Good Wednesday morning,
The House is holding its first-in person COVID-19 committee meeting, which is technically open to all MPs, though only a quorum of seven is needed. After that sitting, at 2:30 p.m., MPs are expected to debate, and ultimately, pass the feds’ package of relief measures targeted at post-secondary students, many of whom have said they are unlikely to find summer employment amid the pandemic.
Ahead of those proceedings, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is scheduled to hold a presser at around 9:45 a.m. in West Block.
The Public Health Agency released new modelling, projecting that the country could see up to 3,883 deaths by May 5. By that date, Canada could have up to 66,835 cases.
The new projections come as the agency reported that the epidemic growth “has levelled off in several provinces,” while Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta are responsible for driving the growth in cases. P.E.I., the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon were not seeing, as of Monday, reported community transmission, and Nunavut had yet to report cases. It also identified that more than 75 per cent of the COVID-19 deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Around 95 per cent of those who have died because of the coronavirus have been 60 years or older.
Addressing reporters during his daily briefing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while the “curve has flattened, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
“We’re in the middle of the most serious public health emergency Canada has ever seen, and if we lift measures too quickly, we might lose the progress we’ve made,” he said.
Ottawa also released a “set of common principles” that provinces have agreed to abide by that will provide a framework for gradually reopening the economy. Some of those broad guidelines include ensuring that restrictions on non-essential travel will be relaxed and managed in co-ordination with one another and that the public health system has the capacity to “test, trace, isolate, and control” the spread of the virus.
In a separate statement, the first ministers noted that there will be “regional differences during this process,” with decisions to be based on the trajectory of the disease, but affirmed that their co-operation will continue. Quebec, for example, said it is moving to reopen schools and daycares gradually starting on May 11, while Ontario had said it was extending closures until the end of May. The Quebec government also said businesses, including retail shops (not those inside malls), would also start to open throughout the coming month.
In other news, Mr. Trudeau assured Canadians that his mother, Margaret Trudeau, is “doing fine” after she was taken to hospital Monday night when she was exposed to a nearby fire in her apartment building in Montreal.
In other scheduled events, the House Affairs and Procedure Committee is meeting on Zoom at 5 p.m. as part of its ongoing study on virtual sittings, with a focus on privacy issues. Some of the witnesses include NDP MPs Niki Ashton and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who both represent ridings with significant Indigenous populations. Zoom’s global chief information officer, Harry Moseley, is also scheduled to testify alongside Microsoft Canada’s John Weigelt. (Microsoft offers a competing video-conferencing platform called Microsoft Teams, which the company boasted is being used by the small island nation of the Maldives.)
The House Industry Committee, meanwhile, will be hearing testimony from Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly during the first portion of its meeting, starting at 6 p.m.
The Hill Times
