Grocery stores are struggling with rising labour and product shortages that experts warn could threaten Canada's food security. Gary Sands, senior vice-president of public policy with the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, says employee absenteeism due to COVID-19 protocols has hit about 30 per cent across Canada, and rising. Without access to rapid testing in many provinces, he says workers are repeatedly forced to isolate for a week or more after an exposure to COVID-19. Sands says if the situation worsens, some grocery stores won't be able to open, threatening food security in rur

New figures show the Canadian Armed Forces are struggling with a growing shortage of personnel even as the military faces more and more demands at home and abroad. While the military is supposed to have just over 100,000 troops at full strength, new Defence Department figures show it was short about 12,000 regular force troops and reservists at the end of November. The shortfall is worse than at the end of 2020, when military was short about 7,000 troops as the onset of the pandemic forced recruiting centres and training schools to close for months. The latest figures also show another 10,000

A huge snowstorm continues to blast southern Ontario and parts of Quebec. The city of Toronto and other centres were brought to a standstill today with major highways having to close for a time. Environment Canada had issued snowfall or blizzard warnings for a stretch of the province but some of those have since been lifted. Dozens of flights to and from Toronto's Pearson airport were also delayed or cancelled this morning. The region was forecast to get as much as 50 centimetres of snow. Canada Post has issued a red delivery service alert for southern and eastern Ontario as a fierce storm h

Pfizer's antiviral treatment for COVID-19, Paxlovid, has received Health Canada approval. It’s a combination of two different drugs, to be taken together twice a day for five days. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the first doses are already here with more to come in March. He says the provinces and territories have been given preliminary information on deliveries, which will be done on a per capita basis.Canadian doctors have been anxious to get their hands on the medication as the Omicron wave is spreading so quickly. Canada bought one-million courses of the treatment for delivery thi

Health Canada has approved Pfizer's antiviral treatment for COVID-19. The authorization posted to the Health Canada website this morning says the treatment is greenlighted for adult patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are also at high risk of becoming more seriously ill. Health Canada did not authorize it for use on teenagers. It is also not authorized for use on patients who are already hospitalized because of COVID-19.Paxlovid is a treatment that uses a combination of drugs to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from replicating once it has infected a patient.Clinical trials sho

New modelling by the federal government suggests daily hospitalizations will surge in the coming weeks, driven by extremely high levels of transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Though the rate of people who are hospitalized with Omicron is lower compared to the Delta variant, the forecast shows new daily hospital admissions will far exceed previous historical peaks due to the sheer number of cases. Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam released the new modelling today, which suggests the current wave of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant will peak this month at between 1

The federal government says a statement from the Canada Border Services Agency that said Canadian truckers would be exempt from a new COVID-19 vaccination requirement was provided in error. Federal officials say today the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing into Canada from the United States will come into effect this Saturday as planned. There was no explanation for the incorrect information emailed to media more than 20-hours earlier. The federal Conservatives, as well as trade groups representing oil, manufacturing and export companies, had called on Ottawa this week to postpone the Janu

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole says while he respects provincial jurisdiction, he opposes Quebec's plan ``to tax and target'' those who are unvaccinated against COVID-19. The Tory leader made his position known on Premier Francois Legault's proposal during a Facebook Live today. Earlier in the week Legault announced adults living the province who are unvaccinated and don't have a medical exemption could expect to start paying a ``significant'' financial penalty. The premier said the measure was needed because around half of the patients in intensive care are unvaccinated even those only abo

Health Canada's chief medical adviser says a decision on Pfizer's antiviral treatment for COVID-19 is expected in seven to 10 days.But Supriya Sharma says the department reached out to Pfizer asking for shipments of the drug before approval, using regulations that allow medications approved elsewhere to be used in Canada when there is an urgent health need.Sharma says the company said no because it didn't have any supply to send.Canada has a contract to buy one million doses of Paxlovid but Pfizer spokeswoman Christina Antoniou says information on shipments to Canada won't be provided until H