Five Northwest Territories business groups jointly called for the territory to change the way it is responding to Covid-19.
The groups, which claim to together represent the majority of NWT businesses, said the territory’s response to Covid-19 had “come at a heavy price and is getting worse every day.”
They called on government leaders to “strike a better balance” between pandemic public health measures and the safe reopening of the NWT economy.
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In particular, the groups want restrictions on incoming travellers to be eased.
Caroline Cochrane, the NWT’s premier, has said “the health and safety of our people, territory, and economy are at the forefront of our decisions” as the pandemic evolves.
The NWT is currently in phase two of its pandemic recovery plan. While many businesses have been allowed to reopen, restrictions on their operations remain and – crucially – the territory is still closed to almost all tourists.
In their news release, the five groups – the NWT Chamber of Commerce, NWT Tourism, Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, and NWT and Nunavut Construction Association – said the territory needed to awaken from its protective “induced coma.”
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“We now need urgent action in order to preserve businesses and ensure the survival of the private sector,” the news release stated, characterizing the tourism and hospitality industries as “barely clinging to life.”
Critically, the associations said, the NWT government itself had “shown no initiative” in adapting its ways of doing business to the pandemic.
“GNWT workers remain on full pay with no consequences to their personal incomes, household costs, or pensions,” the groups wrote. “Virtually all its employees continue to work from home where that is possible.
By contrast, the groups said, “the NWT business community is leading the way in adapting to phase two restrictions by reopening safely in the face of an opaque and restrictive public health regime.”
Federal and territorial help
The NWT government has introduced some supports to help industry sectors and relied on Ottawa to bail out others.
For example, the territory’s airlines have received $8.7 million in pandemic funding from the federal government followed by $2.9 million from the GNWT designed to cover gaps in that federal assistance.
Others sectors were already facing problems that the pandemic may have worsened, but for which Covid-19 was not entirely responsible.
Diamond mining company Dominion had already been the subject of bleak financial forecasts before Covid-19 arrived and it chose to shutter its Ekati mine. Dominion subsequently entered creditor protection and is now trying to sell its assets to parent company Washington while fighting another mining company in court.
Katrina Nokleby, the territory’s industry minister, has pushed back at the assertion by some business leaders that the GNWT has done too little to support small and medium-sized businesses.
Nokleby says her department intentionally directed businesses toward federal funding while focusing GNWT money on areas inadequately supported.
However, some have challenged that statement. The NWT’s mining industry body, for example, long complained that neither Ottawa nor the NWT government had provided adequate support for the mineral exploration sector, which did not immediately meet criteria for federal help.
CanNor, the federal economic development agency, has since launched funding initiatives designed to catch businesses that would not otherwise qualify.
A business advisory council – co-chaired by Jenni Bruce, one of the five signatories to the groups’ news release – met for the first time earlier this month. However, the GNWT has faced criticism for the time taken to get that advisory group off the ground.
Five requests
The NWT’s private sector has not been uniformly affected by the pandemic.
While many tour operators have either abandoned their summer season or closed down entirely, some retail outlets have reported steady and even, in some cases, rising sales.
Some companies, like gym operators, spent many weeks unable to generate revenue and even now must operate under restrictive and sometimes confusing measures. (For example, interpretations of the same territorial government guidance regarding squash courts have differed significantly. In Yellowknife, on June 18, the Racquet Club told squash players its courts “are open but you must keep two metres between you and your opponent.” Two days earlier, the Town of Inuvik had told squash players its courts were only open for one person per court, essentially for practice play. The same territorial rules apply to both.)
Three company owners have expressed concern to Cabin Radio that their requests for clarity on restrictions affecting their business are passed back and forth between the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer and the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission.
In their news release, the five groups stated they wished to see a greater “sense of urgency” in addressing the needs of businesses.
The groups set out five requests of the NWT government:
Reveal “the economic price tag to date” of the NWT’s Covid-19 restrictions and publish “any economic forecasting the GNWT has performed.” (Rylund Johnson, the Yellowknife North MLA, said on Twitter: “The fact this has to be asked for is embarrassing and reflective of a lack of GNWT data transparency.”)
Ease travel and quarantine restrictions for those entering the territory, “even if not uniformly across the NWT.”
Get GNWT employees back into their offices “in a manner consistent with the private sector.”
Provide “consistent and prompt answers” on the interpretation of pandemic rules.
Provide “consistent and accurate messaging” regarding the pandemic.
In closing, the groups said they believed the NWT’s political leaders had “relinquished many … governing responsibilities” to the chief public health officer, Dr Kami Kandola.
Premier Cochrane has stated throughout the pandemic that political pressure would not be placed on the chief public health officer regarding public health measures.
The five groups, though, said Dr Kandola’s decision-making “can no longer take place in a vacuum.”
“Businesses in the Northwest Territories are doing their best to survive. Our elected officials need to step up and govern, lest we see irreparable damage to our once vibrant business community,” the news release concluded.
Kandola has previously said reopening the territory to other Canadians will rely primarily on how southern Canada handles an anticipated second wave of Covid-19 in the fall.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer said last week: “We do not have plans to alter our self-isolation or travel restriction protocols at this time.
“In our public health assessment, they remain essential to continuing to protect the territory from Covid-19 – and especially to prevent outbreaks in remote communities – while allowing activities folks have been missing to get going again safely.”
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.
