OTTAWA —
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a new plan to mobilize businesses and manufacturers to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and boost the health sector’s stockpile of life-saving supplies, and new partnerships with airlines to help those stranded abroad to come home.
In taking these next steps, Trudeau is also calling on Canadians to take physical distancing and self-isolation seriously, but said he is not ruling out taking stricter lockdown measures if it comes to that.
“We are looking at all possible different measures,” Trudeau said, emphasizing that nothing is off the table in the COIVD-19 fight and thanking the millions of Canadians who are heeding advice and helping keep themselves, their families, and the frontline workers safe.
The manufacturing plan is meant to help industry accelerate ways to pivot their production lines to help at this critical time by mass-supplying various life-saving medical supplies, considered by some doctors who have called for more supplies being freed up, a “war-like effort.”
“There are people who are talking about historical echoes, whether it was war time or the Great Depression, we’re focused on what we need to do right now,” Trudeau said.
This effort to mobilize industry includes building up the manufacturing capacity and reprioritizing existing innovation and research programs to prioritize the COVID-19 fight through the Strategic Innovation Fund and the National Research Council of Canada.
Talks had been ongoing between the federal government and industry representatives about how companies can pivot to producing equipment like ventilators, face masks, and sanitizer in anticipation that the outbreak worsens in Canada and hospitals need additional supplies.
But also, the government is working on agreements with industry to produce more diagnostic testing products and other disease tracking technology.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has said there has been no specific request for ventilators yet, but Health Minister Patty Hajdu indicated on Friday that she anticipates that surge will come.
The federal government has also been in talks with the provinces and territories to get a clear picture of where there is a gap in their resources.
Specifically calling out to businesses who are wondering how they can help, Trudeau said that Canadians need them and the government wants to work with them to maximize their impact, and output.
“Canada has never faced a situation like this and we will face through it together,” Trudeau said.
Industry Minister Navdeep Bains said that he’s been in contact with businesses looking to help daily, and now it’s on them to increase domestic supply.
Appearing once again from self-isolation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is speaking to the next steps Canada is taking towards combatting the spread and impacts of COVID-19.
It has been a week of morning addresses from Rideau Cottage, to a population that’s largely been working from home or in self-isolation on the advice of public health officials pleading for people to take the risk seriously.
Working with airlines
Trudeau said the government is in talks with Canadian airlines, to help bring back the thousands of Canadians who are having difficult times getting back to Canada given the restrictions in the countries they are currently in.
The prime minister said more is coming in terms of flights to get stranded Canadians back home in the coming days. The first flight will be repatriating Canadians stuck in Morocco this weekend.
While early on in the outbreak, the government chartered flights to repatriate Canadians, for weeks those abroad have been told to take a commercial flight home while they still could, though others remain stuck on cruise ships that have been unable to dock.
Canada-U.S. border closing at midnight
Trudeau also announced that Canada-U.S. border will close to non-essential travel as of midnight Friday. That means, come Saturday, tourists and visitors will not be allowed in.
The prime minister said there will also new protocols for irregular migrants, who will now be turned around if they appear at the border, rather than allowing them in and isolating them, as the plan had been earlier this week.
EI claims skyrocket
Parliamentarians are set to reconvene early next week to pass legislation allowing financial assistance to flow to Canadian families and businesses who are already feeling the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Trudeau said the public service has been inundated with applications, at far higher rates than usual. He said the government has received over 500,000 Employment Insurance applications so far this week, and staff is working around the clock to process these requests for assistance.
As of Friday morning there were 873 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Canada.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
