TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford will announce details on reopening Ontario’s economy next week, the labour minister said Friday as the government debated whether or not to extend the province’s state of emergency.
Monte McNaughton did not provide further specifics but his comments came before Ford and his cabinet were to meet to discuss the emergency order that’s set to expire on Tuesday.
“We’re moving toward reopening the economy and the premier is going to further communicate that next week,” McNaughton said. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
Ontario’s Solicitor General’s office said no decisions have been made regarding whether to end or extend the emergency order.
A provincial lockdown was imposed in late December and was followed by the state of emergency and a stay-at-home order that took effect Jan. 14 as COVID-19 rates surged.
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While cases have since declined, public health officials have said the spread of more contagious variants of COVID-19 are a concern.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, has said he would like to see daily case rates drop below 1,000 and the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospital intensive care units below 150 before lifting restrictions.
“It is achievable, we can get back there,” Williams said in mid-January.
2:12 Coronavirus: Toronto restaurants adopt new strategy for Superbowl Sunday
Coronavirus: Toronto restaurants adopt new strategy for Superbowl Sunday
Ontario reported 1,670 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, although 125 of them were older infections from Toronto that weren’t previously recorded by the province.
Public health officials noted that updates to the provincial case database were causing fluctuations in this week’s tallies.
The province also said Friday that there are 325 patients with COVID-19 in hospital intensive care units, with 225 on ventilators.
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Ontario reported 45 deaths linked to the virus on Friday. A total of 6,438 Ontarians have died from the novel coronavirus.
The president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Friday that he’s optimistic the province will soon begin to lift some restrictions on businesses.
Dan Kelly said he hopes Ford will announce concrete reopening dates that throw a lifeline to small businesses that have suffered under pandemic restrictions.
“We desperately need a clear indication, and a plan, to reopen our economy,” he said.
Kelly said he doesn’t expect the province will lift all of its public health measures, but would like to see all businesses allowed to open across Ontario with a 20 per cent capacity limit.
That could increase if case counts continue to come down, he added.
“We have recommended not to end all restrictions, but to replace them with a pathway that would allow businesses to reopen with masking and physical distancing … so they can live another day,” he said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Friday that the government has not moved quickly enough to address the pandemic in long-term care and schools, or provided paid sick days for workers.
“If the orders are extended it will be because Doug Ford didn’t do his job and hasn’t been responding adequately to the crisis of COVID-19 since day one,” she said.
Ontario’s lockdown banned indoor gatherings, closed all but essential stores to in-person shopping, shuttered restaurant dining rooms and closed gyms and salons, among other things.
The stay-at-home that was imposed in January requires people to keep to their homes except for essential activities such as accessing health care, shopping for groceries, or outdoor exercise.
The province did not provide a set definition for what is “essential,” saying everyone has their own unique circumstances and regional considerations.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
