Empire, which owns Sobeys, Lawtons, IGA, Safeway, Farm Boy, Foodland and FreshCo, among other brands, announced Monday that an IT problem is preventing some of its pharmacies from filling prescriptions. The issue has also caused some services to lag or run only intermittently. A press release from the company said it was working to fix the problem, but could not estimate when all services would be restored. “At Sobeys, exceeding the needs of our customers is always our top priority,” CEO Pierre St-Laurent said in the press release. “Our only focus at this time is to fix this problem and we will provide further updates as relevant information becomes available.” A sign at a Sobeys store in Halifax reflects one of the system outages the chain was experiencing Monday morning. (Craig Paisley/CBC) The CBC contacted the company to ask questions about the IT issue, but an emailed response merely pointed to the news release. Over the weekend, some pharmacy staff told the CBC they were unable to access their computers but could supply customers with a few days’ worth of medication if customers presented their empty bottles.

Maple Leaf Announces ‘Cybersecurity Incident’

Meanwhile, Maple Leaf Foods announced in a press release late Sunday night that a “cyber incident” caused a system outage at the company. Maple Leaf is working with cybersecurity and recovery experts, as well as information systems professionals and third-party experts to investigate the outage and resolve the issue, the company said. The press release said the company expects service and operational disruptions as it works to resolve the outage. The company declined an interview. In an emailed statement, Maple Leaf said the outages “vary by business unit, plant and location.”