New Brunswick government locks out more than 3000 striking education employees - The Globe and Mail

Educational assistant Ashley Scott, right, pickets with other CUPE New Brunswick members along Main Street in Fredericton, on Oct. 29, 2021. Scott's local, 2745, represents educational assistants, librarians and administrative assistants.Steve MacGillivray/The Canadian Press

The New Brunswick government locked-out all non-designated employees in two striking union locals on Sunday in what it describes as an effort to provide stability to students and families.

The affected employees – members of locals 1253 and 2745 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees – include custodians, bus drivers, school library assistants and administrative support workers, as well as a number of educational assistants.

Education Minister Dominic Cardy said the union has shown unpredictability provincewide, creating a volatile climate for teachers, students and parents.

“We’ve been pressured into this measure,” Cardy told reporters during a news conference Sunday afternoon. “CUPE has not provided us with accurate or up-to-date information about their strike plans as they affect the nearly 300 schools in our province.”

“On Friday morning we learned with only a few hours notice about their intention to take the school bus system off the road,” he said.

Cardy said there were other workers who were supposed to show up Friday but called in sick.

“We can’t have one school where we’re not sure who is coming to work, another school where someone says they’re coming but then they don’t,” he said. “We’ve got to have some level of stability and predictability.”

Cardy said the government wants to ensure families are able to plan ahead and not wonder what the next day will bring. He said the only way to do that is to move schooling online.

“Online learning isn’t as good as in-person learning. I’ve been clear about that,” Cardy said.

The union, representing about 22,000 public servants, went on strike last week to back demands for higher wages.

CUPE New Brunswick president Steve Drost said most of the union’s members haven’t had a proper raise in 15 years and remain among the lowest paid in the country.

“This is just more heavy-handed tactics by this government to try and punish these workers who are standing up for their own rights,” Drost said in an interview Sunday.

He said the government had given weak arguments for making the shift to online learning.

“Just more excuses from a government that refuses to negotiate fairly with workers who deserve fair wages,” he said.

Drost said the union’s bargaining team is available in Fredericton and willing to resume negotiations.

Before contract talks broke off Tuesday night, the union was seeking a 12 per cent raise over four years, while the government confirmed Thursday it was offering an 8.5 per cent wage increase over a five-year period.

Cardy said students will continue to learn from home until the strike is over, adding he hopes it ends soon.

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Lung cancer patients fight stigma as more non-smokers are diagnosed - Calgary Herald

Statistics show nearly one-in-five people diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked

Author of the article:

Brodie Thomas

Terry Morey of Cochrane has been living a relatively normal life, despite being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. A class of drugs known as TKIs keep his tumours in check. Photo by Submitted

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Terry Morey was surprised to find himself out of breath one day in 2013 while going for a walk on his acreage near Cochrane.

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The now-74-year-old had just gotten back from a trip to Europe and assumed he had picked up a bug along the way. He visited his doctor for antibiotics, but his doctor also scheduled an x-ray to get a better sense of what was happening.

When the x-ray results came back, Morey was advised to get to an emergency room right away because of fluid in his lungs. That emergency room visit led to a biopsy and a diagnosis of lung cancer. At the time, Morey was given six to 18 months to live.

Morey took two forms of chemotherapy over several years, but then his doctor offered him a chance to try a new class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or TKIs.

“A biomarker was found on my tumour cells, and that biomarker led to the use of a pill I could take orally,” he explained.

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The first drug he tried, Crizotinib, targeted proteins specific to his cancer cells, inhibiting growth and sometimes even shrinking tumours.

He has since moved on to another TKI drug called Alectinib, which works in the same way. He takes the medication daily, instead of undergoing more debilitating chemotherapy treatments.

The breakthrough of TKIs means Terry can treat his cancer more like a chronic disease. He said aside from minor medication side effects and shortness of breath, he and his wife Joyce have been able to keep living a relatively normal life for eight years since his diagnosis.

“Right now we would be in California if it wasn’t for COVID,” said Morey. “We’re living. We’re trying continue a way of life.”

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The only time he said he feels anxious is waiting in the doctor’s office for results of his quarterly scans, which luckily have continued to show the cancer remains stable and under control.

“ The one thing I don’t do is wander around saying, ‘Poor me — I’m dying of lung cancer,'” said Morey. “That’s not me. I’m glad it’s not me.”

Unfortunately, Morey’s story remains the exception rather than the rule when it comes to lung cancer. It is Canada’s deadliest form of cancer according to data from the Canadian Cancer Society, killing an estimated 21,200 Canadians in 2020, and representing a quarter of all cancer deaths in the country.

Despite those numbers, lung cancer also receives only a small share of cancer research funding in Canada — about six per cent — according to Emi Bossio, who is a board member of Lung Cancer Canada and a lung cancer survivor.

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She is certain part of that deficit of funding has to do with the stigma around smoking.

A billboard on Alberta’s Highway 2 aims to remind Albertans that even non-smokers can be diagnosed with lung cancer. Photo by Submitted

“For some reason there’s this stigma of smoking and lung cancer and we can’t seem to shake it,” said Bossio. “The problem is, it’s really impacting people’s lives because the research is so critical to finding these drugs that are absolutely transforming people’s lives.”

While the majority of lung cancer patients are current or former smokers, things like radon and exposure to pollutants can also cause the disease. Bossio said the number of non-smokers with lung cancer is growing. Nearly one-in-five Canadian lung cancer patients were never smokers. Both Bossio and Terry Morey fall in that non-smoking group.

Bossio said while attending a lung cancer conference last year, she and four other Albertans started discussing ways to raise awareness of the disease, and encourage people to advocate for screening if they suspect there’s a problem with their lungs.

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“Each of us in that group was told by our doctors, you can’t have lung cancer because you’re not a smoker,” she said.

One of the things they’ve done is purchase a billboard on Alberta’s Highway 2. It reads, “If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer.” It also directs people to Lung Cancer Canada’s website where they’ve posted stories of hope about people such as Terry Morey beating the odds with new medications.

Bossio said that hope is important for people going through cancer. She just hopes to see more money directed towards research of the disease.

“The statistics are not great — but there’s so much hope because so much has changed,” she said.

brthomas@postmedia.com

Twitter: @brodie_thomas

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Trudeau says climate progress made, but Canada wants more - CTV News

ROME -- Canada wanted a stronger and more ambitious agreement on climate change to emerge from the G20 summit but leaders still managed to make progress by committing to address some key issues, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday.

His remarks came as he wrapped up two days in Rome at the G20 leaders' summit, where the leaders' final communique saw them agree for the first time in writing that limiting global warming to 1.5 C would be better for everyone.

But the document also watered down numerous parts of a previous draft version, including replacing specific deadlines to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and eliminate coal power by the end of the 2030s, with net zero by "mid century" and eliminating coal power "as soon as possible."

Language promising to reduce methane emissions was changed only to recognize that curbing methane is a cost-effective and relatively easy way to reduce emissions.

"There's no question that Canada and a number of other countries would have liked stronger language and stronger commitments on the fight against climate change than others," Trudeau said at his closing news conference.

"But we did make significant progress on recognizing 1.5 degrees is the ambition we need to share."

A quarter of the G20 leaders skipped the weekend's events, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Trudeau suggested that affected the language on coal and net zero emissions.

"These are the kinds of things that Canada's going to continue to push for, alongside all our colleagues," he said. "Not everyone around the table was there today and we're a group that works on consensus as much as possible. But we're going to continue fighting for a better future for all."

China, which is in absolute terms the world's biggest emitter, is still very dependent on coal for electricity, as is India. Both have expressed an inability to reduce coal power at this point. China has also only set a goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, rather than 2050.

Trudeau's assessment was similar to that issued by G20 host and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who said it's easier to propose than execute difficult things.

Draghi said he felt the G20 was working more co-operatively than it has for the last several years.

But United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was leaving Rome "with my hopes unfulfilled." He said he's now looking to the UN COP26 climate talks in Glasgow for that hope.

His disappointment was echoed by environment advocates.

"If the G20 was a dress rehearsal for COP26, then world leaders fluffed their lines," said Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan in a statement.

"Their communique was weak, lacking both ambition and vision and simply failed to meet the moment."

Eddy Perez, international climate diplomacy manager for Climate Action Network Canada, applauded the G20 leaders for finally realizing the importance of aiming to keep global warming to 1.5 C.

"But the credibility of the largest global economic bloc lies more (than) on just an agreement of principles. With no ambitious and detailed plan to close the climate finance gap and to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels, we won't be able to build a more equitable and fair future that ends all expansion of coal, oil and gas."

Most of the G20 leaders, including Trudeau, are headed to Glasgow directly from Rome for two days of negotiations to finally finish crafting rules for how the Paris climate agreement will measure progress and run carbon-emissions trading markets.

The hope had been for strong language from the G20 as motivation for COP26, when all of the parties to the Paris agreement will be represented in some fashion.

Trudeau said COP will keep putting pressure on governments to do more to slow global warming, even though the same leaders missing in Rome are expected to skip Glasgow too.

"It is a challenging process to shift the trajectory of the world off of fossil fuels and onto more renewables and reduce our carbon emissions," he said. "But it is hard work that is being done by people here today, by people in Scotland, by people all around the world, that we are committed to as a G20 and as a world.

Trudeau also said just having the G20 talks was progress.

"Any time the leaders of the world are able to gather, particularly after this pandemic year, once again in person, and actually get into it together and talk about this existential threat to all of us that is climate change is itself a win," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2021.

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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Sunday - CBC.ca

The latest:

Russia recorded a new daily high number of COVID-19 cases as much of the country's businesses remain closed in an effort to counter a weeks-long surge in infections.

The national coronavirus task force on Sunday reported 40,993 new infections over the previous day, up more than 700 on the previous record of a day earlier. Russia has tallied new record of infections or deaths almost daily during October.

The death toll reported Sunday was 1,158, just slightly down from Friday's record 1,163.

That brought Russia's official COVID-19 death count to 238,538, by far the largest in Europe. More than 8.51 million infections have been recorded in the country of 146 million during the pandemic.

A person is administered a dose of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Krymsk, Krasnodar region, Russia, on Friday. (Vitaly Timkiv/The Associated Press)

The task force counts only deaths directly caused by the virus. The state statistics service Rosstat, which counts COVID-19 deaths by wider criteria, released figures Friday indicating a much higher toll.

Rosstat counted 44,265 deaths in September caused directly by the virus, or in which it was a contributing cause or of patients believed to have been infected. That would bring Russia's pandemic-long death toll to about 461,000 as of the end of September, nearly twice the task force's count.

To contain the spread of infection, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a non-working period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, during which most state agencies and private businesses are to suspend operations.

Moscow introduced the measure beginning Thursday, shutting down kindergartens, schools, gyms, entertainment venues and most stores, and restricting restaurants to takeout or delivery. Food stores, pharmacies and companies operating key infrastructure remained open.

Access to museums, theaters, concert halls and other venues in Russia is limited to people holding digital codes on their phones to prove they have been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, a practice that will remain after Nov. 7. Unvaccinated people older than 60 have been ordered to stay home.

WATCH | Russia reimposes some restrictions amid record cases, deaths:

Russia reimposed COVID-19 restrictions as cases reach record numbers

6 days ago

Russia has reimposed COVID-19 restrictions in parts of the country, including asking unvaccinated seniors to stay home and declaring a ‘non-working’ week, as it records its highest daily numbers for new cases and deaths. 2:11

The government hopes that by keeping most people out of offices and public transportation, the non-working period will help curb the spread of the virus, but many Russians rushed to use the time off for a seaside Black Sea vacation or to take a trip to Egypt or Turkey.

Authorities have blamed soaring infections and deaths on Russia's lagging pace of vaccinations. About 51 million Russians — just over a third of the country's people — were fully vaccinated as of Sunday.

Russia was the first country in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine in August 2020 and proudly named the shot Sputnik V to showcase the country's scientific edge. But the vaccination campaign has stalled amid widespread public skepticism blamed on conflicting signals from authorities.

---

What's happening in Canada

WATCH | NACI expands recommendations for booster shots:

NACI expands recommendations for booster shots

2 days ago

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has expanded recommendations for who should get a COVID-19 booster shot to include all seniors over the age of 80, Indigenous adults and some front-line health-care workers. Plus, is Canada falling behind by not giving booster shots to all adults? 3:20

---

What's happening around the world

As of Sunday, more than 246.5 million COVID-19 cases had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's online coronavirus database. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.9 million.

In Asia, South Korea will drop all operating-hour curbs on restaurants and cafes and implement its first vaccine passport for high-risk venues such as gyms, saunas and bars.

People wearing masks are seen in Seoul on Saturday. (Heo Ran/Reuters)

In Europe, Sweden's response to the coronavirus was too slow and preparations to handle a pandemic were insufficient, a commission investigating the country's response to COVID-19 said.

In the Americas, enrolment in U.S. government-run health insurance program Medicaid during the pandemic grew 16 per cent, with more than 11 million additional sign ups, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said.

In Africa, Tanzania has made up for a slow start and has now administered more than 940,000 vaccine doses so far, according to the World Health Organization Africa Region.

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We Now Know More About the Records Related to Jan. 6 That Trump Wants To Hide - Vanity Fair

The former president is trying to block congressional investigators from accessing nearly 800 pages of documents related to his whereabouts, communications, and activities surrounding Jan. 6.

By Charlotte Klein

October 31, 2021

Donald Trump has been trying very hard to keep congressional investigators from learning what he and his inner circle were doing on and around Jan. 6., the day of the deadly insurrection he incited. The drumroll leading up to what, exactly, he is fighting to hide—and how much more there is against him—intensified on Saturday, as a federal court filing revealed more details about the documents Trump seeks to conceal from the Jan. 6 investigative committee. The materials include logs of the former president’s phone calls, daily presidential diaries, and speech drafts related to the election, according to the filing. They also encompass records from top aides such as Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller and “logs showing phone calls to the president and to Vice President Mike Pence concerning Jan. 6,” according to the New York Times. Trump also doesn’t want to divulge hundreds of pages from “multiple binders of the former press secretary [Kayleigh McEnany], which is made up almost entirely of talking points and statements related to the 2020 election,” the filing states. So far, Trump has asserted executive privilege over more than 750 pages of documents. The new filing sheds light on the wide-ranging nature of the records and just how many of them Trump is seeking to suppress. 

Last month, the Washington Post reported that the National Archives had “already identified hundreds of pages of documents from the Trump White House” in response to the House panel’s information request, which asked for “all documents and communications within the White House on January 6, 2021, relating in any way” to the events of that day. Trump sued Congress and the National Archives earlier this month in an attempt to block the disclosure of the files. Saturday’s filing revealed for the first time which specific records Trump is attempting to withhold using claims of executive privilege, a Hail Mary that President Joe Biden has already said is not in the public interest. “This is the first time a sitting president has opposed a privilege assertion lodged by a former president,” Politico reports. 

The National Archives, which the Times notes is “the custodian of White House papers” from Trump’s time in office, concurred with Biden’s decision in its filing. The president’s “determination not to assert or uphold executive privilege here is manifestly reasonable in the face of a congressional investigation into the extraordinary events of January 6,” the filing states.

Trump has argued that the committee is “fishing” for information intended to “embarrass” him and that “even if there were potential legislative decisions to be made, the Committee could obtain any and all of the information it seeks relevant to those decisions from other, non-privileged sources.” The Jan. 6 committee’s own filing in response to Trump’s lawsuit—delivered to a U.S. district judge on Friday night—decried that suggestion as “absurd,” noting “any inquiry that did not insist on examining Mr. Trump’s documents and communications would be worse than useless—the equivalent of staging a production of ‘Hamlet’ without the Prince of Denmark.”

Meanwhile, as Trump attempts to keep investigators from seeing what he was up to, the Post has some insight into what was going through his legal team’s head at the time of the attack. “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary,” Trump attorney John Eastman wrote in an email to Pence aide Greg Jacob as rioters were storming the Capitol complex and calling for Pence’s execution, per the Post. At the time of the email, Jacob was in hiding along with Pence, whose boss, Trump, had convinced his supporters that his No.2 had the power to stop the certification of Biden’s win. The vice president, in his largely ceremonial role during that day’s joint session, did not.

Pence, however, has seemingly decided not to hold almost getting killed against Trump. Since narrowly escaping being hunted and executed by the pro-Trump mob, the former vice president has repeatedly echoed Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was rife with widespread fraud and, most recently, opined that the media should stop being so focused on the unprecedented assault on democracy.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair       

— Mike Pence Is Already Cashing In on His Potential 2024 Run
— Katie Porter and Her Whiteboard Are Just Getting Started
— Trump’s New Social Media Company Is His Biggest Scam Yet
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— David Zaslav Is Angling to Become America’s King of Content
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American Airlines cancels more than 600 flights on Sunday - CNN

(CNN)American Airlines canceled another 634 flights on Sunday, more than 12% of its total operations for the day, the company said Sunday.

The airline has now canceled more than 1,500 flights since Friday, as it deals with weather issues and staffing shortages that started last week.

"With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences," American said in a statement to CNN on Saturday.

Two days of severe winds in Dallas-Fort Worth, its largest hub, sharply reduced arrival capacity, the company said.

The airline canceled 543 flights Saturday according to flight tracking website FlightAware. American reported 4,967 flights had been scheduled on Saturday.

On Friday, FlightAware showed 738 flights, or almost a quarter of American's mainline operations, were delayed and 342 flights were canceled.

As air travel plunged in early 2020, airlines offered buyouts and early retirement packages to employees in order to cut costs. As they try to hire, or rehire, workers, service disruptions have become more frequent.

American expects more flight crews will return during the holiday season. The airline said 1,800 flight attendants will return from leave Monday and more will be back on the job by December 1. The airline said it is also increasing hiring in the fourth quarter.

As demand for air travel ramps up, other airlines also have had difficulty returning to normal operations. Southwest had an operational meltdown one weekend earlier in October, canceling more than 2,000 weekend flights.

The company blamed the move on air traffic control problems and limited staffing in Florida as well as bad weather, saying getting its operations back to normal was "more difficult and prolonged" because of schedule and staffing reductions implemented during the pandemic.

This is a developing story.

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Hope for G20 to be more ambitious on climate action fading - CBC.ca

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

---

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday the G20 needs a sense of "urgency" to address the growing threat of climate change, as the leaders' summit kicked off its second day with a session on climate action.

"Climate change cannot be denied," he said on Twitter. "And climate action cannot be delayed. Working together with our partners, we need to tackle this global crisis with urgency and ambition."

But negotiators working through the night did not appear to have made much headway on securing agreement to phase out coal power more quickly or hastening plans to get to net zero emissions.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the G20 summit host, made a last-ditch effort to urge the leaders of the world's biggest economies to accept the reality of the situation.

"We face a simple choice," he told leaders at the table. "We can act now or regret it later."

Trudeau, centre, is shown with health-care workers and world leaders at the G20 summit in Rome on Saturday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Repeated attempts for Trudeau and Draghi to have a bilateral meeting in Rome were scuttled by time limitations. Saturday's planned meeting was cancelled by Italy because Draghi was running too far behind. On Sunday, the rescheduled meeting was first on, then off because the morning climate session went long.

Another round of rescheduling and cancellation then took place when Trudeau's scheduled meeting with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez interfered.

Canada did get some positive feedback on its climate policies from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. According to Canadian officials, Merkel told Trudeau it was bold to introduce a carbon price as an oil-producing country.

• Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage. 

Von der Leyen met with Trudeau for a one-on-one discussion Sunday morning at his hotel.

"I want to thank you for being such a strong, dedicated ally in the fight against climate change," she told him. "I think this is the topic of not only today, but also the century, of maximum importance."

Chinese involvement is key

The United Nations reiterated warnings this week that with the current policies promised by parties to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the Earth will warm more than 2.7 C by the end of this century.

The Paris accord aimed to keep the temperature below 2 C and as close to 1.5 C as possible. The G20 was debating how to reword that target to make 1.5 C more critical.

"Scientists tell us that under current policies, the consequence of climate change for the environment and the world's population will be catastrophic," Draghi said. "The cost of action, however high it may seem, is trivial compared to the price of inaction."

For its part, Italy promised Sunday to triple its climate financing contribution to $1.4 billion US per year for the next five years.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, left, host of the G20 summit, speaks with Prince Charles at the La Nuvola conference centre in Rome on Sunday. (Aaron Chown/The Associated Press)

The prospect of progress at the two-day summit at the Rome Convention Centre dimmed in the days before the meeting when China submitted its new targets to the UN with barely any increase in ambition.

China still plans to keep growing its emissions until 2030 and isn't agreeing to move its net zero target up from 2060. It was slightly more specific about using more renewable energy and planting more trees.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was also not at the table, choosing to send his foreign minister, Wang Yi, instead.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Saturday that Xi's absence wasn't ideal, but she wouldn't comment on what impact she thought that may have on the climate talks.

"The G20, of course, is most effective when all the G20 leaders are at the table," she said. "Having said that, I do think we also need to recognize that the fight against COVID is not finished yet, and different countries will take different decisions about international travel while we're still finishing the fight against COVID."

Xi was one of five G20 leaders who didn't make the trip. The leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Japan also sent officials and participated themselves only virtually.

But China's importance to the G20 negotiations on ending coal-fired electricity made Xi's absence potentially the most troublesome. He is also not attending the COP26 summit, which began in Glasgow on Sunday.

Trudeau and Draghi had both hoped for a strong, united message on climate from the G20 to carry into COP26. The G20 isn't just responsible for 80 per cent of global economic output; it also produces about 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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'A crisis for home care': droves of workers leave for hospitals, nursing homes - CTV News Toronto

TORONTO -- Donna Marcaccio had been taking care of her sister, Marcia for years.

But when Marcia's condition deteriorated and she needed palliative care about a year ago, Marcaccio reached out for help from Ontario's home care system.

After waiting for a month, she found herself facing a revolving door of personal support workers, many of whom either arrived hours late or had no idea what to do. Then the last-minute cancellations started.

"I stopped it, it was just so stressful," Marcaccio said.

Nurses, personal support workers and therapists have left home care in droves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We lost literally over 3,000 nurses and skilled therapists and personal support workers to other parts of the health-care system," said Sue VanderBent, the CEO of Home Care Ontario, which represents home-care providers in the province.

"And that is very bad news for Ontarians who are receiving home care because now our capacity is so depleted that people are just waiting at home for a home care nurse or therapist or PSW who isn't coming."

The organization achieved a 95-per-cent referral acceptance rate before the pandemic, meaning it could fulfil the vast majority of requests for home care. The current rate is 60 per cent.

"This is a crisis for home care," VanderBent said.

Home care workers left their jobs for better pay in hospitals and long-term care homes, she said.

About 900,000 Ontarians receive home care every year, she said, with 730,000 in the publicly-funded system. That means several hundred thousand people in Ontario are either receiving reduced home care services or no care at all, VanderBent said.

Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing, said the home care situation is dire. Wage parity can solve some of the problems, he said.

"A nurse working in an acute care hospital makes far more than a nurse working in a long-term care home who makes far more than a nurse working in home care," Sinha said.

"What we've really seen right now is a huge cannibalization of our home care workforce, especially when it comes to nursing."

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the home care system, he said.

Nurses left the industry early in the pandemic when assessment and testing centres popped up across the province. The drain continued when nurses were needed for mass vaccination clinics and later for contact tracing, he said.

And they were all paid a premium for those jobs.

"All of a sudden you have all these nursing jobs on the market to deal with the COVID response that pay far better than what a nurse working in a home care system was doing," Sinha said.

Both Sinha and VanderBent agree the problem is expected to get worse due to the looming, massive surgery backlog created by the pandemic.

Patients can often leave the hospital sooner after surgery if they have home care lined up, they said.

"When you don't have home care available, it means people end up waiting in hospital longer to be able to go home and it creates an entire system that becomes dysfunctional," Sinha said. "It's why we ended up having hallway medicine."

Ontario's former Liberal government had increased funding for home care so seniors could stay longer in their homes.

Sinha worked with the Liberals on the seniors' strategy. He said the money, an increase of five per cent year over year from 2012 to 2018 when the Progressive Conservatives formed government, helped create 30,000 more "virtual long-term care beds" where people received care at home rather than in nursing homes.

He said it costs more than $700 a day to treat a patient in hospital versus $200 a day for someone in long-term care and $103 for home care.

Sinha pointed to Denmark, a country that invested heavily in home care in the late 1980s, as a model to emulate.

Of the money allotted to long-term care, Denmark spends 64 per cent on home and community-based care, Sinha said. The remainder goes to nursing homes.

The results have been impressive, Sinha said. The country was able to avoid building new nursing homes for nearly 20 years, closed several thousand nursing home beds because they weren't needed and saved 12 per cent in overall long-term care expenditures on those 80 years and older.

There is growing demand for home care in Ontario.

In a recent survey of more than 1,000 people aged 55 and older commissioned by Home Care Ontario, 91 per cent said they'd prefer to remain at home if additional supports were available. Those numbers resemble previous polls by the National Institute on Aging where the vast majority of respondents 65 and older preferred home over long-term care.

"This is a rare opportunity when what the people want you to do is actually the cheapest thing for your government," Sinha said. "Why wouldn't the government do that? I'm left scratching my head."

Health Minister spokeswoman Alexandra Hilkene said the department pays out more than $3 billion annually for home care and has invested more than $100 million this year to support home care for patients with "high, complex-care needs."

She said the province is also working towards a home care "modernization strategy" that includes legislation that will allow for better "patient-centred" care.

Despite the extreme stress, Marcaccio said she's glad her sister lived with her until she died in the spring.

"I knew that in her declining well-being, she had the peace of mind and emotional security of being in a familiar place surrounded by people she knew," she said.

"But there needs to be a better way."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2021.

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Player grades: Oilers dominate early, hang on late to edge Canucks 2-1 - Edmonton Journal

Author of the article:

Bruce McCurdy  •  Edmonton Journal

Connor McDavid put on another fabulous show in Vancouver Saturday night. Photo by Bob Frid /USA TODAY Sports

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Oilers 2, Canucks 1

Edmonton Oilers bounced back from their first defeat of the season in the best way possible, playing a dominant first period and an overall strong two-way game in Vancouver to beat the Canucks, 2-1 in regulation.

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The Oilers had the better of play at 5v5, but were only able to solve a red-hot Thatcher Demko with the man advantage. The visitors scored on both of their powerplay opportunities to open a 2-0 lead through 2 periods, then held on down the stretch as Vancouver pulled their goalie with 4 minutes to play and threw everything including the kitchen sink at the Edmonton net the rest of the way. Mikko Koskinen had the answers, including a pair of brilliant saves during a hairy 6-on-4 powerplay to keep the 2-goal cushion. Alas he was beaten in the dying seconds to lose his shutout even as the game was effectively won already.

In a game where score effects ruled late, the two clubs sawed off in “Corski” and “Fenski” (as hilariously recorded by Natural Stat Trick in their otherwise orthodox game report). The Oilers outshot the Canucks 34-30 despite allowing the last 8 shots of the game, and held a significant 16-7 advantage in Grade A scoring chances as logged here at the Cult of Hockey .

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Player grades

#2 Duncan Keith, 6. A generally strong game with a couple of good shots in the first period, one of which rang the crossbar. Had one breakdown in the late going but Koskinen had the answer. 6 blocked shots.

#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Very solid positionally and held his own or better in a significant number of puck battles. Moved the puck effectively. 3 shots, 2 hits, 1 block.

#8 Kyle Turris, 5. One defensive miscue when he was late to cover a wraparound play, and one major contribution at the other end when he set McDavid up for a good look during a double shift by #97. Also played a role in the build-up to Foegele’s powerplay marker. 3/5=60% on the dot.

#10 Derek Ryan, 6. Edmonton’s third line had a solid night and Ryan played his part, firing 3 shots on net and posting a strong 8/13=62% on the faceoff dot.

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#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 7. Held off the scoresheet for the first time all season Played a strong defensive game, tracking the puck hard and winning a number of battles along the walls. Drew a penalty that led to an Oilers goal. Rang the iron on a 10-bell chance set up by McDavid, when he had half the net to shoot at but cut it a bit too fine. That was his best chance to extend his career-high 6-game point streak.

#14 Devin Shore, 5.  Played a team-low 7:32 including just 2 shifts in the final period after Dave Tippett shortened the bench. Played physically with 3 hits and had a nice pass to send Kassian in on a partial breakaway, but had a little chaos in the defensive end of the sheet.

#16 Tyler Benson, 5. Took a couple of hits to make the play, and dished out a couple of his own. Some good passes other than one that went awry in the defensive slot. Had a brief 2-on-1 opportunity with Draisaitl but fumbled the puck, completely gassed at the end of a 1:45 shift. Got an opportunity to play in his old stomping grounds of Vancouver, where he played his entire junior career including three years as the Giants captain. Maybe one of these days he will also get a chance to play in his home town of Edmonton, but to this point all 9 of his career games have been on the road.

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#18 Zach Hyman, 6.  Played his part on an effective first line. He’s a faster skater than generally credited and really showed those wheels on a rink-length dash that nearly turned nothing into something. Made a key defensive play to swat down and control a dangerous aerial pass. Played 1:50 of the 4v6 penalty kill near game’s end and got the job done. Something of a culprit on the one Vancouver goal which he watched from the blue line rather than collapsing into the slot to help out.

#19 Mikko Koskinen, 8. Bounced back hard from Wednesday’s bad outing, delivering a rock-solid performance in what turned into a goaltending duel. Held his ground in moments of pressure, even as Vancouver missed the target with their best looks throughout much of the game; perhaps the massive goalie they were trying to beat had something to do with that. Did his best work in the late going after the Canucks went to 6 attackers, making a pair of gigantic stops off J.T. Miller, then Brock Boeser second later. Unlucky to lose his shutout in the dying seconds after a bad bounce and some soft defensive coverage, but much more importantly he got the win, his 4th in 5 appearances since Mike Smith got hurt. 30 shots, 29 saves, .967 save percentage.

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#20 Slater Koekkoek, 4. Played 12 minutes on the third pairing and recorded the rare clean sheet on the Event Summary with 0 shot attempts, hits, blocks or anything else. Somehow was not charged with a turnover on a failed scoop clearance that went straight to Boeser who immediately tested Koskinen. Oilers were outshot 10-5 on his watch.

#22 Tyson Barrie, 5. His shot shares were identical to his partner Koekkoek’s. Did muster a dangerous shot through a screen, and also hit the post with a well crafted shot from a difficult angle. More importantly he had a solid defensive game, winning a few key battles including an excellent 1v1 stop of the elusive Elias Pettersson in open ice. Burned for 0 Grade A chances.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Oilers’ first pairing was comfortably their best, with Edmonton dominating possession to the tune of ~70% in all shot shares. Nurse led the d-corps in ice time (25:02), shots (5), shot attempts (9) and hits (3), while earning a primary assist on Foegele’s powerplay goal. Made a dazzling move in the neutral zone when he suddenly reversed his tracks up the boards to lose his would-be checker and lead the attack. He did however take a penalty in the late going which caused some nervous moments, even as Nurse had some cause to bark at the official after being taken down earlier in the sequence.

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#29 Leon Draisaitl, 6. Not his best night, especially on the faceoff dot where he went just 5/19=26%. His line spent too little time with the puck as a result. He did however play a strong defensive game, using his giant stick to advantage to cut out a couple of dangerous passes while committing zero major mistakes on chances against. And, oh yeah, scored the game winning goal on the powerplay.

#37 Warren Foegele, 7. Opened the scoring with a rare second-unit powerplay goal, planting his feet at the edge of the blue paint and powering a rebound shot past a diving Demko and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Otherwise played a sound two-way game on a strong line which carried the play most of the night.

#44 Zack Kassian, 6. Led the charge physically with 3 heavy hits, drawing the ire of Vancouver d-man Luke Schenn but refusing multiple invitations to drop the mitts. Probably a wise decision given the bad outcomes of his last two scraps, both of which landed him on IR. Besides, on this night Kassian was needed on the ice, where he played 12 solid minutes. Had a great chance on a partial breakaway but was harassed by big Tyler Myers and didn’t get a lot on his shot.

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#56 Kailer Yamamoto, 6. A fairly quiet night offensively, which included 0 shot attempts. Did have one good look off a fine Draisaitl setup but was unable to pull the trigger. But did some fine work on the other side of the puck. Cranked Ekman-Larsson with a solid early hit. Won a battle to start an Oilers possession that resulted in Keith’s shot off the crossbar. Most importantly, drew a penalty that led to the game-winning powerplay goal.

#75 Evan Bouchard, 7. His ascension to the first pairing has been the pleasant surprise of the young season. The puck was moving north when he and Nurse were on the ice, with Edmonton outshooting Vancouver 14-6 during Bouchard’s nearly 24 minutes at even strength. Got half a minute on the second powerplay unit and made it count, earning an assist on Foegele’s powerplay goal. Perhaps was a bit too passive on Boeser’s goal with 7 seconds to play but didn’t get a lot of help either on the broken play.

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#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Became the first NHLer this season to reach double digits in assist, when he recovered a deflected puck in the slot and instantly fed it Draisaitl in the right circle for the finish. His 10th apple of the season and 6th on Oilers’ devastating powerplay. 3 shots, 2 hits, 1 block in 20:17 of ice time.

#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Held to less than 2 points for the first time all season, even as it was likely his best game to date. His body of work included the customary dazzling skating and puck control, 9 shots on net,  a phenomenal pass that Puljujarvi rang off the post, a great defensive stop against Bo Horvat that may well have saved a goal, and the biggest hit of the night. Schenn appeared to have McDavid in the trolley tracks, but the Oilers star braced himself, absorbed the heavy collision and dropped the 225-pound defender on the seat of his pants. 7/11=64% on the dot. Terrific shot shares of 15 for, just 6 against, and 7 contributions to Grade A shots compared to 0 against. The Canucks couldn’t contain him; only Demko stood between #97 and another big night.

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Recently at the Cult of Hockey

STAPLES: Oilers lines coming together, all except one

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LEAVINS: Player grades from Oilers home loss to Philly

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McCURDY: Darnell Nurse and his impressive transition game

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Player grades: Oilers dominate early, hang on late to edge Canucks 2-1 - Edmonton Journal
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