Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Health Canada says some manufacturers of kids' pain and fever medications are now operating "at double or triple their normal volumes" in an effort to address a months-long shortage.
Chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said in a press briefing Friday the government is working with the industry to address the supply crunch ahead of flu season.
A shortage of common children's pain relievers containing acetaminophen and ibuprofen such as Tylenol and Advil that began in the spring has sent caregivers across the country scrambling, with pharmacies implementing purchase limits on the products or keeping stock behind the counter.
Sharma said the government is also "exploring other options" to address the need, including importing products from other countries, adding the ongoing issue is related to an uptick in viral illness over the summer and exacerbated by panic buying.
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said he has personally spoken to several manufacturers -- including Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Tylenol, and Haleon, which makes Advil -- about the need to increase supply and keep up with "unprecedented demand."
Earlier this week federal Conservative health critic Michael Barrett called on Ottawa to employ emergency tools that allow the importation of health products that comply with Canadian regulations.
Duclos said he's stressing the need for industry to collaborate with pediatricians and pharmacists to find both short- and long-term solutions to the problem.
"I was assured that an increased accelerated production rate was going to continue in order to meet the increased need that we've noted over the last few months, and which likely could continue over the next few months," Duclos said.
In the meantime, Sharma said parents should avoid panic buying, especially from sources that are not credible, adding fevers in children are "usually" a symptom of an infection and not harmful.
"Not all fevers necessarily need to be treated," said Sharma, suggesting warm baths and cold compresses as alternatives.
However, she said parents should see health-care practitioners for fevers that are "very high" and "persistent" or in children younger than three months.
Health Canada also recommends against using expired products, Sharma said, and cautioned about the risks of giving kids adjusted doses of adult medications, "because it's very easy to overdose on acetaminophen and cause liver injury."
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.