Quebec Premier Francois Legault responds to reporters during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, April 9, 2020 at the legislature in Quebec City.
Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Thursday health risks for younger people returning to work are limited considering almost all Quebecers who have died of COVID-19 are over the age of 60.
And if those younger workers – particularly in the province’s important construction sector – can keep away from their parents and grandparents, “then we can start to reopen,” Legault told reporters during his daily news conference.
But the premier was guarded about when that will be and which businesses outside the construction sector will be allowed to operate when the province-wide shutdown ordered in March is eased.
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What is becoming increasingly clear, Legault said, is that the COVID-19 infection rate in the province is expected to peak “in the next few days.” Government projections released Tuesday estimated the peak would arrive around April 18.
“We need to ensure that is true,” Legault said, “but the numbers are holding up. It’s been a few days now.”
Legault and the province’s director of public health, Horacio Arruda, say their No. 1 priority is to control the spread of COVID-19 in order to reduce the number of deaths.
But in recent days, they both have begun talking about a need to balance economic growth with an acceptable rate of infection.
Figures released Thursday show Quebec had the largest unemployment rate increase in Canada in March, rising by 3.6 percentage points to 8.1 per cent. Legault said hundreds of thousands of Quebecers are in financial difficulty, and Arruda added that Quebecers cannot expect to eliminate all new infections.
“We will finish by accepting a certain level of transmission in society so that (the virus) burns itself out in time,” Arruda said. “We will always evaluate the balance of risks of reopening versus the potential pandemic context.”
He said his medical team will evaluate each sector of the economy, region by region, and make recommendations to the premier. Legault said he will focus on opening businesses “where people can keep a distance of two metres.”
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Legault had shut down all businesses deemed “non-essential” in March and after initially considering a reopening in mid-April, extended the order until May 4.
The premier has recently suggested that key sectors, including construction, could open sooner. Construction alone employs hundreds of thousands of people and generates annual investments in the province of around $40 billion, according to the provincial agency that oversees the industry.
Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of Quebec’s main federation of employers, said Thursday he is happy with the optimistic tone shown by the premier. Dorval said his organization, the Conseil du patronat du Quebec, will have a concrete list of proposals for the government by the end of next week on how to reopen the provincial economy.
Dorval said the business community is concerned authorities want to restart the economy sector by sector, as opposed to taking a broader approach.
All businesses that are able to protect their workers and limit the spread of COVID-19 among their customers, he said, should be able to begin operating at the same time, to avoid the most disruption.
“The government wants to go by sector, by task, by job – we won’t get out that way,” he said in an interview. “I think we can move into a context of relaunch or reopening of the economy, with general principles on public health.”
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Dorval says businesses that cannot always ensure workers and clients maintain a distance of two metres should still be able to open – under certain conditions. Those include equipping employees with protective gear, limiting contact with clients and ensuring all customers maintain adequate distance between themselves, he said.
Quebec reported 41 new deaths linked to COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the total to 216 in the province. Provincial health authorities said there are 10,912 confirmed cases of the virus, with 679 hospitalizations and 196 patients in intensive care.
Nearly half the deaths have come from long-term care facilities, but Legault stressed that not all such facilities have been seriously impacted by COVID-19. Most of the deaths are tied to six long-term care centres.
Ninety per cent of those who died were 70 years old or older and another nine per cent were aged between 60 and 69 years old, Legault said.
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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.
