Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that reopening the economy or easing restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border isn’t happening anytime soon and is still “many weeks” away.
Trudeau has urged Canadians to be patient and said for any reopening to occur, there has to be rapid COVID-19 testing on a wide-scale basis and extensive contact tracing in place to prevent against a potential second wave of outbreaks.
“I don’t think we can talk about reopening things until we are confident that we have exactly the plan on responding to future resurgences of the virus,” Trudeau said Thursday during his daily briefing.
Trudeau said there was still a “significant amount of time” before the two countries could loosen restrictions on non-essential across the border. An agreement between Canada and the U.S. to limit border crossings is due to expire in the coming days.
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0:40 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says it will be ‘significant’ amount of time before government considers easing border restrictions
Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says it will be ‘significant’ amount of time before government considers easing border restrictions
“The work that we continue to do to keep our citizens safe while coordinating very carefully is unlike our approaches with other countries around the world,” he said. “We will continue coordinating our efforts, collaborating, but the reality is we are still weeks away from being able to talk about softening these measures at the border or others.”
Trudeau also announced Thursday support for small and medium-sized businesses that pay commercial rent with a new program, called Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance. He said details of the program are still being worked out as Ottawa will have collaborate with the provinces.
0:39 Coronavirus Outbreak: Trump says Canada-U.S. border to be one of earliest to reopen
Coronavirus Outbreak: Trump says Canada-U.S. border to be one of earliest to reopen
The prime minister also reiterated his previous message that a complete return to normal won’t be possible until a vaccine is ready, which some experts have said is still 12-18 months away.
“It would be absolutely disastrous for us to open up too early or too quickly, and have another wave hit us that could be just as bad as this one, and find ourselves in the situation of having to go back into quarantine the way we are right now and have everything we’ve done these past weeks be for nothing,” Trudeau said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford shot back at Trump’s suggestion that he is looking at loosening restrictions at the border.
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“Trudeau should say no right away,” Ford said Thursday. “Until we have this under containment, we need to have our borders closed.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said he’s eager to start returning to normal life, even as his country grapples with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus that’s killed more than 28,000 people.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that Canada is “doing well” in its efforts to control the spread of the virus.
“Our relationship with Canada is very good — we’ll talk about that. It will be one of the early borders to be released,” Trump said. “Canada’s doing well, we’re doing well — so we’ll see.”
The two countries negotiated a mutual ban on non-essential travel in both directions in mid-March, an agreement that explicitly exempted the flow of trade and commerce, as well as frontline health care workers.
1:44 Coronavirus outbreak: Canada’s top doctor says positive testing rate is within global range
The agreement is currently scheduled to expire early next week.
Trump is expected to announce Thursday new guidelines for allowing some States to relax social distancing rules and reopen some non-essential businesses.
His administration has even floated a potential target of May 1 to begin re-opening parts of the economy, but some health experts have pushed back saying that could be too soon.
Both Canada and the U.S. have seen unemployment levels from the fallout of COVID-19 comparable to the Great Depression.
Roughly six million people have now applied for government help since mid-March as non-essential businesses were shuttered and workers told to stay at home to ease the spread of the virus. In the U.S. more than 22 million have lost their jobs in just four weeks.
Canada passed a grim milestone of 1,000 deaths on Wednesday, but the country’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said there is evidence the epidemic’s rate of spread is slowing.
Tam said the number of cases in the country is now doubling every 10 days or so, compared to every three days near the end of March.
However, she warned that it still too early to begin easing social distancing measure and said that emerging from COVID-19 would “be like making our way down the mountain in the darkness.”
“We mustn’t rush or let go of our safety measures, or the fall will be hard and unforgiving,” she said in her daily briefing in Ottawa. “Any break in our resolve could spark a new outbreak and delay our progress … let’s maintain our collective resolve and crush this curve.
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.
