Roundup: Expanded help, pending the provinces

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For his daily presser, prime minister Justin Trudeau opened by talking about his meeting with G7 leaders, talking about the need for a global response to a global pandemic, and the need to help more vulnerable nations – leaving it unspoken that it will be harder to do that if the WHOs funding takes a big hit thanks to Trump’s conspiracy theorism around it. He mentioned his upcoming meeting with the premiers, and noted that Quebec had made an official request for assistance with its long-term care workers – and while many reporters wanted details on what exactly the ask was, the response through the day was that it came late the night before and they were still talking with the province about how best to support them (though the theme seems to be that they want the army to help with these long-term care facilities – something they may have some ability to help with). Trudeau also noted that when things weren’t going as well as hoped, “we make changes,” and then announced that they were expanding the eligibility for the Canada Emergency Business Accounts, as well as gave a few more details about the planned Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, which would provide loans (some of them forgivable) to commercial property owners on the condition that they provide rent reductions to commercial tenants in May and June – though the coordination of this is still happening with the provinces.

One thing that did emerge, both in the Q&A with Trudeau and during the ministerial one that followed, were questions relating to the modelling of the pandemic, and how we’ve had nearly twice as many deaths as projected by this point, prompting questions about what went wrong with the models. And my head exploded. These models were not predictions or forecasts – they’re an exercise to help with resource planning, which has been stated over and over again, and yet we had more than one journalist try and treat these models as credible data. And because these reporters been told time and again that they’re not data, they’re not forecasts, they’re planning tools, and the fact that this doesn’t sink in, is crazy-making.

Meanwhile, here’s economist Kevin Milligan’s evaluation of the Conservative demand for a GST rebate, which is harder than it looks, and probably not as helpful as the Conservatives think it would be.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1250802992565022720

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1250804375259246592

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1250805682078543873

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1250807414795849728

Good reads:

  • It seems that people who applied for the CERB for the first four weeks will need to re-apply if they wish to keep getting the payments.
  • Applications for the wage subsidy programme are set to open April 27th.
  • Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz told the Commons finance committee that we were economically prepared for this crisis, and should recover quickly.
  • François-Philippe Champagne and the Ukrainian government are giving a big hell no to reports Iran is trying to secure immunity from prosecution for downing PS752.
  • Canadian Rangers – mostly reservists – are being tasked with providing assistance to northern communities during the pandemic.
  • There are challenges to meat processing in this country, and one plant has seen a spike in COVID-19 infections (but it’s not food-borne, so at least there’s that).
  • Apparently, farmers groups are threatening not to plant this year unless they have fiscal reassurances from the government.
  • Here is another illustration of how the sudden closure of so many restaurants is affecting food producers in the country.
  • Here’s a look at how a planned private purchase of masks from China wound up being hijacked on the tarmac when they were suddenly “outbid.”
  • Out of an abundance of caution, Elections Canada is figuring out how to run an election in current pandemic conditions – just in case.
  • Renovations in Centre Block are ongoing despite the lockdown for most people.
  • Colby Cosh delves into how Sweden has been dealing with (or not) with its COVID-19 infections, including the apparently willingness to write off their deaths.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at some of the evolving language being used to describe the current pandemic situation.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Expanded help, pending the provinces”

  1. Trump’s desire to open the country’s businesses may have a benefit unlooked for by the stable genius. By doing so, the woefully inadequate regime of testing and control in the US will inevitably cause a second wave of infection that will, based upon what we see now, create 60 to 70 percent unemployment, a complete breakdown of the ability of hospitals to care for victims and a severe lack of foodstuffs for a long time period. Also the return of Americans to their churches to pray for salvation will further spread the virus. Needless to say, Trump’s actions will be the beginning of a transformation of the US from revolution and civil war. I doubt that Trump will stick around long.

  2. I want to see a model for how quickly it takes Andrew Scheer and the rest of the hypocritical, Trumpian FIPACons to devolve into racist conspiracy theories about Dr. Tam putting Huawei 5G tracking chips in Bill Gates’ “Covid-1984” vaccine. Next coordinated message on social media: “Justin Trudeau hugged panda bears! He must be an asymptomatic carrier of the bamboo flu!” Someone send them a message from the gospel of Paul and John: If you go tweeting out pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.

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