Nova Scotia’s economy could reopen by early June if the COVID-19 curve continues to flatten, Premier Stephen McNeil said Tuesday.
The province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, has been talking with provincial Business Minister Geoff MacLellan and the business community on a plan to lift restrictions, McNeil said at a news briefing.
Those consultations will be done by the end of this week.
“This is an important first step toward reopening our economy,” the premier said.
“We can’t have businesses opening without understanding how to follow public health protocols that will be in place. I know many of you who own businesses have experienced financial loss and hardship and we have not forgotten you. We think about you every day and we try to balance the safety of Nova Scotians with restarting our economy. …
“We want to follow up to make sure businesses are ready and we want everyone to be focused on what they have to do to welcome their customers back safely. If we get this right, we could be ready by early June.”
The entire economy will be opened at once, McNeil said, not in a piecemeal fashion. But each sector – whether it’s hair salons or restaurants – would operate under specific public health orders.
Over the coming days, the province also will lift more restrictions “to get you outside more, to do more and to see more people,” the premier said. “A lot depends on what Dr. Strang sees in terms of flattening the curve in the weeks ahead.”
Strang appeared to give the go-ahead on one such move at Tuesday’s news conference. He said it’s OK for people to hold planned social gatherings with friends and neighbours of up to five people as long as the two-metre social distancing order is obeyed.
“No hugs, no handshakes,” Strang said.
Such gatherings ideally should be held outside in a backyard or driveway and that participants bring their own food and drink, and wash their hands thoroughly beforehand.
Previously Strang had said only “essential” gatherings of up to five people were permitted.
His comments followed Friday’s approval of “double-bubble” gatherings – people in two households now can meet without social distancing as long as that contact is mutually exclusive.
Another Northwood death
Also Tuesday, it was announced that another resident of Northwood long-term-care in Halifax has died from COVID-19, bringing the toll at the facility to 50.
A total of 56 people have died provincewide during the pandemic, the Health Department said in a news release.
There are two licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors’ facilities in Nova Scotia with active cases of COVID-19. Northwood has 19 residents and seven staff with active cases. That’s down from a total of 33 cases reported yesterday.
One other facility has one resident with an active case.
But only one new positive case was identified – which was at Northwood – out of 384 tests done Monday at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre’s microbiology lab. The number of new cases has been in the single digits for the past several days.
Strang noted that another recent case was travel-related, which occurred despite the restrictions on travel and monitoring at the border.
“We have people who are moving across the border, we have made exceptions with people on the flow of necessary goods and materials, and it’s somebody involved in that kind of occupation that became symptomatic, is my understanding,” he said at the news conference.
“Even though our borders are restricted, we still have various types of occupations that are involved in moving good and materials back and forth are interprovincial and even across our international borders.”
Nine people remain in hospital with the virus, including five in intensive care.
Nova Scotia has had 36,438 negative test results to date. The government said 956 people have recovered from COVID-19 and their cases are considered resolved, which is up 10 from yesterday.
The province has identified 1,044 cases of COVID-19 since testing began. By subtracting the number of recoveries from that figure, that means there are 88 active cases in the province.
Tuesday’s release said it remains important for Nova Scotians to strictly adhere to the public health order and directives to practise good hand washing, maintain a physical distance of two metres or six feet from those not in your household or family bubble and limit planned social gatherings of people outside your household or family bubble to no more than five.
Anyone who experiences two or more of the following symptoms – fever, a new or worsening cough, sore throat, runny nose or headache – is advised to visit the province’s 811 website to determine if they should call 811 for additional assessment.
More COVID-19 data for Nova Scotia is available here.
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.
