Parts of Nova Scotia’s economy can begin to reopen June 5 if they’re ready and follow public health protocol.
Premier Stephen McNeil made the announcement during a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We believe we found a balance between public safety and restarting our economy,” McNeil said.
If ready, McNeil said the following can reopen June 5:
Restaurants for dine-in.
Bars, wineries, distilleries and craft beer taprooms.
Personal services like hair salons, barber shops, nail salons, spas and tattoo parlours.
Fitness facilities like gyms, yoga studios and climbing facilities.
Veterinarians.
Other health providers can also reopen on June 5 if they follow protocols in their college or association’s plan, as approved by public health, including:
Dentistry and other self-regulated health professions such as optometry, chiropractic and physiotherapy.
Unregulated health professions such as massage therapy, podiatry and naturopathy.
Lounges are not permitted to reopen yet.
“We are still moving slowly, but this is a good first step,” McNeil said.
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The reopening date for daycares has been pushed back from June 8 to June 15.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, said businesses reopening must follow public health protocols. Details will be made public in the near future, but some include:
Keeping a distance of two metres wherever possible.
Encourage the wearing of non-medical masks when it’s difficult to maintain a two-metre distance.
Staying within the gathering limit of people.
Frequent cleaning of high-use areas, like surfaces and washrooms.
Frequent handwashing.
Limiting non-essential travel.
Reminding people to stay home if they’re feeling unwell.
Strang said these rules are here to stay “for significant lengths of time.” He said if a business is too small for the two-metre distance requirement, then the gathering limit must be respected. It is currently five, but that could change by June 5.
He said any changes to the gathering limit would be made based on epidemiology.
McNeil encouraged businesses that aren’t ready to open by June 5 to wait a little longer. He said he would have more to say about reopening Nova Scotia’s economy and social gatherings at the next provincial briefing on Friday.
The government could not immediately provide details on how it would enforce public health orders as businesses begin to reopen.
A spokesperson said the Labour and Environment departments are “working on a collaborative approach to enforcement.”
$25M reopening grant
McNeil also announced a small business reopening support grant, which totals $25 million.
The fund, McNeil said, would provide eligible small businesses, not-for-profit charities and social enterprises with a grant of up to $5,000 to help them reopen safely.
“Many of you have to operate under entirely new conditions and maybe even change your business model,” McNeil said.
In addition to the grant, he said the province is offering a voucher worth $1,500 to access consulting services to offer advice.
Tattoo parlours can also reopen June 5. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)
The program is for those ordered to close under the public health order, along with small independent retailers, independent gas retailers and dental clinics, McNeil said.
Businesses that applied for the small business grant announced in April will be contacted by the province directly. For everyone else, applications will be online starting June 1.
$230M in infrastructure spending
McNeil announced new infrastructure spending of $230 million.
He said this money will go toward more than 200 shovel-ready projects, including highways, expansion of the gravel road program, expansion of bridges, green energy projects, school repairs, waterfronts, small option homes and provincial museum upgrades.
Nail salons can reopen June 5. (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)
“These projects will support small and medium-sized construction companies across our province who will hire Nova Scotians to do that work,” McNeil said.
McNeil said the investment would create “some 2,000 jobs this fiscal year.” He said tenders are being issued immediately.
A provincial spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Department said in an email there have been discussions with industry and “they believe they have the capacity to do the work.”
According to the department, there is federal funding committed to Nova Scotia’s highway improvement projects. The department said there are “ongoing discussions” with the federal government over its participation in stimulus investments in Nova Scotia.
Restaurants happy to reopen, but worried about future
The head of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia said his members are happy to reopen but worried about trying to pay bills in the months ahead with drastically less income.
“It is going to be the toughest thing they’ve ever gone through,” Gordon Stewart told CBC’s Mainstreet on Wednesday, adding he believes about 200 restaurants may never reopen.
The restaurant experience will also be very different for both staff and customers from a pre-pandemic world, Stewart said.
“It might take a little longer because we have to go around more things and do more things to be safe overall,” he said.
Stewart said the industry will need help going forward and he urged Nova Scotians to support their local restaurants.
1 new case of COVID-19
Nova Scotia reported one new case of COVID-19 Wednesday.
The newest case was at Northwood and was identified Tuesday among 533 tests. The province said the long-term care home in Halifax has four staff and 12 residents with active cases of COVID-19; that’s one more resident than Tuesday.
A total of 59 Nova Scotians have died of COVID-19, including 52 at Northwood.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority’s COVID-19 map for Wednesday, May 27. (Nova Scotia Health Authority)
Seven individuals are currently in hospital, three of them in intensive care.
To date, 975 people have recovered from the virus. On Tuesday, that number was 976. Strang said the number changed for accuracy.
There are currently 19 known active cases of the virus in Nova Scotia.
COVID-19 symptom list expands
The list of COVID-19 symptoms recently expanded. People with one or more of the following updated list of symptoms are asked to visit 811’s website:
Fever (chills, sweats).
Cough or worsening of a previous cough.
Sore throat.
Headache.
Shortness of breath.
Muscle aches.
Sneezing.
Nasal congestion/runny nose.
Hoarse voice.
Diarrhea.
Unusual fatigue.
Loss of sense of smell or taste.
Red, purple or bluish lesions on the feet, toes or fingers that do not have a clear cause.
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.
