Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Rosemary:
Prime Minister of Canada outside his home, Rideau cottage, giving us a briefing today about the government’s response to the pandemic. Ending a little earlier than usual, I should tell you, because the Prime Minister will appear at the COVID-19 committee, parliamentary committee. This is the virtual committee that starts at noon eastern, so we will probably dip back in to hear some of the questions and responses from the Prime Minister, but the highlight today really focused on agricultural aid for the agricultural sector, $252 million for that sector. I should tell you that Canada is the fifth-largest exporter for agricultural goods in the world, so this is not just about helping the domestic supply chain but, indeed, the world supply chain for food. I’ll bring in My colleagues, Vassy kapelos and david cochranefor their takes. So it was not the amount of money that the agricultural sector was looking for, but the Prime Minister seemed to suggestmore to come, Vassy.
Vassy:
Yeah, certainly the ask made official at the end of last month was for $2.6 billion. That’s from the federation of agricultural producers in this country. This fell well short of that, $250 million, and you could see many of the questions directed to the Prime Minister focused onthat. The sector so far had been looking for extra help and pointing to the idea that other sectors had already received some kind of aid, and they were kind of left hanging, they felt, in the meantime. So they had been asking for a number of weeks, made the official ask at the end of aprilfor $2.6 billion, as I said. As you mentioned, rosy, the Prime Minister did indicate that this was a start but didn’t provide any details about what future help might look like or when it might arrive. Just to put some context around why the help is needed, it has another big story about headlines, and that’s the car gill meat plant. Because of the disruptions around food supply that involve a whole host of things, everything from what’s happening in meat processing plants to what’s happening at the border, it’s become really difficult for farmers to plan around how much, as you said, they need to plant or culling cattle, that kind of thing. So there are a number of sort of extraneous factors that make it difficult for them to figure out how they go forward, and not just this year but beyond this year, and of course that kind of industry is important not – that kind of planning is important to all of us. They were looking for extra liquidity. They got some of it. They were looking for extra aid. They got some of it as well, but certainly not anywhere near what they were hoping for. Just to touch on another issue the Prime Minister got a number of questions on, that is what’s happening at the car gill meat plant and also at another plant in brooks, Alberta. The car gill one is about half an hour south outside of Calgary, rather, half the workers at car gill have contracted COVID-19. Someone has died there. The plant reopened yesterday, although My understanding from the union is far less people reporting to work than would normally be. There are a number of concerns around the way in which that outbreak was handled by the company, by the provincial government, and the ask of the union is for some sort of intervention from the federal government. So far, as you heard from the Prime Minister’s answers, he has made a sort of distinguishment around jurisdiction, and he did so yesterday as well that the cfia, the Canadian food inspection agency is focused on the safety of the food, but the safety of the workers of the site is supposed to be provincial jurisdiction. There are a lot of questions for the province about how they handled that outbreak. Dr. Deanna hinshaw, the chief medical officer, for instance yesterday said they focused too early on just the site and not on community transmission, but the problem is still very much there. The plant has reopened. Workers still – our colleague Carolyn Dunn interviewed workers going in. They have valid concerns about their own safety re-entering that workforce, and it’s unclearto me exactly what role the federal government is prepared to take regardless at this pointof jurisdictional issues.
Rosemary:
Quite right, and I should point out that the meat, the processing plant, meat plants, this is a problem also in the United States. This is where some of their most concentrated outbreaks are in the United States as well, so obviously this is a problem that we are seeing in these kinds of quarters where you have to work very tightly together. I’ll also say this about the United States. They gave 19 – offered funding to their farmers, close to $19 billion, just to give you a sense of proportion. Obviously we’re a much smaller country, but I will also remind people that the Prime Minister previously announced additional funding under the farm credit Canada program, which already exists, $5 billion. But it sounded to me like that actually still has to be legislated, in his response. So I don’t know that that money is actually flowing to people yet. David, your thoughts?
David:
They are trying to do three basic things here with these programs. One is money to help food processors and producers to adapt to the new protocols to get the Poe or to adapt the workplace to allow for greater social distancing, or in the case of some of the people that work in places like car gill that may live together in communal living to adapt the living arrangements there. That would be the first objective. The second is on the managing oflivestock. Cargill, for example, working to reduce capacity. The outbreak in its workforce is the size of the outbreak in novascotia, for example. This has significant impacts for cattle producers and beef producers on the breeding and feeding of their livestock, which creates storage capacity and financial impacts there to help them with that. and the third is storage. There’s a surplus of french fries and butter and milk. There’s limited storage capacity for these things, so to help them with that and buying up some of the surplus and giving it out to agencies that deal with food insecurity. So it’s really the three things. Health protocols, livestock management and helping with storage or alleviating some of the storage impacts that the industries are having. Because all of this, rosy, the ripple effects in an agricultural planning life cycle is there’s a bunch of potatoes right now that are largely there because restaurants aren’t open and not selling french fries, but when they do reopen, we need to ensure there are supplies for them to have something to sell to their customers. So if you’re a farmer, you got to make a decision about planting. You need to have a clear sense of whether you’re going to be supported and helped right now as you do these things. There’s also labour force issues with this in terms of temporary foreign workers. The Prime Minister saying that 90% of the temporary foreign workers that the sector needs have been able to get into the country at this point. There’s another wave of that coming later with the harvestingseason, later in the year, in the fall of the year, where they will have to go through all of this again. It’s one thing to get it seeded and planted. You got to get it harvested and get it out. The early response is to help people buy food. Now it’s to help people who supply the food. This is basically a 10% down payment on what the sector says it needs.
Rosemary:
Great, thank you both very much. I’ll leave you both for a moment, if I can. I’ll also just point out that part of that package – sorry, $125 million that was announced today for people that have livestock, producers that have livestock that they need to keep on their land longer than usual because they can’t process more, the last time that was done in significant way was with the outbreak of that. So this is sort of what they are dealing with and the approach they are taking under the Agra recovery program. But let’s get some real-life perspective on what this means to people from someone who knowsthe struggles that farmers are facing right now because he’s one of them. Greg mckenzie is owner of mckenzie produce in stratford, Prince Edward Island. Look at you, and he joins me now. You’re there in your greenhouse, I guess, greg. Good to see you.
Yes, thanks very having me on.
Rosemary:
So tell me, what do you grow and how has your business been going right now?
a major part of our business is we grow cabbage for the [indiscernible] industry, and as all restaurants that have a significant shutdown, we have shutdown of sales overnight. You know, basically dropped 60% in a matter of a couple days, so we are sidle a lot heavier on inventory than we normally would, and to adjust our planning schedules, that’s all been changed around as well.
Rosemary:
Sorry, it’s a difficult connection. So how much did your sales drop overnight? did you say 60%?
60% we saw the drop in the sales.
Rosemary:
and so what do you do with the produce that you have if you can’t sell it? do you just – tell me what you do with it.
Well, we’re fortunate we’re all in refrigerated warehouses. We are able to hold it, you know. It all has a shelf life, so at ascertain point if we don’t get Otto market, our waste is gonna be significantly increased, and again, with that much product in our warehouse, we are delaying our early planting until we figure out where we’re going to be at.
Rosemary:
Yeah, well it seems to me that that’s sort of one of the biggest challenges for producers, like yourself right now, is how you plan the future. Do you have any sense of what that might look like?
Well, for us I believe, at least our cabbage market, we will not be doing an early planting. This will be the first time in over 20 years that the operationhasn’t put an early crop in. So we divert [indiscernible] multiple different vegetables that we plant ourselves for the public here and flowers and [indiscernible] moving forward. It’s going to be a different program than we’ve done in the past, but we’re thankful for the great community support here that likes to get behind us and come out to help us in trying times.
Rosemary:
Well, that’s great that you’ve been able to adapt. I know you were listening to the prime Minister there. Was there anything that you think you heard that might be able to help you?
It’s – again, it’s early in the announcement. To see how these programs will be rolled out. I know the numbers were quite different than what the federation of agriculture was looking for. As I say, it’s in the early stages, but it’s announced. It will take a little bit of time to see how things are going to roll out.
Rosemary:
He did seem to suggest that for industries that may have waste – I mean food that ends up as waste, that there would be some sort of program where the government would be able to buy up some of that food so it’s not wasted and it gets sent to places that needit. At what point would you need that program in terms of how long your cabbage will last?
We’re expecting we will have product into September or October at this rate, which normally we would be sold out inaugust. So once the summer months come and the warmer temperatures, it does put stress on refrigeration, and [indiscernible] costs to keep those units going. When the summer months hit here, the reality is going to be hitting as well.
Rosemary:
How many people do you employ, Greg?
Right now we actually have just our manager on with ourselves trying to get things done. and in our [indiscernible] we’reup to around 55 staff for the summer months.
Rosemary:
and how many of those are usually temporary foreign workers? do you have some now? will you need some?
Well, last year was our first time involved with the program, and we have six hoping to come back again this year. We delayed one of our first workers, and we have three coming on the 21st of this month.
Rosemary:
How are you holdingup? you’re the owner? I would imagine this is all your income for your family. How are you holding up personally?
Yeah, it’s definitely been a different spring, you know. Coming off a couple of challenging years, you got to beoptimistic, but yeah, it’s gonna be a different year for sure right across the industry.
Rosemary:
is it – how would you characterize it? is it one of the hardest year you’ve had as a producer?
Well, ‘18 wasn’t very much fun for anybody as well, but these different times are putting it – starting off on kind of the same foot.
Rosemary:
Yeah. But you’re healthy and otherwisefine.
Yeah, no, everybody has to be fairly resilient here.
Rosemary:
You sure do.
Got to look for opportunity and find a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
Rosemary:
Well, Greg, thank you for what you’re doing, and maybe this will inspire people to go out and buy up all your cabbage, or whatever else you’regrowing too. I hope what the Prime Minister announces is enough to support you and your company going forward. Thank you so much for making the time and putting yourself out there in the greenhouse.
Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Rosemary:
All right, nice to meet you. That’s Greg Mackenzie, the owner of Mackenzie produce. He joins us from stratford, P.E.I. Of course he’s just one of the farmers struggling right now. There are all kinds of differentproducers across this country. So important to our food supply, but also the world’s food supply. We’ve heard about potato farmers. I was surprised today to learn about mushroom farmers who are losing about $400, 000 a week because they can’t sell their mushrooms to restaurants. So all of this part of what the government was trying to addresstoday with $252 million. The Prime Minister saying that is a first step, and it certainly sounds as though much more will be needed as many farmers are trying to plan aheadwhat the future might look like if they can’t even sell with what they’ve got. So we’ll talk a little bit more about that story as the day unfolds and get more reaction from farmers about whether this will be enough for them. I should tell you at noon the agriculture Minister will be at the regular daily briefing, but noon also today on tuesdays is the virtual committee, COVID-19 committee hearing where MPs can dial in and ask questions of ministers and of the Prime Minister, and indeed at noon theprime Minister will be at that COVID-19 committee virtually and will be taking some questions, so we will bring part of that toyou as well today. Want to talk about another story, of course, that we have been tracking throughout this pandemic, and that is the impacton long-term care centres. We know that they have become really the tragic epicentre of this story and of this outbreak, both in Ontario and in Quebec, in particular, and our next guest has felt that very personally over the last 24 hours. Sherry roman ado is an mp, and her aunt, Carole, was a resident in one of those long-term care centres in Quebec, and she died yesterday of COVID-19, and this morning ms. Romanado tweeted this: so those of you who are tired of physical distancing, remember this virus doesn’t pickand choose and every single person that it killed had many who loved them, and that’s her right there with her aunt carole, and sherry romanado joins me right now from longueuil. My condolences, first of all, onthe loss of your aunt, sherry.
Thank you so much.
Rosemary:
So tell me a little bit about Carole and why she was in a long-term care centre.
So My aunt Carole on My dad’sside has been suffering from alzheimer’s for a few years and was in one of the chslds in Laval in northern – north of Montreal, and unfortunately caught COVID-19 and passed away yesterday, so it’s real and it’shappening.
Rosemary:
How old was Carole, sherry?
She would have been 75 in November.
Rosemary:
So pretty young, really. and what had happened in the [indiscernible]? was there an outbreak? had there been many cases? other deaths? do you have a sense of what was happening inside the centre?
So obviously I’ve been, you know, working from home, as have pretty much all of My colleagues, and so I wasn’t able to visit her or get details about what was going on, but as you know, we do have a problem with COVID-19 in a lot of the chslds here in Quebec, as well as in Ontario. So there will be a time to look into what happened, how could we have prevented it, but right now we are really focused on saving as many as people as we can, preventing this from spread as much as we can, continuing to practise, you know, physical distancing, and I think that’s the hardest thing. Like anybody who has lost a family member recently, the fact that you can’t get together, the fact that you can’t, you know, grieve with your loved ones, it makes it that much more difficult, so I’ve just been keeping in touch with My dad who’s lost quite a few family members in the last 18 months, so we just – you know, trying to stay positive and stay on the phone and so on and so forth, like every other Canadian, right? we’re in this together, and I think the reason I wanted to tweet that out was I know that with the nice weather people are starting to feel a little, you know, itchy to get outside, but we really need to continue. We need to hold the line. We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to prevent this spread. I myself, My oldest son is actually deployed to the chslds in Montreal. He’s a maybe of the Canadian armed forces. It’s all hands on deck. We’re doing what we can to make sure folks stay safe, and that’ssort of My battle cry for everyone, is to stay safe, stay the course. We can do this. I know it’s not easy. Trust me, I’m doing the same thing as everybody, but stay thecourse.
Rosemary:
I forgot your family had that military connection. So what is your son doing in those long-term care centres? has he told you of the kinds of things he’s been tasked with doing to try and help out?
So My oldest son is actually at long point in Montreal helping with the coordination of the efforts on the ground here in Montreal, and so you know, like I said, it’s a family effort.
Rosemary:
Yeah. You have lived this, but before – we’re all sort of watching this unfold in long-term care centres with I think everyone, a collective horror that this is how we have left our oldest Canadians. Were you surprised that this hascome to this, that we have gotten in this point in this? and how does that make you feel?
Interview:
Well, I don’t think anyone anticipated a pandemic as this one, and so youknow, there is a real difficult yin terms of recruiting folks to want to work in certain fields here in Quebec. As you know, before the pandemichit, we were in a difficult situation with respect to recruiting and a lack of manpower in certain sectors, so I think it was just part of a –almost a perfect storm. So you know, again, once we get through this crisis, you know, there will be an opportunity to review, reflect, look at where we need to be improving and make those changes so that we can make sure this never happens again.
Rosemary:
Can you tell me what kind of gal aunt Carole was?
Oh, you would have liked her, rosy. She was a hoot. She could – you know, she was pretty short. She was I think under 5 feet, but you know, she P.P.E. a wallop when it came to cracking jokes with the family. She’s going to be missed by her children, Kathleen and howie. I’ve been in touch with them, and her husband Ian, and you know, we all miss her and hopefully one of these days we’ll be able to get all together and laugh about Carole and, you know, bring back some of those great memories.
Rosemary:
Well, My condolences so your whole family, sherry. I do appreciate you talking about it because it is so important to put some faces to these statistics and talk about how people are managing, and I appreciate you doing it as an mp and as a person. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much, rosy.
Rosemary:
Okay, take care. That’s sherry romanado, an mp from Longueuil, Quebec there in her home talking about the loss of her aunt Carole in a long-term care centre in Quebec. Of course the story for so many of you, many Canadians across the country, struggling with those outbreaks in those places where people are living in very tight conditions, and once the pandemic enters, it becomes verydifficult to control, but wantedto highlight that because sherrydid tweet it this morning. As she said, part of her battle call for Canadians to dig in andkeep pushing as we try to fight this thing. All right, we are waiting for the Prime Minister and others totalk at the COVID-19 committee, which will start back at noon eastern. and of course there will be the regular federal briefing too, which we will just sort of monitor today in order to bring you some of the political back and forth which is critical to trying to understand some of thequestions around accountability and what the government is thinking in terms of public policy as well. So I’ll bring back My colleaguesvassy kapelos and david cochranefor more on that. I do appreciate when politicianssort of put aside their political jobs to talk about howthis is affecting them personally because it has affected everyone personally in different ways, of course, and so appreciated sherry coming on to share that with us. Let’s just go through maybe someof the things that we might expect the Prime Minister to be asked about today. I would imagine CERB would be top of mind, given what we heardfrom Andrew Scheer yesterday, Vassy.
Vassy:
Yeah, definitely CERB, and actually just quickly jumping off the interview you just did, I think one question for the Prime Minister in the next 24 or so hours will actually revolve around a promise he made a few weeks ago to top up the pay for people who work in homes like the one aunt Carole was in, or that so many others. and just to quantify the issue right now, that it’s not isolated to one part of the country necessarily, it’s especially acute in Ontario and Quebec. In Quebec, 85% of the deaths so far, as of last week, that are due to COVID-19 have occurred Ina long-term care or continuing care facility. Across the country, it’s 79%. so eight out of every ten Canadians basically who are dying because of COVID-19 contracted that virus in one of these homes. So when you call it a epicentre, the sort of horrific epicentre of this virus in this country, you are 100% right, and there are implications for the federalgovernment, most certainly goingforward. Different unions, for example, representing the workers in these homes have asked for a complete remodeling of the funding structure, of even the legislation that governs these types of care homes that it might fall under federal jurisdiction rather than provincial jurisdiction. You do see a real patchwork effect of policies right across the country. On the specific promise the Prime Minister made or the pledge that he made to offer a top-up for essential health careworkers in each province, some provinces have already gone ahead and done it, it would – people who would qualify have tomake less than $2500 a month, and I would highlight that thereis some friction among the premiers and the Prime Minister on this issue, only because, forexample, in Nova Scotia premier steven macneil there is saying, well, most of the people who work in the sector in those jobsalready make the amount of moneythat would take them out of qualifying for a top-up, so we’re asking the Prime Minister and the federal government to bemore flexible. When I last asked him whether the federal government had signalled they would be flexibleon Sunday, he said those conversations are ongoing, but it didn’t seem like a commitmenthad been made. It had been a number of weeks since that promise was made. Obviously time is of the essencebecause they are going to want to get that top-up out to help people who are, you know, reallyentering into pretty high-risk environments right now to treat and help and care for the peoplewho are suffering from this virus and who might contract it in these homes. So I’m really interested to hearfrom the Prime Minister, from other federal officials where those conversations are at and if there is going to be any sortof agreement, widespread agreement between the federal government and provinces on thattop-up and what kind of flexibility might be built into the program, if any at all. On the issue that you brought up, the CERB, we did hear from other provincial premiers, such as in Manitoba, and to a lesser degree in New Brunswick, and then Andrew Scheer who flagged the issue that they say they arehearing about, that there might be a disincentive for people to go back to work because of the way the CERB works. So the fact that people can access if they lost their job, for example, due to COVID-19, $2, 000 a month for up to four months. There is a bit of – I guess a sort of political conversation around this at all. The idea put forth that people would rather stay home than – and accept the CERB than go backto work. There are some businesses that I’ve heard from who are concerned about their ability torehire. But there is no insinuation, forexample, from those businesses that people are just being lazy and they want to stay home. There are genuine concerns from people about their safety going back to work, and there is a genuine conversation I think to be had about what the program looks like, what financial assistance from the government looks like moving forward in this stage of reopening versus when everything was completely shut down. The Prime Minister said those talks could be had, but he provided no details on what the government is looking at going forward.
Rosemary:
They are looking atit. David, I know you have had some conversations around that as well.
David:
Yeah. There’s an ongoing review of existing programs that is happening over the next several weeks and the next month or so to get a sense of whether are these things going to need to beextended? the CERB runs for 16 weeks. We’re basically halfway through the funding support, but we may not be halfway through the pandemic. Hopefully we are, but you know, I don’t know if that’s necessarily where we are, so do you – what do you do with the program? what do you do with the wage subsidy which is only now starting to pay out. But you know, it’s more complicated than simply saying, oh, well, these programs should have an incentive for people to find work. I mean, in theory that is a great idea. But okay, someone who’s home with their kids suddenly can go back to – has to go back to work, what do they do with the kids? schools and child care centres are closed. So there is a much broader ripple effect of any tweak to any one program as we’re seeing with these programs from the moment they have been launched that they have – there have been fits and starts and tweaks and mergers and revamps and broadening of criteria to help people because each decision triggers four or five unforeseen ripple effects that you then need to make other decisions to deal with. and so this is one of the challenges with things like the CERB, and I know there was a big national discussion about the student subsidy package, saying that there should be requirement for students to go look for work. Okay, that’s great, but students run into the same sort of situation. Either they might have a parent they need to look after. They could have a child. They may have someone in their family that is immune compromised. So you run into a whole series of complicated factors when you try to apply simplistic fixes tothings, and this is the real delicate dance of policy development in the middle of a pandemic, the likes of which no one has ever seen, because it leads to all kinds of unintended consequences and unknown unknowable things that you then have to respond to in rel time with great public need pressing at you to make a decision quickly. One of these the Prime Minister was asked about today is airlines, for example. The disruption to the airline sector has been absolutely catastrophic right now. They are working on some sort of sect oral package to help them. What I AM hearing is you’re not looking at a big bailout like we saw with the auto sector, buying shares and taking over governance and things. Right now they don’t think they are at that critical everybody is going to go under phase that we saw in 2008-2009 which was really a financial sector crunch and then rippled through a bunch of other sectors. It’s more about long-term bridging, keeping major employers alive to better times. The challenge is when are those better times? and could they very well end up in a situation like general motors and the auto sector was 10, 12 years ago? so there is a massive amount of policy development happening behind the scenes, far beyond what we see from the Prime Minister every day in these daily announcements, and you know, as we saw right here, a quarter of a billion dollars in aid for the agriculture sector. That’s just the beginning, and I’m old enough to remember when a quarter of a billion dollars in government aid was a really big deal. Now it’s Tuesday.
Rosemary:
Now we’re like, meh. I will say, on CERB, I think you’re both quite right, it is important to have a conversation about how this winds down, what that looks like, and indeed how do people who might start going back to work in some capacity but need some ongoing support from the government do that, bu ti have yet to hear any actual evidence from Andrew Scheer or anybody else that there are people who are saying “I don’t want to work, I’m going to stay home and take this benefit.” I mean, Vassy, you have heard from businesses who are concerned, that’s fine. But I have yet to hear any evidence that this is something that is rampant or starting or that people are considering. We certainly have seen through Catherine cullen’s reporting some evidence of fraud, which is perhaps not surprising through CERB, that some people applied for it, got it and should not have. and I know she’s still working on some stories around that, because obviously that can’t continue. I’m not sure how widespread that is either, and I’m not sure the government would be able to give us a sense of that any more either. and of course the other part of CERB is that as the wage subsidy program ramps up, as we see now it’s covering 1.7 million workers, CERB will slightly wind down as long as these companies feel that they can bring their workers back on the payroll. So I mean, I guess I’m just saying it’s an interesting political conversation, but I’m not sure what it’s – you know, where is the nexus of it. Where is the evidence that this is a widespread problem at this stage, given that there aren’t really any jobs to be had. So I’m not even sure how you could turn down a job in any real way. Vassy, I’ll just get your thoughts.
Vassy:
Yeah, just quickly, I’m trying to think of it from and less from the political perspective, more from the premiers who I have heard from and primarily in Manitoba and New Brunswick, and again, you’reright, it’s not like they presented me with ten examples so far, but they do insist they are hearing about the concern from various organizations that represent businesses. and in their case, their economies are at the stage where there might be the need for somejobs, more so than, for example, here in Ontario or perhaps in other provinces that are not – like, those are the two provinces most advanced or among the two provinces most advanced when it comes to reopening the economy, and one other thing I want to touch on with the financial aid package, something that I AM getting inundated with emails about, and that is the rent assistance program. That is something that the government says is supposed to be up and running for applications in mid-may.
Rosemary:
The commercial rent assistance program.
Vassy:
Commercial rent, I’m sorry, yeah. They are going to lend some money to commercial property owners in exchange for them pretty drastically cutting the amount of rent that a small business can pay. There are some issues I’m hearing tons about the reliance on or the prince Edward island cation of the program on landlords complying. They essentially have to agree to take a big cut in the rent, and there also are some concerns about the revenue decrease that those small businesses have to show. They have to show a 70% decline. a lot of restaurants reaching out to me saying we were told we could do takeout. The business is not enough for us to pay our rent and fixed costs, but we are just getting by, and we still need the help too. a real lack of information for an umber of those people I’m hearing from right now, from the federal government. I know the program is being worked out, but May 1 has come and gone. Many landlords also reaching out saying My tenants are saying can we give you a quarter of the rent because are you going to do this program, and they can’t say yes or no. So I just want to highlight thatissue, because it’s part of the financial aid package from the government, and probably the one part we have the fewest details on right now.
Rosemary:
Okay, I got to leave you both, if you don’t mind here, for our ongoing special coverage on CBC television. We will be back after a short break. Thank you very much, Vassy kapelos and cbc’s David Cochrane. I will remind viewers if you are tuning in now, the Prime Minister’s focus was on aid for the agriculture sector in this country, $252 million to try and tide them over, but the Prime Minister also acknowledging that more aid, more money may be needed, and of course we will have ongoing coverage of the pandemic on CBC news network” and CBC. Ca, streaming wherever you are. But that ends our coverage here on CBC television today. I’m rosemary Barton. Thanks for watching. See you soon. ♪♪
Rosemary:
Hello again. I’m rosemary Barton here in Ottawa. Thanks for joining us on CBC news network” and streaming on the CBC news app and CBC. Ca right around the world. We are tracking the big COVID-19developments of the day. An emergency aid package is on the way for Canada’s agricultureand food industry. The Prime Minister announced $252 million in support to help farmers and food processors copewith this unprecedented crisis brought on by the pandemic, but is it enough? we will discuss with our reporters in just a moment, and we do expect also to hear more on the relief plan from federal ministers this hour, including the agriculture Minister, on howthis might unfold. and that, on your right, is the beginning of the virtual COVID-19 committee that meets now tuesdays and thursdays at noon eastern. This is the enlarged special committee that has been crafted and constituted to deal with thegovernment’s response to COVID-19, allowing MPs and parliamentarians to do a deep dive into some of what the government has done, ask questions about it, and hold thegovernment to account on some ofthe policy decisions they are making. On the right of your screen there is the speaker of the house, anthony roda, who is sitting somewhere inside the west block as he gets ready to gather many, many people on-line. I think last time this was done there were 300 MPs who dialled in from wherever they were working remotely, and they are doing a moment of silence right now for the crash of the helicopter in Nova Scotia. Okay, on the left of your screenis the federal briefing that we expect today to hear mostly frompublic health officials. As I said, the agriculture Minister as well. So the virtual meeting taking place at noon. We are expecting the Prime Minister to show up there and answer some questions, which is why we bring that to you live today. Tomorrow, on wednesdays, is whenthey do the in-person sitting, which is the actual house of commons in a reduced capacity, alarge question period for that time as well where the Prime Minister also usually attends, as well as opposition leaders. Both of these things sort of getting going, and we will bringthem to you as soon as someone pops up other than the speaker of the house of commons, even though I’m sure he’s saying veryinteresting things. I’ll bring become vass Vassy kapelos, the host of “power & politics”, and david Cochrane from the parliamentary bureau. We are standing by to see what kind of questions the Prime Minister gets. We expect the way the conservatives have been positioning themselves over the past number of days to focus around CERB and whether changes need to be brought in or whetherthere’s things that need to be adjusted going forward, something the government is obviously looking at. But it seems as though it’s suggesting it might be a little bit too early to do that, given as david pointed out we’re really only halfway through the financial aid measures, maybe not halfway through the pandemic, unfortunately. Maybe let’s just talk a little bit about the provinces and the pace that things are going at because yesterday montreal or the Quebec premier was forced topush back some opening dates around montreal after some real concerns from their public health officer and their mayor about how ready the city of montreal is, and certainly the outbreak in montreal doesn’t really appear to be slowing down. In fact, it’s moving into other parts of the city in some particular communities. and I wonder whether this is just how it’s going to be in that if premiers are, you know, aware enough of the information and data they are getting and are trying to make decisions based on public health will indeed just sort of move back their timelines and the federal government will never have to sort of get up and wag its finger at a province because everyone agrees that that wouldn’t be the best move politically. It seems to have happened in thecase of Quebec for now, at leastin the case of montreal. But I found it interesting because nothing really had to happen from the federal government, at least publicly, in order to get franÇois legaultto shift his position slightly on how things were going to unfold. Vassy?
Vassy:
Yeah, that’s very true, and actually now that you mention it I was thinking back to every premier we’ve spoken to over the past, or listened to over the past few weeks, or week, as they detail the phased out approach by which they are going to reopen their economies, and all of it often comes with a caveat, right? and the caveat is: we are going to closely monitor the numbers, and if we see more evidence, forexample, of community spread or larger amounts of community spread, we are not afraid to put the brakes on. Blaine Higgs yesterday, no new cases in New Brunswick. Everybody has recovered, and he was still very careful in the interview to say, if we see anything change, though, we are not going to accelerate the rat eat which this reopens. The last thing we want to do is end up worse than we are right now. So there is, I think, a shared sense of hesitancy to move too quickly if the evidence doesn’t support it.
Rosemary:
Yeah, and the premier – premier Higgs also saying everybody can forget coming to New Brunswick any time soon too because if we’ve got this under control, which it seems they do, we don’t want people importing it into the province either, so that’s obviously something that we’ll have to think about what kind oftravel, even domestically, we’llbe able to do over the course of the summer. David, your thoughts on all of that?
David:
I kind of ask the question what would Bonnie henrydo, you know? if you look at British Columbia and the modelling and the data they put out yesterday, they deal with the same international border restrictions that every other province in Canada has dealt with. They follow closely what Dr. Tam and the world health organization has said, and they have a border with one of the first hot spots in the United States, in Washington state. But they have had a very good communications plan in talking to the public. They acted quite decisively on things like long-term care homeswhen they had what was I believethe first outbreak of COVID-19 in the seniors home in Canada. and put very specific measures around it and changed the way health care workers worked and the way long-term care facilities were working and allowed to be visited. and had a response that stopped the problem we are seeing in places like Quebec and Ontario. They still have problems there. They have still had deaths there, but it is not raging epidemic and the sort of thing we have seen in other places. Their curve is now very flat, and even the discussion yesterday of the possibility of no new cases by Canada day, which is remarkable when you consider that they have, you know, a very diverse population with a strong international travel profile in the months leading up to this, high population density in places like vancouver. They have done a remarkable job, and they are not talking about opening up the economy to quite the degree we are seeing in someother provinces. and I think that is the touchstone for me when I look atit in terms of how British Columbia has communicated it andhow they’ve dealt with the crises when they flared up and how they are managing with this go-slow approach. Henry’s front-line very personalexperience with sars back when that happened may be something that guides her on this. She has been a very good communicator. They have a good robust public health agency there, and they have dealt with this in probablyone of the best ways in Canada. I mean, the smaller atlantic provinces which have zero cases, the population makeup there certainly helps, the way they don’t have the big large cities, you know, back in st. John’s where I’m from, if it hadn’t been for a single cluster at a funeral home at a wake where it spread like wildfire, the numberof cases in Newfoundland and Labrador would be about a third of what they are. So that was a bit of bad luck. But what has happened in britishcolumbia is good response and good planning, and I think thereare a lot of lessons that policy-makers should take from what has happened there and try to apply it as best they can to their local circumstances as we move towards this conversation of reopening. We are talking about the future, rosy. Everyone wants to talk about what’s next and getting back to normal. There is still a tragedy happening in long-term care homes right across the country. It is an absolute ongoing tragedy where people are dying alone and being mourned remotely. and we have to be cautious aboutgetting too far over our skis and moving towards getting things back to normal when things are far from normal in some of the most vulnerable populations in Canada.
Rosemary:
and just a reminder that the British Columbia premier is expected to outline some of the reopening measures tomorrow in British Columbia, so they are moving, but you’re quite right, moving quite slowly. As we wait for the house of commons COVID-19 committee to get really under way, let’s take you to the public health briefing here in Ottawa. That is Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy public health officer, who has become also a familiar face to many Canadians. Let’s listen in to this live, and we’ll take you to the house of commons COVID-19 committee as soon as it gets under way. Here we go. [ voice of interpreter ]we are saved from deadly infections when physicians cleaned their hands before delivering babies. In the 20th century, florence nightingale showed how wounded soldiers were spared from deadlyinfections thanks to handwashingand other hygiene measures. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time the lifesaving prevention power of handwashing was not known, especially considering its absolutely integral role in preventing the spread of infections today. If I were to tell you that thereis a super-low-cost solution that could significantly reduce everybody’s likelihood of catching a whole range of diseases, from stomach bugs to antibiotic resistant infections, and even droplet respiratory infections like COVID-19, COULD you pick a favourite tune and sing to yourself while you wash your hands for 20 seconds? that’s all it takes. Handwashing is so important thati’m keeping it short and simple today. There is simply nothing like a splash of water, a bit of soap and a 20-second scrub. Back of hands, front of hands, between the fingers, don’t forget your thumbs and fingertips. Repeat often to beat back the bugs. It’s a lifesaver. Thank you.
Thank you, doctor. Madam bibeau?
Hello, everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic has acted like a shock wave in our food supply chain from farms to grocery stores. I assure you that we are working very hard with our provincial, territorial, international partners, with representatives from the agricultural and agri-food sectors to ensure thatcanadians always have access to good, fresh, affordable food. Today Prime Minister trudeau announced another series of measures to allow our agricultural producers and food processors to continue their essential work, which is – or rather and to save our family farms throughout the country. [ end of interpretation ]. – investments today are relatedto the impacts on our farmers. Due to the reduction in food processing capacity, as well as the closure of many restaurants and food services. Before I proceed with the details of today’s announcement, it is important to recall that the business risk management programs bring about $1.6 billion each year to support farmers facing different types of challenges. [ voice of interpreter ]before presenting, new investments earmarked for the agricultural and agri-food sectors, it is important to notethat risk management programs represent every year approximately $1.6 billion of assistance to agricultural producers. These programs, which are cost shared, need to be improved. That is why, with My provincial and territorial counterparts, wehave started to work on them, and we started that work last summer. In all cases, it’s important foragricultural producers to take full advantage of existing programs. Other initiatives, such as thosewe’ve announced today, we are announcing today, will meet exception at the needs caused by the COVID-19 crisis. First of all, the agristability program was designed to limit revenue losses caused, for example, by a significant price decline such as is the case for pork right now. All producers are strongly encouraged to join the program and to improve it we’ve made thefollowing changes. The deadline for enrolment has been pushed back to July 3. To access more liquidity in certain provinces, it is possible to ask for a 75% advance payment, not just 50%. and to help them assess the support that they may be able toobtain, a calculator is now available on-line. [ end of interpretation ]. agristability covers revenue losses, such as the decline of hog prices. All farmers are strongly encouraged to enrol in the program for which the application deadline has been extended until July 3. Where the provinces have enactedthe changes, producers can now access 75% of their expected benefit, up from 50%. and to help them estimate the level of support they can get from this program, a calculator is now available on-line. Agri recovery covers extraordinary costs faced by producers due to disaster. a province or territory must make a request to the federal government for the program to beactivated, and the eligible costs are then shared 60% by thefederal government and 40% by the provincial government. It normally covers up to 70% of eligible expenses. We are now making it up to 90%. due to the unprecedented crisis and the meat processing backlog caused by temporary closures or slowdowns of plants, the federalgovernment will make available its 60% contribution in all provinces or territories whetherthe province contributes their share or not. Two of our main announcements today fall under the agrirecovery program. First, up to $50 million will serve as a set aside program to help cattle producers cover the extra costs of keeping their animals on the farms while they wait longer to be processed. and up to another $50 million will be allocated to help pork producers cover costs of managing their herd. [ voice of interpreter ]agrirecovery operates on a – [ end of interpretation ].
Rosemary:
Okay, we’re just going to pull away from this briefing talking about the $252 million the federal government announced today, but we are going to join the COVID-19 committee happening virtually at this hour. There is the Prime Minister. There are about 260 MPs sitting in virtually for this COVID-19 committee, special committee. Let’s listen in live. [ voice of interpreter ]
Rosemary:
Okay, we are going to pull away from this special committee on COVID-19, although there were questions on some other issues as well, including fishing, and as you heard there, the government’s announcement on gun control last Friday. I will bring in Vassy kapelos, the host of cbc’s “power & politics”, and David Cochrane, and there were all sorts of technical problems that everybody experiences in their lives, which was, you know, sort of amusing. You could also see everybody’s home offices or home backgrounds. and I will say a little bit chippy too, chip pier than last week, so perhaps MPs are getting the handle of this virtual committee back and forth. Primarily we were there to hear the questions from the leaders to the Prime Minister, obviously, but we took a little bit longer to get a sense of sort of where people’s heads areat. Vassy, what part stood out for you there?
Vassy:
Lots of back and forth. The technical aspect of it, I did feel like we’re all doing zoom calls now and half the timei’m on mute by accident as well, but certainly there was an interesting sort of question from Michelle repel there about how the speaker is navigating there, around the idea of possibly using mute to cut people off. What’s different in this versus what we’re used to seeing in question period is especially around the timing of it. So if the question is 15 seconds, the answer is supposed to be 15 seconds, and that brought about some of the disagreement. I did think there were some good exchanges specifically around COVID-19 and some of the holes in the programs, for example. The big topic of the past few days generated by Andrew Scheer around what the CERB program looks like going forward, and he’s getting some criticism for what he brought about, but his question to the Prime Minister today about will it be amended, will it acknowledge that he alleges at least that it’s disincentivizing people from working, and the Prime Minister said I do recognize those concerns but reiterated what he said in answers to media questions about it, in that now is not the time he sees for those kinds of changes, but that might happen in the future. No details on when in the future, but kind over an interesting exchange there, and some other questions I thought that were important for a number of seniors who we hear from frequently about whether or not there is something in addition to the gist credit that has been already announced, $400 for a single and $600 for a couple. and the Prime Minister for a number of weeks now has been promising that more will be coming, and the Minister of seniors said the same today. I know that a number of people who watch this and who are concerned and who are worried about that have asked what those details will be, so I know they are anxiously waiting for those, and none yet.
Rosemary:
Yeah, and the Prime Minister I think said coming days.
Vassy:
Said that a few times.
Rosemary:
Yeah, David, about 30 seconds for you.
David:
Just a quick thing that stood out for me in the exchange between Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer dealing with a local company Brandt tractor which purchased nowhere tracks last year, merged two companies into a bigger one. Individually they would have qualified for the wage subsidy. Together they apparently do not. That’s an unintended consequence of the program designed, and the prime Minister saying in his answer we look forward to your input so we can tweak and change the things going forward. So maybe some partisanship therein the exchanges, but at least swilling to be open to changes from the Prime Minister there, and quite frankly that’s kind of the way the country has to operate right now.
Rosemary:
Yeah, I actually thought that Andrew Scheer’s question about if you’re making more than $1, 000 a month and you’re on CERB, is there any way to make that a progressive system was an interesting idea. Again, maybe that’s something the government will look at going forward. Vassy kapelos tonight at 5 PM on “power & politics”, and davidcochrane from our parliamentary bureau, thank you for your help as usual.
obviously the government’s primary announcement today around agricultural aid, $252 million for many of the sectors in this country that are struggling with too much or not knowing what will happen in the future. I’m rosemary Barton. We’ll leave you now with a commercial break. Our coverage continues here on CBC news network” with Andrew Nichols. I’ll see you back here tomorrow. ♪♪