The Canadian government is launching a $1-billion response fund to fuel the domestic and global fight to contain the novel coronavirus disease known as COVID-19.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the support package in a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, saying the federal funding aims to help provincial health-care systems cope with the increasing number of new coronavirus cases and to help Canadian workers who are forced to isolate themselves.
“The reality is that the number of people affected by the virus around the globe keeps climbing. Canada has been fortunate so far … I know that people across the country are worried,” Trudeau said.
“We’re pulling out all the stops to make sure Canadians are safe and protected.”
The plan includes $500 million for the provinces and territories, including money for things like buying medical gear such as face masks.
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That also includes money for public education, surveillance and monitoring, and access to testing.
2:16 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau outlines response funding, includes support for workers affected by virus
Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau outlines response funding, includes support for workers affected by virus
Another $275 million will go to medical research, including funding for a finding a vaccine and launching clinical trials.
That’s on top of the $27 million in research funding announced earlier in the week.
As part of the program, the one-week waiting period to apply for employment insurance will be waived.
It will also adjust the rules in the Service Canada work-sharing program, which Trudeau said aims to help companies deal with employees who have to stay home.
There will also be $50 million in international aid to help other countries fight the spread of the virus.
1:02 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau addresses travel, says ‘strongest recommendation’ is for individuals to protect themselves and families
Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau addresses travel, says ‘strongest recommendation’ is for individuals to protect themselves and families
Trudeau was asked by reporters what safeguards would be put in place to ensure people do not abuse the program.
He did not give a clear answer.
“We have confidence in Canadians. We know that what is extremely important right now is every Canadian does their part to arrest the rate of this virus,” he said.
“We need to make sure everyone is given the tools they need.”
Business and labour groups have called on the federal government to loosen restrictions on employment insurance payments for people who are off work due to illness, arguing that would also make it easier for people with more precarious jobs to stay home and avoid infecting others.
There are few confirmed instances of community transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 in Canada, but the number of cases continues to grow.
As of March 10, there have been 93 confirmed cases of the illness in Canada.
The first death in Canada as a result of the new coronavirus was announced on Monday.
That individual had been living at a care home in B.C.
Trudeau said the most important factor in how the virus spreads comes down to the behaviour of Canadians, adding that things like increased handwashing, social distancing and staying home from work when sick will be the biggest determinants in how it spreads going forward.
“We have been able to restrict the spread of the virus in Canada over the last few weeks because we had the appropriate measures in place,” he said, before being asked what further measures he could consider if the situation gets worse.
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“We’re not closing the door to any decisions at this point, but any decision we make will be based on the recommendations of experts and the best scientific evidence that we have.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the decision by two members of the Liberal caucus to self-isolate after coming into contact with two separate individuals at two separate conferences who both tested positive for the new coronavirus.
2:08 Coronavirus outbreak: Top health official outlines measures to prevent ‘rapid rise’ in cases
Coronavirus outbreak: Top health official outlines measures to prevent ‘rapid rise’ in cases
Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said on Monday he was in self-isolation after attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, D.C., earlier in the month. Two people who attended that conference, including one person from Toronto, have tested positive for COVID-19.
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan is also in self-isolation due to what he called a “persistent” head cold.
He said he has taken a test for the new coronavirus and is waiting to hear the results.
O’Regan said on Tuesday evening that he wasn’t aware of coming into contact with anyone who has the virus.
But on Wednesday morning, attendees who took part in a global mining industry conference in Toronto last week were advised to monitor themselves for symptoms after a man from the Sudbury area who attended that conference tested positive.
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Both O’Regan and Trudeau were at the conference.
Trudeau was asked about that on Wednesday and about whether he is changing his own behaviour to reduce the risk.
“I haven’t had a test,” he said. “I am following Dr. Tam’s recommendations in order to keep myself safe and my family as well.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said everyone who was there is being monitored.
Anyone who develops even small symptoms should stay home and call a doctor or local health agency immediately, she said.
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
