B.C.’s teachers vote 98% in favour of new agreement

VANCOUVER — B.C. teachers have voted to approve a new, three-year collective agreement with the provincial government.

The deal with the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association includes general wage increases of two per cent every year along with a mediated process on how to better support negotiations in the future.

The BC Teachers Federation says the agreement was ratified with 98 per cent of its members voting in favour.

The agreement covers just over 45,000 teachers represented by the federation, who work in the province’s 60 school districts.

The provincial government says roughly 300,000 public sector employees are now covered by tentative or ratified agreements.

The tentative agreement was reached after more than a year of bargaining between the two sides.

Thousands apply within minutes for $1,000 relief

VICTORIA — Finance Minister Carole James says thousands of people applied for British Columbia’s $1,000 tax-free emergency benefit in the first minutes of the program going online today.

James says the program is part of the province’s $5 billion plan to help people, businesses and organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is also available to people in B.C. who are receiving the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit of $2,000 a month.

To get the B.C. benefit, people must have been a resident of the province on March 15, be eligible and approved to receive the federal benefit, be at least 15 years old on the application date, and have filed or agreed to file a 2019 tax return.

James says people receiving provincial income or disability assistance are not eligible for the benefit.

PEI will cautiously begin gradual return to normal

CHARLOTTETOWN — Prince Edward Island is poised today to become the second province to cautiously begin a gradual return to normal.

It will restart priority, non-urgent health-care services, including some elective surgeries and certain health providers, including physiotherapists, optometrists and chiropractors. And it will begin allowing outdoor gatherings and non-contact outdoor recreational activities of no more than five individuals from different households.

P.E.I. follows New Brunswick’s move last week to allow limited golfing, fishing and hunting; interactions between two families; and a return to school for post-secondary students. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba are also planning to ease some restrictions.

Quebec, which has seen the largest number of COVID19 cases and deaths, is set to reopen retail stores outside Montreal on Monday, with those in Montreal to follow on May 11. Schools and daycares outside Montreal are set to re-open May 11 as well.

Prisoner needle exchange is constitutional says judge

TORONTO — It’s too soon to brand Canada’s new prison-exchange program as unconstitutional given that correctional authorities are still making changes to it as they roll it out, an Ontario court has ruled.

In a judgment that activists denounced as a setback for prisoner and public health, Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba dismissed an application to find the recently introduced program violates the charter rights of drug-addicted inmates.

“Several material changes have already been made, including certain changes that were the target of the applicants’ constitutional challenge,” Belobaba said. “Passing judgment on the constitutionality of a (program) that is only one-quarter complete and whose final design remains uncertain would be neither prudent nor just.”

Groups including the Canadian HIV/AIDS Network and former inmate Steven Simons, who said he contracted hepatitis C while in prison, launched the case in 2012. At the time, Correctional Service Canada had a blanket ban on sterile injection equipment for drug users.

Since then, correctional authorities have accepted that illegal drugs and injection use are a fact of life in prisons, and that providing sterile equipment helps prevent diseases spread by shared needles.

Corrections began rolling out their harm-reduction program in June 2018 and had made it available in 11 of 43 institutions until the COVID-19 pandemic forced a hiatus in March.

Simons and the others argued the program was ineffective and unconstitutional because authorities failed to recognize it as essential health care, and that guards would know who was participating and single the person out for added scrutiny. They argued participation could hurt their release chances.

Concerns of how spread virus is in First Nations

OTTAWA — Federal officials say the next two weeks will be crucial in trying to determine the scope and severity of the spread of COVID-19 in First Nations communities.

Cases of the virus have begun to present within Indigenous communities across Canada, including the first case in Nunavut — something health officials have been bracing for with concern, given the many vulnerabilities that exist among Indigenous populations.

Dr. Tom Wong, chief medical officer of public health at Indigenous Services Canada, says it's too early to determine the severity of these outbreaks and whether the situation will worsen.

He said health officials are closely monitoring the situations and have jumped into action where needed.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller noted a particular concern over an outbreak in the Dene village of La Loche, about 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

Conservative MP Gary Vidal, who represents the northern Saskatchewan riding where the village is located, said his concern is personal.