I’m rosemary Barton. Thank you for joining us on CBC, CBC news network, or streaming around the world. We are, as we do at this time of day, standing by to hear from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He is expected today to respond to some of the urgent appeals to support various industries across Canada. For weeks, as his government has been rolling out emergency aid for Canadian businesses and workers. The Prime Minister has also been promising second – sect oral help by certain industries that have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 shutdown. Let me bring in My colleagues as we stand by and wait for the Prime Minister. The host of “power & politics”, Vassy kapelos and shalima shivji. I don’t think this is an oil and gas announcement from what I’m hearing. But there will be components that will help Alberta and other places.

Vassy:

Yeah, and I’ll tell you why I think we’ve all been asking various people in government, is this going to be targeted, rosey, to oil and gas. Back at the end of March, I think it was the 25th or 26th, bill morneau said help for the oil patch would be coming in hours or days. That didn’t materialize. There is sort of a double whammy when it comes to the oil patch right now. Not just because of COVID-19 and decreased demand for oil, much decreased demand, but also this price war that emerged between Russia and Saudi Arabia that kind of got resold last week, but didn’t really end up buoying oil prices. They’re at all-time lows. a barrel of canadian oil was selling for less than $5. The idea was – or the question raised to the government is going to be is there specific help for the sector? and what might that help look like? there’s been two specific asks for it. The first is orphan wells. These are sites that the company ended up going broke and didn’t clean up. It’s estimated the cleanup of those sites could cost billions of dollars, upwards of $8 billion, one assessment put out there. The Alberta government has announced that some money would be directed to it. There is the expectation that the federal government will chip in on that endeavour. I don’t know to what degree. The second big ask, particularly from industry, is around liquidity for producers that have had to shelve capital projects, for example, or are trying to keep employees on the payroll. There is the wage subsidy that they can access, but they also asked for help with liquidity. It will be interesting to see that part of the announcement. There are indications so far that there this won’t necessarily be, you know, a big package targeted specifically at the oil sector, that there is also an announcement coming from the Prime Minister that would be aimed at helping people who the CERB or the emergency business loan have missed and we have certainly heard from a lot of those people. Think of some musicians, for example, or others in the culture sector. That kind of thing. I’m going to be looking to see what announcement that involves but there are people looking for sector-specific help and to what degree will this announcement address that.

Rosemary:

Yeah. It does not sound like a, quote-unquote, bailout for oil and gas today. There will be some sort of measures there as you suggested to help them along. But it will be, from what we’re hearing anyway, a much broad way of helping different industries that have been hit in different ways and you alluded to the cultural sector, but tourism is an example and there are certainly others. Are we expecting that – it should be fairly substantive, I would guess, too, talking about many sectors and many ministers showing up at the noon press conference.

Reporter:

Yeah. We’re hearing it is across multiple sectors and that has been the focus from the government from the git-go. As Vassy mentioned, bill more know did talk about help for the oil and gas sector coming within hours. That was three long weeks ago. Whenever the government has been talking about this, they have been framing it as help for multiple vulnerable industries. As you mentioned, tourismt culture sector as well and the focus has been on workers. So, getting people back working on this. We are hearing regional developments will play a part in this, in terms of, as Vassy Was mentioning, what certain areas are really feeling more particularly – you know, certain tourism – the focus on tourism, people aren’t going on tour buses and people aren’t, you know, signing up to go into museums and whatnot. So, it is really the focus on workers and that in particular across a broad spectrum of sectors that are really hard hit by this.

Rosemary:

and one of the things that the government has said is that the first priority was to get money to individuals and the second was to get help to businesses and now we’re broadening out to larger industries. AB don’t know if that includes even the airline industry, which, as we know, is what’s happening to the wage subsidy benefit, which is not working yet, up and running yet. But maybe they also are looking for some substantive money. I’m going to – I’ll come back to both of you. While we wait to hear more from the Prime Minister about these details of various industries, Vassy talked a little bit there about what could happen in doing to help Alberta a. Let us go to Alberta to talk about what they are asking for because we know that the economy has been hit very hard. Not only by oil prices, but also the pandemic. a double whammy in that part of the country. and Jason Kenny has said that it’s possible that employment there – the unemployment rate hits 25%, which would be just astounding. The cbc’s Carolyn Dunn joins me from Calgary. All right, Carolyn, I know you talked to people in the industry regularly and there have been a lot of asks. It doesn’t sound like this is the big, big package that they maybe were looking for. But there will be something here.

Reporter:

I think that is what I’m watching for. Are we going – is this going to be parceled out of the giant industry package or are we going to start out smaller today and kind of [inaudible] with those big announcements with airlines, etc. What Alberta is asking for is very clear. $20 to $30 billion package. Likely a lot of that will be around liquidity, you know, around backstopping credit, around low-interest loans, that kind of thing. and you mentioned the fallout for workers, an unemployment rate of up to 25% or beyond, which is astounding. and I guess for industry, if they don’t get immediate help with their liquidity, they will be losing oil and gas companies, guaranteed. But even, you know, it is good to accelerate and it could even be the big one. We are also hearing from industry that they would like the see a freeze in the carbon tax as well as a delay in, you know, climate and collusion regulations, which is coming under some criticism as perhaps the industry using this pandemic crisis, you know, to kind of get through the backdoor what it couldn’t get through the beginning, through the front door. But what’s really interesting is that orphan well package and I expect that we hear from the Prime Minister today on that. There are more than 150, 000 orphaned wells in Alberta. Those are wells that have been abandon and they’re not being serviced. So just sitting, wrecking farmer’s fields, really. and a it would be, you know, billions of dollars, perhaps $8 billion to remediate those. What it might mean at this time is sort of a double whammy that would put oil workers back to work cleaning those up and get them cleaned up. Normally it would come under a lot of criticism that taxpayers will be paying to clean up the mess that oil companies left. But these are not normal times as you know. So if there is some help for orphan wells, it could actually help the industry by keeping people working and deal with a real environmental problem here in Alberta.

Rosemary:

Yeah. It would do a couple of things all at once, that’s for sure. Thank you for that. You’ll stand by in case we need to get back to you. Carolyn Dunn in Calgary. As we wait for the Prime Minister, expected in about seven minutes, let me go to Kathy duke. She is c. E.o. Of destination st. John’s, the agency that works hard to bring in visitors to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and like all places across this country, it is a tough challenge in these difficult times because tourism and visiting places isn’t really something that is happening. Kathy, good to see you.

Thank you for having me.

Rosemary:

a pleasure. How are things there? obviously your industry, what you’re doing isn’t happening right now.

Caller:

Absolutely. The impact of COVID-19 on our tourism here in Newfoundland and Labrador has really been devastating. The tourism industry is really important to the province. We have maybe 20, 000 people working in the industry and maybe 2500 small businesses. The organization that I work for, destination st. John’s, represents st. John’s region. and we certainly have felt it here. Many of our hotels are closed. Which is amazing that that could happen. and it is happening across the country. Restaurants and pubs, retails and businesses on water street are closed and they’re all very, very worried that they may not be around when the tourism industry starts.

Rosemary:

I imagine you do pretty well in normal times.

Sure. Well, [inaudible] about $1.3 billion. In st. John’s, we really depend on the business. For example, in meetings and conventions, we may do 100 conventions a year and that would bring in $450 million just in that sector in st. John’s. So it’s pretty significant.

Rosemary:

So what could the government do or what have you been asking the government to do that would be of help for this particular industry and obviously you’re just one example, but this is happening across the country.

Yeah, absolutely. Think that the travel and tourism industry was the first industry hit and hit the hardest. With the complete shutdown of travel, it’s just unbelievable the impact and that’s had a ripple effect to other businesses that serve our travelers when they come to our destination. We’re working with the tourism industry association of Canada and putting together some of these ideas to be presented to government. I think that is one of the things that we have to understand is that we need an immediate response because many of our businesses won’t even be around when our tourism season starts and we need to have that recovery plan, that marketing recovery plan. So I think that, for example, the 75% wage subsidy is wonderful, but for many of our tourism operators, they need that [inaudible] in the summer. Things like that that are unique, if you will, to the tourism industry that we need to see with extended programmes around those.

Rosemary:

The Prime Minister is talking about weeks still of having to live under these very strict public health restrictions. Can this happen still for weeks or is there any pressure coming from any of your members to get the economy up and running again?

Oh, I think, you know, if we had our [inaudible], we would start tomorrow, of course. The tourism industry representatives that we work with really just trying to get a handle on when things are going to turn around. and I think [inaudible]. it may start July or August. Others the following summer saying that there won’t be any visitation until 2021. We do know that as travel comes back, it will be mostly domestic travelers and that is good for Newfoundland and Labrador in that 80% of our visitors have traditionally come from Canada. So we really immediate to be targeted to the traveler. We understand that [inaudible] drive rather than fly and puts a huge emphasis on space, social distancing, planes. So I think all of our tourism operators who have to rethink who the traveler is. It will cost us a lot more to do the kind of things that we have to do for individual traveler than we did in the past.

Rosemary:

All right. Cathy daoufj I will happily come back to water street anytime I can get there. Sending your province all the best. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Rosemary:

Ok. Cathy duke, c. E.o. Of destination st. John’s, agency of tourism for that province which, of course, is another sector that has been hit hard. Just to give you a sense of how bad things are, and then I’ll bring in Vassy, the accommodation and food services sector in this country has shrunk by a quarter. I.t. Arts and culture lost 13% of all its jobs. Education, 9%. wholesale and retail trade lost 7%. the only place that continues to add some jobs, other than grocery stores and essential services work would be agriculture. Nearly 7, 000 jobs there created as obviously the reliance on the domestic food chain becomes more and more important. I’ll bring in My colleagues again and turn to you, Vassy, about it guess the ways in which the government has tried to shore up support. and how this might be different given that there are particular areas, of course, that are basically not functioning anymore.

Vassy:

Yeah. I think we’ve seen the unveiling and rolling out of two giant financial aid packages, right? the first being directed at individuals who have to stay home because of COVID-19, who can’t work, and who have lost most, if not all of their income. They’re getting right now $2, 000 and, as you reminded our viewers yesterday, they should be re-applying for the second month, which they might need that money. That was the first step. The second step was aimed at businesses. and it involves wage subsidies as well as this loan, this canadian emergency business account. Basically a $40, 000 interest-free loan, a quarter of it can be forgiven. They expanded the parameters yesterday to who can qualify for that loan. I I think they had 220, 000 applications approved so far. $8.8 billion worth of credit. So, the need is clear and it’s evidents. However, as you’ve been discussing with carolyn and your last guest, there are certain sectors and the Prime Minister always – I’ve noticed names in tandem. Airlines, tourism and the I’ll patch. – oil patch. Those are clearly what the government has indicated and what we can discern from what we see in front of us as sectors, industries that are particularly hard hit. They’re sort of suffering from double or triple whammies. So, you know, what we’re looking towards here from the Prime Minister is beyond an acknowledgment that that is the case. Some specifics about how the government plans to address the more acute needs in those industries. and obviously we’re paying close attention to the oil patch because there is – it is set against the backdrop of a very different political discussion. and I think sort of tensions that existed prior to all of this between Alberta and the federal government and I think, you know, that factors into all of this, to a certain degree. We know about this discussion apparently happening at cabinet where there’s pushback to subsidizing the oil patch to any degree. So I think it is something to keep our eye on. But as I said, I think what we really need to focus on is, if those are the industris that are most acutely feeling the pain right now, what is the remedy the government proposes here today.

Rosemary:

and I think shalima mentioned this, too, there are government agencies like the co-op or the atlantic provinces where federal money can be sort of distributed in a very quick way. If there are particularly hard-hit areas, it is probably easier and faster for those agencies to be able to get it to people that need it rather than the federal government doing it centrally from ottawa. So we would expect some of that to be addressed here today as well. I’ll turn to shalima shivji. The Prime Minister is running a few minutes late. There are ongoing conversation around the Canada-United States border. We know that that suspension, the prevention to travel across the border except for essential workers, is set to expire next week.

Reporter:

That’s right. and there are discussions whether that would be extended or not. Those discussions are still ongoing, that obviously this situation, we’re still in the midst of it in terms of this crisis and the health effects of this. So t limited movement, of course, limited to only essential supplies, essential businesses across the Canada-United States border set to – there was always a deadline for it as most of these things and, of course, we’re hearing that there are talks to extend that as we’re still going through this and as we’re still seeing effects and cases rising. We’re hearing that is still an ongoing discussion and working on that with officials down in the United States.

Rosemary:

and there had been concern after the president said earlier this week that the Canada-United States border would be one of fastest to re-open and some interpretation that it was about to re-open. That is not the case from the deputy Prime Minister that there will likely be an extension but they haven’t actually reached that deal yet. That would be important, you’re right. Because the containment of the virus and seeing how Canada is doing at a time like this versus the United States, probably the last thing that anyone would want is open borders and start to see travel move again. We’re waiting for the Prime Minister as we do at this time of day. He is running a couple of minutes late. That is Rideau cottage you are looking at live. I’m sure you are familiar with it now. a couple other issues to keep your eye on today. and we heard earlier from conservative leader and doctor sheer and that is the return of parliament. It, too, was on a deadline. All parties had agreed that it would be suspended until Monday unless they could reach another agreement to continue that suspension. As of now, there is no deal on, that either. and Andrew Scheer has been pushing very hard to see in-person sitings. He is asking for four times a week. Doesn’t sound like that is acceptable to the government. and it doesn’t even sound like other partis are interested in coming in and having M.P.s here in a reduced capacity for that many days of week. But it is something that conservatives continue to push. and for now, there is no deal. and if they don’t get a deal by Monday, which I imagine they will, we would be in a place where the house of commons would have to resume. Which obviously would fly in the face of public health directives. Another issue to keep your eye on. and I will bring in Vassy because there is another two-minute warning. I don’t know if I can do that much on My own. [laughter]maybe we’ll just pick up on that issue that the conservatives are pushing very hard for increased accountability and increased questions to the government, which, you know, I totally get. But I’m not sure that we are – it doesn’t sound like we’re anywhere near close on a deal in terms of everyone agreeing that one or two or three times a week will actually happen.

Vassy:

This is an interesting Ottawa scenario here. In the midst of all of this, that is understandable, I think, from both points of view. The nexus of the disagreement seems to be how much in-person parliament should politicians be engaging in. As you mentioned, the conservatives want sitings in-person, four times a week. My understanding late yesterday is it looked like there might be some movement towards an agreement for a reduced number of sitings. Maybe once a week and end up being a few hours and very much an accountability session. Maybe not like question period, but something that we’ve come to know as committee as the whole. The opposition getting a chances to ask questions of the government about the policies that they have rolled out and they plan to roll out. The corresponding request is, well can they do that virtually? will they be able to do that virtually? the speaker’s office, in particular, is working on some sort of plan to make that happen. For the opposition, they would like to continue some in person. They say the virtual thing can be a companion piece. If it’s not ready yet, there has to be something happening in person. The government has put forward the idea that that virtual idea might work going forward, but to have those in-session sitings every single day, to be in person every single day doesn’t really adhere to physical distancing rules from where they sit or doesn’t speak to the sentiment behind physical distancing and then the message that they put forth.

Rosemary:

Here’s the Prime Minister of Canada. Thank you for that.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s

Interpreter:

This morning, I want to begin by talking about the request for assistance we received from Quebec on Wednesday and give you the most recent news about medical equipment supplies. The Minister of public health has been working with Quebec and the Minister of national defence and I can now confirm that approximately 125 members of the Canadian armed forces, with health care training, will be providing support to workers in long-term care facilities. We continue to work with the government of Quebec to find other ways to support them, including with the red cross and specialized volunteers registered with health Canada. With regards to the supplies of medical equipment, bell Canada has donated 1.5 million n-95 masks and we’re working as quickly as possible to get them to our frontline workers. That can be added to the millions of surgical masks that we sent out to the provinces and territories this week.