This morning’s presser from prime minister Justin Trudeau was largely focused on the domestic production of personal protective equipment, with 5000 companies having stepped forward to help, and letters of intent signed with partners to produce new supplies, which includes up to 30,000 new ventilators as well as other necessary supplies. He also mentioned that the proposed legislation on the wage subsidy was in the hands of the opposition to help negotiate swift passage (something which is outside of parliamentary norms), and because much of that subsidy is embedded in the Income Tax Act, it will require parliamentary approval (but I’m guessing that Parliament won’t be recalled until after Easter at this point, given that they need 48 hours’ notice). During the Q&A portion, Trudeau said that some of those ventilators could be for export if we have more than we wind up needing, but better to plan for the worst. He also said that they recognize that the banks could be doing more during this particular point in time, and they were looking at ways to get them to step up. When asked to weigh in on the mask debate, he again tried not to but then coined the phrase “speaking moistly,” and well, that turned into a meme. So that happened.

Meanwhile, as my reply column turned into another argument of “Why can’t the government just send everyone a cheque?!” here’s Kevin Milligan to disabuse you of that notion, with a couple of other reminders from Jennifer Robson.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247675121113821184

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247677279997591554

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247678433347264513

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247680977440104448

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247686764099022849

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247687814063329280

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247690939390255107

See, for example, the US IRS effort to pay a one-time crisis payment. Just 60M of 147 million tax-payers will get their cheque ASAP. Many more will wait weeks, or even until September.

— Dr. J Robson (@JenniferRobson8) April 7, 2020

Good reads:

• Over Monday and Tuesday, nearly 1.5 million Canadians have applied for the CERB.
• Over a thousand pages of documents on the early days of the pandemic were tabled at the Health Committee, which are summarized here.
• Cyber-security experts are warning that with so many public servants working from home, the government has never been more vulnerable to cyber threats.
• Here is a look at how courts are trying to deal with the pandemic, with virtual bail hearings and release plans and house arrest instead of remand.
• Quebec released some of their pandemic modelling, as far as the end of April.
• Alberta also released its models, and a “relaunch strategy” for the economy.
• While Alberta waits to upload their economic rescue to the federal government, tech companies are looking to bail as the province focuses solely on oil and gas.
• Paul Wells reflects on the “rough optimism” of the Quebec models.
• Colby Cosh returns to the mask debate and the guesswork that lies behind it.
• My column looks at the Samara Canada report on our emergency legislation, where our parliament went wrong, and where Samara counted the wrong things.

Hey tweeps! Want to read #UnbrokenMachine while you’re social distancing? Here’s your chance to get it at 25% off. https://t.co/PpC4ovVe7S

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 23, 2020

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