What forms of contact can be tolerated in Quebec, according to Premier François Legault?
Beauty care — hairstyling, esthetics and makeup can be tolerated. Shopping — retail stores and malls — can be tolerated. Museums can be tolerated.
High transmission zones such as schools, construction sites and factories can continue to be tolerated.
Still, the curfew and a ban on “private gatherings,” a term used to describe seeing friends and family, persists.
When the change was first announced earlier this month, my roommate summarized, “Keep buying stuff but don’t hug your mother! What’s so hard to understand?”
Two weeks later, the sentiment still resonates with me. With the provincewide restrictions in place, I couldn’t hand my dad a gift on his birthday last week, but I could go shopping at the mall to buy it.
To address this inconsistency, Legault has said outright that malls will be supervised to curb the risk of people gathering there. He is aware that socially isolated people have reached such a level of desperation that they are willing to risk illness or fines to congregate in a well-ventilated space deemed safe enough by the government.
This contradiction makes me angry. I’m angry because I see the sacrifices so many of us make to our mental health with no end in sight. I’m angry and worried that human life and human connection are being factored into the economic equation as “externalities” — sidelined casualties, rather than core priorities.
I’m angry because, 11 months into the pandemic, I badly want the government to create a plan, educate the public about that plan, and then execute it. If we can afford to pay people to supervise malls, we can afford to move beyond constant reactivity and communicate more detailed safety measures than simply wear a mask and keep your distance.
The clarity I’m describing creates accountability.
Pay people to stay home
We’ve been told that making sacrifices to preserve the economy is an investment in our future well-being once the pandemic passes. But the consequences of keeping high-transmission spots like schools and workplaces open have led the World Health Organization to classify COVID-19 as endemic: a disease we will have to live with long-term.
Legault’s legislative distinction between consumption-based contact and personal contact clarifies a question that has become increasingly urgent to me as our physical, psychological and economic conditions continue to worsen: What does our government really prioritize?
We face an imminent economic recession on the back-burner, a health crisis at a rolling boil, and a mental health frittata in the frying pan.
I am of the generation that will inherit the debts acquired during this crisis. Still, there is no situation wherein the economy can take precedence over human wellbeing and life.
I’m asking that Legault’s government create a plan that prioritizes the public’s basic needs. We face a health crisis first, and an economic crisis second.
When the government hands out $1,550 tickets over private gatherings and simultaneously reopens private shopping malls, I become alert with a feeling of senseless personal sacrifice.
We need to truly shut down businesses and gathering places that needlessly endanger workers, including construction sites, factories and non-essential retail.
We need to pay people to stay home, not ticket them. We need to give essential workers hazard pay. We need meaningful consequences for unsafe work environments. We need creative childcare solutions that consider the actual needs of families rather than our hazardous but familiar education system.
We need to invest in public education about virus transmission, risk assessment and scientific literacy. We need to encourage and advocate for transparent, proactive conversations about exposure and teach the public about social bubbles so that we can support one another as safely as possible.
Structurally isolating people before shutting down high transmission zones tells the public that their interests come second to the interests of private industry. This is unacceptable.
I’m genuinely hopeful for the future, but I feel we need to start thinking about responsible contact in a world where COVID-19 will persist long past September. Demanding that people continue to sacrifice their basic psychological needs indefinitely will only exacerbate the crisis.
The CAQ government has a responsibility to equip us with clear instructions on how to have low-risk contact with our loved ones such as openly communicating the risk level and previous contacts, planning ahead for visits and self-isolating before and afterward.
This long-term problem will not be fixed with external force, but internal accountability. The government needs to play a larger role in education, so that we can both ensure our health and safety, and still see dad on his birthday.
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.
