U.S. President Donald Trump‘s desire to gradually reopen the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic makes it all the more important for Canada and the U.S. to stay on the same page about borders, according to experts.
“Canada is going to have to be tougher with the border than the U.S. is willing to be,” said Matthew Lebo, the chair of political science at Western University.
“As the U.S. loosens up, if there are outbreaks near Canadian borders, then Canada has got to be careful about the traffic it lets go back and forth, whether that be health-care workers in Windsor or Niagara Falls that go back and forth, or otherwise.”
The new approach out of the neighbouring country is significantly different from where Canada stands now.
The White House released a series of recommendations on Thursday that call for a gradual, three-phase reopening of businesses and schools to revive economic activity. The gradual reopening rests on declining infections and strong testing. It’s up to state governments to ultimately act on the guidelines as they see fit.
Story continues below advertisement
In Canada, the country is effectively on lockdown, with non-essential businesses ordered to stay closed for varying — mostly undetermined — periods and bans on large gatherings.
2:33 Coronavirus outbreak: Trump issues guidelines for ‘phased’ reopening of U.S. economy
Coronavirus outbreak: Trump issues guidelines for ‘phased’ reopening of U.S. economy
In the short run, given the density in some parts of the U.S., some of Trump’s phased plan makes sense, said Chris Sands, the director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
If the plan works, Canadians themselves might feel enticed to see the same recommendations come for its leaders, he said.
“It won’t necessarily be Washington telling Ottawa, ‘You better follow our model,’ it’ll be people saying, ‘well, why can’t I do it too?’
“In that sense, it won’t be a bilateral issue. But, you know, our citizens shop and compare… I don’t think any politician wants to be on the wrong side of people who are frustrated and want to get back to work.”
But it’s pressure over border travel measures that might swell first, he said, and it will “come from the bottom up.”
“Citizens will want to work,” he said, “and businesses with supply chains that cross the border will call for coordinated re-opening.”
While Canada is in “continuous discussions” with the U.S. on these concerns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that borders won’t reopen anytime soon.
“We will continue to listen to what science is telling us and to monitor very closely the evolution of the virus here in Canada and throughout the world before making decisions,” he said.
“The conversations with the Americans have been extremely aligned and extremely productive.”
Trudeau discussed the issue with Trump during a recent video conference with fellow G7 leaders, and the two agreed that the approach to managing bilateral travel with each other would continue. It did not mean, however, that a decision to relax the travel ban was imminent, Trudeau said. Trump earlier in the week suggested some impatience about the northern border, but made no mention of it in his “Opening Up America Again” announcement on Thursday.
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
While it’s a “breakthrough” that the two sides are seemingly in agreeance on borders, it will likely become more of an issue as Trump’s new COVID-19 guidelines roll out, said Sands.
“I think the business community is going to be one source of pressure. They’re going to say, ‘We run an auto plant, we’re part of the General Motors Network, other parts are opening up. If we can’t open up, then businesses is going to move to other plants and we’re hosed,” he said.
Story continues below advertisement
“Those will be very hard conversations.”
Any decision made by the U.S. about the border should also be looked at through the lens of the 2020 U.S. election, said Lebo.
“The political environment is very different in Canada than it is in the United States,” Lebo said.
“Most countries, Canada included, are looking at the public health aspect, the long term aspect, and thinking that small death tolls and smaller impacts will lessen the overall economic impacts in the long run. In the states, the worry is there’s an election in the first week of November, so we have to get the stock market back up. The recession can’t be too deep because the election, the election, the election.”
The toll of the virus outbreak in the U.S. is among the worst in the world, with more than 679,000 cases and 35,000 deaths as of April 17. Canada, by comparison, has about 32,000 cases and more than 1,300 deaths.
Trump, at one point, seemed to suggest the two countries were on par in their situations, saying “Canada’s doing well, we’re doing well, so we’ll see.”
0:54 Coronavirus outbreak: Trump says he doesn’t care about campaigning amid pandemic
Coronavirus outbreak: Trump says he doesn’t care about campaigning amid pandemic
But that’s not so true, Sands said. Conditions vary across Canada and the U.S. in terms of how the virus is manifesting, he explained, which should ultimately drive how decisions to loosen restrictions are made in either country, especially at state and provincial levels.
Story continues below advertisement
“Despite what Trump claims, the shutdown of the economy has been ordered at the state and local level in the U.S. Similarly, in Canada, it’s been the provinces managing the shutdown,” he said.
“There are federal public health officials whose advice is influencing everyone, but that’s not the same as Trump and Trudeau making the decisions.”
— with files from the Associated Press and Reuters
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
