There is a devastating health impact with the coronavirus but an economic one is creeping in.
The federal government announced Friday the cruise ship season at the Port of Sydney has been pushed back to July.
Nicole MacAulay, Port of Sydney Development Corporation’s manager of cruise and administration, said the port hasn’t had time yet to crunch the numbers and determine what it could mean financially for the port. The delay to July 1 includes 22 calls totalling 32,288 passengers.
“In terms of public safety, obviously that’s the top priority of the federal government and certainly the local community,” MacAulay said. “We have confidence that the government made the right decision to delay the season.”
It was to be an important season for the port with a record number of ships due to call and the inaugural year for the newly constructed second berth.
MacAulay said the local port has had regular discussions with representatives of other ports in eastern North America, Transport Canada and public health officials. She acknowledged it is a disappointment, especially for businesses that look forward to the additional visitors.
In an emailed statement, port CEO Marlene Usher noted that Sydney’s cruise season was set to begin on April 28 and the government’s decision increases community safety but has a negative economic impact for individuals and businesses who rely on tourism income.
The federal government has temporarily barred all cruise ships and ferries that carry more than 500 people, including crew, from docking in Canada until July to protect against the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Ottawa will re-examine the ban after June 30.
Chef Ardon Mofford, owner and chef of Governors Pub and Eatery, said the spring months of the cruise season are an important shoulder season for their business, having the season pushed back would make a big impact on their business. Located at 233 Esplanade, Governors is close to the Port of Sydney
“The spring is considered the shoulder season for us and the cruise ships give us a big boost that time of the year,” he said.
Mofford said first and foremost is the human tragedy of the COVID-19 — people being impacted by it and the safety of their customers and staff. However, the economic impact on the community that relies so much on tourism is real. Mofford said when the money is coming from cruise ships it’s money that gets invested into the economy that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
“It brings a lot of money in that can’t be replaced in our community locally,” he said. “When you lose them it’s a complete loss of revenue.”
Chef Ardon Mofford, owner of Governors Pug and Eatery in Sydney, cooks some fish Friday. Mofford said the cruise ship season being pushed back means losing the shoulder season which impact business. Sharon Montgomery-Dupe/Cape Breton Post
As well, it will impact employment for students. At Governors, he said they usually hire in late April and the beginning of May. His staff increases 30-40 per cent.
“If that season is pushed off you probably wouldn’t do your hires until June which would affect students and culinary students coming out into their work placement.”
However, Mofford said impacts to any business affects an entire community. When he has 100 employees and they are all working and making gratuities, they are going to the mall, buying clothes, buying cars and other items.
“When you take that much money out of the economy, how does that impact everybody? It has that ripple effect from the gas stations to the restaurants.”
If the COVID-19 impact continues, it would be devastating to the entire island to lose the tourist season. A lot of businesses are not in the position financially to endure the dip.
“Everybody gets impacted by it,” Mofford said. “We have to keep our minds open and understand that’s what happens to your entire community when something like this impact across the globe. People think it’s other people’s problems but it’s the whole world and Cape Breton’s not exempt from that.”
Nova Scotia has no confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of March 13 with 226 negative tests completed.
Friday, a news conference with Premier Stephen McNeil and the province’s chief medical officer Dr. Robert Strang included announcements that public sector employees who travel outside of Canada, including the United States, will be required to self-isolate upon their return.
The private sector is encouraged to take the same approach and support employees to self-isolate for 14 days after travelling outside Canada. To limit the spread, Strang is also encouraging individuals, employers and community organizations to limit social gatherings to no more than 150 people to limit spread.
Wade Langham, co-owner of Cape Breton Fudge Co. on Charlotte Street in Sydney, said they get visitors from the cruise ships but where the passengers get everything catered to them and their business are a sweet treat with some food items, the cruise passengers don’t spend a lot on them. However, Cape Breton Fudge Co. does do an excursion at the shop.
“The cruise passengers get to learn about fudge and then make their own fudge,” he said.
“It would affect that for sure.”
Langham said COVID-19 is a ‘health first’ devastating situation which has taken the world by storm but the economic impact is real.
“I think it’s a worldwide economic impact that we don’t even fully grasp yet,” he said. “It’s not going to be good. I’m not going to be shocked if there’s an airline announcement soon. It’s really going to snowball.”
Langham said it’s hard to comment as this is all something massive we’ve never seen before.
“I’m sure there will be an economic impact that will affect us,” he said. “It’s going to affect everybody. We’ve just got to try and weather it the best we can.”
Holley Grant, gallery manager at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design, said they do get visitors from cruise ships and it helps but it’s not their major source of revenue.
“For cruise ship passengers this is one stop of many and they only have one suitcase,” she said. However, the visitors are important, she added.
“It’s always the hope and opportunity that they might come back.”
Grant said it’s the tourists who chose Cape Breton as a destination and come on their own who are their best customers.
“It‘s hard right now to know how that’s going to go,” she said. “Everything right now is in a state of unknown, that’s the difficulty, we just don’t know what’s ahead. We haven’t got a clear sense of how this is going to unfold.”
Grant said they receive a lot of support from local residents which is appreciated.
In terms of precautions, they’ll do everything they can from that point of view.
“As far as the economic impact, we’ll have to wait and see.”
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
