the virus in January and died Feb. 7 in hospital.

China finally allowed a World Health Organization delegation into the country on Feb. 10 to investigate. 

On March 25, B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry admitted stocks of masks, gloves, goggles and gowns were “on a tenuous level.”

Wuhan whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang

“The burn rate, as we call it, is much higher than we would have expected and we are putting in place measures now to try and control that and be more efficient and effective in how we’re using PPE,” Henry said.

In February, the Liberal federal government donated 16 tonnes of PPE to China, including 200,000 nitrile gloves, 50,118 face shields, 36,425 coveralls, 3,000 aprons, 1,820 goggles and 1,101 masks. There were other bulk shipments of PPE from Canada to China in January and February arranged by groups in Vancouver and Toronto that are affiliated with the Communist Party’s United Front foreign influence program.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa announced a March 27 donation by the Bank of China of 30,000 medical masks, 50,000 pairs of gloves and other items. Federal officials said the donation would be subject to Health Canada inspection. Netherlands recalled 600,000 masks imported from China.

On March 31, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said $2 billion would be spent on urgently manufacturing and buying PPE, ventilators and coronavirus testing kits, at home and abroad.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin When British Columbia hospitals treating

The Canadian Olympic Committee played a key role in ending the dithering by the International Olympic Committee and the organizers of Tokyo 2020.

Team Canada’s March 22 statement that the coronavirus pandemic meant it would boycott the Olympics if they went ahead as scheduled forced the IOC two days later to cancel its planned month of study. For the first time, the Games are postponed for a year.

Jules Boykoff (Brian Lee)

“Thank goodness Canada and other countries stood up, and athletes, too, around the world, because that was the catalyst for actually postponing the Olympics,” Portland University political science professor and author Jules Boykoff tells theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin.

With a global recession inevitable, a 2020 Games suddenly became economically infeasible. 

Boykoff is critical of IOC president Thomas Bach, who tried to save face, claiming the decision was solely to protect the health of athletes.  

“That doesn’t ring true on any level because it’s those economic relationships that the IOC holds with the broadcasters, like NBC, but also with those corporate sponsors,” Boykoff said. That’s where more than 90% of the IOC revenue comes from.”

Listen to the full interview with Boykoff.

Plus: Richmond city council was told eight people tested positive for coronavirus in their jurisdiction. What about patient and hospitalization stats for City of Vancouver? Are B.C. health officials ignoring the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization?

Hear what Dr. Patricia Daly, the chief medical officer of Vancouver Coastal Health, said when Bob Mackin asked those questions.

Plus coronavirus headlines from the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim, and highlights of a surreal afternoon at the B.C. Legislature on March 23, when a dozen MLAs came together to pass a $5 billion aid package.

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast: Dithering IOC's Tokyo postponement was less about athletes and more about the money, says author
Loading
/

The Canadian Olympic Committee played a key

Bob Mackin

British Columbia’s automobile sales lobby drove a victory lap after the industry scored essential service designation from the provincial government on March 26.

The New Car Dealers Association of B.C.’s daily email newsletter to members credited the organization’s lobbying for the government’s decision to let showrooms and garages remain open at a time when British Columbia is under a state of emergency and citizens are urged to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Blair Qualey of the New Car Dealers Association (Mackin)

“Today’s announcement by the B.C. government on essential services was an important clarification for B.C.’s New Car Dealers — for those dealers who choose to stay open to serve their customers, whether that be for repair and maintenance, sales, lease returns, etc., they are able to do so. Those who make the decision to close, you are not required to stay open.” read the email, obtained by theBreaker.news.

“The strong relationships with government that the Association has developed over the years, combined with its continued advocacy on behalf of members, are in large part responsible for the important development today, and would not have occurred without it.”

How strong are those relationships with the government?

Since 2010, NCDA, which represents almost 400 dealers, has administered the government’s Clean Energy Vehicle rebate program, now known as Go Electric B.C. February’s budget earmarked $32 million to the program.

NCDA had a long history of political donations before the NDP’s post-2017 election ban on corporate donations: $1.408 million to the BC Liberals and $138,290 to the NDP. In 2018, executive director Blair Qualey gave $1,200 to the NDP.

NCDA’s lobbying firm is Bluestone Government Relations, headed by longtime BC Liberal Mark Jiles. After the NDP came to power in summer 2017, Jiles hired Rob Nagai, the NDP’s former corporate fundraiser.

Ex-NDP corporate fundraiser Rob Nagai with John Horgan. (Twitter)

We know that there are many people who are providing critical services who require their vehicles to get to and from work and many people in rural areas need to drive considerable distances, just to access groceries, medications or other requirements,” Qualey said by email. “Some of those people require maintenance, servicing or manufacturer warranty work and need to access our members to do that.”

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, who issued the essential services list on March 26, did not respond for comment.

NCDA produces the Vancouver Auto Show, but the 100th edition from March 26-29 was among the myriad events postponed indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Qualey said that many dealers have implemented “buy from home” programs during the state of emergency. B.C.’s biggest GM dealership, Dueck on Marine, has stepped-up cleaning of so-called “high touch areas” in vehicles and around the building, promoted social distancing and is allowing staff to work from home.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin British Columbia’s automobile sales lobby drove

Bob Mackin

At the March 19 emergency meeting, Richmond medical officer Dr. Meena Dewar told city councillors that there were eight cases of coronavirus in their jurisdiction.

If there were eight in Richmond, how many could there be in Vancouver?

What about Surrey?

Dr. Patricia Daly (VCH)

How many people have been hospitalized with coronavirus in the province’s two biggest cities?

The answers to those questions are provincial government secrets.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix and their subordinates only provide statistics based on the regional health board catchment area, unless there is an outbreak at a specific location, such as Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver. Eleven of the 46 residents infected have died and two-dozen workers have become ill. 

During a March 26 news conference at Vancouver city hall, Dewar’s boss, Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical officer Dr. Patricia Daly, explained the communications plan.

“We are no longer providing details about the number of positive cases, as we changed our testing strategy those numbers are less meaningful,” Daly said, in response to a question from theBreaker.news. “We did identify to some communities early on that they had identified cases, but now with our changing testing, because we are not testing most people with COVID19 — including returning travellers who get sick, people with mild disease in the community — those numbers have become meaningless.”

March 12 was the last time the Ministry of Health provided an anonymized, case-by-case list with patient demographics and condition, including whether the patient contracted the virus by travel in a certain country or in the community. Ontario’s Ministry of Health continues to provide such information on a daily basis.

“I wish people would stop thinking about whether or not there is a positive case in their community and understand the message that we need to assume that COVID19 is circulating in all communities at this time,” Daly said.

theBreaker.news questions to Daly followed March 25 interviews with Surrey’s fire chief Larry Thomas, the president of the Surrey Firefighters Association, Mark McRae, and Coun. Jack Hundial. None of the trio had been briefed on Surrey-specific cases. They said they were provided the same Fraser Health regional numbers that Dix and Henry release daily.

Sean Holman, a journalism professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the public has a right to know, especially in a crisis.

(City of Vancouver)

“If people can get a better sense about how much infection there is in their local geographic area, they can act accordingly and we really do want people to, in this time of crisis, be acting in accordance to the risk around them,” Holman said in an interview on theBreaker.news Podcast. “We want people to be self-isolating, we want people to be socially distancing, we want people to be thinking about the larger community, as opposed to thinking about their own individual safety. By disclosing that type of information, we can allow for those kinds of measures.”

Vancouver and Surrey are rather large communities. The eighth and 12th biggest municipalities in Canada, according to the 2016 Census, with a combined 1.2 million citizens.

They are also part of two larger health regions. Fraser Health counts 1.8 million people in its jurisdiction, which stretches from Burnaby to Hope, and as far south as the Canada/U.S. border.

Vancouver Coastal’s catchment area extends from Bella Bella to Richmond, including Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital. The area is home to 1.2 million people.

Together, the two health authorities boast 3.05 million of B.C.’s 5.1 million people.

Meanwhile, on March 25, the World Health Organization director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries that have introduced so-called lockdown measures, such as Canada, to follow six key actions.

One of the WHO-recommended measures is to “implement a system to find every suspected case at the community level.”

“These measures are the best way to suppress and stop transmission, so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus doesn’t resurge,” Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros’s words came the week after Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said “every suspect case should be tested, their contacts identified.

“If those contacts are sick or showing symptoms, they should be tested. That requires a scale-up, because many countries have not been systematically testing all suspect cases, and it’s one of the reasons why we’re behind in this epidemic,” Ryan said.

B.C. is taking a different path than what is prescribed by the WHO.

“You don’t need to identify every case to take measures to prevent the spread of the virus,” Daly said.

“Now that we know the virus is circulating in communities there is no need to test everybody who might have mild disease, in fact doing so may put others at risk,” she said. “Right now we have every returning traveler self-isolating at home for that two-week period, if they get symptoms and they go out to a test site, they may expose other people who are not infected to the virus.”

Dr. Bonnie Henry (left) and Adrian Dix on March 26 (BC Gov)

Instead, B.C. has recommended anyone with symptoms to stay home and don’t go out, even to seek testing. Daly said those who present at hospitals with severe symptoms will be tested and testing will be conducted to identify outbreaks, as well as for healthcare workers.

“That is what we call a smart testing strategy, you are not required to identify every case to control the spread of this,” Daly said, pointing to China as an example.

UPDATE: In a March 28 YouTube video, a Royal Columbian Hospital emergency room physician accused B.C. officials of “low-balling” the numbers because there is no widespread testing for suspected cases of coronavirus.

“One of the frustrations that we’re seeing as frontline providers, that’s the fact that based on our current resources we are very much under-testing the population,” said Dr. Sean Wormsbecker.

“We’re unfortunately not performing to the kind of standards that were met at other countries that have been able to effectively flatten the curve so to speak,” he said. “We can’t use those countries like Singapore or Korea as a benchmark for what we can expect to come. If anything, I think we have to unfortunately look more to countries that haven’t done as well, because we simply aren’t at that standard of quarantine, we’re not at that standard of social isolation, we are definitely not at that standard of testing.”

Dr. Sean Wormsbecker (YouTube)

On March 26, Dix and Henry said 725 people had tested positive for coronavirus in B.C., including 359 in Vancouver Coastal, 241 in Fraser Health and 62 in Interior Health. Nine long term care homes are sites of outbreaks, with Haro Park in Vancouver’s West End suffering 58 infections. There are 66 people hospitalized, of which 26 are in intensive care. Meanwhile, 186 people have recovered.

The province also said that 26,681 individuals had been tested as of March 23 and the labs have capacity to test 3,500 per day.

However, a source not authorized to speak to reporters told theBreaker.news that the latest internal report shows a backlog of more than 2,000 samples.

Last week, Henry said the backlog was “in the hundreds” and on the way to being cleared. It was actually as high as 6,600 on March 19.

The pandemic has ground Canada’s economy to a halt. British Columbia is under a provincial state of emergency and the NDP minority government passed a $5 billion aid package earlier this week.

The federal government has agreed to a $107 billion aid package, in order to soften the blow of a sudden recession caused by draconian disease-control measures inspired by China, where the virus originated in Wuhan city last November.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin At the March 19 emergency meeting,

Bob Mackin

As the novel coronavirus spreads in Canada, with 3,400 confirmed cases and 35 deaths as of March 25, British Columbia’s provincial health officer changed her tune about the stock of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and first responders.

Dr. Bonnie Henry in the empty press gallery theatre on March 25 (BC Gov)

On March 23, Dr. Bonnie Henry said she was not aware of any shortages in B.C., but her department was working with federal partners and monitoring inventory, as shipments were coming in.

Two days later, a 180-degree shift. Henry said that B.C. is now going through “way more” masks, gloves, goggles and gowns than expected. “We are on a tenuous level right now.”

“In the past week we have seen a dramatic increase in use as we’ve had more people with COVID19 in hospital and we understand the absolute need to keep people safe,” Henry said. “But the burn rate, as we call it, is much higher than we would have expected and we are putting in place measures now to try and control that and be more efficient and effective in how we’re using PPE.”

Henry said B.C. was reusing certain types of equipment, with proper cleaning, and even looking at alternative supplies “from around the world.”

Chinese consul general Tong Xiaoling, centre (Weixin.qq.com)

Henry’s sudden search may be the legacy of the Trudeau Liberals’ gift of 16 tonnes of gear to China in early February.

The federal government announced Feb. 9 that it began to send PPE to China on Feb. 4. The news release quoted Foreign Affairs minister François-Philippe Champagne and International Development Minister Karina Gould, sending their condolences and offering to “provide further assistance, as needed.”

Spokeswoman Krystyna Dodds of Global Affairs Canada told theBreaker.news that the equipment was sourced through Canadian Red Cross and the government’s own supply and sent to the Red Cross Society of China. The shipment from Canada included: 200,000 nitrile gloves, 50,118 face shields, 36,425 coveralls, 3,000 aprons, 1,820 goggles and 1,101 masks.

Canada will continue to work to ensure that we have the equipment we need to fight this virus — and that our partners do too,” Dodds said by email. She did not disclose the cost to taxpayers.

At his daily news conference on March 26, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau downplayed the donation. He saidthe federal stockpiles have been sufficient to meet the needs of the provinces to this point” and millions more pieces will be arriving in the coming days. 

Chinese consulate staff not social distancing in Vancouver on March 23 (Weixin.qq.com)

The Trudeau Liberals were not alone in shifting bulk quantities of supplies from Canada to China. Business and cultural groups loyal to the Communist Party of China were heavily fundraising and buying goods.

On Jan. 31, the Richmond-based Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations said it snapped up 5,000 sets of protective materials such as clothing, disinfectant and masks for shipment to Wuhan.

On Feb. 22, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Canada and Guangdong Overseas Chinese Federation bought 60 cases of 120,000 disposable medical masks in the Philippines that were delivered to Wuhan via Guangzhou. 

Public Works and Government Services Canada’s procurement website is now urgently seeking suppliers of disposable N95 and surgical masks, surgical and medical gowns, nitrile and vinyl gloves, and bottles of hand sanitizer.

Meanwhile, on March 23, Xi Jinping’s envoy in Vancouver led consular staff in packaging masks and gloves in Ziploc bags for distribution to Chinese students at area universities.

In one photograph, Consul General Tong Xiaoling sports a pink mask. In another she appears in a group photo that does not follow the Henry-advised social distancing. Xi Jinping’s Vancouver diplomats are not standing two metres apart to avoid spreading the highly contagious virus that came from Wuhan.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

 

 

Bob Mackin As the novel coronavirus spreads in

Bob Mackin

Last December’s hiring freeze coupled with this month’s public health emergency have led to short-staffing of fire halls in North Surrey, said the union’s president.

Mark McRae, Surrey Firefighters Association president (Vimeo)

Mark McRae, president of IAFF Local 1271, said the region that includes Guildford, Whalley and the north parts of Newton and Fleetwood would be down to 18 firefighters tonight from 26. If a two-alarm fire breaks out, 21 firefighters would be needed, meaning reinforcements would have to be called in from elsewhere in Surrey, he said.

“In this state of emergency, the last thing we need is to reduce the level of service and the front line responders that we have,” McRae told theBreaker.news. “Especially when we are already operating in a very lean and efficient capacity compared to the others in the region. We don’t have fat to trim in Surrey.”

McRae said that since March 17, Surrey has been short one or two trucks per shift. Tonight, four of the two-person rescue units will not be in service.

Last December, a majority of the city council under Mayor Doug McCallum voted to freeze fire hiring and leave the department at 364 personnel. The staffing level in North Surrey is comparable with the late 1980s. 

“We know what Surrey has done in the last 30 years, the city has grown incredibly, we’ve gone vertical in the north end, traffic congestion is significantly greater, there is far more industry, there is far more residential,” McRae said. 

McCallum, who leads the Safe Surrey Coalition council majority, did not respond to phone messages from theBreaker.news. Last December’s civic budget froze staffing of both the RCMP and fire department, so that city hall could divert funds into creating a new municipal police force. 

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum (Surrey)

Surrey Fire Service Chief Larry Thomas said 69 firefighters were on-duty throughout the city, but did not have a regional breakdown. He said the fire department is continuing to meet its demands and performance goals, but firefighters numbering in the “mid-20s” are off work in connection to the pandemic.

“We’re having some fluctuations with high, short-term sick call-ins from staff that have had potential exposures to COVID, they call us and have to self isolate. No area is going unprotected,” Thomas said. 

“I understand that the union gets pressure if they see a truck go out of service on a temporary basis. It’s just temporary, we do have a comprehensive staffing plan in place, that’s not just for the short term, but for the long term, no one knows how long this crisis is going to last.”

Surrey Coun. Jack Hundial, who voted against the hiring freeze, said other municipalities have a ratio of one firefighter to 1,000 citizens, but Surrey is more like one to 1,500.

“So we’re already starting from a deficit position,” Hundial said.

McRae, Thomas and Hundial said they are not provided Surrey-specific data on coronavirus cases. They only receive the regional statistics for Fraser Health, which covers Burnaby to Chilliwack. In contrast, at a March 19 open meeting, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Dr. Meena Dewar told Richmond city council that the city had eight confirmed cases.

Surrey City Coun. Jack Hundial (Twitter)

McRae said more patients in Surrey are showing symptoms or are confirmed with the virus. As for the department’s personal protective equipment inventory, Thomas said “for the short-term, we’re fine.”

Surrey has not held a public city council meeting during the public health emergency. Vancouver has held two. Hundial and fellow Surrey Connect Coun. Brenda Locke’s public plea for such a meeting resulted only in a March 24 in camera session. The next scheduled public meeting is April 6.

“We need that openness, transparency, but we don’t want to jeopardize any programs or emergency measures underway now either,” Hundial said. “The public needs to know what the next steps are going to be from the City of Surrey.”

As of March 25, B.C. announced 659 cases of coronavirus, including 218 in the Fraser Health region, and 14 deaths. 

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin Last December’s hiring freeze coupled with

Bob Mackin

A Surrey company that claimed its product could help prevent coronavirus says it is ending the ad campaign and pausing operations.

(NRP Organics)

NRP Organics sent door hanger ads via Canada Post to select neighbourhoods in Richmond, New Westminster and Vancouver.

One side features Corona Virus and COVID19 in bold letters, sandwiching a photograph of a healthcare worker in protective gear treating an Asian patient whose mouth and nose are covered by a mask. On the reverse, the words “Protect Yourself Now. Clinically Proven Anti-Viral,” referring to fulvic and humic beverage concentrates that NRP sells under the non-medicinal O Legado brand. A photograph of the door hanger was originally published in the Richmond News.

There is no vaccine or other product yet that is proven to prevent or cure the virus, which is the subject of the World Health Organization’s March 11 pandemic declaration.

After a query from theBreaker.news, an anonymous email reply from NRP said: “The information presented regarding Covid-19 was intended to be helpful and was copied from the CDC website.” 

The NRP website, however, included a disclaimer that said “statements have not been evaluated by the Health Canada or U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to… cure or prevent any disease.”

NRP co-founder Sheila Randall denied the company attempted to mislead consumers. She conceded “in retrospect, that probably wasn’t the best choice of words.”

NRP Organics door hanger that used the coronavirus pandemic to sell its product (Richmond News)

“People use all kinds of things, from fruits and vegetables and exercise, and this is just something that perhaps people haven’t heard of before, that can help their health and wellbeing,” Randall said.

The product sold for $88 a two-bottle set, but will not be advertised or sold for the time being. Co-founder James Rutherford said the company will instead observe non-essential work and social isolation recommendations from public health officials during the public health emergency.

“We’ll absolutely not be hanging any door hangers anymore, with exception of whatever’s in the system,” said co-founder James Rutherford. “There will be nothing new sent out.”

Rutherford is a real estate agent with Homelife Glenayre Realty in Abbotsford and the website was registered under the name of Walt Browne, broker/manager of the office. Browne denied involvement in both the company and website.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, I don’t know what they’re marketing, so this is all news to me,” said Browne when contacted by theBreaker.news

“We’ve got a few hundred domains on there, so when this one was registered it just went through that GoDaddy [account], we do all the domains for the offices and open houses and whatever we need,” Rutherford said. “He’s not connected with this in any way shape or form.”

After a phone interview with Randall and Rutherford, NRP Organics content disappeared from its domain and displayed a Shopify e-commerce template. 

On its website, under the heading of “How can I prevent getting infected,” B.C. Centre for Disease Control recommends social distancing, vigorous hand washing with hot water and soap, hand sanitizer, avoiding touching your face, and covering your mouth and nose to sneeze or cough.

As usual, the Better Business Bureau warns buyer beware. It recommends doing research and being wary of any miracle and all-natural product claims. “If you’re tempted to buy an unproven product or one with questionable claims, check with your doctor or other health care professional first,” according to the BBB.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin A Surrey company that claimed its

Bob Mackin

Imagine the day your hiring is announced and your new boss arranges one of the biggest assignments of your career.

That is what happened to Michael Pickup, the auditor general of Nova Scotia who will switch coasts to become British Columbia’s auditor general in July.

Premier John Horgan (Hansard)

Pickup’s eight-year appointment was announced during an emergency sitting of the B.C. Legislative Assembly on March 23. Finance Minister Carole James tabled a $5 billion package aimed at rescuing an economy that ground to a halt after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.

The seven NDP members, three BC Liberals and two Greens voted for the pandemic response and economic recovery bill and to amend the employment standards law for unpaid, job-protected leave for employees affected by the crisis.

The relief package includes $2.8 billion in programs for residents and services and $2.2 billion for businesses. Eligible British Columbians will receive a $1,000 tax-free payment and tax credit top-ups.

Tax filing and payment deadlines are extended to the end of September for PST, municipal and regional tax, and taxes on tobacco, motor fuel and carbon. Businesses with a $500,000 or higher payroll can defer employer health payments until Sept. 30. The 7% tax on e-commerce and soda pop has also been delayed from July 1. It was unclear whether the package eventually would lead to higher taxes, service cuts or cancelled or delayed infrastructure projects. 

The two bills were the furthest thing from the minds of James and Premier John Horgan when they tabled a balanced budget last month.

“I can’t recall, in my time as a member of this place, coming on 15 years — nor as a student of history, going back over the many, many decades, a century and a half of Canada’s existence — where British Columbians have had their elected representatives meet on such a dark and troubling occasion to talk about how we come out of that darkness better off for the effort,” Horgan said. 

Michael Pickup, B.C.’s new auditor general (Nova Scotia)

Pickup is the permanent replacement for Carol Bellringer, who suddenly announced her resignation last September after tabling a faulty report on the Legislature spending scandal. Bellringer did not conduct the promised forensic audit after lobbying heavily to keep the assignment in her office, instead of letting it go to an out-of-province auditor (as originally recommended by the all-party committee that oversees the legislature). 

Bellringer’s interim replacement, Russ Jones, was among the four candidates who were interviewed Feb. 21. The committee instead chose Pickup, Nova Scotia’s auditor general since 2014 and a 25-year veteran of the Auditor General of Canada’s office.

A silver lining of the pandemic? It brought political adversaries together unlike before. The sitting even had a question period, but there was no desk-thumping, clapping or jeering or sneering across the aisle. Almost four years after Delta independent MLA Vicki Huntington’s private member’s bill failed to achieve the same.

“The absence of partisanship I think all British Columbians should celebrate,” Horgan said. “At this unique time, partisanship has left the building. People are here to work together with one singular focus. That’s the health and well-being of all British Columbians.”

The Legislature is unlikely to return to finish the spring session, which had been scheduled through the end of May. The emergency is also likely to put to bed any suggestion of an early election in fall 2020. British Columbians are scheduled to go to the polls in October 2021.

British Columbia’s tourism lobby pleads for bailout

In a March 21 letter to NDP tourism Minister Lisa Beare, Tourism Industry Association of B.C. CEO Walt Judas, said the $19 billion-a-year industry that employs 300,000 suffered a “direct and severe blow.”

“With all leisure and business travel not at a standstill, B.C.’s visitor economy will lose several billion dollars in revenue during the March to June period alone,” Judas wrote.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of cruise ships in Vancouver and Victoria until July and the premature end of the skiing and snowboarding season, including at Whistler Blackcomb, North America’s biggest resort.

“While our industry is doing what it can to support thousands of employees who rely on a thriving tourism industry to pay their bills and support their families, we cannot do it without government assistance,” Judas wrote.

The industry’s wish list included an incremental supplement to the federal wage subsidy; a program to offset fixed costs; a temporary raise to the employer health tax exemption and a reduction or elimination of the tax for eligible businesses in the 2020 tax year; and immediate sale of packaged beer, wine and spirits with take-out or delivery from restaurants.

Government already acted on the latter during the weekend.

An internal member impact survey found 43% of respondents expect extreme and 26% severe impacts on their business over the next six months. Almost nine in 10 reported postponements and cancellations from clients and customers due to the pandemic.

City workers brace for layoffs

Leaders of City of Vancouver’s three unions reached an agreement with city hall to protect jobs. But the head of the outside workers’ union concedes that major job losses are inevitable.

Vancouver city hall (CoV)

A March 23 memo from Andrew Ledger of CUPE Local 1004, which represents outside workers, said locals 1004, 15 and 391 concluded discussions on the letter of understanding with city hall, park board and civic library management.

“We now expect significant changes to our workforces; with many civic facility closures already in place, this week will see more city operations suspended and significant layoffs to follow,” wrote Ledger.

The details will be circulated after city council ratifies. The memo said the main points include:

Seniority protection during the public health crisis, wage and benefit protection when work group layoffs occur; and No bumping during temporary layoffs.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

Bob Mackin Imagine the day your hiring is