trudeau

Rosemary:

That is the Prime Minister of Canada giving his daily briefing in response to the pandemic of COVID-19. Lots of news in there. Let me start by saying that probably one of the more significant bits of news is thatquÉbec has now made a third request to the federal government for support, this one directly to public safety. As you heard there at the end, not really sure what is that is going to mean, but it is a third request from the province to get some additional support, particularly because of the outbreak of the virus inside long-term care homes. Let me bring in My colleagues Vassy kapelos and the cbc’s Catharine cullen to go through asubstantive bit of news there, in terms of the expansion of theloan, then g7 leaders’ call, and other things. Vassy, do you want to start on the loan maybe, because it did expand things quite a bit.

Vassy:

Yeah, as I mentioned, Rosie, the loan requirements, it’s $40, 000 for one year, up to$10, 000 forgivable if you pay it by a certain date and interest-free in the first year. The requirements have been expanded between $20, 000 and $1.5 million. So that will – the aim will encompass particularly more of those smaller businesses, sole proprietorships and things like that. It doesn’t sound like it covers those paid with dividends, but it does expand the criteria of eligibility and perhaps making it available to more people. The Prime Minister said there was a total of 195, 000 loans approved, $7.5 billion in creditso far. That describes to me the need bybusiness owners. He said something that I want tomake sure we highlight, the creation of the Canada emergencyrent assistance program for commercial properties. This would be receiving rent andreceiving it to pay property owners. We hear from people like that non-stop. The Prime Minister says because of provincial jurisdiction over rent, there needs to be cooperation with the provinces and conversation with the provinces. My understanding is that hasn’t started yet or if it has, it is preliminary. There is a timeline, how would the program work and what would it be worth. I know many business owners are anxious on that. The fact that the federal government is intervening to anydegree where commercial rent is concerned, that is a provincial issue, could be significant for business owners and certainly signals that they have received the same kinds of calls and e-mails that we have, which is that so many business owners arestruggling to pay that rent and they are worried about being evicted or the property owners are worried about paying their mortgages. That property relief will be something important to watch.

Rosemary:

The federal government, in the case of the other business loan as you pointed out, they’re guarantors essentially for the loan. Maybe that’s a role they could play for the provinces who maybedon’t have the same fiscal capacity. I’m throwing that out on the table as an option. In the first loan, it’s interest-free and you might get some of it back, but if you are going to use a commercial rent loan for three months and your rent is substantive, it means businesses could reopen but there is a potential they could reopen with significant debt. That’s a big concern for smallerbusinesses as well, how long they can carry that debt. It speaks to the fact that the government wants to keep businesses and industries alive.

Vassy:

Yes, the debt accrual is a big thing as well. It helps them in the interim, but you heard the prime minister fielding questions about the restart of the economy and how incremental and iterative that is going to be. It’s not like in a month you’ll be able to walk into a restaurant and sit the same way we did six months ago, which means if they do accrue a ton more debt, it’s good that there’s no interest on that for a year. The idea of paying it back might not in normal circumstances be easy, but in extraordinary circumstances that becomes a difficult question. We’ve seen restaurants and businesses and spoken with them on CBC news network often who have had to make the decision to close their doors. Time is of the essence.

Rosemary:

Catharine, I’ll turn to you on the quÉbec request. That is unusual.

Catherine:

I think the context of this is important. I think people across the country have gotten a sense of how dire the situation is in quÉbec. Long-term care facilities it’s aproblem outside of quÉbec, but particularly in quÉbec. We’ve heard those harrowing stories. Recently the premier of quÉbec asked for 2, 000 doctors. He made a public plea, appealingto people’s sense of duties, that doctors and also people with medical training, that he needs them to come and help in quÉbec’s long-term care facilities network. a number of the people in those facilities have fallen ill. I believe the premier gave a number of in excess of 1, 200 people. Obviously some of those people will come from inside the province. We’ll see after a war of words with the medical specialists federation in quÉbec, it does appear that in excess of 1, 000 medical specialists are willing to step up and help, but obviously the province reaching out to the federal government as well. The Prime Minister said they want to help, but this is not a request like they have had in the past, not like the request in northern quÉbec or a floodingsituation. The question comes how many people can they provide, are these doctors and medical specialists. What does the work look like. We will be following this closely to see where that goes and what that work would look like. QuÉbec is in dire states and that feeds into something the Prime Minister was asked by salimah shivji, which is the broader picture of what is happening in Canada right now. Of course the modelling as salimah said and you mentioned earlier, rosie, in terms of the modelling that the government put out, they expected, they said, based on their best calculations between 500 and 700deaths as of today. We are in excess of 1, 000. The question was asked to the Prime Minister of why and what does that mean. He didn’t engage what it meant for the projections going forward. He reminded us, as he’s said many times, that projections aren’t crystal balls. I think Canadians are clear on that. But he did talk about the long-term care piece being a bigpart of why we see the numbers higher and situation worse than we expected or hoped or feared.

Rosemary:

Thank you both for that. I will come back to you. I will point out he was asked about the W.H.O. Because he had that g7 leaders’ call before speaking to reporters. He said everyone recognized the need for international coordination. He recognized, though, and this is the furthest I’ve heard him go on this front, that there arequestions being asked – he means the questions the W.H.O. is asked about china, that seemed a slight shift that the questions are being asked, but not something Canada wants to get involved in right now, that there is still a leadership rolefor the W.H.O. I’ll end on this and this is theissue of parliament. Parliament is set to return on Monday if they cannot reach an all-party agreement to suspend or to find a different way to sit. Those conversations are ongoing. We’ll see what they come up with. The conservatives are pushing very hard to have a couple smaller versions of in-house sittings, in-person sittings, because they feel that there’s lots of accountability questions for the government. Let me bring in Dr. Saner sinah. He is the head of geriatrics at mount Sinai.

Interview:

Good to see you.

Rosemary:

I’ll start with thequÉbec request. What does that tell you about the situation in long-term care facilities in quÉbec, that they are now requesting some support from the federal government, be it the military, the canadian red cross, or others?

Interview:

It really just speaks of the fact that right now in our long-term care homes across the country, there are many homes in crisis. We have homes in toronto, for example, that are saying that only 20% of their staff are reporting to work. That could be because many have fallen ill or for other staffingreasons. When you don’t have the staff there, but you have the residents who need care, they need to be fed, bathed, dressed, there’s things that need to be done, that doesn’t stop here. I’m not sure why the call out there – I can’t speak to the circumstances happening. I know that on Thursday last week when the Minister of healthand the premier came out and announced there were 813 homes in quÉbec out of their 2, 000 that were in outbreak, at that point they said they were going to deploy staff from hospitals, nurses and doctors. So I’m not sure where the gap is, but that’s certainly something that the premier in Ontario announced yesterday, that he’s asking hospitals to pitch in because we’re having –we’re starting to see some of the same issues happen in Ontario as well.

Rosemary:

This would be pitching in in a different capacity in any way you can help. Even if you’re a specialist, that’s the plea in quÉbec, you’re not going your specialization, just to pitch in. What is different in Ontario in terms of additional support, do you already see doctors being moved around in that way and even into long-term care centres?

Interview:

Yeah, we have some homes that need medical skills, they need a doctor to do prescriptions or to order medications or to help diagnose and determine what’s actually happening. If the home’s doctor goes sick, somebody needs to be providing the medical care. The real lack or shortage that we’re seeing, Rosie, is it’s the nurses and the personal support workers who do a lot of the hands-on care. I’m a geriatrician and a highly specialized doctor, but there’s nothing beneath me. If a resident needs to be fed ordressed, these are all things that we should be able to do. Right now the desperate pleas you’re hearing is, we’ll take anybody. We don’t care if you’re a brain surgeon or a nurse, we don’t care. These people need to be fed, clothed, supported, they need care. They’re saying anybody who can do that, we’ll take that.

Rosemary:

I was talking to a woman named Jacquelyn earlier about her mom who is 94 in a home where there is an outbreak. Her mom is 94 and sharing a room and got tested yesterday. She’s in the dark and understands that staff can’t do everything, but it was a hopeless situation. That’s how she described it. What do you say to someone who is frightened about the situation her mom is in?

Interview:

My heart goes out. Families – most importantly, you have residents who might not be getting care and you have families who worry if their loved ones will get the care they need. Right now we need to do better. I don’t understand why there are discrepancies between thousands of doctors and nurses volunteering and going to these portals saying, I’m here and ready, and yet we have desperate pleas for help. I don’t know what the disconnectis. For daughters like that out there who are worried, we need to do better. We need to figure out why do we have these people volunteering and what can we do to resolve the issues quickly.

Rosemary:

Dr. Sinha, if anything this pandemic has exposed faults in systems. One of the biggest faults it’s exposed to me and I’m sure othercanadians is the way we’re treating older people in this country. I’m sure it’s something you’re seized with all the time. What could you hope will come out of this? this can’t continue. This is a pandemic that is exposing the problems, but what would you hope could be improved as a result of this?

Interview:

What concerns me is a number of My nursing colleagues – I wasn’t here in Toronto back in 2003 and 2004 when we had the SARS outbreak. But a lot of the recommendations about staffing, about having ample supplies of P.P.E., these are all things that were recommended back in 2004. People are now saying, even the former Ontario health Minister came out on Twitter and said, why weren’t these things done somany years later? he’s the same political stripe as the current government in power. He asked good questions. It concerns me for some reason when all was settled after sars we said, yeah, we hear those, but for some reason we didn’t compel ourselves to do that. Maybe it’s because our society doesn’t value the old as much as we should. Maybe we don’t value this sectorof care and other parts. I’m hoping that every canadian out there realizes that one day this could be us receiving care in these centres. It probably is a relative of ours who is in these homes. There are 400, 000 Canadians. I hope that we all have a sense of urgency, that we need to fix these things now. But that we also are left after this with a sense that we shouldnot let happen again what we’re seeing. Once this horror show is over, we can prevent it from happeningagain by taking decisive action if, for whatever reason, we didn’t do it after sars. Maybe there’s been enough deathsalready that everybody realizes that what we’ve been doing was not working and is not acceptable and it needs to change.

Rosemary:

I’ll end on this. One of the things they’re going to discuss on the premiers’ call with the Prime Minister later today, I only have a minute, is a way to boost the salaries for these personal support workers. Does it not seem logical that these people should be valued for this critical work?

Interview:

Easily and why a colleague who is doing equally hard work in the community is getting paid less or less access to full-time work with benefits, it boggles My mind. If we value them and our future, we will do this.

Rosemary:

Dr. Samar sinha, always good to talk to you.

as we stand by and wait for the federal briefing with cabinet ministers and federal public health officials, the government has now expanded that small business loan substantially. It announced the creation of a commercial rent loan that will also be negotiated with the provinces in the coming days. All right. We will leave it there on CBC main network. If you want to continue watchingcbc news network and online around the world. I’m rosemary Barton. Thanks for watching. [♪♪♪] [ please stand by ]

It will be interesting to see if that conversation materializes in anything formal from the. For example, he has state two days ago, we’re withholding funding and is there a softening that we know of. We heard the Prime Minister when he was asked about it, talk about the importance of international cooperation and coordination and how he feels the W.H.O. is an important partof that. Though, he did acknowledge thereare parts, about the reliance ondata coming out of china. I think it will be interestingto see if that does have aneffect on the president’s stanceat all. Though he came out forcefullylast night. I was in the chair here whilethe president said that about myborder and My jaw even dropped alittle bit. He was asked about the border weshare and relaxing restrictions. He talked about the relationshipbetween Canada and the United States and he complimentedcanada on how it was handlingthe spread of COVID-19 here andsaid his country was doing agood job. Of course, there are questionsaround that, as well, specifically in some of thestates I would point to thatborder. Our country, michigan and newyork city and tens of thousandsof cases in each of thosestates. and then he said he wasexpecting it to be one of theborders with a, quote, earlyrelease. He did not attach a specifictimeline. He was asked if he shared theview and the conversation aboutrelaxing the restrictionswouldn’t occur for a number ofweek. Though, he tried to, I think, acknowledge that the sentimentbehind the president’s commentsabout saying that it reflectedsort of the closeness of therelationship and theinterdependence of the twocountries. I didn’t necessarily get thesame impression when thepresident was talking. What I understood was, this isone of the borders – this issomething of less concern to himthan other issues in the countryand he would be open to an earlyrelease of the restrictions. It’s clear this government isnot on the same wavelength onthat.

Rosemary:

Katherine, standby and I’m take you to the deputy Prime Minister, chrystiafreeland.

Canadians have been doing Good job at physical distancing and that is saving lives. I know that it’s very hard, but together we need to continue. We can’t stop now. We cannot squander the gains we have made so far and all of us need only look at other countries where we see staggering casualties, horrific scenes at hospitals to really understand how important it is for us as a country to staydisciplined. (speaking french).

This is a marathon and it’snot over yet. We are doing good work with physical distancing which is saving lives. We must continue to do so. We cannot relax our vigilancenow. We have but to look at other regions of the world, whether they are near or far or losses are staggering.

We will hear fromdr. Theresa tam, Dr. Howardnjoo, the Minister of service sand procurement’s and by videolink, the Minister of finance, bill morneau and also by videolink, the Minister of smallbusiness, export promotion and international trade Mary Ing. And the president of the treasuryboard.

Hello, everyone. I’ll begin with the number ofcovid-19 cases in Canada. There are 29, 826 cases, including 1, 048 deaths. Close to 50% of the deaths are linked to long-term care homesand 93% are in people over 60years of age. For the lab testing, we’vecompleted tests now for over487, 000 people. As Canada continues to improveour testing. As I said yesterday, there aresigns, our collective effortsstarting several weeks back havehad an effect to slow down theepidemic. Assuming our staycation hashelped to maintain this friend,, we need to double-down in highrisk settings. The measure of a society in howit cares for its most vulnerableand this epidemic revealed thechip in our armor. Residences have been severelyimpacted and there other groupsthat urgently need ourattention, including people whoare experiencing homelessnessand precarious housing. Not having a home is asignificant barrier to followingpublic health like maintainingphysical distancing and handhygiene. Resources and supports forinfection control are in placeto protect staff, clients andguests and shelters. With our immediate action, therewill be more outbreaks andavoidable deaths with societalhealth implications. Some municipalities have takenaction to secure accommodationto ease crowding and facilitatephysical distancing and this isa good step forward. Volunteers are reaching out tosupport homeless sheltersincluding making hygiene kitsand helping to serve and delivermeals to those in need. We cannot crush this curveunless and until everyone islooked after. Let’s come together and do this. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Dr. Tam.

Thank you. Here is a daily update on the number of COVID-19 cases incanada. There are now 29, 826 cases in the country, including 1, 048deaths. Close to 50% of the deaths are linked to long-term care homesand then 93% of the deaths arepeople over 60 years of age. For the land testing, we’vecompleted tests for over 467, 000people, 6% confirmed positive. Canada continues to improvetesting to better track wherethe disease is spreading. As mentioned yesterday, thereare signs that our collectiveefforts starting several weeksback have had an effect to slowdown the epidemic. Assuming our staycation hashelped to maintain the trend, wenow to double down. If the measure of a society is in how it cares for its mostvulnerable, this pandemic hasrevealed a chink in our armor. Long-term care homes andsenior’s residences have beenseverely impacted. But there are other vulnerablegroups that urgently need ourattention, including people whoare experiencing homelessness. Not having a home is followingadvice like maintaining publicdistancing and hand hygiene. It’s important that resourcesand support for infectionprevention and control are inplace to protect staff, clientsand guests in shelters. If we don’t act immediately, there will be more outbreaks andavoidable deaths with broadersocietal and public healthimplications. Some municipalities have takenaction to secure additionalaccommodations to ease crowdingand facilitate physicaldistancing. This is a good step forward. Volunteers are reaching out tosupport homeless sheltersincluding by making hygiene kitsand helping to serve and delivermeals to those in need. We cannot crush this curveunless and until everyone islooked after. Let’s come together and do this. Thank you.

and now we will hear from our minister of public services andprocurements. Anita, please.

Before I begin, I would like to send a big thank you to conquer COVID-19 and haleywickenheiser who have been distributing personal equipment, stepping up for communities and donating what you have on hand is extremely helpful. It’s the Canadian way and compliments our government’sefforts to purchase vital supplies for our healthcareworkers. We are operating in ahypercompetitive global environment and results in complex and sometimes unpredictable supply chains. But we are making progress which will discuss today. (speaking french).

I can tell you that this is truly a team Canada approach to procurement with all hands on deck and all of the government working together. Furthermore, I will be think spgwith My counterparts tomorrow.

In a market characterized by high demand, we are buying existing inventory where we can and placing large orders to create and to maintain a steady stream of goods flowing from diverse sources over the comingmonths. (speaking french).

Our officials are working closely with partners on the ground which includes empathy and logistic experts to get these supplies into Canada.

In particular, we are working with the logistics Canada base don of Montreal and with deloitcanada for receiving, storing services and custom’sclearances. Cargo jet and air Canada have stepped up, as well, to bring home to Canada federal orders, as well as provisional and territorial borders. and we continue to work with other officials in china including our formidable ambassador Dominick var tan to navigate the complex campaign cnenvironment. The. (speaking french).

I want to thank all of those involved for getting the vital supplies into the country and into the hands of our doctors, our nurses and our healthcareprofessionals. When needed and as fast as human.

In addition to our international buying efforts, Canadian companies have responded en Massey to our suppliers and buy and sell. Through this call to action, we have signed contracts with suppliers like geometric energy corporation based in Calgary and this company will provide millions of mitral gloves forcanada’s healthcare workers. (speaking french).

Over the past few weeks, we have also heard about the manycanadian companies that are ramping up production with some manufacturers completely shifting their production lines.

Thinking of canadiancompanies like Bauer in quebecthat have gone from making hockey gear to making facechildshields for front-line medlworkers or stanfields that isset to provide us with 100, 000medical gowns. (speaking french).

I am very happy to announce that we can add another name to that growing list. The government of Canada has signed a contract with irvingoil which has retooled parts of its production line formuch-needed sanitizer. Production will start beingdelivered over the next fewweeks.

The governor of Canada has signed a contract with irvingoil which produces much needed sand sanitize and Irving will start delivering in the next fewweeks. This is a part of more than20 million liters of handsanitizer that we’ve order the, ordered. These companies and mans serve as great examples of thecanadian ingenuity that will get us through these orders. We have chartered six flight sand we expect four more in the next week carrying a variety of goods from china, including n95masks. These flights are, of course, inaddition to goods that arrive byother means. As of today, we have orderedjust under 300 million surgicalmasks and approximately145 million and 95 respirators. Today we, have received deliveries of more than75 million surgical masks androughly 800, 000 n95 masks weredelivered to the provinces andterritories last week and weexpect 1.1 million to reach themthis week. (speaking french).

We’ve ordered 100, 000 pairs of glasses and more than14 million have arrived incanada.

Up to 30, 000 ventilators withcea and starfish, and all three are Canadian companies that will be manufacturing theselife-saving machines right hereat home. These are only some of thesupplies that we have on the wayand a handful of the canadiancompanies that are rising to thechallenge. We are operating in ahypercompetitive market andwhile demand for these suppliesis going up, Canada andcanadians are keeping up. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Anita and now we will hear from our financeminister, bill morneau. Bill, please.

Well, thanks. and good afternoon to everyone. As we come together to stop the spread of COVID-19, the government is working hard to support the economy. We’re also trying to listen to the need of Canadians so that we make sure we get it right. We know many small businesses are worried about paying therent, about paying their suppliers and paying theiremployees, people who have worked side by side with them for years. Last week, we launched thecanada emergency businessaccount, which is offeringinterest-free loans of up to$40, 000 to small businesses andto non-for-profits. 25% of that loan is forgivableif it’s paid back by the end of2022. I want to give an update. To date, more than 195, 000 loanshas been approved throughcanadian financial institutions. But we’ve also heard there aremany small businesses who needsupport but who didn’t qualifyfor these loans. So today, we’re announcing thatwe’re expanding the eligibilityrequirements to businesses thathave between $20, 000 and$1.5 million in annual payrollto apply. So I would encourage thoseorganizations to reach out notheir financial institutions byphone or by email to find outhow to actually apply. (speaking french).

Today, we’re announcing we’reeligibility for the canadabusiness accounts in order to allow businesses whose annual payroll is between $50, 000 and$1.59 million. Communicate with your institutions by phone or email to find out how you can apply.

It will be there to help businesses bridge through hardertimes. Small businesses are the heart of our communities and represent the heart of our country, thaw can work hard and bring a good idea to fruition to provide for yourself and your community. We know that many organizations are worrying about their rent, aren’t that’s coming due. I want to start by commending the landlords who are offering relief to tenants that are facing hardship. We need our businesses to remain strong so that when this isover, they can continue to be good tenants and pillars of ourcommunity. We’re announcing our intention to introduce the canadianemergency commercial rent assistance programme for smallbusinesses. The programme will seek to provide loans, including forgivable loans to commercial property owners who provide small businesses with rent reductions for April, may andjune. To do this, we’re going to need to work in partnership with the provisional and territorial governments who govern the commercial property owner tenantrelationships. We’ll continue to work with provinces and territories in this proposal, to enhance support for small businesses and we will have more to say on this in the very near future. (speaking french).

Businesses and businesses owners are facing significantchallenges. Therefore, we’re announcing our intention to introduce an emergency rent programme. This programme will offer loans to owners who offer smallbusinesses, and we’re working with provinces and territories that regulate the relationships with the renters and owners. We’re continuing to work on thisprogramme to ensure that businesses severely affected by the crisis are supported and will have more to announce soon.

Across Canada, we want you to know that we will continue to listen and we’ll have your back and we know that this is an extremely difficult time and we are not going to stop working for you and your. Employees.

Thank yo United States

Now we will hear from our small business, Mary Ing.

I’m glad to be joining all of us by video conference today. There’s no question that small businesses and their employees are some of the hardest hit in this crisis and from the very beginning we said we would linwouldlisten is adapt to what yolus. We will continue until we get to the other side of this. a few weeks ago as the finance minister said, we launched Canada emergency business account to help small businesses who are struggling to keep up with their operating costs and their cash flow and under that, small businesses can go to their local bank to apply for aninterest-free $40, 000 by thegovernment. (speaking french).

To date, about 195, 000 loan shave been approved.

195, 000 small business owner shave getting the help they need, to keep up with the costs, topping up your employee’ssalaries and wages, to compliment the wage subsidy. Today’s announcement will mean even more businesses willqualify. It means that your favourite restaurant can keep the light son while they switch over to delivery service. It means that small furniture stores that rely on foot traffic to stay afloat can continue the coasts of the upkeep of theirspace. It means that the local bed and breakfasts can maintain their property while they’ve had to temporarily close their doors. We’ve also heard thatbusinesses, we heard them loud and clear, that they’ll need help paying the rent and that one of the significant operational costs and that’swhat they have to keep up with. We heard that this programmewill provide loans and forgivable loans to commercial property owners who will, inturn, lower the rent to bear small business tenants for the months of April, may and June. and, of course, we will work closely with the provinces and territories and we’ll have more details to share soon. (speaking french).

This is about saving jobs and keeping businesses going.

This is about saving jobs and keeping businesses going and want to ensure all small business owners and entrepreneurs out there that we are in your corner. We’re listening and I won’t re stand I know My colleagues feel the same way, until we do everything possible. Thank you and I’ll pass it to mycolleague.

I’ll give the floor to the director of the board.

I want to talk about seniors in Quebec, especially those who are in long-tem care facilities. We are all affected by thesituation that many of theseseniors are currently in. This is very difficult for manypeople who are working in thosefacilities, as well. The Prime Minister has indicatedagain this morning that thecanadian government wishes toimprove its ability to supportprovinces in theseextraordinarily difficultcircumstances. What’s being done and what wewant to continue to do areefforts by the canadian redcross and we are supporting, which are important. There’s also health Canada’sefforts which is adding on to the list of volunteers by volun. By improving this list ofvolunteers, we are able to addon more volunteers. There was a request made tominister bill blair to receivehelp from the canadian armedforces and discussions areongoing, decisions willeventually be made. We also wish to highlight howmuch we want to support ourworkers, our front-line workers in these extremely importantlocations. That support is absolutelyessential. Yesterday, the prime ministerindicated that the government ofcanada wishes to help provincesincluding Quebec who wish toincrease salaries to front-lineworkers in essential sectors of our society, especially thoseworking where our seniors arelocated. We know over the long-term thatthese are essential services andwe need to support theseworkers. We want to support them over thelong-term and the short-term. This is significant work that weare all doing together toimprove the assistance ofcanadians in particular. Thank you. We are now ready for yourquestions. (speaking french.

Thank you, when it comes to the government’s supportcapacity, what resources does the federal government have to meet the needs of Quebec and how many soldiers? how many volunteers are available to meet Quebec’srequests.

Answer:

This is a part of the significant discussions that are happening between bothgovernments. It depends on the circumstances in which Canadian forces could be called upon to work in care, especially in long-term carefacilities. Everything depends on theconditions that the governmentof Quebec would like to offerwhen it comes toresponsibilities and workingconditions to members of thecanadian armed forces. We know that the armed forceshave multiple skills. As we were saying, it’simportant to match those skillsand to ensure we respect theleadership of the provinces.

Question:

How many resources are being requested? do you have any number?

Answer:

There are numbers, but we also have working conditions and we are discussing those conditions right now. The government received a letter last night from the government of Quebec to accelerate thosediscussions, which includes the number of workers but more importantly the type of workers that will be called upon. This is a part of the discussions that are ongoing with the government of Quebec. Thank you. Next question.

Operator:

The next question is from the Canadian press. Please go ahead.

Question:

Thank you. Minister anand, I have question about the supplies forknives. N95s. We’re hearing for the use of n95masks whenever in contact withthe COVID-19 patients to enhanceprotection on front line. The government is obviouslytrying to stock up as much aspossible, but will front-lineworkers have enough if demandfor n95 increases beyond whatwe’re seeing now?

I will say that we have received over just in the past two weeks alone around 2 millionn95 masks that are expected to be delivered to the provinces in total by the end of the week. So that’s the first point to directly answer your question onnumbers. But I want to give you a picture of the global environment and not sugar coat it. We are operating in an era ofhigh-global demand and we mustwatch the support from start tofinish until these masks andother ppe find their waydirectly back to Canada and arein a warehouse for distribution. and so, monitoring that supplychain from start to finish onthe ground in china, forexample, is a key priority of our ministry and our governmentand we will not stop until wehave the supplies canadiansneed. We have a solid team on theground in china and we have beenworking very closely withambassador barton, but we’vealso retained private companies, deloitte Canada and deloraycanada, for example, and theyare assisting in our efforts to ensure that we have a steadysupply of masks and other ppecoming into Canada. Again, this is complex, but weare managing it under the verytight global conditions.

Question:

I’m wondering if your officers provided you that in late January? and what were their conclusion sat the time?

I am not at liberty to go into any intelligence shared with me and the government and other ministers, but what I can say is that canadianintelligence analysts and officials are following and have been following from the outset the coronavirus epidemic. This is currently the biggest threat that Canada faces and Otis absolutely appropriate for our intelligence officials and analysts to be following it closely and that intelligence is shared with the government, with key ministers, and it absolutely has and continues to inform ourresponse.

Operator:

Next question on the phone.

Question:

My question is fordr. Tam. Last week you said according tocanada’s prediction, there would be between 500 and 700 deaths bytoday. We now have twice as much. So My question is two-fold. How do you explain thediscrepancy and what does ittell us about the curve we’refollowing? last week you presented us withfour scenarios and four rates ofinfection, 1%, 5% and 10%. we were under the impression wewere following the 1% or 5%curve. Given the numbers, which curvedo we now seem to be following?

So those were planningscenarios, first of all, butlet’s just talk about where the epidemic is at. We do know, and as I saidyesterday, the actual doubling time for both cases, concerned cases in Canada has been slowingdown. That’s the trend. So you are seeing that curvebending. The issue in terms of modeling or projects deaths, not evenmodeling, is that that has to change over time and itreflects, I think, several different phenomenon. and one is the epidemiology of the outbreak itself. So when the cases occurring inlong-term care facilities, itresults in higher fatalityamongst the people who get theillness. So I think that is the currentpicture right now. At the beginning of anyepidemic, the case fatality willbe underestimated and this is aphenomenon of both the time ittakes for someone to undergo thefull clinical course of theirillness to the final outcome andit accelerates at a slower rateat the beginning. After a number of weeks, thosevulnerable and at high riskwill, unfortunately, die fromthe illness. So this is the phenomenon, ithink, that we’re seeing. At the same time, if thedenominator is slowing down, when the growth rate is slowingdown and at the same time as thenumber of deaths are going up, that ratio is going to increaseand I think that’s what we’reseeing right now and we mightexpect that ratio to continue toincrease as the epidemic slowsdown but also, then, thepopulation now being affectedand the higher proportion ofdeaths that we expected to seein the older age group and thosewith underlying medicalconditions. I think you were thinking of theshort-term forecast, they’revery sensitive to our actions, but also the epidemiology andthat projection has to changereally very quickly on a dailybasis.

Question:

Last week, we said that the expectation was maybe to have 4400 deaths. So does that prediction changenow, given the situation, how the situation has evolved over the last week?

Yes. So the projections are looking at a date and if you actually look at that projection, the number of cases projected very, very close to what waspredicted, for April 16th. Evacuee projected the number of cases just being over 22, 000 to31, 000s cases and we’re now currently tracking in that time frame for the number of cases. So that is the number of deaths. and as that ratio increases, again, any number that I present right now will be subject to change as the ratio changes. So our modelers are the lastlook, and our projectingsanywhere between 1200 and 16201620deaths by April 21st. So depend, any number I provide you will be subjected to variations as we change those projections over time.

We’ll now move to questions in the room.

Question:

I’m with the”globe and mail” and I’mwondering for Dr. Tam or deputyprime Minister Freeland if youcan explain why the number ofwarehouses stocks supplies fromthe national emergency stockpilewere reduced and whether thatlead to a reduction to the. Ppethat was stockpiled by thefederal government.

So I think the consolidation of warehouses are reflection over time that changes in terms of the distribution andequipment. We now have six locations for our warehouses. and so supplies, for example, the Regina warehouse, we noted was closed. It reflects how goods or supplies can be transported in the different ways now and more rapid ways compared to decadesago. You now have the environment for shipping and sending supplies is quite different so that has to change with the times and with the consolidation or the effectiveness of the distribution itself. and so I think in terms of ppe, I think over time the stockpile reoccurs where we were not used to providing expired Poe toothers. As we move sort of forward, given this experience, we have to optimize product life cycle but also minimize, perhaps, thestock. Now they do take up quite a bit of space, but you have to manage that and obviously, they’re sort of a back-up, if you like, thanperhaps to the non- stockpile.

Question:

I have another question for deputy Prime Minister Freeland or fordr. Tam. The Canadian government, an umber of weeks ago gave an early $1 million COVID-19research grant to the researcherat the university of Alberta towork in collaboration with thewuhan institute of virology todevelop a form of rapid testingfor the virus. The institute is from the centreof the original outbreak and canyou explain why Canada isfunding a collaboration withthis institute and what this canbring to bear on this research?

I think – I don’t know ifdr. Njoo knows the answer to this question, but we’ll talk to our colleagues or the funding organization and determine that. Obviously, though, in general, understanding the biology of the virus or some characteristics ofit, there is, I’m sure, very useful in determining the workthat’s needed and I think, obviously, all hands-on deck toresolve the issues needed interms of the science and whatkind of testing capability mightbe needed. So I can’t comment on thespecific project, but we’ll getback tow on that. Back to you on that. (question inaudible).

I think we’ll get back tow onthat. As I said, the national emergency strategic stockpile was not really set up to back up the healthcare system and that is a responsibility of province sand territories and theirstockpile. We were more focused on very highly pathogenic and unusualorganisms, such as the ebolavirus with it’s special kind of personal protective equipment and that might be required for that kind of setting or very, very unusual pathogens that provinces and territories are not able to or don’t really have as much of a role in for preparing for those very unusualpathogens.

Question:

So we know what is going on in senior’s homes, is reprehensible and seniors need help now. The question is to Mr. Duclousor miss Freeland. What are they hoping soldier swill do? he said he needs everything. So would they be serving meals, doing maintenance? if you could be specific because lot of people want to know.

We received, as the Prime Minister said, we received late last night a formal request from the province of Quebec for direct aid from the government of Canada and from the canadianarmed forces. We are looking urgently at that and are looking urgently to see what the government of Canada, what the Canadian armed forces, what the Canadian red cross can do to help and we agree that this is an absolutely urgentsituation. In terms of the precise tasks, that government of canadapersonnel could do expect precise numbers, that is something which is being discussed even as we speak. There will be a first Minister’scall later today with the Prime Minister and all of the premier sand I will join the Prime Minister on that call and support him and I want to emphasize as was already said, we are fully seized of the urgency here and we are working very hard to support the province of Quebec, as is the federal government’s job. We don’t have the details to offer at this moment on personnel or tasks because those need to worked out, but they are being worked out right now.

I think this would be foryou, deputy Prime Minister, about the possibility of the labour shortages and the food supply chain unless that would be for someone else. But we know some had COVID-19outbreaks and is there anycontingency plan to deal withlabour shortages should it getworse?

That’s an excellent question, Julie. and that is something that our government has been working on and I’ve been personally focused on over the past few days. We have been talking with industry leaders, foodprocessers are an essential part of our food supply chain and food security is clearly really important in a crisis like this. We are lucky in Canada because we are a major food exporters. I am so grateful to all of our farmers and ranchers and foodprocessers. But you’re right, that thecoronavirus poses particular challenges to food processing facilities because of the dangers of contagion there. and we’re working closely with the industry to find ways to be sure that we can keep the food supply chain strong and working. and I’ll add just one thing, which I heard from a leader in the food processing sector thisweek, which is, Canadian foodprocessers are experts indecontamination. You might say that that is an area of particular necessary focus for that sector. They know how to handle this and the government appreciates that expertise and we’re working with them to be sure that they can continue to work and that we can continue to have food in our grocery stores and on our table sand finally, I want to thank all of the people, all of thecanadians who work in the food processing sector. These are really hard jobs. They are really essential jobs. Thank you very much.

Question:

We’re hearing about a situation in theoilsands camp in northernalberta. Now, what concerns do you have been COVID-19 spreading at these work camps.

That is another goodquestion. and the work camps are, ofcourse, in the area of particular vulnerability. I have had a number of conversations with premierkenney from the very outset about very thoughtful measures that both the province and industry are taking to minimize the possible spread ofcoronavirus in the work camps. and that is an effort that we need to continue. and where the coronavirus doesappear, we need to be very, very swift in containing it. and I will say that the province of Alberta, the provisional public health response has been very strong to date and I have every confidence it will continue to be.

Question:

Workers sometimes come from other provinces and when they leave the work camps, should they be self-quarantiningat home? is there anything to make surethey’re safe or we’re safe untilthere’s a period of time we’reall clear on that?

As you know, mike, some provinces and territories do have in place self-isolationrequirements for anyone cominginto the province from outside. The provinces and territoriesthat have put those in placehave done it for a good reasonand they expect and I expect allcanadians to follow their veryimportant rules.

Question:

This is rachelhaines. Prime Minister said we are still weeks away, still soon to talk about easing like this withborders. Would Canada be in a position where we would have to follow asuit?

So thank you for the question and I’m happy to share with you and with Canadians that we are even as we speak, just over the past couple of days, we have been engaged in productive conversations with our americanneighbours about the borderrestrictions. Canada believes that the right thing to do would be to extend those border restrictions. We just discussed the restrictions that exist within our own country on travel between provinces. The neighbourly thing to do right now is for all of us to be staying at home and to travel only when it is absolutelyessential. The way we can be good neighbours to our americanfriends is by maintaining those restrictions and we are currently having very constructive and productive conversations with our americanneighbours about precisely that.

Question:

Obviously donaldtrump, though, has a reputation for not being so neighbourly with Canada as we’ve seen in the past few years. Can you guarantee that canadawill not open our border toamericans until it is absolutely safe to do so?

I can guarantee one thing and can offer some information. What I can guarantee is decisions about Canada’s border are taken by Canadians, fullstock. and when it comes to easing the border restrictions of allkinds, our government will only do that when it is appropriate and when it is not a risk to the health and safety of Canadians. When it comes to our relationship with the United States during the pandemic and specifically with regard to theborder, we have been extremelyfriendly, extremely neighbourly and extremely effective. We put in place restrictions on nonessential travel at the border in a reciprocal and coordinated way and those restrictions are working. We have a huge decrease in travel across the border and at the same time, food and medical supplies continues. So the relationship, in fact, is working really, really well and we are going to keep on working hard to ensure that that continues to be the case.

Thank you, deputy Prime Minister. I’ll turn back to the phone with three additional questions. Operator. The next question, please.

Question:

Yes, when it comes to assistance the prime ministermentioned, the army and red cross and specialized volunteers from health Canada, could you tell us how many Quebecois Arron this list and could you indicate how you plan to coordinate the offer to meetquebec’s needs? I’m not sure if you can give us examples of what’s already beendone.

Answer:

Excellent question. Work is being done at manylocations. There’s about 30, 000 volunteers that have proposed their services over the last several weeks on health Canada’swebsite. These volunteers are found throughout the country and they have different skills and different language skills. Work between health Canada and public health agencies from various provinces, includingquebec, is going well. Information is being shared in order to ensure that the government of Quebec can use this information in order to solicit the expertise of the volunteers who are available. Volunteers don’t always need to be physically present in specific location. Part of the work could be conducting a follow up of cases of contagion which is contact tracing with people who arecontagious, to follow up on people they may been in contactwith. We will take into account those. People’s skills and this is going well. There’s a great deal of consideration for the fact thatit’s very useful and very muchappreciated.

Question:

They acted last week from the hospital inmoncton that the kits made in china were contaminated. Were measures taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again? is there other medical equipment from china that can’t be used because it did not meet healthcanada’s criteria?

Thank you so much for thequestion. The issue of quality control of goods coming from outside ofcanada and in this case china is one that we are watching veryclosely. On the ground in china, we make sure to have quality control checks there and then, on thegrnd in Canada, the public health agency of Canada also runs inspections. and where the goods areun-useable, we then move to asecondary or terciary supplychain and so, it is a constantplace of attention for ourgovernment to make sure that thegoods that are getting out toall parts of Canada are in goodcondition and it’s something wetake from point a to point z. Having said that, it appearsthat there was a mishap and itis something that we are takingvery, very close watch over tomake sure it doesn’t happen inthe future and in terms of theinspections in Canada, it wouldbe appropriate for Dr. Tam toadd any words here.

Yes, so, when you count the swabs and this is a supplythat’s already in place, someone that is a supply that’s already approved by health Canada andso, swabs can go directly and be distributed to the province andterritories. When there’s an issue thatarises, we support the testing again of those swabs and then moving on to looking at innovative ways to look at whether you can actually sterilize them and that is what we were doing at at national microbiology lab as well as looking for replacement swabs through many different channels, including some of the domestic innovative chanels, as well. So again, we manage this together with the provinces and territories very rapidly. (speaking french).

Question:

I would like to add that when it comes to theswab, when we discovered that there was a problem with imports from china, we worked very, very quickly over the weekend, over the Easter weekend, and we found other sources of swabs that are now in Canada. They have already arrived. I wish to reassure Canadians. We have enough swabs right no wand that’s very important, because swabs are essential.

Operator:

Next question, please. (please stand by).

Premier Doug Ford:

and for most vulnerable, for our seniors, our parents, our grandparents, how far we go and how hard we fight will mean the difference between life and death. and we owe it to them. We owe it to those who cannot defend ourselves to do everything in our power. Yesterday we announced our action plan to protect our long-term care homes from COVID-19. These homes are turning into thefrontline in the battle. Yesterday we sent in the cavalry. Medical swat teams are being deployed to long-term care homeswho need it the most. We’re bringing in the very, verybest, specialists who are trained in the detection, prevention, and containment of the world’s most deadliest diseases. These people understand better than anyone in our system how viruses like COVID-19 work. They know how to stop this virusdead in its tracks. I’ve said it before. The dedication and commitment of our long-term care home staff isincredible, truly incredible. They continue to put the needs of the community ahead of themselves, but they need our support. I want them to know more help ison the way. I said we would do absolutely everything in our power to fightthis virus. After weeks of preparation and hard work by hospital staff and our frontline heroes, we’ve added over 2, 000 acute care and critical care beds to our hospital system since the start of this outbreak. and we’re on track to add another 4, 200 acute care beds by the end of April. It’s because of these efforts that we’re able to redeploy resources to our long-term care homes and other priority areas. Last week, I promised by today we’d be tested 8, 000 people a day. Well, today we’re at over 9, 000 COVID-19 tests. We’ve hit our first target and we’re going to keep ramping up our efforts until we hit 14, 000 tests a day by the end of this month. We’ll continue to expand testing. Testing more people and prioritygroups. We’ve expanded our testing guidelines. We’re making sure we’re testing the people who need our support the most. We’ll be testing at homeless shelters and women’s shelters, homes for people with disabilities. We’ll be testing women who are pregnant and newborns. People undergoing chemotherapy, dialysis, and transplants. My top priority is that no one in this province gets left behind. Folks, this situation is unprecedented and I can promise you, we’re working around the clock to find solutions to problems we have never faced before. We started working directly withour partners on the ground, municipalities, charities, and shelters to make sure they have the resources to keep their staff and residents safe. and in the coming days, we’ll provide more detail and the nextphase of our plan to further support these communities. The challenges we’re facing fromcovid-19 impact every person in this province, if it’s a financial impact, mental impact, physical impact, we will be there to support you. Let me finish by saying this. I know that each and every family that have lost a loved one is grieving right now. I grieve with you. I know that people are worried about their next paycheque and iworry with you. I know that people are anxious staying in their homes and I share that anxiety with you. That’s exactly why I’m working around the clock. That is why My staff is working around the clock and that is whythe Ontario public service is working around the clock. We swont stop working for each and every one of you. Thank you and god bless the people of Ontario. Thank you and I’ll pass it over to Minister elliott.

Thank you, premier, and good afternoon. From the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19, we’ve been firm that the health and well-being of our people must beour number one priority. We’ve been hard at work planningfor every contingency, planning to respond to any scenario, to truly honour our commitment to safeguard the health of ontarians, we have at all times operated under the assumption that the worst will occur and have planned accordingly. We have taken nothing for granted, including working with Ontario’s hospitals to create unprecedented capacity at remarkable speed. Because of these efforts, Ontario has added more than 1, 000 acute care beds, with the potential for an additional 4, 200 beds by April 30. The total number of acute care beds now stands at well over 20, 000. There are now over 3, 100 critical care beds in our hospital, nearly 1, 500 more thanwhen the outbreak started. 2, 800 of these are equipped withlife-saving ventilators, up from1, 300 just a few short weeks ago. These considerable efforts have been organized in coordination with pandemic staffing plans to ensure that each hospital has the physicians and staff needed in case of a major surge of cases. As part of this expansion, we are redeploying surgical nursingstaffs who can now work with medical units, sharing highly trained emergency department andintensive care nursing staff across units, sharing physician resources across hospitals in a given region, recruiting family doctors to complete shifts within the hospital, and recruiting retirees, including nursing and support services personnel. All told, we are prepared to respond to a surge in cases, should it occur. We are ready to protect the health and well-being of ontarians. Before I conclude, allow me thisopportunity to thank our partners on the frontlines, the Ontario hospital association, the experts at the COVID-19 command table, and the leadership of Ontario health forhelping to build this new capacity. Long before any of us heard of COVID-19, our government launched an ambitious project tobreak down the long-standing barriers that have for decades locked the expertise of Ontario’s world-class health agencies away in silos. That project culminating in the creation of Ontario health, a new agency that brings together the combined knowledge, strength, and experience of up to 20 existing health agencies and the many talents of their highly skilled staff into one integrated organization. In doing so, Ontario’s healthcare system has benefittedimmensely as Ontario health has demonstrated a degree of responsiveness and shared purpose not previously imaginable. Indeed, looking at the significant capacity created in our hospitals in such a short period of time, it’s clear that we have all benefitted. Thank you.

We talk a lot about heroes during this pandemic. There are many heroes in communities across Ontario. These everyday heroes go above and beyond every single day, no matter what. There is a special type of hero that I want to recognize today. They’re super heroes, in My opinion. These heroes are known as personal support workers, or p. S.w. S. to all the personal support workers, I’m speaking directly to you from the bottom of My heart. Thank you. When I speak to people about long-term care in Ontario, the one thing they all have in common is stories about a personal support worker who impacted the life of their lovedone in a big way, and I have those stories too. As we continue our efforts against COVID-19, we are seeing how this virus is unfolding in avicious way across the world. Long-term care homes around the globe are on the frontlines. Yesterday we launched our COVID-19 action plan for protecting long-term care homes. Today we want to provide you with an update. In the last 24 hours, we have seen five hospitals in toronto band together to support 38 long-term care homes. This is the model that we will be expanding across this province. Issued guidance to hospitals to temporarily stop the transfer ofpatients to long-term care homes. and worked with public health tocomplete risk assessments for all 626 long-term care homes to ensure that resources are most effectively deployed. and issued new guidance to long-term care homes and retirement homes on usage of masks. Updated guidance documents regarding new long-term care home testing strategy and outbreaks in long-term care homes to reflect our new action plan and emergency order, building on our previous efforts. and we will continue to take desighive action in our efforts against COVID-19 across Ontario. Everything is on the table. We will spare no expense to keepour most vulnerable people in long-term care safe.

We’ll go to questions. First question.

Operator:

First question comes from Lisa shin from CBC. Please go ahead.

Question:

Hi, premier and ministers. On long-term care workers only working in one home, that starts in one week and the measure willonly last for two weeks. We’re also learning temporary workers are still able to work between different homes. If we look at, say, British Columbia, stopped workers working between homes much earlier by paying all of them full-time wages. Their emergency measures last for the duration of the pandemic. Why aren’t we going further to get this right? as many.

Answer:

We’ve started this through the recommendation of the chief medical officer of health four weeks ago. It was strongly recommended. We wanted to take additional measures and make sure there was more safety for our long-term care residents. That’s why the emergency order has been declared. For the staff in the long-term care homes and the operators of the long-term care homes need time to adjust to this. Some employees will have to choose, if they’re not already working in one home only, they will have to choose. and they need time to give theiremployers their decision. For also the employers to be able to have enough staff. That’s why this was put togetherwith the staffing strategy as well in terms of workers coming from the home care sector or hospitals or other supports we’ve put in. In terms of the agency workers, we know that many homes have been struggling before this pandemic came to be in terms of staff. That’s what our ministry, the ministry of long-term care was working very hard to resolve that issue when this pandemic broke. In the context of a pandemic where staff may need to self-isolate, we needed a group to be able to provide the safetyfor our residents in long-term care through shoring up the capacity of staffing. That’s why the agency workers were not included. They will – I should add that they must adhere to strict and rigorous screening that has to be across the board. But this was – allowed our long-term care homes to be able to maintain the staffing that’s necessary, particularly right now.

Question:

Thanks very much. and My follow up more generally is the fact that we’re now seeing outbreaks in more than 100 long-term care homes. So why did measures we implemented weeks ago, like screening, fail to stop those infections right out the door?

Answer:

Yes, and that’s exactly what your chief medical officer of health is looking at the targeted screening in homes to understand how elusive this COVID-19 is and who else we can do and what other tools we have for this. It is testing, but it is asymptomatic spread. This has never been seen before. COVID-19 is a new type of virus. Typically pandemics are influenza. In this case, it’s a new virus with a new way of spreading. This is a global phenomenon in long-term care across Canada. High rates of mortality in the over 80 groups to begin with, whether in the community or in the long-term care homes. This is a global phenomenon highly impacting our long-term care residents and homes. It’s tragic and it’s unprecedented. We rely on the advice and recommendations and directives of the chief medical officer of health. The best minds responsible for the scientific and medical evidence that we have.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question from Cynthia mulligan from city news.

Question:

Premier, My question is for you today. It’s been almost two weeks since you released the modelling numbers with best and worst-casescenarios. Things have shifted. We’re seeing a 6% – we’re hovering around a 6% increase incases every day. We didn’t hit the catastrophic I. C.u. Numbers. When are we going to get the newmodelling? and where do you see us overall in this battle when it comes to the curve?

Answer:

Well, Cynthia, I give all the credit to the 14.5 million people in Ontario that practice social distancing, self-isolation, that’s the reason we’re in a relatively half-decent – I’m not even going to say the word “good” because this could come back andbite us in the back side in 10 seconds. We have to be cautious moving forward. More modelling, from what I understand and I’ll confirm it, we’re going to be gathering morenumbers this week. and hopefully some time next week they will have some more modelling. I would like to confirm that first with the command table.

Question:

Okay. Thank you. and My second question is – and this was raised by My colleague with you last Friday – the province is not collecting race-based data on people – on the numbers being impacted by COVID-19, nor is the province collecting data per postal code. My question is why? shouldn’t we be looking to see if the vulnerable communities are being more heavily impacted? and there are greater calls for collection of race-based data. Would you consider doing that and why aren’t you doing that?

Answer:

Not so much race-based, regions. Automatically when we see the hot spots, we can redeploy our resources, health resources or communication. We do have a map that shows us where some of the hot spots are throughout the province. We’re redeploying the resources needed in those areas, but also communication, making sure if wesee a tremendous amount of cases in one area, we have to pick up the communication to make sure people are self-isolating and practising social distancing. So we do have a map and we can see where the hot spots are, we can see what area code they’re in, and we can deploy the resources that are needed.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question comes from James more from news talk 1010. Please go ahead.

Question:

Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Premier. Could you just talk about what you are going to do to supplement the rent relief program that was announced by the Prime Minister?

Answer:

So we’re going to be on a conversation with the premiers and the Prime Minister this afternoon. We’re also going to bring this to the cabinet table in discussion after that meeting and see how we can support those folks there. We do need the support of the federal government, as I mentioned yesterday. We’ll see what they bring to thetable. I think they definitely need some support, both the businesses and landlords.

Question:

and I know it’s early, but can you give us any insight into whether schools are going to go back to being status quo when school starts up again? would the expectation be that fewer students would be in the classroom at a time?

Answer:

Well, I think that’s a little premature now, James, but let’s see what the Minister rolls out over the next little while and base it on that and what the chief medical officer has to say.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question comes from Christina tilapia from CTV 24.

Question:

I wanted to ask you about the change in the way testing data has been reported. You said the numbers had been met in terms of number of tests, but also testing people. What we understood previously, the numbers provided on the Ontario government’s website showed the number people tested. Now it’s the number of tests, meaning someone could have been tested two or three times. Are the numbers now accurately reflecting what’s happening out in our communities and why this change of the reporting of the data?

Answer:

Well, first of all, they’re accurate numbers and I’mgoing to let the Minister explain it. You pretty well explains it, Christina, where some people a couple of times, maybe a week later, but they should still count as a test. That depends on their situation, but I’ll pass this over to the Minister.

Well, in actual fact, this doesn’t have a significant impact on the number of tests conducted. We are up to 9, 000 tests. The number of people have been tested more than one time are not significant in terms of the number. What’s more important is that we’ve really expanded, first of all, our capacity to test. and we’ve expanded the number of people we’re testing in different locations, in long-term care homes, frontline healthcare workers, working withindigenous communities, working now with essential service workers, we’re expanding that capacity and that is what relates to the significant increase in the number of tests that are being conducted. It really brings us more in linewith what most of the other provinces are doing and the way they’re reporting, principally British Columbia.

Question:

Thank you. I’m wondering if I can ask about something you talked about yesterday. That in 24 hours long-term care homes in the province would havethe P.P.E. S that they need. On the topic of P.P.E. S, do all the long-term care homes in the province at this point or by the end of the day today, will they have the P.P.E. S that they need? and what about a group home likeparticipation house that needs P.P.E. S?

Answer:

First of all, the long-term care over the weekendswe were able to get it in most cases over 24 hours. Unless they’re not reporting in, which I don’t believe they’re not doing that, but if they report in they need P.P.E. S, we’re going to have it immediately for them. and participation house, a similar situation. We want to make sure that everyone in participation house and developmental services, they have the proper P.P.E. Items that they require as well. So if they don’t, My word is please contact us and we’ll makesure that we get the informationover. a very important message since you’ve mentioned this, it’s absolutely critical – absolutely critical – that all long-term care, seniors, developmental services, they report to us on their usage, their burn rate per SE, until we can just measuring what the usage is out there. It gives us a better idea of long-term care needs. All 626 homes and retirement homes. So it is so important – so important – that we need to seethe usage every single week fromthese homes and report in to us. That’s the only way we can manage it properly, seeing theiroverall usage.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question comes from mark Douglas from 680 news. Please go ahead.

Question:

Minister Elliott, you said hospitals need to be ready for the surge of COVID-19. I’m wondering, what’s the upper limit of hospital capacity? will there be another bed expansion coming or more hospitals filled? you obviously can’t have one bed for every COVID-19 patient in Ontario. What’s the upper limit here for Ontario hospital capacity?

Answer:

We have been building capacity since the first case ofcovid-19 was detected in Ontario, so we are able to move very quickly to increase the spaces across the province. Some hospitals have chosen to increase capacity by renting hotel space. Grand river hospital is one that is proposing to do that. Some are proposing to build more tent hospitals. One has already been created at Joseph Brant hospital. Some are creating field hospitals, some of the other units are doing that. It differs in different parts of the province. What we’re waiting to see is hot spots so we can increase the capacity. We have the plans in place, the teams ready to move in. But in addition to the physical capacity, we’re also expanding the human resource capacity, that is, with the portal that has been opened to allow people with experience to come back, retired nurses. Medical students are helping us with contact tracing, and others are helping physicians coming to work in our hospitals. We are ready. If we see a particular part of the province, we are ready to move to increase capacity, both in terms of space and human resources.

Question:

Thank you, Minister. Just a follow up and sorry to amend My earlier question where I said you can’t have a bed for every COVID-19 patient, it almost sounds like – sorry, this is – it sounds like you are suggesting that there could be a bed for every COVID-19 patient in Ontario. is that feasible?

Answer:

Yes, we are planning for a surge in capacity. We don’t want to end up like some other countries have ended up where they have run out of supplies. Ontario is ready. As I said earlier in My remarks, we have planned for the worst-case scenario and planned for that. So we are ready. We have ventilators now for 2, 800. We are working with the auto parts manufacturers to build another 10, 000 respirators. We are still building our capacity because we don’t know. We haven’t hit the peak yet, so our chief medical officer of health tells us, so we need to continue to plan to be ready andmake sure if we do have a numberof patients, a significant increase in patients, that our hospitals can accommodate patients.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question comes from Travis dun rash from global news. Please go ahead.

Question:

Hi there, premier. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Ottawa is looking at the possibility of sending in military help to quÉbec. Has Ontario asked for help from the military? if not, why not?

Answer:

We haven’t asked, but everything is on the table. If we feel that is a requirement from the command table, that they need their support, they’llbe there. We won’t hesitate to ask for support, no matter if it’s even contact tracing, as the military has offered. So we won’t hesitate to ask for the support if needed.

Question:

My next question is for Minister Fullerton. Dr. David Williams said yesterday policies on long-term care facilities is determined bylong-term care. You said now you relying on the advice of him. It seems the buck is being passed from the 1:00 news conference to the 3:00 news conference with him. Who makes the ultimate call?

Answer:

So for the emergency order at this time requiring staff to work at only one home, that gradual time over a span of week was to allow the homes toadapt, so that they were not left without staff. So that was a very, very important consideration. Let me just clarify. The role of the chief medical officer of health and public health, they have a very specific job to do. They are the people who work – and I was on the board of health for a number of years in Ottawa , so I understand this very well, they act on the medical information and evidence, and they will make recommendations to the ministry. They also issue directives. As a ministry of long-term care, we have levers in there that areregulatory, and we can adjust those levers. Let me make sure everyone in Ontario knows how close we have been working with the chief medical officer of health in a timely way to understand every measure we can take that is science and evidence-based. I’m pretty sure you want people who are up-to-date on all the science and evidence and the politicians can do their regulatory work. That’s the division.

Next question.

Operator:

Next question comes from rob Ferguson from the Toronto star.”

Andrew:

and you have been listening – sorry, we lost the signal there, but you have been listening to Ontario premier, Doug ford, as well as his ministers for long-term care andhis health Minister giving us anupdate on the situation in Ontario. There’s been lots of talk about ramping up testing. The premier saying 9, 000 tests were performed yesterday, and that is moving towards the goal of 14, 000 tests by the end of the month. There had been a lot of criticism there were not enough tests done in Ontario. There were 514 new COVID-19 cases in the