Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
To the top of the hour, 11 AM eastern, because at noon eastern, about an hour from now, we are expecting a technical briefing here in Ottawa on the latest national modelling numbers. That will be done, of course, by the chief public health officer, her deputy and the deputy mental health Minister. Those numbers will give us a sense of how the pandemic is playing out in this country. It was about a month ago that the federal public health agency gave its first briefing. Now they are updating the modelling based on some of the new data that they have received from the provinces and give us abetter picture of what Dr. Theresa tam has said is some encouraging signs of us flattening the curve. It comes also as more provinces talk more about different reopening strategies, including Quebec. Later today we are expecting Quebec to outline how businesses will reopen inside that province. Yesterday announced its schools will – primary schools and day cares will start to open, all of them, by may 19. It would be the first province to really do that, and there are lots of questions about whether the timing is right there. We heard yesterday from Ontario, their plans to slowly reopen theeconomy. No dates attached to that. It was more of a framework than a calendar, said the premier, but it did give people a sense of how that’s going to unfold. We are also expecting the Prime Minister to talk a little bit about that this morning. and then at 12 eastern as well we are going to begin covering the so-called virtual sitting ofthe house of commons. It is essentially a special committee hearing on COVID-19. That is all they can talk about inside that virtual meeting. and the Prime Minister will be there at 12:45 addressing the house. It will not be all MPs, althoughall MPs are part of that committee, all 338 MPs. It will be a small sampling of MPs dialling in, the way many ofyou aye doing for your jobs right now, by zoom, to take partin this committee that will happen. Really a committee of the whole, focused solely on the government’s efforts to manage the pandemic and their economic response. We know more legislation expected this week on student aid, for instance. As we wait for the Prime Minister, that is his front door, Rideau cottage, I’ll bringin My colleagues, the cbc’s david Cochrane and the host of “power & politics”, Vassy kapelos, knowing, of course, that you may not get many seconds to talk at all. I’ll also just update people on the Prime Minister’s mother, margaret trudeau, because this morning it was discovered that there had been a fire at her apartment building and that she had been taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. The Prime Minister did confirm that he spoke to his mom today and that she is doing fine. So I’ll give you that small personal update from the trudeaufamily as well. Vas vashy, I think we’re going to hear more from the Prime Minister as well about these guidelines that have been established on a day when quebecis going to put more informationon the table about how it’s going to open up.
Vassy:
Yeah, following yesterday the announcement, rosy, from premier legault that schools outside of Montreal would resume, elementary schools in two weeks. Certainly a lot of reaction to that decision. No other province is bringing back kids that soon, at least that we’ve heard so far. So I think, you know, it will be interesting to hear from the Prime Minister on those federal guidelines and how that would apply, if at all, in those instances. Yesterday he was incredibly reticent to say they would be imposed on provinces. Rather they would be done in collaboration with provinces, but also set against the backdrop of exactly what you outlined there in that we’re going to get modelling numbers today, updated modelling numbers, an updated sense, we don’t want to stick to the letter of the law of everything that comes out because things can change, but if you sort of pose it, that information that will give us a sense of how the country is doing, where the provinces are at, where we are at on the curve against the information we’re going to get from various provinces about how they plan to reopen and what the prime Minister might say about that as well. I think the sort of – the complements of all of that is going to be a really interestingpoint. Where are we, how advanced is this virus right now right here, the spread of it, and what does that mean for reopening the economy? and in which provinces, you know, does that most apply? I think that’s what I’m really curious about. I think a lot of people at home are wondering how fast is this reopening going, is it too fast, should it be happening faster. That modelling is really going to inform those answers.
Rosemary:
I was just gently corrected that the modelling came out 19 days ago, not one month ago.
Vassy:
Feels like 25 years ago.
Rosemary:
That’s right. To be fair. David, I know that – Vassy is right, this will give us a good picture of the nation, but we know that each province is different and that’s why they are all taking these different approaches and Quebec I think is being looked at because there are legitimate questions from parents even in that province about do I really want to send My kid back because it is optional for now.
Or if you’re a teacher and you have to go back to the classroom when Montreal is the epicentre for this outbreak in Canada. They are not opening schools in Montreal until a fair bit later, but I think there is some anxiety out there about may 11 and whether that is too early and is it an assumption built on herd immunity. My personal circumstances, two boys, one in school, one in preschool, but the one in preschool has asthma. Would I send My 6-year-old to school when My 3-year-old is potentially at risk because of all of that? the answer for me is no and thisis a conversation a lot of parents in Quebec are going to have to have as they figure out how to deal with this. Other things will come out today, rosy. Just one point on the modelling. We’ll get the big national picture, and while that is very interesting, the provincial pictures are far more important, in My opinion, because there’s no national health system, right, that you can overlay the national projections on and see how it’s faring out. But you can take the Ontario modelling and overlay it on the Ontario health system, the Quebec system and overlay it on the Quebec health system to see where you are in terms of flattening the curve and meetingthe needs of hospital capacity and these sorts of things. The national model is an aggregate big picture, and it isinteresting to sort of see the trajectory and do the national level comparisons of Canada versus the United States, versusthe United Kingdom, france, spain, whatever you want to do. That local provincial picture isfar more important in terms of the decisions on reopening and in terms of ensuring that the health system is functioning at a way that we need it to function at to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Rosemary:
For sure, and there was a lot of pressure on public health officials and the government to release the federal modelling even though itwas, as you say, solely dependent on provincial data. So they are updating today. They obviously have some more information to share with us about how we are doing, but yes, the regional picture, so important, as we’ve learned, through the weeks. Here’s the Prime Minister of Canada, and let’s go to him now.