We are expecting the focus today to be on government response and initiatives to support vulnerable Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic. We will also, though, of course take you to Nova Scotia this hour and throughout the day for some of what you might call the careful and safe tributes in this time of COVID-19 to those who were killed in that violent rampage over the weekend. We know now of at least 20 victims, 18 of them have been confirmed. Two more presumed to be dead by their son and we’ll also bring you the latest on the investigation today. Those numbers, of course, could vary because police are still looking at some 16 crime scenes. I will tell you that is the actual sky behind me in Ottawa right now. So a fairly grim and bleak day here in the nation’s capital. But let me show you where we are waiting to hear from the Prime Minister, of course, outside of his home here at Rideau cottage. The regular backdrop for his address. Before we get there, though, I do want to turn this story back to Nova Scotia where so many people are still reeling from events that unfolded over the weekend. and as police, the RCMP, continue their extensive investigation there today. Larry Harrison is the member of the provincial legislature for the riding of colchester-musquodoboit and he joins me now. Good to see you, larry, and My condolences to your community and all of Nova Scotia.

Thank you very much. We appreciate that.

Rosemary:

How are you doing? how are the people around you doing today?

I think everyone is just getting motion ally drained. This is just a horrific situation. and trying to respond to it. In a variety of ways that is out of our normal. It’s making it more and more difficult. I mean, our normal is – sure. Go ahead.

Rosemary:

No, you go ahead, Larry. Your normal is you all get together and help one another.

Exactly. You walk in a house, give someone a hug, sit down, hold their hand, talk to them and ask what can be done. and in a few days’ time, we get together as friends and family to honour the person that died and now that is gone so we need to find different ways now to respond to this horrific, horrific level of grief.

Rosemary:

Yeah. It does make it so much more difficult, the fact that everyone has to be apart during this. How are people, the families, the people that you’ve spoken to, how are they dealing with it given that they have sort of this double, you know, pressure now of not being able to be together?

Yeah. Well, they’ve been doing a few things. There is the virtual memorial service set up for Friday evening. Last night they put candles in the windows. On poles, there are broken hearts that are put up. I was just talking to My daughter a few minutes ago. and she’s director of hospice in Truro. and they have councillors set up and, you know, one of them specializes in child grief. and she is dealing now with some of the children that were a part of this. and the stories are just heartbreaking. They’re just heartbreaking.

Rosemary:

The fact that it happened over such a large territory, right? a number of different villages were hit and a number of different families. How much more difficult is that? the fact that it really seems to have touched so many people in the region?

Oh, it will. I mean, the number of families that are affected and the friends and another part of that are the people that really care and want to do something and don’t know what to do. They’re all – they’re all in this together. and I know we’re going to find things to get through this. But for the next little bit, it is going to be a struggle because we’ll be doing things that are not normal for us. We’re going to have to find different ways. This is still in a state of shock right now. It’s only been two days and most of us cannot, cannot, get our heads and heart around the amount of devastation that this circumstance has put on us.

Rosemary:

We now know, I think 18 of the victims, Larry, did you know any of them or their families?

Yes, I did. I knew one. I knew Lisa McCully. The schoolteacher. and, again, these are people that we wish we had around for the next 50 years. She was very caring, compassionate, funny, positive in all situations. Great teacher. and her raising two sons of her own at 10 and 12. She just – that kind of a person we really need and to have her and a number of others taken away from us this way is really tragic. Really tragic.

Rosemary:

Larry, I want to ask you a more serious question about some of the response and it is really around the emergency alert notice. I ask you that because the RCMP decided to send out tweets instead of issuing the alert that would have gone off on everyone’s phones. There is one person who says that that would have made a difference, they think, to one of their friends. is that something you’ll want some answers to going forward as a politician, as an MLA?

Well, I’m – I’m sure that if something different could have been done, we’re going to learn from it. [sirens]there are going to be a number of circumstances that are going to come out of this that we don’t know about yet. Maybe the response could have been different, I don’t know. But what – but where I’m going to put all My energy now – if not there – but all My energy will be going to those who have survived this. Because they’re going to need so much time and so much care and I think that is where most of our energy, as a province, really needs to go at this time.

Rosemary:

I get that t. How long have you been an MLA For the region?

In My eighth year now.

Rosemary:

and have you ever had to try and comfort or lead people through anything like this?

Not like this, no. I mean, I was a clergyman for 41 years and I’ve had to deal with a number of situations. But nothing on this level. Hopefully never again.

Rosemary:

I agree. How is your previous job as a clergyman helping you now?

Well, I’m trying to put as much – as much compassion and understanding as I possibly can into these folks. They – I mean, we’re human beings and we really want to – we really want to, number one, offer our best and to give some care in this situation and I’m going to do My best just to offer what I have. and that is all any of us can do.

Rosemary:

Ok. Larry –

[inaudible] about these interviews, that is a good thing. Because they know that the outside world really cares about what’s happening here.

Rosemary:

Well, y you’re right. We do. We do. and we’re all thinking of all of you and I do appreciate you making the time, Larry. These are difficult days. Yeah. Do whatever you can to help those people and we’ll do the same. Thank you so much.

I know you will. and thank you very much.

Rosemary:

Appreciate it. That is Larry Harrison, a member of Nova Scotia’s legislature and he joins us us from shortt’s lake. Ok. We’ll turn back to what we have come to the usual part of our day. If anything is usual these days. But it is the regular update from the Prime Minister that we do expect at this time. Some sort of normalcy and routine, I guess, is provided by that. and also by the help of My colleagues here in Ottawa, the cbc’s David Cochrane and the host of “power & politics”, Vassy kapelos. We’ll talk about what to expect from the Prime Minister today because while yesterday was very much focused on Nova Scotia, and I imagine he’ll have a little more to say on that today, potentially, he is also in the midst, of course, of putting together a government response to fight the pandemic and we do expect him to talk about places and things that might have gotten left out. and I’ll start with Vassy.

Vassy:

Yeah, rosey. As you mentioned, yesterday the focus was squarely on Nova Scotia in the Prime Minister’s response, in his remarks yesterday, just offering condolences and some more details today will pivot back to the government’s response to the spread of COVID-19 and primarily the economic response of the government on two facets. The first, charities. We have seen a number of charitable organisations come forward and say they are really finding things to be difficult right now because of their inability to fund raise. Obviously with so many people at home and unable to work and relying on government relief at this point, they don’t have a lot to give to charities. They had asked for a stabilization fund in the neighbourhood of $10 billion. My understanding is that what is announced today won’t necessarily be that much. I’m not sure of the exact figure. But that will be sort of a chunk of change for charities, specifically aimed at supplementing the money that they have lost due to a lack of fundraising. The second aspect, the second facet of what I’m expecting from the Prime Minister has to do with that other huge government relief package for businesses around wage six didst. – subsidies. The government has passed legislation with opposition part is a few weeks acing to provide a wage subsidy for businesses of any size, of 75% of the first I think is nearly $58, 000 of an employee’s salary. That is in the – the application process is starting. It will be starting in a few weeks is My understanding. Although that is always a moving target as well. Today will be an announcement around opening up sort of a process by which employers can figure out how much they can expect to get. So, sort of an online mechanism for doing so because that is something that we heard from a number of employers, a number of business owners who plan to access it. They’re still very kind of vague on the details. Vague on how fast that money will come. They needed it yesterday kind of thing and how much they might be entitled to. My understanding is that there is some information on that today as well.

Rosemary:

The finance Minister says that they will provide information around applications. and correct me if I’m wrong, but I think charities can also tap into the wage subsidy programme so that might be part of the aid, but obviously there is more coming.

Reporter:

Yeah. They can tap into the wage subsidy and they can include and exclude the government grants they were getting and make it as accessible in popular. In particular, what we’ll see today with the aid for charities is we were told what would be to support vulnerable populations. The Prime Minister, in particular on Sunday, I believe, it was, referenced the disabled and people with disabilities and also seniors as particular segments of the population that have the vulnerabilities to which they are exposed has been laid bare by this pandemic and sort of foreshadowing the need to help there. and the charitable sector could very well be a vehicle to provide that aid. and, you know, there’s a couple of other things that we’re hoping to hear from the Prime Minister today. There is a growing problem in Canada’s food supply sector in terms of meat plants, for example. Where there are outbreaks of COVID-19 amongst the workforce. It doesn’t necessarily make the food unsafe, just makes the workplace unsafe for people. Which makes it hard to process the meat and backs up the food supply chain and creates all kinds of economic ripple effects and supply problems coming into the grocery stores and also the last I checked the price of oil, it was up $7 to -$7. So, this is a massive problem for three provinces in particular – being Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. and just on top of everything else that everybody is suffering with the slowdown in the economy, there is that double whammy of oil. While we’re looking at probably a u-shaped economic recovery with a long period of time at the bottom, restaurants, if they survive can re-open, movie theatres can re-open, toy stores can re-open. We don’t really know what’s going to happen with the oil sector after all of this, because there’s a lot of other structures at play there. It could be something that the Prime Minister is asked about, given the total shock in the markets in the last 24, 48 hours.

Rosemary:

I’ll get Vassy to weigh in on that, too. I will say that the meat packing plant you are talking about is the car gill plant in Alberta. and there are 484 cases now linked to that plant.

Reporter:

and that is one-third of the country’s capacity, just that one plant is one-third of the processing capacity in the country.

Rosemary:

and another example of that occurring, too, in the United States. So, that is a real concern, as you say, for supply. and I imagine, you know, some being that people have to think about. Because those are close working quarters and obviously that is a large part of the people working there that had been affected. Vassy, maybe I’ll goat you as we wait for the Prime Minister to weigh in on the oil piece of this. Because it is, you know, shocking to see numbers in the negatives like that. and to try to understand how any industry could rebound from those numbers and the pandemic.

Vassy:

Yeah. and it is crazy, rosey, that less than a week ago we were sitting here talk about the aid package that the federal government was announcing for the sector based on numbers that already looked terrible and just in the last 24 hours as David and you both point out got a whole lot worse. Specifically that benchmark price for United States oil, at least the contracts for may is concerned. They are a bit better in June. But there is so much instability. The reserves right now are so high, the storage capacity is full pretty much all over. We saw that price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia take place that really deflated prices below what they were thanks to a huge increase in demand. and that agreement that was reached about supply a few weeks ago ended up basically doing nothing for oil prices. Now we see them even lower. The package that was announced last week from the federal government was around cleaning up oil wells. It was worth about $2 billion, if you include the credit as well. But they are considering – finance Minister bill morneau said last week supplying credit in some way. I don’t know the specifics yet, they have not announced them, to bigger companies. Oil companies need around $40 per barrel to cover their costs. We eve seen a huge amount of capital projects delayed in the oil patch right now. We’re seeing troubles in the United States as well. The president is talk about subsidizing the industry to some degree saying he won’t let them fail so it’s almost as if this crisis which seemed like last week couldn’t get any worse is getting worse. The ask of the federal government is going to increase. You know, they will be expected to provide some details on what they’re going to do, if they’re going to do anything. But there is – I mean, the need is as acute as it gets right now and it affects not just Alberta, not just Saskatchewan, but Newfoundland and Labrador, too. Albeit in a bit of a different way. All three provinces are hurting. Their revenues are hurting and the federal government’s revenues, I should say, are also really affected by the price of oil, too.

Rosemary:

The difference is they have more capacity and take on debt than we’ve seen obviously in Newfoundland, certainly. All right. Here is the Prime Minister of Canada emerging from his home to speak with us yet again about his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s listen in.