Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
and his conversation last night with premiers on how Ottawa can help work with provinces to coordinate that and to do more of that. We know, of course, testing and tracing are so key when it comes to containing the spread of COVID-19, especially as you saw there with New Brunswick, as we start to reopen more and more of the economies every day. . I want to show you stats now, if can, that My producer Phil put together for me that really paint an important picture, I think, of what’s happening – what’s happening across the country in terms of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. So if you look at those statistics there, there are more than 1100 positive cases in Quebec and Ontario, in the whole rest of the country, just to give you a whole sense of this, there are 49 positive cases of COVID-19 in the whole rest of the country. Now, part of this is of course population size, the sheer size of the province. Part of it is also how testing has unfolded in Quebec and Ontario. So let me show you what that looks like. We’ll start in Quebec. Where the number of people tested on Tuesday – we’ll hear from Ontario. The number of people tested on Wednesday was just over 10, 500. The goal, remember, on a daily basis premier Doug ford has Saudis to be 20, 000. and 10, 000 was actually a high number for this week. Let me show you how they are doing in Quebec when it comes to testing in relation to what their goal is, closing in on 11, 500, and their goal there daily has been 14, 000 which they have not yet hit once. So those numbers are important so that we understand that, while some provinces are doing are ally good job at testing and tracing, and keeping their case count down, the provinces that still have the most cases and the most deaths are struggling with getting that testing and tracing numbers up. Remember that Quebec accounts for more than half of the cases in almost 60% of the deaths in this country. Mostly, of course, due to long-term care deaths. But still, this is a challenge that the Prime Minister wanted to speak to the premiers about yesterday. and I’ll bring in My colleagues, the host of power and politics, Vassy kapelos, and the cbc’s catherine cullen to help talk a little bit more about that. Those statistics, when you look at them and you see what the targets are and what they’re doing and how there has been even worse – much worse days inontario, before that, it does show, I think, in a really concrete way that things have toimprove, and that the federal government is willing to do whatever it takes to try to get these two big provinces at – where they need to be, essentially, Vassy.
I think it also raises questions for a number of people who live in both Ontario and Quebec about the roll-out plan or the phased-out approach to reopening the economy. In both provinces, it’s kicked off – and I’ll use a couple examples. Mayors patrick brown and bonnie crombie, both mayors of cities within the gta, where 60% of thecases in Ontario exist right now, have heard from their chiefpublic health official, who saysi’m not sure about the reopening, I think it’s going totoo quickly, seeing the spread of the virus in this region right now. The hardest part – or the biggest challenge that they haveis that Dr. David williams, for example, who heads up public health for Ontario, is admittingthat they aren’t able to at thispoint figure out the source of community spread. There still is community spread. It isn’t completely isolated to long-term care homes, for example, and they can’t figure out what the source of that spread is at this point. So these mayors are openly questioning whether things are going to too quickly because of what they’re hearing from their own regions, from public health officials there. Now, contrast that with premier stephen mcneil in Nova Scotia where there are far fewer cases, far less community spread, they have so far identified the majority of the sources of community spread. They still haven’t even broachedthe reopening of their economy. They don’t plan to do so until sometime in June. They haven’t even isolated a specific day, and the premier says they don’t want to open up and have to close down again. We have seen that happen to a certain degree in other jurisdictions, and I think that sort of underscores exactly whatyou laid out with those statistics. At the end of the day, there arenumbers, there are people, they also I think will inform the plans that provinces have to reopen, and I know there’s greateconomic pressure, particularly, of course, in Ontario andquebec, so there has been a lot of suffering economically since things shut down. The fear exists, and mayors are openly talking about it, that the speed at which this is happening right now could force things to get even worse in the future, and especially around that conversation, for example, where a second wave is concerned, that could be a particular concern in Ontario and Quebec as well. That’s where all this testing and tracing comes into play. My understanding is, based on the conversation that the premiers had with the Prime Minister, that the sort of tension points in the conversation exist primarily around Ontario and Quebec as well. It isn’t as much of an ask from other provinces, for example. The feds say we’ll bank roll it. They had a big conversation lastweek. Not a lot of plans put forward from provinces in the meantime. Now they have some idea of what provinces need, and primarily those are from provinces that are already doing a pretty good job of particularly testing, although tracing capability across the country needs to improve, but Ontario and Quebec continue to be pressure points in that discussion as well.
Suhana:
That’s a really good summary of where that’s at, particularly when, you know, you have the premier of Quebec being asked – well, listen, you’re not doing well. Why are you still moving forward with reopening parts of Montreal – the island of the Montreal, for instance? and he says, well, I’m a bit impatient about the testing, but it’s not clear to me why there is such impatience, Catherine, and I’ll bring you in, because we heard the same from the premier of Ontario, when there also seems to be a solution on the table. Maybe I’m misreading what the conversation is between the fed sand the provinces, but it seems like this is solvable, so I’m not really sure why we’re in this position in the two – in these two provinces.
Let’s talk about an a few things, perhaps first contrasting Ontario and Quebec. You’re right, Francois legault was saying I’m impatient to see more tests. At the same time he is bristinga bit at the criticism. He did say he feels the testing level right now is good, but it could be better. You saw the numbers, Quebec is few thousands tests per day from where it would like to be, as opposed to Ontario, where the latest numbers were at half. Doug ford, you have him bang this is drum week after week, obsessed with testing, I’m going to be an 800-pound gorilla on the backs of these officials trying to get this done so why are we not seeing higher numbers? I was speaking to Dr. Isaac bog och yesterday, infectious disease expert in Toronto, he said there are a few factors here, and that’s something that Quebec acknowledges as well in terms of why this testing isn’t happening. Part of it is equipment, that there are still some shortfalls, and we see this in the discussion between the Prime Minister and the premiers, that part of what is on offer is lab capacity, the physical equipment, also personnel when it comes to things like contact tracing and whatnot, just the stuff to get this done, the other half of the equation, though, is getting people out to be tested. Dr. Bog och said perhaps it’s not clear to people at this time that they can go out and get tested, certainly in the beginning of the pandemic, the opening weeks. There were stricter criteria about who could be tested, people didn’t necessarily know that they could get a test, so he really encourages broad communication that people can betested, Doug ford going a bit further than that and saying we have to go out and start testing. He talked yesterday about the prospect of random testing, about testing in particular neighbourhoods where there are hot spots, limo drivers, umber drivers, people in the food services sector, people in the auto sector. He has told officials he wants to see a new plan, he’s promising to folks there will be something coming on testing as of about Monday, but certainly he’s pitching something much broader. Federal officials are saying across the country, we heard it from the Prime Minister yesterday, financial concerns, logistical concerns, he this should not be what’s driving this. This is a major priority and the federal government and it sounds like really all officials who are getting through the cameras and talking about this want everyone to do better.
Rosemary:
Really interesting context there as well. I’m going to leave you both for just a moment, if you don’t mind. We are expecting the Prime Minister as well to highlight some of the aid packages that have been put forward for the government, and of course we know there are many businesses that have been hurting during the pandemic. One of them is on lied by our next guest, mike moderos. He’s a mushroom farmer and joins me from Osgood, a rural part of Ontario. Hi, mike, how are you doing. Mark, sorry.
Hey, and yourself? mike.
Rosemary:
Sorry, it said one thing before and one thing after. I thought I would see you outside with the mushrooms, mike, but you’re inside. Tell me what has happened to your production since this began.
So once the restaurants were all closed down, that was basically 40% of our production. So with the mushroom industry, you’re 7 weeks before you can make change. They say 7 weeks of production before you can start cutting back or making changes, necessary changes. So once that happened, we have to find new homes for all the products that we’re producing, which was very tough. They gave a lot of mushrooming away for soup kitchens, food banks in Ottawa and Montreal to help off set the loss. Some of the rooms on the second flush we weren’t able to harvestit. We had to basically get rid of it. So we put in extra production in our fridge. Now what’s happened is the retail sector has picked up and has helped a lot, so more people are cooking at home, which you can see that on people tweeting and on Facebook, they’re cookingmore, they’re making pizzas and what not, but a lot more mushrooms being concerned retail wise now. The problem with that, your packaging is totally different, you’re basically harvesting all the mushrooms in small packages, 8-ounce packages, versus a five-pound box which was going towards the restaurants. So now our harvesting days are alot longer, packaging is a lot longer, we’re finishing later, we need more staff, we’re a little short staffed right now, we’re scared, we have implemented a lot of new changesaround the farm to keep everyonesafe. But it’s frustrating and it’s stressful, actually.
Rosemary:
I would imagine. You’ve adapted in some ways but you said you had to – you said get rid of tp. I imagine you were dumping some of your produce. Was that the case? there was no where to put it
So basically the last three, four days of harvesting, we would harvest some of those rooms, and when the compost goes out to be composted for mushroom compost or gardens or whatnots, the product wasn’t harvested. We got rid of it that way, unfortunately.
Rosemary:
How much did you lose there, mike?
We had a few weeks where we were upwards of 20, 000 pounds a week.
Rosemary:
Which would be what in dollars for you?
Just over $40, 000 a week.
That’s a lot. The government has obviously put forward a bunch of money for farmers and producers, $250 million, if I’m not mistaken. What – have you been able to tap into any aid? has any of the government’s move helped you in any way?
No. There hasn’t been anything to basically help the mushroom sector. Basically the Canadian federation of agriculture was asked for $2.6 billion to help the Ag food sector. Across Canada. and secure our food supply in Canada. and 252 million basically falls very short of what was needed. and so for our industry, we haven’t been able to tap into any funds to help out. a lot of farms, which I basically talked to have extra housing costs, transportation costs, to house their workers, and so none of that they were able to recoup. Basically it’s our margins have eroded.
Rosemary:
I understand there was a desire for more. The Prime Minister did make it pretty clear that more was forthcoming, that he realized this is a first attempt. Some of the things you mentionedthere, though, sounds like the government had put forward in that initial package, there was going to be help if you needed to buy more fridges or you needed to help change the way you’re working so that workers feel safe. Have you done any of those things yet?
Some of the farms I’ve talkedto, they rented more hotel space and whatnot in the rural areas, to house the workers to segregate them basically, more spacing. The funding that the government put out was for new workers coming into the country. It’s not helping the workers that are already here. Some of the farms that are social distancing amongst the houses that they have for their workers is not allowed in that funding.
Rosemary:
Mike, how are you feeling about the future?
It’s scary. Like, you know, you have about just over 100 staff, and every day we try to keep everyone safe. So we’re taking temperatures, we’re sanitizing more, just going around the farm. I’m looking at a thermal imaging unit to put on My farm as well. It’s scary. You don’t want anyone to get sick. and I know what we’ve done has helped. If I look back to last year, February, March, April, I have no staff this year that’s sick with the flu or cold. Where last year I was missing staff with flu and cold. So we know what we’re doing is working. It’s helping. But it’s scary. You know, you go home at night, and you – you want your family to stay safe. So – and you want your team to be safe. So it’s scary.
Rosemary:
Mike, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. I realize it’s a stressful time for many people. I hope that things improve for you and stay safe.
Thank you.
Rosemary:
Nice to meet you. That’s mike medeiros, he’s a mushroom farmer just outside of Ottawa. While we wait, as you can see there they’re setting up the podium for the Prime Minister outside of Rideau coltage. He is expected today earlier than usual, at 10:30 eastern, and we are expecting him to talk little bit more about what we were discussing earlier, testing and contact tracing, something that he did discuss with the premiers last night. But as we wait, I want to bring in another guest, if I can. This is bill black. He’s a veteran, one of the 26, 000 Canadians who served in the Korean war 70 years ago. It’s often called Canada’s forgotten war, but we are coming up on the 70th anniversary of the beginning of that war. and the republic of Korea found a way to thank Canadian vets for their contribution. Namely, by sending masks to Korean vets around the world. Bill, nice to see you. You got all dressed up for me. I appreciate that, sir.
Well, thank you. I thought I better show off My green jacket. So many of our veterans wear them in the association.
Rosemary:
Yes, indeed, and I appreciate it. I must say, I heard you on the radio with My friend robin earlier this week, and I found your conversation so touching, and what the Korean government did also so touching. Tell me how you felt about this donation of masks. I know there was a ceremony yesterday.
Well, we heard about it on the 23rd of April at the battle of kapyong ceremony, when the ambassador and the defence attache asked me whether we thought that masks would be appropriate for our veterans, and I said absolutely. and I was quite thrilled to hear that south Korea, unable to commemorate and hold a reception in June have now delivered another method of paying their tribute to our Canadian soldiers of the Korean war. and yesterday, at the embassy, we had a short reception, and received four large boxes of these – I don’t know if you can see them or not – these wonderful masks that will be distributed across Canada to theconsulate, the Korean consulates in Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. and of course yesterday they provided me with 2, 835 for our Korean veterans in the city of Ottawa.
Rosemary:
That’s great. and they did send a million around the world to other vets in other countries, to people that contributed to the Korean war. What did that mean to you, that, you know, Korea – understanding that you can’t have the events that were planned, but that they wanted to reach out at a time when everyone is sort of dealing with the stress of this. What did it mean to you?
I think it’s a wonderful gesture and very meaningful, and means that our veterans will be able to be a little more mobile. a lot of them do not have masks. and they’re always now concerned about getting out in the public. So when they go shopping, to thebank, or around the neighbourhoods, now that things are opening up again, they will have not only the comfort of wearing these masks, but the comfort of knowing where they came from. It will stir their memories, as it has stirred mine.
Rosemary:
Tell me in what way it has stirred your memories of your time serving in that war?
Well, to begin with, we had not in Korea after the war, we all went on to different walks of- ; however, I stayed in the military for 35 years, and I was always an acquaintance with many of the veterans from the Korean war in the navy. So when they come up with the idea of having an association 40years ago, I joined, and it is very meaningful to know that Korea has also remembered all of the veterans across the world. The soldiers who served men and women who served in Korea and they began inviting the Canadians and the other countries veterans and their families to visit Korea.
and these visits were paid for by the Korean government. The patriot’s ministry, patriot sand veterans affairs Korea. But of course all of the Korean young men served in the military, so they have one of the largest military services in the world. So we’ve been connecting with them for the last 40 years.
Rosemary:
Amazing. and they still think about what you did to help them and obviously are still very grateful och . I know, Mr. Black, the average age of Korean vets is about 88 right now. Obviously that means that many of the Korean vets in this country and elsewhere are sort of part of the vulnerable population that could get COVID-19. is that a concern to you, that many of your friends or veterans that you know might fall ill?
Many have. But if we have in your unit herein Ottawa 20 years ago, around 240 residents and they’re down to 80 now. Many have passed away, attended many of the funerals. Sadly, and the interesting thing is that, for all of thesoldiers, veterans who have passed away, the Korean embassy have also attended these funerals, and dlifd their condolences to the families. So the connection is probably one of the greatest in the world from the point of view of remembering those who served to save Korea.
Rosemary:
That’s very nice tohear. You know, one of the things the Prime Minister has said about this pandemic, about COVID-19 since the beginning, is that we should all serve our country in the same way that you and your friends and your colleagues did. and obviously it’s a much easier service that we have today, just stay home, stay safe, wash our hands. When you hear the prime minister making that comparison and calling people to service that different way, what do you think of that?
To serve in a different way in what respect, I might ask?
Rosemary:
I mean in terms of just protecting one another by staying home and staying safe and staying 2 meters apart.
Oh, absolutely. That is the paramount, if we wish to remain safe. and I hope all of our veterans are abiding by those very important regulations about the distancing and remembering to wash their hands, ET cetera. That’s absolutely essential. and I hope all our veterans are obeying those regulations, if I may. We lost another veteran at the veterans health centre. That’s similar to the veterans hospital in Toronto. and I don’t know whether he passed away from COVID-19. I never enquired. Nonetheless, two days ago, he passed away. Of course we cannot attend any funerals, which is rather heart-breaking to note that we can’t present their families andoffer our condolences in person. So I hope everybody follows the rules, regulations, and we get over this crisis of COVID-19 as quickly as possible.
Rosemary:
I do too. Bill black, it was very nice to meet you. Thank you for making the time for us today, sir, and I do appreciate you putting the uniform on too.
Well, thank you very much. I enjoyed speaking with you, andtoronto is My hometown. I was born there. So I still have a love for Toronto.
Rosemary:
Very good. Well, you look like a million bucks. Mr. Black, thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Thank you from the bottom of My heart. Bye.
Rosemary:
All right. Stay safe. That’s bill black. He’s a Canadian veteran who served in the Korean war, as we’re talking about there. South Korea sent a million masks to Korean war vets around the world who participated in that war, including Mr. Black there, who was at a ceremony yesterday at the embassy. Okay, we’re just a few minutes away from the Prime Minister coming out of his front door there at Rideau cottage. a little earlier than usual, at 10:30 eastern. He also has a cabinet meeting later today and call I think related to the united nations bid that the government is continuing to push forward on. The vote is sometime later in June, I believe, and Canada’s still hoping to get a seat at the security council. I’ll bring in Vassy kapelos and the cbc’s Catherine Cullen. Love meeting regular people, experiencing different ways and different things through this, including bill black, who’s been through a lot already in his late 80s and is still, a, able to use Skype and get dressed up for us in the morning. That’s great to see he’s doing very well.
we are expecting obviously to hear the Prime Minister talk about testing and tracing, Vassy. But I wonder whether – I don’t think he will weigh in on this, but on your point that we started off with, the fact that there are questions now about whether things are happening too quickly and how far the Prime Minister can go down that road if this was an actual concern for him or if it’s something that he raised with premiers last night.
Yeah, I think your wager is probably a safe one. In nearly every instance that he’s been asked that type of question, anything that would almost be – render a judgment on something that is provincial jurisdiction, he’s very, very careful not to. Most federal politicians are. But I think the question is likely one that could be put to him just because there are so many people who live in both Ontario and Quebec and to My earlier opponent, not just those of us talking amongst ourselves, but actually political representatives of some of the regions that have been hit the hard issik within those province are raising those kinds of questions. It’s a fair question to put to the federal government. They are investing money. They are bank rolling the idea of increasing capacity. I think I’ll be looking for some more specifics on what exactly that means from the Prime Minister, especially where contact tracing is concerned. There’s a whole talk where you were talking about it yesterday, you had a guest around what app scan be used, does it have to be more universal, is the federal government going to be driving that boat, and if so, how do we plan on doing it? if they are bank rolling it, to what end. Especially in Ontario and Quebec, what does that mean? what have the provinces specifically asked for? what can the federal government provide, and what remains in themiddle? and how long are re looking at? there are all capacity questions, and how can capacity be ramp ed up? what I’ve heard from a number of infectious disease specialists as well, particularly in ontarioand Quebec, the criteria for getting tested was far – was far slower to expand versus other provinces. In Alberta, for about a month, if I was asymptomatic or just have any kind of symptom, I can probably get a test. More people in Ontario were told by their doctors, unless you’ve travelled or worked in a long-term care home, you probably won’t get a test and that only changed a few weeks ago. Even from a mental standpoint oftrying to get used to that idea, saying I feel fine, I can get tested, we’re away far away fromthat in Ontario and Quebec and that contributes to the capacityissues.
I would add quickly too if we have a moment, rosemary, the relevance for the folks outside of Ontario and Quebec, we’ve made the point of that being the majority of cases, but the Prime Minister said yesterday this is also this broader effort, he called it a national framework on test an ding tracing. It’s also about the second wave. He said yesterday this is about being able to respond virtually immediately when cases do start to swell up, and that is going to happen, everyone believes, indifferent locations across the country going forward.
That’s right. and I should point out too the conversation around apps, I knowthere’s different conversations in different provinces around apps to use, around the benefit also of human contact tracing, which I don’t think anyone thinks is a replacement for an app, but apple and google have put together this contact tracing platform where they will provide some of the data that people who use their phones, but they will only provide it to one app per country. So Canada has not reached an agreement with them right now, but it’s because they don’t want the data spread out across multiple apps in one country, and so I think there’s also some questions around the urgency to come to an agreement on an app that would be used nationally or if that’s something that they particularly care about or if that’s something, you know, is this data that apple and google are providing of use, do they have to find a way to coordinatethat, those are all the questions that I don’t think have been resolved. I don’t think they’ve been resolved after the conversation last night, but if have a different – this is our two-minute warning there. That’s how we get it. Just in case you didn’t know. I wondering how that’s going to be managed and negotiated too, because every province has a different takes, even on how they want to do contact tracing, Vassy.
and actually re already see evidence of that. For example, for a number of weeks in Alberta, they’ve been using an app. In British Columbia, there’s an app to a certain degree, but the premier said I don’t want ankle bracelets or anything to that effect. There are already provincial approaches es to this, and a federal one, a coordinated approach is necessary, or if only one app can be used across the country at some point, if the discussion arrives at that point, we’re kind of already playing catch-up, right? there’s already some discrepancies within the country, and I think that the idea of a federal – a federal mandate or some level of federalcoordination is of utmost importance at this juncture, right? because as catherine puts it, the second wave is not just a concern in Ontario and Quebec. It’s going to be a concern rightacross the country. You hope by that point – I mean, look what happened in south korea, right? they were able to identify and test the thousand people, find out 100 positive people – like, over 24 hours, and they had madedecisions about what they neededto close, where they needed to close it, it was a very targeted, and that’s what increased testing and increased contact tracing does. It allows you to – when the inevitable second wave hits, to be able to target the response rather than a blanket shutdown of the economy once again. So in addressing concerns aroundthe economy, which of course were spornt right now, it goes hand in hand, but it’s not just about public health, it’s about being able to shut down parts ofthe economy or areas geographically instead of a blanket shutdown we’ve already experienced and is already so devastating.
Rosemary:
The shutdown, it’s worth reminding people, was not only to flatten the curve which we largely have and allow the health care system to have the capacity in case there was a surge, but it’s also to buy us some time to prepare for what was going to come next, that’s ramping up how much Poe we’re going to get, the number of ventilators we’re still procuring but also getting these things in place so if something happens, Dr. Tam talks often about the spark, if you a spark, you can go in, test and contact trace and shut down very quickly instead of having to go into a 10-week lock down as we have. Here comes the Prime Minister ofcanada. Talk to both of you in just a moment. For now on this Friday, the Prime Minister of Canada.