Dynacare labs closed, fringe fest ticket sales affected amid global tech outage By: Chris Kitching Posted: 10:23 AM CDT Friday, Jul. 19, 2024 Last Modified: 8:12 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 19, 2024 Updates

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The impacts and inconveniences of a global technology outage extended to Manitoba on Friday, as all Dynacare labs were closed, some flights were cancelled and Fringe Festival attendees were unable to buy tickets online.

People arrived at a Dynacare lab on Marion Street in St. Boniface with requisition forms in hand, only to find the door locked and a note in the window telling them blood and other tests were not being conducted until further notice because of “technical difficulties.”

“It’s an inconvenience, but in the big picture, there’s a lot of people with more serious inconveniences happening here and around the world,” Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba’s former chief medical officer of health, said after trying the door and reading the note.

“I will return another time. If it was critical, I would find another way to get it.”

Other visitors had the same view.

“It’s part of life, you know,” Line Dumont said. “I’m pretty hopeful (the outage) won’t last.”

Some said the disruption highlighted how reliance on a single system can lead to widespread problems, or how systems are not perfect.

“It’s a feature of modern technological life,” Kettner said. He later checked a voicemail from Dynacare advising him his appointment had been cancelled.

“It’s a feature of modern technological life.”–Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba’s former chief medical officer of health

Dynacare, a private firm based in Ontario, has about 20 locations in Manitoba. The company’s contract with the province gives it a monopoly on blood tests and urinalysis in Winnipeg, outside of hospitals.

“Our Winnipeg laboratory is not currently able to process or analyze samples in our laboratory,” Dynacare spokesman Mark Bernhardt said during the lunch hour.

“We have made the decision to temporarily close our Manitoba and Ontario LHSC (laboratory and health services centres) locations until the issues have been resolved. Our team is working diligently to resolve this issue as soon as possible and reopen our locations.”

Some Manitoba location reopened Friday afternoon.

Widespread outages were a result of a faulty update sent to Microsoft Windows-based computers by U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and not the result of a security incident or cyberattack, the firm said.

The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services. CrowdStrike said it was “deeply sorry” for the inconvenience and disruption.

The faulty update affected airlines, banks, hospitals, grocery stores and media outlets across the world.

Manitoba’s public health system was not directly affected because Shared Health’s digital services provider uses a different provider for cybersecurity needs, a spokesperson said.

However, the spokesperson said “heavier outpatient traffic” was being experienced at hospital labs because of the Dynacare closures.

“No patient needing a blood lab will be turned away as long as they have a valid requisition form, but they are cautioned that wait times may be longer due to the increased traffic and the need for lab staff to prioritize our hospital-based patients,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The Manitoba government, City of Winnipeg and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority were not affected, spokespeople said.

A small number of Canada Post offices across the country appeared to be impacted minimally, spokeswoman Lisa Liu said. The Crown corporation did not say whether any Manitoba offices were among them.

The outage also hit the Winnipeg Fringe Festival on the third day of the annual theatre event. Advance Fringe Festival tickets can however, now, be purchased online and in person again. The outage affecting its system and website has been resolved as of about 6:45 p.m.

Executive producer Chuck McEwen said the festival was using a backup system to access details of advance tickets purchased before the outage.

“Everybody’s getting into their shows,” he said. “We’re selling tickets at the door. It’s a bit of manual labour, trying to update all the forms for the ticket sales at the venues, but we’re managing, and people are out there fringing and having a great time. If it continues on (Saturday), it could be a bigger challenge, but we’ll take it day by day.”

Fringe is the second-largest festival of its kind in North America. This year’s event features 1,250 performances by artists from around the world.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball team said its in-house ticket system was temporarily affected, preventing exchanges. Tickets for Friday night’s game could be purchased at Shaw Park or via Ticketmaster. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet said its online system for ticket sales and class registrations was also out of order.

Porter Airlines cancelled at least five flights to or from Winnipeg, while its systems were disrupted. The Toronto-based carrier said normal operations were resuming as of 1:30 p.m.

Porter promised to refund passengers who were forced to cancel travel plans as a direct result of the outage.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority’s systems were operating normally, said spokesman Michel Rosset, who warned passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

Shortly after noon, the WAA said affected airlines were gradually resuming normal operations.

Processing delays were possible for U.S.-bound travellers at ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection was trying to minimize the impact on trade and travel while ensuring national and homeland security, a spokesperson said.

“During this time, travellers at air and land ports of entry may experience longer than normal wait times,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Save-On-Foods grocery stores in Winnipeg were “temporarily impacted,” but staff members worked through the night to get all systems up and running, a spokesperson said.

“We are happy to confirm that all five of our Winnipeg-area Save-On-Foods stores opened for business as usual this morning,” the spokesperson said.

Cineplex and Telus were among other companies to confirm they were temporarily affected by the disruption. Some small businesses were also impacted.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses received calls from some members who were unable to process payments or deposit paycheques, Ryan Mallough, a vice-president of legislative affairs with the organization, said.

“There are some manual avenues, but for a number of them, it’s just hoping this clears up soon,” he said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca