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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Wednesday – CBC.ca
The latest:
A new variant of the coronavirus that may be more contagious has been found in a Colorado man who had not been travelling, triggering a host of questions about how the first U.S. case of the new version showed up in the Rocky Mountain state.
The new variant was first identified in England, and infections are soaring now in Britain, where the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed the first peak of the outbreak in the spring. The new variant has also been found in several other countries, including Canada.
Colorado officials were expected to provide more details at a news conference Wednesday about how the man in his 20s from a mostly rural area of rolling plains at the edge of the Denver metro area came down with the variant. The man is in isolation southeast of Denver in Elbert County, state health officials said.
For the moment, the variant is likely still rare in the United States, but the lack of travel history in the first case means it is spreading, probably seeded by travellers from Britain in November or December, said scientist Trevor Bedford, who studies the spread of COVID-19 at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
“Now, I’m worried there will be another spring wave due to the variant,” Bedford said. “It’s a race with the vaccine, but now the virus has just gotten a little bit faster.”
Public health officials are investigating other potential cases of the variant, which was confirmed by the Colorado State Laboratory, and performing contact tracing to determine its spread.
Scientists in the United Kingdom believe the variant is more contagious than previously identified ones — though they have found no evidence that it is more lethal or causes more severe illness. Experts also believe the vaccines being given now will be effective against the variant.
The U.S. has seen more than 19.5 million cases of COVID-19 and recorded more than 338,000 COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracking tool.
In hard-hit California, the state’s top health official said hospitals in Los Angeles County are turning to “crisis care” and bracing for the coronavirus surge to worsen in the new year.
Dr. Mark Ghaly’s comment came Tuesday as he extended strict stay-home orders in areas where intensive care units have few beds.
Ghaly said Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley have virtually no ICU capacity to treat COVID-19 patients. He says some overwhelmed hospitals don’t have space to unload ambulances or get oxygen to patients who can’t breathe.
The state’s “crisis care” guidelines allow for rationing treatment when staff, medicine and supplies are in short supply.
California reported more than 31,000 new coronavirus infections Tuesday and 242 deaths. Nearly 25,000 people in the state have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic.
What’s happening across Canada
Ontario reported 2,923 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, another single-day high in the province.
Health officials in Ontario also reported 19 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 4,474. Hospitalizations increased to 1,177, with 323 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
Ontario is reporting 2,923 cases of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> and over 39,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 998 new cases in Toronto, 441 in Peel, 408 in York Region, 158 in Durham and 144 in Windsor-Essex County.
—@celliottability
In Windsor, a hospital is postponing all non-urgent elective surgeries starting next month as COVID-19 hospitalizations rise “at an alarming rate.” Windsor Regional Hospital said the decision is difficult but necessary as rising COVID-19 admissions could mean a “critical shortage” of available acute care beds.
The record-high figure reported Wednesday comes after Ontario’s finance minister came under fire for travelling to the Caribbean for a vacation. Rod Phillips said in a statement Tuesday night that he left for a trip to St. Barts on Dec. 13 after the end of the legislative session.
Ontario, which went into lockdown on Dec. 26, is advising against non-essential travel.
Premier Doug Ford said in a statement that he told Phillips his decision to travel was “completely unacceptable and that it will not be tolerated again — by him or any member of our cabinet and caucus.”
“I have also told the minister I need him back in the country immediately.”
WATCH | Minister’s travel outside Canada ‘completely unacceptable,’ says Ford:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says travel outside the country by Finance Minister Rod Phillips was ‘completely unacceptable.’ Phillips left Canada on Dec. 13 on what he called a ‘previously planned’ trip. 2:22
Phillips said in his statement that he deeply regrets travelling over the holidays.
“It was a mistake, and I apologize,” his statement said. “I am making arrangements to return to Ontario immediately and will begin a 14-day quarantine as soon as I arrive.”
Ontario’s finance minister isn’t the only politician facing criticism over holiday travel — Quebec Liberal MNA Pierre Arcand is apologizing after travelling to Barbados.
Here’s a look at what’s happening across Canada:
As of 10:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 568,249, with 72,938 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 15,397.
Quebec, the hardest-hit province in the country, reported 2,381 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a new single day high.
– From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 10:45 a.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 82 million cases of COVID-19 had been recorded worldwide with more than 46.4 million cases considered recovered or resolved, according to Johns Hopkins. The global death toll was approaching 1.8 million.
In Europe, Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University as it battles a winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious variant of the virus.
The British government said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to grant emergency authorization. In the European Union, meanwhile, the European Medicines Authority (EMA) said it requires additional data before it can approve the vaccine.
Meanwhile, lockdown measures in England will be extended to counter the rapidly growing number of cases of the new variant of COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC television.
German authorities have reported more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths in one day for the first time since the
pandemic began.
The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said Wednesday that 1,129 deaths were reported over the past 24 hours. That exceeds the previous record set a week ago of 962 and brings Germany’s total death toll to 32,107.
While delayed reporting of statistics over holidays and weekends is often an issue in Germany, the latest figure fits a recent pattern of high numbers of deaths.
Switzerland has documented five cases of a coronavirus variant from Britain and two cases of a South African variant, a Swiss Health Ministry official said on Tuesday.
In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has shattered its single-day record of new coronavirus infections, with 1,723 cases recorded on Wednesday.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the coronavirus situation in Tokyo is quite severe, and the Japanese capital could potentially face an “explosion” of COVID-19 cases, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said ahead of the New Year’s holiday.
Thailand has reported 250 new coronavirus cases, including 241 local transmissions, as the country grapples with an intensifying outbreak.
Thailand has seen two major clusters developing since mid-December. One has mainly infected hundreds of migrant workers from Myanmar at a seafood market near Bangkok. And in recent days, a cluster has grown connected to a gambling den in an eastern province.
Australian authorities restricted movement and tightened curbs on gatherings in Sydney, hoping to avoid a coronavirus “super-spreader” event during the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.
In Africa, Nigeria faces oxygen supply challenges to treat coronavirus patients in parts of the country and unacceptable laboratory delays as case numbers rose to the highest recorded in a single week, health authorities said on Tuesday.
The new warnings from Nigerian officials come as the resurgent virus strikes across much of the world, bringing greater case loads and hospitalizations.
“There is an on-going review of the chain for the supply of medical oxygen for our medical facilities across the nation,” said Boss Mustapha, chairman of Nigeria’s coronavirus task force, naming the capital of Abuja as an area of concern.
In the Americas, Panama has signed agreements with four producers of COVID-19 vaccines to acquire a total of 5.5 million doses, enough for 80 per cent of the population.
– From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:25 a.m. ET
More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.
The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.
The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.
For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.
That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.
The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.
To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.
The next payment date will take place on May 17.
News
Capital gains tax change draws ire from some Canadian entrepreneurs worried it will worsen brain drain – CBC.ca
A chorus of Canadian entrepreneurs and investors is blasting the federal government’s budget for expanding a tax on the rich. They say it will lead to brain drain and further degrade Canada’s already poor productivity.
In the 2024 budget unveiled Tuesday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would increase the inclusion rate of the capital gains tax from 50 per cent to 67 per cent for businesses and trusts, generating an estimated $19 billion in new revenue.
Capital gains are the profits that individuals or businesses make from selling an asset — like a stock or a second home. Individuals are subject to the new changes on any profits over $250,000.
The government estimates that the changes would impact 40,000 individuals (or 0.13 per cent of Canadians in any given year) and 307,000 companies in Canada.
However, some members of the business community say that expanding the taxable amount will devastate productivity, investment and entrepreneurship in Canada, and might even compel some of the country’s talent and startups to take their business elsewhere.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the government’s 2024 federal budget, with spending targeted at young voters and a plan to raise capital gains taxes for some of the wealthiest Canadians.
Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), said the capital gains tax has overshadowed parts of the federal budget that the business community would otherwise be excited about.
“There were definitely some other stars in the budget that were interesting,” he said. “However, the … capital gains piece really is the sun, and it’s daylight. So this is really the only thing that innovators can see.”
The CCI has written and is circulating an open letter signed by more than 1,000 people in the Canadian business community to Trudeau’s government asking it to scrap the tax change.
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and president Harley Finkelstein also weighed in on the proposed hike on X, formerly known as Twitter.
We need to be doing everything we can to turn Canada into the best place for entrepreneurs to build 🇨🇦<br><br>What’s proposed in the federal budget will do the complete opposite. Innovators and entrepreneurs will suffer and their success will be penalized — this is not a wealth tax,…
—@harleyf
Former finance minister Bill Morneau said his successor’s budget disincentivizes businesses from investing in the country’s innovation sector: “It’s probably very troubling for many investors.”
Canada’s productivity — a measure that compares economic output to hours worked — has been relatively poor for decades. It underperforms against the OECD average and against several other G7 countries, including the U.S., Germany, U.K. and Japan, on the measure.
Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers sounded the alarm on Canada’s lagging productivity in a speech last month, saying the country’s need to increase the rate had reached emergency levels, following one of the weakest years for the economy in recent memory.
The government said it was proposing the tax change to make life more affordable for younger generations and fund efforts to boost housing supply — and that it would support productivity growth.
A challenge for investors, founders and workers
The change could have a chilling effect for several reasons, with companies already struggling to access funding in a high interest rate environment, said Bergen.
He questioned whether investors will want to fund Canadian companies if the government’s taxation policies make it difficult for those firms to grow — and whether founders might just pack up.
The expanded inclusion rate “is just one of the other potential concerns that firms are going to have as they’re looking to grow their companies.”
He said the rejigged tax is also an affront to high-skilled workers from low-innovation sectors who might have taken the risk of joining a startup for the opportunity, even taking a lower wage on the chance that a firm’s stock options grow in value.
But Lindsay Tedds, an associate economics professor at the University of Calgary, said the tax change is one of the most misunderstood parts of the federal budget — and that its impact on the country’s talent has been overstated.
“This is not a major innovation-biting tax change treatment,” Tedds said. “In fact, when you talk to real grassroots entrepreneurs that are setting up businesses, tax rates do not come into their decision.”
As for productivity, Tedds said Canadians might see improvements in the long run “to the degree that some of our productivity problems are driven by stresses like housing affordability, access to child care, things like that.”
‘One foot on the gas, one foot on the brake’
Some say the government is sending mixed messages to entrepreneurs by touting tailored tax breaks — like the Canada Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which reduces the capital gains inclusion rate to 33 per cent on a lifetime maximum of $2 million — while introducing measures they say would dampen investment and innovation.
“They seem to have one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake on the very same file,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Some business groups are worried that new capital gains tax changes could hurt economic growth. But according to Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez, most Canadians won’t be impacted by that change — and it’s a move to create fairness.
A founder may be able to sell their successful company with a lower capital gains treatment than otherwise possible, he said.
“At the same time, though, big chunks of it may be subject to a higher rate of capital gains inclusion.”
Selling a company can fund an individual’s retirement, he said, which is why it’s one of the first things founders consider when they think about capital gains.
Mainstreet NS7:03Ottawa is proposing a hike to capital gains tax. What does that mean?
Tuesday’s federal budget includes nearly $53 billion in new spending over the next five years with a clear focus on affordability and housing. To help pay for some of that new spending, Ottawa is proposing a hike to the capital gains tax. Moshe Lander, an economics lecturer at Concordia University, joins host Jeff Douglas to explain.
Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, says he was disappointed by the change — and that it sends the wrong message to Canadian industries like his own.
He wants to see the government commit to more tax credit proposals like the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses, which he said would incentivize business owners to stay and help make Canada competitive with the U.S.
“We’ve had a lot of difficulties attracting investment over the years. I don’t think this will make it any better.”
Tech titan says change will only impact richest of the rich
Toronto tech entrepreneur Ali Asaria will be one of those subject to the expanded capital gains inclusion rate — but he says it’s only fair.
“It’s going to really affect the richest of the rich people,” Asaria, CEO of open source platform Transformer Lab and founder of well.ca, told CBC News.
“The capital gains exemption is probably the largest tax break that I’ve ever received in my life,” he said. “So I know a lot about what that benefit can look like, but I’ve also always felt like it was probably one of the most unfair parts of the tax code today.”
While Asaria said Canada needs to continue encouraging talent to take risks and build companies in the country, taxation policies aren’t the most major problem.
“I think that the biggest central issue to the reason why people will leave Canada is bigger issues, like housing,” he said.
“How do we make it easier to live in Canada so that we can all invest in ourselves and invest in our companies? That’s a more important question than, ‘How do we help the top 0.13 per cent of Canadians make more money?'”
More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.
The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.
The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.
For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.
That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.
The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.
To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.
The next payment date will take place on May 17.
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