A nurse visits a newly opened exhibition on China’s fight against COVID-19 at the Culture Expo Center in Wuhan, which earlier this year was the epicentre of the pandemic. (Getty Images)
New COVID-19 rent relief program won’t help struggling businesses until next month, group says
The federal government is prepared to offer small businesses rent and mortgage relief for October — but that money won’t actually get into the hands of business owners until November, according to one prominent Canadian business group. In the meantime, many small businesses are scrambling to make rent or mortgage payments in the midst of the economic slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s no question that it’s creating some additional stress for business owners,” said Laura Jones, executive vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Last Friday, the federal government unveiled a revamped program to help small businesses cover rent costs during the pandemic. While the previous program depended on landlords applying for the small business rent relief, the new program is supposed to make it easier for businesses to obtain rent and mortgage relief by allowing them to apply directly to the Canada Revenue Agency. Jones said the new program is “so much better” than its previous incarnation — but it needs new legislation to take effect and Parliament isn’t sitting this week.
Even after MPs return on Oct. 19, it will take time for the bill to be debated — including any late amendments — and for it to pass through both the House of Commons and the Senate, writes CBC’s Catherine Cullen. The CFIB has been told by government officials that applications for the program won’t open until November, Jones said. The previous incarnation of the program ended in September. “That leaves people with both their October rent to worry about and also their November 1st rent to worry about,” Jones said.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office said the government’s proposal ensures rent and mortgage support will be easy to access because it will go directly to small businesses — not through their landlords. Officials did not respond to repeated questions from CBC News about the application process beginning in November. The only reference to a timeline in any of the comments from Freeland’s office was a commitment to “quickly introduce legislation.” “Businesses will be getting rent relief for the month of October,” Small Business Minister Mary Ng told CBC News Power & Politics last week, adding relief would be backdated.
Jones said her members are pleased the new program will offer a “sliding scale” of rent relief. Businesses that have seen at least a 70 per cent drop in revenues can get up to 65 per cent of their rent covered under the program. Businesses with more modest losses will still be eligible for some relief, although it won’t be quite as much; that subsidy level hasn’t been confirmed yet. Businesses will also be eligible for even more help if they’ve been temporarily shut down by a public health order. While Jones said the new program is a substantial improvement over the old one, she said the government is taking far too long to implement it. “We’re seven months into the crisis and some businesses still don’t have rent relief. That’s too long,” Jones said.
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While the bulk of Canada’s COVID-19 cases remain in Ontario and Quebec, other provinces are facing surging outbreaks of their own and could soon face more restrictions. 2:00
IN BRIEF
Meet the experts trying to change the way we communicate about COVID-19
Keeping up with Canada’s COVID-19 public health information can feel like a full-time job, as ever-changing daily case numbers, countless news conferences, conflicting advice from officials and constantly updated guidelines can be overwhelming at the best of times. A group of experts has stepped up in an attempt to help with information overload by explaining the coronavirus in a clear and concise way that connects with a younger audience. “We need to meet people where they are at,” said Dr. Naheed Dosani, a physician and health-justice advocate in Toronto. “We need to think about what works for them.”
More than 45 per cent of Canada’s COVID-19 cases have occurred in those under the age of 40, and Dosani said the best way to connect with that demographic is through social media, something he called a “lost opportunity” with politicians and public health officials. Dosani, a palliative care doctor, began using platforms like TikTok and Instagram in January to reach a younger audience and share information in an effort to destigmatize the topic of death. When the pandemic struck, he shifted from focusing on palliative care to cutting through the noise about COVID-19. “People were really interested in the message. It was reaching them, and it was effective and it’s been quite a journey,” Dosani said.
Samanta Krishnapillai, an “equity-oriented health scientist” in Markham, Ont., started the On COVID-19 Project after months of feeling frustrated about how “ineffective” public health communication strategies were in reaching younger Canadians. “This isn’t a new problem, but during a global pandemic, it definitely should have been at the forefront of every pandemic plan,” said Krishnapillai, who has a master’s degree in health information science from Western University in London, Ont. The grassroots, youth-led and volunteer-based project, which launched over the summer, doesn’t yet have a huge following but has dozens of contributors, and more than 500 people have applied to join, which, Krishnapillai said, proves “young people want to do more.”
Trudeau says pandemic has amplified housing, connectivity gaps in territories
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed “the depths” of the gaps facing Canadians living in the territories. “We’re going to need to do a better job of delivering on housing, on things like broadband Internet access, which is no longer a luxury, but now a necessity. That’s what this pandemic has really emphasized,” Trudeau said in an interview with CBC North’s The Trailbreaker. The prime minister also committed to supporting the North’s mining sector and working to settle outstanding land claims in the region.
From 2016 to 2019, statistics show the Northern housing crisis has been getting worse. Those issues include the state of people’s homes, maintenance and a lack of affordability despite the Liberal government’s promises to put money into Northern housing as part of its national housing strategy in 2017. While the government has brought in funds to the North to address mounting problems in housing, Trudeau says he’ll be sitting down with housing experts later on Thursday, along with N.W.T. Premier Caroline Cochrane, to talk about further steps. Trudeau says the federal government has already made $300 million available to the territories for affordable homes, set $100 million for the North in the national housing co-investment fund and pledged millions more in other financial supports.
In the North and across Canada, Indigenous people have expressed for years they do not feel safe or that they’re assured respectful care in the health-care system. Trudeau said the federal government has committed to move forward on Indigenous health legislation that will shift “many of the ways [things are] done to be much more Indigenous-centred, much more Indigenous-led.” He said the government recognizes that the delivery of health care “needs to be anchored in community, and in language in leadership by the community itself and not brought in from outside.” “COVID needs to accelerate that,” Trudeau said. “We need to make sure that there is better health care that is not just better on a pure objective level, but better on a subjective level as well … without the systemic discrimination that unfortunately continues to exist throughout all our institutions across the country.”
Quebec conspiracy theorist kicked off YouTube for spreading COVID-19 misinformation
Quebec’s best-known conspiracy theorist, Alexis Cossette-Trudel, lost another media platform on Thursday when YouTube shut down his account, which had more than 120,000 subscribers. YouTube said it was removing Cossette-Trudel’s channel, Radio-Québec, for “repeatedly violating our community guidelines regarding COVID-19 misinformation.” Last week, Facebook shut down both Cossette-Trudel’s personal account and his Radio-Québec account, where he had also gained a large following.
Facebook said it took action against Radio-Québec because of its affiliation with the QAnon conspiracy movement, which believes, among other things, that world events are controlled by a cabal of Satanic pedophiles. YouTube said Thursday it, too, is taking measures to keep QAnon content off its platform. It announced that it will remove videos that target “an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence.” A spokesperson for YouTube told CBC News that 60 channels and 1,800 videos were removed Thursday under the new policy, and more terminations were expected in the coming weeks. The spokesperson, Zaitoon Murji, said Radio-Québec was removed not for its ties to QAnon but for spreading incorrect information about COVID-19.
The number of subscribers to Radio-Québec’s YouTube channel have more than tripled since the start of the pandemic. In his videos, some of which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, Cossette-Trudel repeats groundless claims that the dangers of COVID-19 are being exaggerated as part of a plot to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. He also routinely maintains — without evidence — that Quebec government officials are manipulating statistics about deaths and hospitalizations. He argues that public health restrictions, such as wearing masks indoors, are unjustified. The Quebec government has expressed growing concern about the influence of conspiracy theories in the province. Premier François Legault said last week they posed a “real problem” to the government’s efforts at curbing the second wave of coronavirus infections.
A recent COVID-19 outbreak at a southern Ontario fitness studio is illustrating how certain indoor settings can provide a perfect storm for superspreading events. The studio, a downtown Hamilton Spinco location, has been connected to 69 cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, despite screening customers, operating at 50 per cent capacity and keeping the recommended two-metre radius around bikes.
So how did so many cases originate there? And does it raise concern about how the novel coronavirus can spread in a gym setting? “I can see where this could lead to perhaps gyms having serious restrictions placed on them if they want to avoid similar superspreading events,” said Dr. Matthew Oughton, an infectious disease expert at Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal.
Oughton said gyms and fitness studios have a few strikes against them when it comes to tailoring them for the pandemic.They’re operating almost exclusively indoors, which makes for poorer ventilation, and patrons aren’t usually masked when engaging in strenuous exercise. High-impact activity also leads to heavier breathing, which means droplets are being expelled from peoples’ mouths at an accelerated rate — and being propelled greater distances.
Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, likens it to throwing a ball. The harder you throw, the farther it goes. “We still don’t have a perfect understanding of this,” he said. “But we do know that when people are exercising vigorously, the volume and distance of what comes out of their mouth and their lungs is dramatically different than when somebody is speaking [in a normal way].”
AND FINALLY…
Free rides offered to Winnipeg COVID-19 test sites, but many don’t know about the service
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s ride service will take clients to one of the city’s drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites and wait with them until they get their test. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC)
Getting to one of the six COVID-19 testing site in Winnipeg can be a daunting task for people without access to a vehicle. Anyone who is sick is told to avoid taking public transportation, and cab fare may be too expensive for many. For months, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has offered a free ride service to help people with “very unique needs” get to a site — but many COVID-19 test patients, as well as advocates for people with disabilities and low-incomes, told CBC News they had never heard of the service.
Scott McFadyen, director of development for Inclusion Winnipeg, said many people with intellectual disabilities face barriers to accessing transportation, and could benefit from a service like the one offered by the WRHA through Health Links. A spokesperson for the WRHA said the service, which has been available since April, provides rides for an average of 10 people per day, although the contractor that works with the health agency has as many as 15 vehicles available. The vehicles have shields that separate the driver from the client. The service takes people to one of the city’s drive-thru sites, and the patients wait in the vehicle until they get tested.
“The program has not been promoted through any standalone promotion or advertising specific to the program,” the WRHA spokesperson said in an email statement, “but the public has long been directed [on the province’s website, for example] to contact Health Links–Info Santé if they require assistance in accessing safe transportation for testing.” The spokesperson couldn’t say why fewer than 10 people per day have been using the service. Meaghan Erbus, advocacy and impact manager for Winnipeg Harvest, said she thinks the demand for the service is likely greater than the usage suggests. “I’m sure that there’s a criteria and that’s probably why it’s limited, but I think there’s lots of folks that would benefit from that service,” Erbus said.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
