CBC News: The National | Ontario to impose stay-at-home order | April 6, 2021

good evening i'm adrian arsenault and i'm andrew chang tonight faced with aggressive covet cases ontario treads softly we need to start vaccinating education workers and essential workers now what is the delay toronto isn't waiting it's taking some 300 000 children out of schools new concerns in alberta about cases of a variant and transparency about them i just learned that now somebody told me one of my customers told me about it what a hot housing market means for policy makers sellers and buyers you need to expect that that price is going to go up by 300 to 600 thousand dollars and what it takes to rebuild a food chain if you start with the herring and work up it can happen the importance of the humble herring this is the national we are starting tonight with breaking news from ontario the province has seen a spike in cases propelled by variants that has caused enormous concerns about the impacts on hospitals icus and frontline staff the calls for action from doctors have been loud and increasingly urgent but until now the government has seemed to resist decisive moves there was a late day cabinet meeting in ontario today and cbc news has learned that new measures will come into effect tomorrow at midnight those measures will include an emergency declaration with a stay-at-home order and there's a lot more planned what does this all mean what will be closed what stays open back to gabriel celesta has been chasing the details and joins us now so makta can you walk us through what we now know about the stay-at-home order well a lot of changes coming through so we know that the stay at home order will be province-wide and this is something we were expecting to hear but now we know that in fact that will be announced so let's talk about what's open and what's closed this is essentially going to impact the non-essential businesses more more than anything else so those retail shops they can no longer have customers inside their stores during the current shutdown that we've been under they were allowed to do that now those retail shops will have to rely on curbside and delivery what about those big box stores well they can only keep the pharmacy and the grocery aisles open everything else has to be blocked off as for what's staying open grocery stores pharmacies are staying open garden centers are staying open as well and this of course is is a means to kind of address what we've been seeing in the last few days there have been videos of large crowds in different various settings whether it's malls or big box stores and so these restrictions really moving to address some of that and what we know is that they will be in place for at least four weeks and police enforcement will be part of this adrian okay so that's interesting that will probably take a little while to get into effect but but are you hearing reaction to any of these renewed restrictions well we have been hearing from doctors for days now they have been calling for a stay-at-home order so no doubt they'll be pleased to hear that that is being put in place but earlier today we spoke with doctors who had signed a letter more than 200 of them who had asked the province to put in uh more stricter measures including a stay-at-home order they also asked for paid sick days for essential workers the vaccination of essential workers to be prioritized having 24-hour vaccination sites also uh be put in place on all of this was to address what is that the surging cases of covid in this province we know today more than 3 000 new cases hospitalizations are up i see you at admissions in fact 510 people are in the icu that is the most that has been recorded since the pandemic began and so these doctors had sent this letter to the province asking for stricter measures and that you know it would take stricter measures to really put a stop to the spread of this virus and of course now we know that a stay-at-home order is being put in place for at least four weeks so some of the requests that those doctors have made will be met adrian indeed so none of this has been announced yet we know we're expecting to hear more from the premier tomorrow this is just what cbc news has been able to learn tonight we also heard that ontario is expanding vaccine eligibility can you tell us more about that yeah that was the other uh big news today we knew we heard that um the province was moving vaccinations to people that were uh you know 50 in not 50 in hot zones so that was uh the big news but then we were hearing criticism for from others who were saying you know what the province really needs to vaccinate younger essential workers that that needed to be a priority now those younger essential workers are not going to be made a priority until mid-may possibly and that's what we were hearing we were hearing a lot of criticism i spoke to one teacher who said teachers essential workers really need to get those vaccines now a grocery store owner told me he's worried about taking the virus home and he wants to get the vaccination he wants his workers to be vaccinated as well and they want to be made a priority right now we may hear that things may change and they maybe become the priority in the next few days but we should learn more tomorrow okay thank you matt uh certainly listening to you talk mobile vaccinations will be part of what we understand is coming later on in the show uh everyone we will we'll see that a team going door to door in a critical toronto neighborhood thank you for all that work max thank you you're welcome british columbia surpassed 1 000 daily cases for just the fifth time today and all five times have come in the past week that's part of the reason the province is moving to the next phase of its vaccine plan which includes an online registration that as briar stewart shows us some 160 000 people signed up for gary gates had his son lucas by his side when he got his shot this afternoon at this casino turned vaccination clinic i want to be protected from our kids because both have special needs one with aspergers and one with down syndrome so now i feel safer being around other people and then coming home you have to give credit to where credit is due and lucas logged on this morning and signed him and his mother up for shots once they're eligible i feel absolutely fantastic knowing the fact that the the light at the end of the tunnel is closer bc launched an online booking system today those over 71 along with indigenous adults and those with certain chronic conditions can book their shots now everyone else can register and will be notified when it's their turn it was the simplest website ever been into it just was four questions answered entered and that was it the process much smoother than when the phone system launched last month and many reported spending hours trying to get through we all become a little bit safer and we will get through this next few months until all of our communities are protected but not everything is full steam ahead essential workers were getting the astrazeneca vaccine but that program is paused because of concerns it could be linked to rare blood clots instead those doses are being given to people between the age of 55 and 65 where the risk is believed to be much lower it's really critical that essential workers get vaccinated especially when we're looking at the numbers in bc as i say and the number of exposure notifications to schools over the long weekend was quite overwhelming the province is hoping to start vaccinating more essential workers later this month once it receives a shipment of the johnson and johnson vaccine bc's goal remains to have everyone eligible receive their first shot by the end of june briar stewart cbc news vancouver as more and more canadians sign up to get a shot the federal government is celebrating that vaccine milestone today more than 10 million vaccine doses have now been delivered to the provinces and territories that includes nearly 700 thousand from pfizer that arrived just this week in total 67 percent of all the vaccine doses received have been administered across the country so that gap between doses received and doses administered was highlighted by the health minister today and as david cochran shows us ontario's premier just took that as a reason to fire back the political focus has largely been on the number of doses coming into the country but that's shifting to how long it takes to get those doses into herms why can't you get this done faster what's the problem here okay so i'm going to respectfully disagree with you here ontario's premier forced to explain after this series of tweets from the federal health minister in which patti haidu pointed out how many doses her government has delivered how many have been used and how many are sitting in freezers i saw some tweet from a federal minister oh we we have a million and a million three in the freezers we just got those we literally got them a few days ago so before that we're running out and will continue to run out canadians expect access to this information they want to have credible sources of information haidu denies her tweets were intended to provoke or suggest provinces were moving too slow but it comes after a tough winter where premier canada under mr trudeau's leadership is behind many third world developing countries after premiere enough's enough this is becoming a joke we need more vaccines simple as that politicize the vaccine supply well i think we're in a situation where everyone is exhausted but in a battle over shots the prime minister held his fire stressing a team canada approach even though teamwork is in short supply this has been a very very long year and as a federal government we've not engaged in pointing fingers or laying blame or judging we're not going to do that haidu says her tweets weren't a provocation but they're also not a one-time thing she plans to give weekly updates on vaccine deliveries and vaccine use and let the numbers and the premiers speak for themselves david cochran cbc news ottawa quebec's seven-day average is pushing higher and the premier is warning april will be dangerous so today action on two friends tightening restrictions and opening up who's allowed to get the vaccine allison northcott takes us through all of it we just opened not even two weeks ago so gym owner louise argumez is facing yet another shutdown as quebec tightens restrictions it only recently lifted he was enjoying the comeback everybody was so excited everybody was in a good mood and i feel like closing the gyms down will make things difficult for them quebec's premier says while montreal's cases are more stable than other parts of the province he worries that could change soon the month of april will be critical so in montreal and other red zones gyms will close places of worship will have a capacity of 25 and high school students will go back to alternating days in class and online i ask for a last effort the variant is very dangerous please be careful last week quebec imposed a 10-day shutdown in some regions outside montreal with variants in those areas fueling transmission the province needs to lower the risk everywhere says this infectious diseases specialist we risk to have an exponential growth in the number of cases if we keep the measures as they were the province is also adjusting its vaccine rollout after 5 000 vaccine appointments in montreal went unbooked over the easter weekend quebec's health minister christian dube says it was hard to see that happen but insists no doses were wasted and the province is now preparing to expand access starting thursday quebecers 55 and up can get the astrazeneca vaccine and tomorrow the health minister will lay out a plan to vaccinate essential workers and people with chronic illnesses all those people living with that risk have been extremely stressed to get this what is still stressful from the healthcare professional is that we still don't have precise list of what are going to be those diseases teachers and other workers are also eager for details on when they will be offered the vaccine alison northcott cbc news montreal today canada's top doctor warned against the spread of covet variants including the dangerous p1 strain first detected in brazil her message young people are vulnerable and the shield of vaccination may not be ironclad we don't have enough information from other countries including brazil about how well these vaccines work against p1 so the number of new icu patients has jumped 18 since last week and about a third of covid patients in hospital now require intensive care that is up from less than a fifth in mid-january there is growing evidence that variants are causing that spike now new outbreaks in alberta involving the p1 variant have sparked concern and frustration in several communities many people say they were not adequately notified by government or health officials carolyn dunn tracks that tonight slowly but surely word about the p-1 outbreak is spreading throughout drayton valley i just learned that now somebody told me one of my customers told me about it i really didn't have any idea that we have that strain right now this town of about seven thousand is one of three alberta communities to learn the highly contagious p1 variant has hit a nearby workplace an employee at this energy company brought the p1 variant from out of province travel to one of its sites soon it had spread to three different locations one person is dead two are in icu no one from alberta health services informed the towns the mayor of edson alberta found out about the outbreak at this ptw energy services site in the media and our community has a lot of anxiety now because they don't know any information i don't know any information they look to me for information i'm like i don't know and absolute silence from alberta health on this hospitalizations and icu admissions have been rising in alberta highly contagious variants are now the driving force behind sharply rising caseloads so alberta is adding new restrictions as much as its premier has been loathed to do so this morning the covet cabinet committee decided that we must take make strong steps to slow the spike and to start bending down the curve one last time in-room dining and bars will be shut down again all indoor social gatherings in fact personal and medical services will stay open by appointment and schools are to remain open too but many medical experts wonder if today's announcement is not too little too late we expect that the hospitals in alberta will be in a severe crisis in two to three weeks time while vaccinations are ramping up by the day things are likely to get worse before they get better again carolyn dunn cbc news calgary south of the border the u.s president is pushing for an even faster pace in vaccinations by no later than april 19th in every part of this country every adult over the age of 18 18 or older will be eligible to be vaccinated so that's nearly two weeks sooner than the previous may first deadline so far about 40 percent of adult americans have gotten at least one dose of vaccine that is far ahead of most countries in total the us has has administered 167 million doses now here's an interesting twist on the vaccine story there is growing evidence that they don't just protect you from getting covet but also that they seem to work as a treatment for long haulers those people who continue to have sometimes debilitating symptoms even months after the illness vicodopia explains when elaine mccartney got sick with covet 19 last april the pain fatigue and mental fog wouldn't go away i was going to the gym four times a week i was running five k's twice a week i could dead lift a hundred pounds and now i have trouble lifting a coffee cup some days then last month she got the pfizer shot after a few days her condition changed noticeably i was able to go to the store on my own which i haven't done for eight months and my energy was up and my pain was less other patients are also seeing unexpected improvements the first study out from the uk still awaiting peer review followed 44 hospitalized patients whose symptoms persisted after their first shot 27 of them had temporary side effects such as fever and headache 10 saw some of their long covid symptoms disappear and no one got worse from vaccines there is a slight hint they might make things a bit better although we're a bit suspicious about that given the small numbers there isn't yet a lot of published research into long covid especially in canada but in the u.s which is farther ahead in vaccinating people with both shots that hint of improvement is becoming significant very encouraging but i think we're starting to pin down about a 40 percent of people are reporting either complete or significant improvement this researcher is seeing that recovery in thousands of new york healthcare workers who had long covid but the science of why it's happening is still not understood i think the most persuasive theory for me is that the virus was never completely cleared or whatever remnants might still be there are now able to be cleared because the robust response that's triggered by the vaccines answers will come in time and will be welcomed by so many vicadopia cbc news toronto there's no place like home a feeling that's perhaps never been more relevant than in the past year and hot new housing numbers from the toronto area prove it home sales nearly doubled from last march to this march the average selling price shot up by more than 21 percent now just shy of 1.1 million dollars and it's not just toronto or vancouver anymore as peter armstrong tells us similar scenes are playing out across the country come on in check it out slick videos and high gloss listings are now the norm in canada's frenzied real estate market record low interest rates and a pandemic fueled drive for more space are pushing prices ever higher pre-covet your home was your castle but during covid oh my god you're working out from home you're homeschooling from home you're working from home and you're relaxing at home so she says condo dwellers are buying houses homeowners are buying bigger houses and others are buying cottages and bidding wars mean the original listing price is well unrealistic you need to expect that that price is going to go up by 300 to 600 thousand dollars obsessing over real estate is something of a national sport here but some experts say even by canada's overheated expectations alarm bells are going off in some ways this is the most dangerous uh most dangerous buildup of prices that i've seen and you know i've been i've been doing this since the early 80s his concern is that if things get too hot too fast a correction becomes inevitable we think something has to be done to cool demand before you know a lot of people get in over their heads the question is what raising interest rates would do the trick but that would slow the economic recovery from covid and some say if higher home prices are the cost of getting the economy back on track so be it i don't think we're facing something that's going to cause a major financial calamity in the economy it's like a side effect of the medicine that we need to take in order to get the economy moving for now the policy priority is focused on getting covid under control so shops can reopen and people can get back to work talk about sun filled the gamble for policy makers and real estate agents alike is that the long-speculated housing bubble bursts making a historically bad situation much worse peter armstrong cbc news toronto well actors are calling on hollywood to stop the pervasive stereotypes of asian women in film [Music] he was so funny the tropes perpetuated in pop culture and the impact they're having on real life i don't leave i think that this is like really scary plus some ontario hospitals are rolling out mobile vaccine clinics to reach people living in hot spots we're doing vaccinations today would you like a shot we get a first-hand look at the effort to reach those most at risk and surfing on a river a makeshift wave to ride all year round it's winter you just get a little bit thicker of a suit on and it's kind of the same is it though we're back into welcome back police have been cleared in the death of a father in distress last june outside toronto ontario's special investigations unit says when ijaz chowdhry was shot he was carrying a knife and approaching peel police officers it says officers first tried to subdue him with a stun gun and rubber bullets chowdry's death sparked weeks of protest field police are conducting their own review weeks after the fatal shootings in atlanta georgia there is a reckoning about the portrayal of asians in movies and shows in particular asian women and especially the dehumanizing of them through sexualized stereotypes eli glasner looks at what's being done to change that three asian women different backgrounds different cities growing sense of of antagonism i'm scared not only for myself but also you know my family members it's really us who are under attack the same concerns the shootings at the spas in atlanta that left six asian women dead have reignited a conversation about how the media dehumanizes them moving image media is so powerful in the past hollywood has often treated asian women's sexuality as something to be feared or mocked we love you a long time the hurtful caricatures still pop up in popular sitcoms and cartoons asian women young old they feel hyper-sexualized you know they feel this call this definition being imposed upon them which means that we must use media in order to define ourselves my korean name is moran comedian margaret cho says a reluctance to speak out is why anti-asian hate crimes have been under reported it's like a very uh stow-sized version of kind of holding in your suffering so that you don't appear weak have you carted any of the frat parties down the street but canadian actor and writer amanda joy is part of a new wave of voices she remembers the advice an agent gave her when she started don't tell anybody that you're filipino unless all you want to do is play maids and nannies she still gets sent those roles part of the problem she says producers are reluctant to hire people of color even though databases are widely available we literally made a website to make it easier and people are still using the excuse that there's nobody qualified but the success of kim's convenience and oscar contender minari are changing the narrative we're at that sort of crossroads where things are going to come through and it's going to get better it has to as the industry starts to see the value of specific stories over stereotypes eli glasner cbc news toronto well today marks three years since the humboldt broncos bus crash and tonight the community held a special online memorial service a church bell rang 29 times once for each person who was killed or injured when a truck plowed into the broncos hockey team bus the community is also planning to build a tribute center to honor the victims many ontario doctors are calling on the provinces to vaccinate essential workers some hospitals are doing just that most of them are working in the food industry and so they needed the support community leaders taking the vaccine from clinics directly to those at highest risk plus are there any clinical studies for any of the vaccines for youth as the third wave forces some schools closed again what would you ask a doctor about covet and kids vaccines variants who's vulnerable stay with us [Music] well with much of the country firmly locked in a third wave there is renewed worry over the variance particularly in younger people with increasing rates of inflation we are seeing a greater number of younger adults with kelvin 19 being treated in hospital and along with that concern the snap decision we heard about earlier in the program with a big swath of ontario shutting down in-class learning only to resume in about two weeks time so let's bring in infectious diseases specialists dr zane chagla and infectious diseases pediatrician dr fatima kakar to help answer some of your questions about kids schools and vaccines hello to the both of you dr chaglil we've got lots to get through so let's get right to it um you know given the kind of crisis point that we're at where hundreds of thousands of kids are being moved entirely to virtual learning uh let's start with this timely question from john well i fully support prioritizing vaccinations for frontline workers and medical professionals and understand the mental health benefits to keeping children in school i can't understand why teachers haven't yet been given a place in the vaccination queue dr chagliff what do you think yeah i mean i think it's a very good point you know there are areas of of ontario particularly that have really really high burdens and we're seeing schools being shut down in those areas i think prioritizing teachers within those areas where we're seeing high burdens where other frontline workers and essential workers are being vaccinated only makes sense to vaccinate teachers administrators the people that clean schools child care operators as part of that is as realizing that they live in the communities that are in high burden um that they're exposed to people and they can't work from home and again you know the safety of continuing schools with everything on ongoing really does rely on having a healthy workforce right well and just so i'm clear this is an argument in your mind that extends not just to all kind of essential frontline workers but to teachers in particular yeah i mean teachers should be involved in the essential worker group uh as part of that role as they are essential workers they're people that can't work from home that do provide a service in the community where they can be exposed to covet uh speaking of vaccination dr kurkar can you take this next question question this is from paul i'm wondering are there any clinical studies for any of the vaccines for youth that have been released or are pending i'm a parent uh this is a question that i have as well what do you think so some good news on that friend last week's flights or had their press release so they released their data on their 12 to 15 year olds and it looks like their vaccine works great there were no cases in their vaccine group so they're actually submitting for emergency youth authorization and potentially the pfizer one will be approved as early as the summer if not the fall madras also finished their enrollment for the 12 to 15 year olds so that age group potentially will have their vaccines approved by fall unfortunately for the younger children it's going to be a little bit longer because those studies are still underway and they actually have to do what they call those escalation studies so we need to find the right dose so we're still in phase one two for the six months to eleven-year-old so good news for the older kids for the younger kids is still going to be a while right so so months away at a minimum dr chaglow with you know vaccinations still more of this kind of medium to long-term solution we have gotten a lot of questions about masking so so in british columbia for example they're talking about mandatory masking for grades four and up but the question we commonly get is what about even younger kids so should great ones even kindergarteners be masking more consistently yeah i mean i i think especially as things transmit masking is you know an important fail-safe in school it helps prevent transmission recognizing that you know kids over the age of three or four are able to mass consistently i would you know caution though around the kindergarten age group the cognitive abilities of kids and their ability to actually keep it on for prolonged amount of time pulling it off shouldn't necessarily discriminate them about staying in the classroom but i think certainly after grade one it could be an expectation and it's been working in ontario we've been able to do that uh aggressively and um haven't seen any deleterious side effects from it and with what we know about transmission in kids you're saying that the benefits of masking even for someone as young as grade 1 or grade 2 outweighs the the pain involved in in making it stick yeah i mean it's not going to be perfect in that age group but it probably does provide some help and recognizing that we're putting kids in in confined classrooms the ventilation may not be adequate you probably want as many barriers as you can for them to prevent transmission from person to person dr kakar what does the latest evidence suggest about how vulnerable children actually are especially with the variants that are circulating so one thing that's super important to realize is that when we talk about younger people getting it more they're getting it more but they're not sicker so younger children so under the age of 19 yes there are increasing cases in schools and so there are increasing numbers overall but they're not sicker from the new variant so across our hospitals here in canada we're not seeing a surge in pediatric nations and that's exactly what they saw in the uk so even if we have these variants circulating they're not thicker from it but let me pick on some pick up on something you just said dr carr is it that that we do believe schools can be a significant driver of transmission because i thought the the early narrative was that schools weren't a place that we had to be overly preoccupied with so i think two things changed so that first wave kids were home so we weren't seeing you know we weren't seeing high rates of transmission but now kids are in school we had winter where there was way less ventilation and we have the variants that are in school and the variants are clearly more transmissible so kids can transmit they can get the infection they can transmit the infection and with these new variants the issue is that they're more transmissible so we put everything together in these last century months and that's where we've seen this increasing number in school okay we have time for uh one more question dr chagla maybe i'll have this one uh for you it's a very forward-looking question maybe a little bit of a scary one this is from nathan now that we're vaccinating more and more elderly people and older adults is there a risk that the virus that causes covid19 could mutate to become more dangerous for younger adults or even children ah that that's kind of interesting is that a a viable possibility yeah i mean there's been a lot of discussion around these variants and mutations and i think you know you have to put it into context we have had hundreds of millions of people infected in this world and really in the context of a year and three months of transmission we have seen three major mutations emerge that have been you know part of what we we talked about on a day-to-day basis as you vaccinate more people that pool is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and every one of these mutations is a random probability if you have less and less and less populations the probability of that mutation happening starts shrinking and shrinking and shrinking every day and so you know again a mass vaccine effort will likely work to reduce the number of variants and mutations because that circulating pool that that chance of having the mutant emerge in the pool starts getting smaller and smaller and smaller as less and less individuals are susceptible to infection okay dr zane chagla is an infectious diseases specialist and dr fatima kakar is an infectious diseases pediatrician thank you both of you for your time thank you as ontario closes more schools some hospitals are racing to vaccinate in hot spots this community was hit hard the community leaders at the front lines of the vaccine rollout next welcome back across canada the race to get people vaccinated is increasingly a matter of life and death in one toronto covet hot spot the race is on a mobile vaccination team is going building to building even door-to-door giving doses to vulnerable canadians joanna miliotis got access to the operation and tonight she brings us along they usually get a day's notice of where to head to next kovit keeps spreading this mobile vaccine team is trying to keep up and bringing in a fighting chance the location another residential building in thorncliffe park as the crisis widens every vial every syringe drawn from it is an exercise in precision targeting those at higher risk of getting kovid and of spreading it muhammad khan works at a grocery store this is a shot he says at staying safe how do you feel about getting your vaccine yeah i'm so excited and feel good we're doing vaccinations today would you like a shot a cocon 19 shot essential workers getting sick with highly contagious variants are fueling a crushing third wave and why the team from michael garan hospital is targeting people 50 and older who live in covid hot spots like this one jakeisia henningham says it's a critical response do you think coming to these buildings is the way to go yes i think this is one of the best things we've done because we've gotten more response this way people are happy to see us come they think we are putting their needs first so they come to us twin cliff has been a really important step in this journey because this community was hit hard and for us to come in like this people are just showing up can i get vaccinated where can i do it hi we're going to give you a vaccine for those who can't make it downstairs they go to them there is a sense of hope but also a sense of urgency because there are so many to get to community leaders are helping identify those at highest risk there are still people who are not active in the social media or have barriers in terms of accessing technology but essel panlaki says just about everyone in this neighborhood is a priority they racialize newcomers they're essential workers most of them are taking ttc bus the subway most of them are working in the food industry and so they needed the support this is a community under siege where people work puts them at risk so does where they live in apartment towers with larger families transmission has been high spreading into schools that are now shuttered and while there is a new vaccine hub in the area this is about eliminating one more barrier us coming to this building is beneficial for people some people would never had come unless we came vaccine is a vaccine nick goterra is a first responder a vaccine for him he says helps everyone our goal is to have a hurt immunity right so probably the faster we can do it the more we quicker we can have it it's a ways yet to that point but the hope is this is the best shot of getting there faster so joanna one thing that is curious is that you are genuinely standing in front of a vaccine hub in that community so why the need for door-to-door there as well adrian i think it speaks to the urgency there are tens of thousands of people who live in this catchment area and getting to all of them is going to be a logistical feat the strategy of going door to door is to also tackle vaccine hesitancy by removing one other barrier of actually coming here even though it's close and that's the strategy behind the team to be nimble to be quick to work evenings and holidays to get to as many people as quickly as possible so the strategy there seems a bit tricky logistically what does it take to get into those buildings it takes a lot hospital staff and community leaders are in constant contact identifying where they're going to go to next and that involves getting permission from property managers to set up shop in a lobby or to go door-to-door and if they don't get that permission in time because time is of essence they'll set up tents outside of buildings and that's what they're planning to do this week as well all right joanna thank you for this you're welcome overfishing in parts of bc has devastated herring stocks but one biologist is trying to revive them you can bring the whole food chain back you start with the herring and work up how the humble herring can bring life back to bc waters plus it is a magical experience surfing with snow all around you no longer an ocean activity these guys are riding the freezing waves on an alberta river stay with us well for decades the pacific herring was viewed as a virtually inexhaustible resource but off the coast of british columbia stocks are shrinking a worry not just for the future of the small fish but for the numerous other animals that rely on it greg rasmussen looks at a group fighting for its survival it might not look like a promising sanctuary for wildlife all right but this biologist is determined to try i mean this is probably getting close to a million maybe a million and a half eggs if you actually went through and counted them all doug swanston is part of a group working to create a home for herring transplanting millions of eggs to a site where the fish once spawned historically we had a spawn here in the 1800s it was a source of food for first nations communities the fleets of the fishing companies compete for a share of the catch herring was once seen as a nearly limitless resource until overfishing crashed the stalks in the 1960s since then stocks have varied but were down 60 percent in a recent four-year period but still about 16 000 tons have been caught in this year's commercial fishery dfo decided not to listen to their own scientists or indigenous communities and environmental groups have gone to court trying to halt the commercial catch so this site in particular was a village site at one point it was our summer village site one of them for thousands of years the slay will tooth people have lived on these herring was a traditional food until they were largely fished out of existence you only have to look up the west coast of british columbia to see where herring still is and to see how indigenous people harvest there we did similar things and it was an important food source the slave tooth and other indigenous groups are working to bring back herring to help the entire ecosystem this is a more typical net vancouver's false creek is the source of the eggs for the new transplant experiment years ago artificial herring spawning habitat was created by a small group of volunteers hoping to help endangered salmon the first thing that salmon looks for when it comes out of the river is food and if you have a herring run right in that area it's just perfect you can bring the whole food chain back if you start with the herring and work up it can happen biologists say there are many reasons why fish stocks in canada's pacific ocean are in serious trouble you can see it's quite well covered with eggs but rather than simply watch some are trying to help one tiny egg at a time greg rasmussen cbc news vancouver next on the nationals surfing the waves on a cool river the coldest day i've been out here was -28 without the wind chill and that was really really cold no kidding those chilly temperatures don't scare these surfers next in our moment so maybe you think surfing would be most ideal under the bright sun on a warm day and at an ocean but these calgarians have a very different idea because they are river surfers and they ride high risk waves no matter the temperature even if that temperature is sometimes minus 28 degrees and tonight the bold surfers are our moment the coldest day i've been out here was -28 without the windchill and that was really really cold just every part of me was freezing as soon as soon as it touched the air it was just freezing around here you have to kind of wear a wetsuit all year round anyway because it's it's canada we're very inland i've attempted ocean surfing once or twice but uh mainly river surfing it is a magical experience surfing with snow all around you and it's great activities all year round surfing is just it's great it's lovely it's just a happy happy place a little bit of paradise surfing surfing in the end okay so it's important to know they didn't just find that paradise they built it uh that wave is like now a permanent fixture that that people can ride for free but it took about a decade to build to get the permissions to place the flat rocks and just the right place all that effort worth it for them yeah yeah and apparently they've built quite a community around it too right like how could you not build a sense of camaraderie when you're when you're doing that but also out of necessity because it's there's some danger involved it's in a remote area not a lot of medical resources around so they became fast friends that's the national for this april 6th have a great day [Music] you

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 194,269

Rating: 2.06019 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News The National, CBC News, The National, Watch The National, The National CBC, The National Full, The National On Demand, Show, Canada News, CBC News latest, CBC, April 6 2021, COVID-19 Canada, COVID-19 Alberta, Ontario COVID, Toronto schools closed, Canada housing market, Ontario stay-at-home order, Doug Ford, B.C. vaccine booking, Alberta p1 variant

Id: 2hwyNX5HVIc

Length: 45min 34sec (2734 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021