Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the federal government is considering invoking the Emergencies Act to help keep the Canadian economy afloat as the novel coronavirus spreads throughout the country.
Speaking from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Trudeau said he has asked House Leader Pablo Rodriguez to speak with his provincial counterparts to recall the House of Commons to bring in “emergency measures.”
Trudeau said little about what those measures would specifically entail, but when asked what enacting emergency measures would do that differed from current protocol, he said the government was examining the act “to see if it will allow us to do more things that can’t be done otherwise.”
The announcement to consider emergency measures marks an upward trajectory in government response, which previously saw sweeping border closures to help flatten the curve of the virus.
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What is the Emergencies Act?
The Emergencies Act received Royal Assent in 1988, replacing the War Measures Act. It was created to provide a legal framework for power to be temporarily consolidated with the prime minister and cabinet to issue executive orders during national emergencies, like COVID-19.
It has only ever been invoked three times in Canada: during the first and second World Wars, as well as during the October Crisis of 1970, when members of the Front de Libération du Québec abducted then-provincial Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross.
Daniel Henstra, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and associate professor at the University of Waterloo, said emergency measures were intended specifically for events like pandemics and wars and would have been surprised if one wasn’t declared.
“Certainly COVID-19 is exactly the type of emergency that this legislation was intended for,” he said, but added they aren’t to be taken lightly.
Invoking a federal state of emergency temporarily, said Henstra, grants a “great deal of power” to the prime minister and cabinet.
Under the Emergencies Act, officials would have the right to take over property, public utilities, provide special services and special compensation, regulate or prohibit public assembly, as well as travel anywhere to or from any specified area within the country, he said.
With that in mind, Henstra clarified that calling a state of emergency does not mean a government will use all measures at its disposal, “it just empowers the cabinet to move more quickly without having to go to the legislature for approval on every move.”
Reallocating government funds
It also allows the government to use public funds, like the public treasury, for example, outside of the various envelopes of the budget that have been approved by the legislature, which Henstra said would most likely be the Trudeau government’s main use for the act.
“Normally, every expense has to be approved through the budgeting process, but in this case, the cabinet can appropriate these funds and use the funds for emergency purposes to send emergency relief to responders or income relief to individuals,” Henstra said.
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Coronavirus outbreak: Canadian hospitals trying to increase capacity for serious COVID-19 cases
The act specifies that a state of emergency can be called by any level of government — and has already been declared in the provinces of Ontario and Alberta.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called a state of public health emergency in that province, banning the use of public spaces like casinos, museums and art galleries, gyms and movie theatres, as well as limiting restaurants and bars to a capacity of 50 people.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford also invoked emergency measures Tuesday morning to create a $300 million relief fund and order the immediate closures of gatherings of more than 50 people, based on the medical advice of Canadian Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam.
There are four types of emergencies laid out in the act.
They include a public welfare emergency, which would include natural disasters, disease, accidents and pollution, an emergency that arises from threats to Canada’s security, war, and an international emergency, which would involve intimidation, coercion or violence towards Canada and one or more other countries.
Jocelyn Stacey, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, said the federal government has never enacted the Emergencies Act in its current form, but that it would fall under the statute of a public welfare emergency.
“One of the requirements for the federal government to declare a state of emergency is that the emergency exceeds the capacity of the provinces that it affects,” Stacey said.
“In the past where we’ve had other emergencies like fires or floods, it hasn’t been the case that those have extended beyond provincial boundaries or territorial boundaries. The situation that we’re in right now clearly is of a national scale.”
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While Stacey said she was unable to predict which measures the Canadian government would be instituting, she said it was clear that financial measures across the country were “desperately needed.”
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Coronavirus outbreak: Canadian health official says country rapidly updating messaging on self-isolation at borders, airports
So far, the government has made a point of promoting social distancing and urging employers to let their employees stay home — which Stacey said could be difficult for those working in industries that rely on personal interaction like the service industry.
“Not everybody is able to do that if they’re depending on the next paycheque and things like that,” she said.
Stacey said invoking emergency measures could “expedite” a release of funds for Canadians who may be struggling to do things like pay rent and afford groceries.
To date, Tam said Canada has 440 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and four people have died from the disease.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Tam said a majority of cases appear to be linked to Canadians who recently travelled from affected countries, but that the government was seeing an increase in the virus being passed within a community — better known as community transmission.
Although Tam said 37,000 Canadians have been tested for COVID-19 so far, she said the country needs to move faster if it wants to flatten the curve of the virus.
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“Speed trumps perfection,” she said. “The greatest error is not to move.”
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
Dr. Julio Montaner said the construction of Vancouver’s first indoor supervised site for people who inhale drugs comes as the percentage of people who die from smoking drugs continues to climb.
The location in the Downtown Eastside at the Hope to Health Research and Innovation Centre was unveiled Wednesday after construction was complete, and Montaner said people could start using the specialized rooms in a matter of weeks after final approvals from the city and federal government.
“If we don’t create mechanisms for these individuals to be able to use safely and engage with the medical system, and generate points of entry into the medical system, we will never be able to solve the problem,” he said.
“Now, I’m not here to tell you that we will fix it tomorrow, but denying it or ignoring it, or throw it under the bus, or under the carpet is no way to fix it, so we need to take proactive action.”
Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.
The centre has been running a supervised injection site for years which sees more than a thousand people monthly and last month resuscitated five people who were overdosing.
The new facilities offer indoor, individual, negative-pressure rooms that allow fresh air to circulate and can clear out smoke in 30 to 60 seconds while users are monitored by trained nurses.
Advocates calling for more supervised inhalation sites have previously said the rules for setting up sites are overly complicated at a time when the province is facing an overdose crisis.
More than 15,000 people have died of overdoses since the public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016.
Kate Salters, a senior researcher at the centre, said they worked with mechanical and chemical engineers to make sure the site is up to code and abidies by the highest standard of occupational health and safety.
“This is just another tool in our tool box to make sure that we’re offering life-saving services to those who are using drugs,” she said.
Montaner acknowledged the process to get the site up and running took “an inordinate amount of time,” but said the centre worked hard to follow all regulations.
“We feel that doing this right, with appropriate scientific background, in a medically supervised environment, etc, etc, allows us to derive the data that ultimately will be sufficiently convincing for not just our leaders, but also the leaders across the country and across the world, to embrace the strategies that we are trying to develop.” he said.
Montaner said building the facility was possible thanks to a single $4-million donation from a longtime supporter.
Construction finished with less than a week before the launch of the next provincial election campaign and within a year of the next federal election.
Montaner said he is concerned about “some of the things that have been said publicly by some of the political leaders in the province and in the country.”
“We want to bring awareness to the people that this is a serious undertaking. This is a very massive investment, and we need to protect it for the benefit of people who are unfortunately drug dependent.” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
