With more attention turning to what’s happening around COVID-19, prime minister Justin Trudeau has created a new Cabinet committee to handle the situation, and he’s put Chrystia Freeland in charge of it. An important addition to the committee is Kirsty Duncan, who may no longer be in Cabinet but is nevertheless sworn in as a privy councillor, and the fact that she has expertise in pandemics and once studied the Spanish Flu epidemic, so chalk one up for bench strength there. Freeland says the response has to be both “whole of government” and “whole of country,” and her role as intergovernmental affairs minister is certainly part of that – given that provinces deliver healthcare for the bulk of the country – but one suspects this is also about having a reassuring communicator on the issue (because as we all know, this government can’t communicate its way out of a wet paper bag).

To that end, while certain opposition voices are demanding travel restrictions (which are proven not to work) or enhanced screening measures at airports, what we’re hearing from the health minister and the Chief Public Health Officer is largely that containment can only delay an outbreak – which is not a bad thing, because if it can be delayed by six weeks or so, that would get our healthcare system past peak flu season, which frees up beds and resources. And thus far, we have been lucky that all of the cases in this country can be traced to travel-related causes and not community transmission, which means that the measures taken to date have been working, but again, delay is the watchword. It should also be noted that we have largely avoided panic, which is pretty good (torqued headlines about demanding people start stockpiling notwithstanding).

With that in mind, the military has been ordered to being pre-pandemic planning out of an abundance of caution, given that they need to be able to continue to operate in the case of a crisis.

People should listen carefully to what the CDS said:

This is an anticipatory activity to ensure the CAF is ready BUT NOT an indicator of what "will" happen let alone "is happening"

This is what great militaries do: Plan and Prepare absent an actual demand signal https://t.co/aXct2PpDnd

— D. Michael Day (@DMike_Day) March 5, 2020

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says that the government is considering “contingency measures” to deal with the economic fallout of COVID-19 and its impact on supply chains.
• The person that Trudeau recruited to run his “deliverology” in the Privy Council Office is returning to academia after four years.
• The RCMP claims it was an “error on their part” when they denied they were using facial recognition technology when they had been for months.
• Veterans Affairs admits that access to provincial healthcare for veterans and their families can be “disjointed and irregular,” depending on where they are.
• It turns out that all of those claims about LNG displacing coal emissions were based on “theoretical calculations” from an industry insider who was quoted selectively.
• Surprising nobody, oil companies – including Coastal GasLink – were funding astroturf campaigns and Facebook ads to denounce the protest blockades.
• Here’s a look at how the price of oil is plummeting because of COVID-19, and how that is impacting Alberta’s economy.
• The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an attempt by airlines to halt the implementation of the passenger bill of rights until they can appeal its regulations.
• The Star gives a good summation of the Conservative leadership candidates.
• Leadership candidate Jim Karahalios thinks that “drill, drill, drill” and calling Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole “Red Tories” is his ticket to victory.
• Kevin Carmichael parses the signals from the Bank of Canada as they cut their rates by 50 basis points to match the US Federal Reserve cut.
• Carmichael also looks at the need for fiscal policy measures to offset any economic impacts of COVID-19, not just central banks, and it sounds like Trudeau is listening.
• Susan Delacourt speculates that Trudeau may prefer Biden over Sanders as the Democratic nominee, as he is more likely to have a “bromance” with the former.
• Terry Glavin offers a reminder about reconciliation is about, and why Aboriginal law in the constitution matters, and what rights we are talking about.

Odds and ends:

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