Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Parts of the country are slowly beginning to reopen. Different paces depending on where you live and how the spread of the pandemic is being contained. That economic re-start could notcome soon enough for some people, though. The latest employment data from just yesterday showed another 2 million Canadians lost their jobin the month of April. That means that now 3 million Canadians are out of work and the unemployment rate now standsat 13%. justin trudeau announced earlierthis week, yesterday in fact, that it is – that he will extend, his government will extend the wage subsidy package for businesses to try and hire back some of those workers. That will be extended now beyondjune. We are expecting to hear the details of that next week, and perhaps more details from the Prime Minister today. Let me bring in My colleague, catherine cullen, who is here tohelp with our coverage here in ottawa. Catherine, I don’t think we’re expecting anything new from the Prime Minister today, but if youthink back through the week in terms of things that have happened, the wage subsidy extension is probably the biggest move by the government, and a recognition that more helpwas definitely needed to try andget businesses ready to bring their workers back as we see parts of the economy reopening.
That’s right, and the announcement coinciding, rosemary, with those – obviously, I mean, what is the word, devastating, very troubling job numbers that we saw yesterday. Talk about those top line figures, 3 million people who have lost their jobs since the beginning of the outbreak, sincefebruary, but we know that there are a great number – millions more workers, in fact, who have been affected by this, who have seen a reduction in their hours, who are working from home, changes – all manner of changes. Now as for how long that wage subsidy extension is going to be, the Prime Minister did say yesterday it was something they were going to talk about next week. Carla qualtrough, the employmentminister, on with our employee Vassy kapelos last night did say that she expects it’s going to be more than a month. She also said when it comes to the emergency response benefit, the CERB, that they are also looking at an extension of that as well, but it’s something they are thinking about very seriously. In the case of that particular benefit, extending it is something that would require legislative changes. They’d have to go back to the house of commons. We’ve seen that that process can be a bit touch and go, although the parties have repeatedly arrived at an agreement on getting these badly needed benefits through. But long story short, we’re certainly expecting to see various kinds of extensions of these benefits. The government does, I think, prefer to have people on the wage subsidy, not only might they be getting a bit more money because of the way the wage subsidy works, but they wouldn’tbe considered, Carla qualtrough said, unemployed because they are attached to their employer. The numbers would look a bit better. None of it an ideal situation.
Rosemary:
The wage subsidy was supposed to start rolling out this week. I haven’t heard anecdotally whether everything has started rolling out. We do know that 120, 000 businesses have applied but the government expects that covers 1.7 million Canadians. You can see how as more businesses apply, tap into it, that should help some of the people, some Canadians get off CERB because that’s a very high number too, more than 7 million. I think the question is with the pace of reopening different – across the country, you know, that number will take some time to increase as businesses decide what they can do and how they can reopen safely for their employees too.
Well, and this was part of the reason I think part of the logic for extending the wage subsidy. We heard from the Canadian federation of independent businesses yesterday praising this decision, noting that some businesses were thinking, listen, this was supposed to wind up in June. I don’t know if My business is going to be reopened. We’re certainly going to need more help. The question is how much, which leads into this question of how long is all of this going to go on, what is the recovery effort going to look like, and of course how long is all of this going to go on. Nobody really knows, but it’s interesting to see how the government is trying to plan forthis. and we heard the Prime Minister say yesterday when it comes to variety of these measures, it’s going to be about constantly adjusting as we get a sense of the overall picture.
Rosemary:
I had forgotten until I reread the notes My producer Phil prepares for me that the wage subsidy is retroactive to March 15, so the sooner companies can get starting it, the sooner they can get back all that money from before as well, because of course expenses for companies haven’t really stopped regardless of the size of the company, so that money might be pretty critical to businesses as well. If I just look back through the things that have happened through the course of the week, though, which we will expect the prime Minister to highlight too, there’s been the aid for the agriculture and food industry. There’s been the really important agreement between provinces and Ottawa to somehow top up essential workers’ pay, and then this extension of the wage subsidy. So in terms of the policy work to support Canadians through this pandemic, it doesn’t really seem to be slowing down. In fact, it is, as you say, just trying to bridge the gaps and the holes that might be out there still for some Canadians and some industries.
and we know that there are a couple of holes that still need to be addressed. The Prime Minister himself saying there is something coming for seniors. Many of them on fixed income. They haven’t seen their income necessarily change by this if they are on, for instance, a pension, but they may have seen their costs go up. Just one of the many concerns that Canadian seniors can be facing right now, whether it’s increased face of groceries, cost to get your groceries delivered on top of some of the challenges they are dealing with, being particularly vulnerable, facing isolation. We have talked on this program whether it’s going to be yesterday or today. Now it looks like it’s going to be next week. We’re still looking at what form it might take too. We know in some instances the government has looked at increasing the gist credit for low-income Canadians to try to get a bit more money to people on top of things take the emergency response benefit. Would it be some sort of measurelike that, increasing an existing benefit to get it directly to seniors. That’s certainly one option.
Rosemary:
Okay, Catherine, I’ll come back to you. The Prime Minister will emerge in about 10 minutes time or so to give us a briefing, an update on how his government is responding to the pandemic. For now I want to talk about another issue that I know so many of you are also considering, Canadians who are lucky enough to have a cottage and thinking about when can I get up there to try and test it out, or as premier ford did the other day, just to make sure everything is okay. In Ontario, though, some officials are asking seasonal residents to just hold off for awhile. Joining me now is grad en smith, and he’s the mayor of bracebridge, Ontario. It’s part of the beautiful muskoka cottage country in this province, and that’s where we’vereached him. Mayor smith, good to see you, sir.
Thank you very much, good morning.
Rosemary:
So what are you advising to people, because obviously, you know, people are feeling like they’d like to get away. They’d like to get out of their houses, and if they have a cottage, they think to themself, well, that will be safe, I’ll just head up there and self-isolate at My cottage for alittle while.
and that’s understandable, and this has gone on for quite some time now obviously, and from the beginning we’ve seen people that have cottages or seasonal homes here because we get snowbirds returning to their only home in Canada in this area. Coming to this area and taking refuge, and despite the fact that there’s been a lot of discussion about what people can and can’t do, there’s really been nothing prohibiting people doing that, but we have been asking secondary homeowners to hold off. At the beginning there was concerns about food supply and certainly the ability for our hospitals to deal with any large numbers of patients because they are relatively small.
Rosemary:
Sure.
I think as time has gone on that’s changed a little bit and we’re softening that language to some degree.
Rosemary:
So is it okay, then, for people to be going back and forth from the city to their cottage? do you want them – are you saying you can move up here and do your self-isolation permanently? what is the best-case scenario for you?
Interview:
So again, there are people that are already here, and for those people I think it’s preferential that they say here. If somebody is coming to the area, I think they should try and stay here as well. What we really don’t want to see are people that are constantly moving from community to community because, of course, that’s going to exacerbate the potential for community spread.
Rosemary:
I guess the other concern, and it is a real one, of course, during all this is the economic impact. Because if you have people who usually would start coming up probably may long weekend, in a couple of weeks, and come up systemicically every weekend, and then for an extended period in the summer, that’s bound to have an economic fallout for your community.
Interview:
Absolutely. Our economy, especially in the summertime, is supported by our seasonal and tourism visitors. and so it’s gonna be a very difficult 2020 regardless of what things look like. Right now we’re only talking about seasonal and cottage property owners coming up. We’re not talking about the tourism industry reopening in any way. In fact, we’d say if people want to come on a day trip, they really shouldn’t be doing that because there’s no infrastructure here to support them. There’s no open restaurants. There’s no public parks, per SE. There’s no washrooms for you to use. So this is kind of an opening TA very small segment, an offering to a small segment of the population to come and check on your cottage or stay at your cottage, but understand that if you are doing it, we’re expecting you to follow all the protocols that have been put in place to keep everybody safe.
Rosemary:
and I know the premier got a little flak the other day because he had told people not to go to cottages over the Easter long weekend. Then he decided to go up and check on his pipes. People criticized him for that decision. Have you seen people doing that? it is a second residence. They are certainly nice, very nice cottages in your neck of the woods. Are people coming up just to make sure things are okay and have you been discouraging that up to this point?
Interview:
Well, we’ve been trying to promote public health advice, and public health advice at this point, whether it’s been from Dr. Tam or Dr. Williams in Ontario, or our local medical officer of health, has been to limit non-essential travel whichto us has meant please don’t come right now. But we know people have done that. Some people have come up and stayed. Some people have made that day trip just to check on things. and other people have contacted me to say, you know what, we’re going to ride this out. We understand what you’re askingand we’re just going to hang in the city for a while and we’ll get there when everything is a little bit better.
Rosemary:
and last question around supplies. You said initially you were a bit worried about food supplies and other things that people might need. Would that be okay now if people went up, or are you telling them to bring their supplies? what’s your best advice on that front?
Interview:
Ideally bring your own supplies with you because we’re in a situation where we’vegot a limited number of stores, and the lineups can get pretty long on a good day, especially on the weekends.
Rosemary:
Yeah, sure.
Interview:
So if people can bring their own supplies, self-isolate as best they can, try and limit their interactionswith people while they’re here, I think that’s a good sawoff foreverybody in this. It’s been interesting, I’ve received some not-so-nice emailsfrom people, mad that we are telling them they can’t come. We didn’t say you can’t come. We said you shouldn’t come, but if you do come, here is what youshould do, and that’s really where we’re at today. We see this as a very slow opening of a door, trying to getthrough it, it’s going to take quite some time. It’s not going to be a linear progression back to normal, but we want to work with all citizens of muskoka and all property owners and seasonal residents and people that love this area to work together. Be compassionate and empathetic towards one another and try and get back to some level of normalslowly.
Rosemary:
Other than the meanemails, how are you doing? how are you doing health-wise and how are you doing in terms of worrying about your community?
Interview:
Oh, well, I survive the mean emails okay. That’s not a problem. I got broad shoulders. I AM at home a lot. I’ve got two young kids at home and My wife is working out of our bedroom upstairs and I work out of the office downstairs. The kids need help with school work. So very much like a typical family in that regard. I think I just have a much higher volume of emails and phone calls to deal with than normal. I love this job and I love this community and the people in it, so it’s still a pleasure every day to get to do it.
Rosemary:
Okay, mayor smith, thank you so much for making thetime. I know a lot of people, this is on their mind, so I appreciate you giving that advice and I would imagine it’s similar advice across the country. Good of you to make the time, sir.
My pleasure, thank you.
Rosemary:
Okay, stay healthy. That’s the mayor of bracebridge, Ontario talking there about what you should do as you move back and forth. Can you move back and forth between your primary residence and the city and a country home or a cottage home and the best advice here in Ontario right now is don’t do that. You shouldn’t be going back and forth every weekend. It will put a strain on the system, and they are, of course, very worried in this province in particularly about community spread. The public health officer yesterday saying that he wasn’t quite sure why there was so much community spread right now, and they were trying to figure that out a little bit. About two minutes away from seeing the Prime Minister today on this Saturday, in case you had lost track. He will be coming out to recap Little bit what his government did this week and the ongoing response and answer some questions, too, about the thingscatherine and I were talking about, potential gaps and changes that might need to happen in some of the policy that has been rolled out over the past number of weeks and past number of days. Because we’re only a minute away, I’ll bring back Catherine Cullen if I can, knowing that I might cut her off sooner than I would like, to get some – to let the Prime Minister speak. Go ahead, Catherine.
I want to talk about a couple of the – maybe the major announcements this week quickly, rosemary. One I want to mention is the essential workers announcement. We got a bit more information from Alberta yesterday. We know all the provinces have bought in in terms of which workers they are looking at offering this top-up to. The premier saying that he thought it would be indeed people in the health care sector, long-term care workers across the country. Each province and territory is going to decide precisely who qualifies, who is an essential worker, but one stream of continuity that we’re seeing here is I think everyone acknowledges that the people whoare on the so-called front lines, the people putting themselves directly in harm’s way, those are the people perhaps most deserving of this top-up. Then you see disparity from one province to the next. For instance, Quebec grocery store workers, if they are making a relatively low income, they will be eligible for this, and in Ontario that’s not the case. Another big announcement this week, and one that the government has been – I think pretty roundly criticized for, earlier this week the announcement of $252 million forthe agricultural sector for farmers. We know that groups representingfarmers wanted a lot more money than that, $2.6 billion that they were looking for. The government has said that this week’s announcement was really just a first piece to tryto deal with some of the health and safety concerns, to try to get farmers access to money thatthey might need to get through, but really a very widely panned announcement by many in the agricultural sector who were hoping for more help.
Rosemary:
Catherine, thank you. The Prime Minister is emerging there in his Saturday outfit. Let’s listen to the Prime Minister of Canada now. [voice of interpreter]