Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Businesses affected by COVID-19. Applications opened about five hours ago and we’ll talk more about who can apply and how many businesses may be interested in that very soon. Also on the go today, Ontario is expected to give us a better picture, a clearer picture at around 1:30 eastern of its plans to re-open the economy. Gradually, as we know. We’ve seen it happen in a couple of other proslins. – provinces. Ontario premier doug ford is proposing a balanced framework for doing that. On the weekend, Ontario said that schools would remain closed until may 29. and if the thought of re-opening anything or any of this makes you feel stressed or anxious, you are certain lift not alone. There is a new angus reid survey this morning that suggests the majority of us think it’s, quote, too soon for things to get back to anything approaching normal. and at least half of survey respondents say that their mental health is worsening as the pandemic and shutdowns drag on. We’ll talk to a psychologist about that important part of all of this as well. As they do, My colleagues, cbc’s david Cochrane and the host of “power & politics”, Vassy kapelos are both here. Let’s start, I guess, with what the government is going to do today. It’s nothing new, but it is the official red tape cutting, I guess, of this process which opened at, I believe, 6:00 AM this morning. Vassy?
Vassy:
Yeah. That is the perfect way to put it, almost like they’re cu ting the ribbon to begin the opening, I guess, or the formal part of this big, big financial aid programme. I would say it’s one of two marquis pieces of financial aid from the government. The first, of course, was the CERB, $2, 000 for individuals who had to stay home or who lost their job because of COVID-19. There were many questions in the lead up of that launch about the technical capacity of the sort of infrastructure of the government to deliver that money as quickly as it was needed. and though there are still a lot of questions about who may have been left out of the process, those people who did apply did end up getting their money very quickly. Now we fast forward to today. This programme, which is aimed at helping businesses of all sizes. It’s a 75% wage subsidy for three months, retroactive, I believe, until March 15. We know of companies with four employees and 4, 000 employees like the airlines, for example, who plan to take advantage of it. Last week a week ago on the C.R.a.’s website, they used and online calculator to figure out how much you’re eligible for. This week you will be able to go and apply. The government says on that technical capacity issue that you will, 9 0% of those who apply will be able to get their money. The first sort of increment of it within a week. So some – at some point at the beginning of may. So, the big question, of course, like it was with the CERB is, will the delivery of that actually happen? will the technical capacity be there? it was for the CERB, as I said. But many businesses very much counting on it working this time as quickly for them, too. They have had to wait a lot longer than the CERB. Be this was announced not much longer after the programme and the ability to deliver on it that. Technical stuff is a bit more complicated than the cer because, of course, that does involve businesses and involves meeting a bit of a higher threshold than the CERB did. So, we’ll have our eye on that certainly. I think the numbers will be indicative of a lot, too. We have constantly heard from businesses and we know that, as we look toward the plans to re-open the economy, businesses have been hit so hard and those who own them hit so hard. So, I think they’re watching very closely today and over this week to see how quickly that money can come. But many of them have told us that they will take advantage of it and that they do expect it to help them keep employees on.
Rosemary:
Yeah. $73 billion is what they expect that this programme will cost, David. When we think about where it started and where it ended up, it’s quite astounding when the first attempt at this out of the gate was a 10% wage surplus, bumped up to 75%. and I was reading some interesting articles this morning about some bigger companies who want to use this. But their employees actually make pretty high wages. So, the 75% doesn’t actually cover all of the wages and those companies will have to contribute more in order to keep the employees on. So, the fact that it now applies to so many size of businesses is sort of interesting, too, because that presents different challenges as well.
Reporter:
Yeah. It’s 75% of the first amount of money because that’s the cap on the contribution to the pension plan. It’s not going keep everybody whole who make above that or even at that amount because some businesses won’t be able to just simply can’t afford to do the 25% top-up. They don’t have any money coming in. So this is a better than nothing type approach. Not to dismiss it. I don’t mean to say that, but it’s not perfect. Because no system that you’re going to come up was going to be perfect or keep people whole. You’re right. This is a substantial move from the initial 10% wage subsidy for three months. Just for small and medium-sized enterprises at that point in time. It’s now 75% for everybody. I mean, air Canada is using this. and under no circumstance is that a small or medium-sized enterprise. So we heard from the canadian federation of independent business that says about half of its members, this is a survey, not a scientific poll. So it doesn’t capture the full thing. But it is indicative. About half of its members will apply for this. So it does say it’s a bit too late for some of who have already laid off employees and closed shop simply because of the uncertainty this has been one of the criticisms of this that has been perhaps a little bit too restrictive in its early form. It took a while to evolve and too slow to get out. We’ll see if that’s the case when it’s all over. Going back to something from the CERB, we’ll see what the Canada revenue agency can do. They deliver big time in terms of the technical capacity and the processing. Enormous volumes given the size and scale of the economic impact of this pandemic. This is not a one size fits all universal programme like the CERB. Every single business will get a different dollar amount so there is more front-end processing than there was with the CERB which could put some stress and strain in the programme, based on how complete their information is and how overwhelmed the processors are in terms of dealing with this. Again, we’ll see what the canadian revenue agency is effective and backstopping of other departments are that have seen a plummet in their operations because of the pandemic. But they delivered the CERB, so let’s hope they can deliver on the wage subsidy.
Rosemary:
As of April 23rd, there were a total of seven million Canadians applying Nair emergency relief benefit. a total dollar value of $22.4 billion. and you have to renew for that benefit every month. So, the government’s hope is that some of the people, some of the companies that may be furloughed workers will bring them back using the wage subsidy and the Canadians applied for CERB won’t need to do it for all the months going forward, necessarily. That is the Prime Minister’s house. You’re familiar wit. Rideau cottage. He’ll emerge in about eight minutes’ time or so to speak with us about the wage subsidy. While we await him, I did want to talk about another side effect, if you will, of the pandemic and that is in terms of how you’re all doing. How Canadians are doing during all of this. There are numbers released from an Angus Reid survey that show one out of two, so 50% of you, believe your mental health is worsening. 10% say it’s worsened a lot since the crisis began, really deteriorating and the survey found that deteriorating emotional well-being will be common across all age groups for men and women. The poll shows one in five Canadians are being hardest hit. Struggling with their mental wellness while also struggling to make ends meet. As you saw there, Alberta has the highest proportion of people struggling with all of that. Those numbers are probably no surprise to psychologist dana lee bagley and she says her patients pretty much only want to talk about the pandemic’s impact on their lives and she joins us us now from halifax. Good to see you.
Thank you for having me.
Rosemary:
I think everyone has some level of struggle with this. Right? whether it’s the emotional problems because you’re stuck at home and feel cut off from people or whether it’s the – on top of that – the financial stress, all sorts of things. What are your patients tilling you about how they’re coping?
Caller:
Yeah. The response is it doesn’t surprise me. I think everyone is struggling with this as we would expect everyone to struggle with it. It’s impacted everyone’s lives, it’s very stressful. My patients and clients, pretty much this is the only thing we talk about and we pretty much talk about how to cope with this easy because it’s incredibly stressful for us. We really underestimate how much threat we feel under, how much stress, sometimes financial and other thing as well and how much effort it takes to get through a co vi d-day. People say I haven’t done anything, I’m exhausted. But that’s because it takes so much more effort to do things. Before COVID-19, I never had to think about having a shower. But now I have to consciously, deliberately make sure I have a shower. So, we’re using up energy just to do these basic tasks.
Rosemary:
Right. and the fact that we see these numbers exacerbated in Alberta, I suppose it’s not surprising, too, because there are some parts of the country – Alberta, Newfoundland, Labrador, Saskatchewan where they have been economically and with the pandemic. and I can’t imagine how that manifests itself in terms of mental health.
Yeah. We know that financial stress is a cause of mental health issues so it’s not surprising that in some of the provinces hit more financially you see people struggling more.
Rosemary:
How are you talking to patients? obviously you have a private practice. They’re not coming to your house. How is that transition and is it Ok.to do it, I guess, virtually in some capacity?
Yeah. So we transitioned all of the clients to virtual sessions and psychology, I would say, is one of the [inaudible] that does translate fairly well into a virtual platform. In lots of ways, I think it is great that all of this telehealth and telemedicine has happened as a result of the pandemic. and I wish it could come about in a different way. But given the pandemic, it is great that people can access these resources still. and I would recommend, after seeing those results that people should try to access mental health supports. There are a lot available virtually online for free. This isn’t ordinary times. We do all kinds of extraordinary things we would never consider doing before this pandemic. and so reaching out for mental health support might be one of those things we need to do.
Rosemary:
and what is your sort of best advice right now to Canadians? because so many of us – so many people are stuck at home and are now getting to the point where they’re sort of done. They’re sort of done with being home. They understand, based on that same poll, that they have to do it and they’re Ok.with that. But mentally they find that challenging. What are you telling your patients, what would you tell Canadians about sort of digging in for another few weeks of. This? – few weeks of this?
The as a results show that people are suffering but Canadians are also willing to suffer for the greater good, that they want to protect people and want to keep people safe. But it is a struggle to do when we should recognize this is a struggle. So we want to be really deliberate about protecting our mental health, whether that is doing things that charge your battery, social connection, other things that you find meaningful or purposeful. Or reaching out for professional mental health support.
Rosemary:
Ok. Dayna-lee baggley. Probably not a topic that we talk enough about, but it is sure an important one. Thank you. I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Rosemary:
As we wait for the Prime Minister here in the nation’s capital, he will come out of his front door there and give us a sense of what his government is doing today. To respond to the pandemic. I will go back to My colleagues, Vassy and David. We heard from New Brunswick and Saskatchewan last week, we are expecting to hear more from the Ontario premier at 1:30 eastern. a really delicate dance for the provinces and federal government. We see some of it happening in the United States and some of it seems to be just all over the place in terms of what they’re doing. So I wouldn’t mind hearing both of you on that. We have about two minutes.
Vassy:
I would pick up right there and say it’s interesting that we’ve seen, for example, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick unveil their plans to re-open the economy. Which is pretty soon. It’s happening a bit in New Brunswick already and it’s going to happen starting next week in Saskatchewan. But in both of those provinces, you’ve seen a real flattening of the curve, so to speak. So, there are a number of new cases that are very low. In Ontario, you have a very different situation. So, the premier is going to come out today and lay out a plan for what this looks like going forward, which I think people are interested to hear. But sort of from a public health perspective, we seem to be cat a different point in this province than the other two provinces that have unveiled this plan. That is not to say you shouldn’t announce what’s coming or what you intend to do. But it certainly is a little bit-I feel like a different tale to digest, I guess. and also what I’m interested to hear from the Prime Minister, he spoke last week about the plan to have some sort of federal guidelines in place and we know that a conversation occurred with the premiers. When he told the premiers, according to blaine Higgs, the premier of New Brunswick who I spoke with on Friday evening, that he wanted to goat it out soon. It will be interesting to see how they mesh up against the provincial context because even if you compare New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, there are some very jermaine differences in the way in which those plans roll out. I get it. They’re different province. But how does the federal government try and bridge the gap, I guess, or set some sort of bar for all provinces? well, they already started the ball rolling.
Rosemary:
and Quebec, too, expected to give us some sense of things this week. Do you wants to weigh in, David?
Reporter:
Everyone can come up with a plan to re-open and that will be phased in and based on science and data and that is important. But a big rate determining step in this is Canada’s supply of personal protoektsive equipment. The minute you start opening up the economy, private sector workers staying at home right now doing physical distance willing want a mask and gloves to keep themselves safe. You can do the home-made cloth things but there are certain businesses that you require a level of medical grade things and this was, I know, a concern that was raised by some of the premiers in their conversation with the Prime Minister on Friday. and nag he acknowledged. That until the private sector has a good and consistent and steady supply of P.P.E., it will be hard to do wide scale re-opening. We’re not there on testing yet as a country. Certainly not here in the province of Ontario and Quebec is starting to show a little bit of signs of lagging, even though montreal is now the epicenter of this pandemic in Canada. So, there are other challenges just beyond having a plan and people wanting to go back to work. Because if you re-open without enough testing and without enough personal protective equipment, you’re setting the stage for a spike and a setback which is something that all the political and business leaders and about every canadian seems intent on avoiding. You saw with the protest in Ontario, queen’s park over the weekend, doug ford – who likes to brag that Ontario is open for business – called the people wanting Ontario open for business a bunch of yahoos and told them to go home. While there is an eagerness to get it done, there is an overwhelming desire to do I properly and safely.
Rosemary:
Yeah. There is an enormous amount of weight in terms of responsibility to the public, in terms of making that decision. I would say that last week the premier of Ontario did downplay the idea that this could be back to normal, whatever that’s going to look like by may long weekend and he previously said that is not what he’s saying now. His Minister of education Steven recce said over the weekend that publicly funded schools will remain closed until the end of may and there will be another update yet to come. Quite possible that that might not even happen at all. Here’s Justin Trudeau coming out of his front door. Let’s listen to the Prime Minister of Canada.