With some provinces now seemingly past the peak of COVID-19 and looking cautiously toward a light at the end of the tunnel — knowing the risk of a second outbreak lurks — some premiers are now expressing hope they can lift certain restrictions and partially reopen their economies soon.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said he’s aiming for his province to be the first to reopen. He’s even coined an acronym for it: “First in restoring safe services together,” or FIRST.
“That FIRST acronym is what’s in my mind every day,” Pallister said on Tuesday. “Together, we’re going to beat this thing.”
The province is currently seeing very little spread of the virus, reporting just one new case of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Pallister has said the province is now looking to early May for early steps to reopen some parts of the economy, but said that to get there, people will still have to stay vigilant in keeping their distance.
In Saskatchewan, which reported four new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, Premier Scott Moe is scheduled to deliver a televised address to the province Wednesday evening with updates on the COVID-19 pandemic situation, in advance of his government releasing its “re-open Saskatchewan plan,” scheduled to be made public Thursday.
In Ontario, however, Premier Doug Ford urged people to stay the course as his province continues to face a more challenging public health scenario, with 551 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Tuesday.
“There’s no one out there that wants to move forward on the economy more than I do, but we would rather be safe than sorry,” Ford said Tuesday. “I’m getting lobbied hard by so many different groups and organizations. But it’s easy to say ‘open, open, open’ until we get a second wave of this and it bites us in the backside. I just beg people to be patient.”
Nationally, the vast majority of daily increases in Canada’s COVID-19 cases and deaths are due to Ontario and Quebec, and to a lesser extent Alberta, B.C. and Nova Scotia.
On the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister spoke recently of being in a marathon, saying the Manitoba was in “the lead.”
John Woods/The Canadian Press/File
But the pandemic has tapered off in the other provinces, at least for now, and premiers in those provinces are looking at the next few weeks as a possibility for starting to gradually reopen some parts of the economy.
Manitoba’s strategy for reopening still requires a further increase in testing capacity and the protection of vulnerable centres such as nursing homes. It now mandates 14 days of self-isolation for anyone returning from outside the province.
“We know we can’t have the measures as stringent as they are right now. We can’t maintain this for long periods of time,” Manitoba’s chief public health officer, Brent Roussin, said Tuesday. “Certainly we realize that there’s more to health than just this virus. The impact of these public health orders are affecting Manitobans so we want to leave them in for the shortest period of time that we need,” Roussin said.
Pallister spoke earlier this week of being in a marathon, saying the Manitoba was in “the lead.” New Brunswick is also in front of other provinces, having reported zero new COVID-19 cases for three days in a row, and seven of the past 10 days. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has said he’s optimistic about reopening in May, but it depends how the next week or two go.
We realize that there’s more to health than just this virus
“We are not through with this virus,” cautioned Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer, on Tuesday. She said the province will be prepared for a “cyclical” process where restrictions may have to be reimposed quickly if things turn bad. “We are going to be doing a dance, basically,” she said.
Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island both reported zero new cases on Tuesday, although Nova Scotia is still seeing daily case counts in the double digits.
In the larger provinces, a few areas of outbreak are hampering efforts to get the pandemic under control. In Ontario and Quebec, there are still widespread outbreaks in nursing homes and jails. In Alberta, a large outbreak at a meat-packing plant in the south is connected to 15 per cent of the province’s cases, and officials are also working to contain an outbreak at an oil sands work camp in the north.
Although there has been slower spread of the virus among the general population — especially compared to what initial modelling had predicted — Ontario officials said their data shows it is still spreading in the community, accounting for roughly 400 of the new daily cases, and the curve has not yet begun to curve downward.
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Even so, Ontario’s chief medical officer David Williams said Tuesday that he doesn’t believe the province will need to wait until daily cases reach zero before the province starts to lift certain restrictions. Instead, he said, the number needs to get low enough so officials are confident that community spread has slowed substantially and they can do full contact-tracing on the new cases.
“I’m not sure there’s any metric where it would be, when you hit this you can flip the switch,” Williams said. “When we’re dealing with daily numbers well over 500, we’re not there yet.” He said that once numbers drop into the 200s or lower, the province may able to start reopening.
B.C. may offer a way forward for the Ontario and Quebec. The western province saw an early outbreak but has now seen new cases slow to about two dozen daily. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s medical officer, said officials are planning to produce new modelling for infection and hospitalization rates in early May along with proposals for starting to lift restrictions.
Henry said she believes many businesses can find ways to reopen over the coming months, including shops and restaurants, but it will require coming up with creative ways to reduce social interactions.
“I think there’s lots of innovative ways that we can have in-restaurant dining that protects both the staff as well as people who are coming in,” she said. “And I’m looking to industry to come up with those ideas for how this could work.”
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.
