Roundup: A bridge loan, not a bailout

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It was a bit of a staggered rollout of the message of the day, starting with Bill Morneau and Navdeep Bains in Toronto to announce the creation of the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), which is designed to give large employers temporary bridge financing if they can’t get it by other means, but that comes with a great many strings attached, such as ensuring that jobs and collective agreements are maintained, that climate change plans are not affected, and that there are limits to executive compensation, share buybacks, dividends, and on top of that, these companies will need to disclose their financial structures to ensure that they’re not avoiding taxes with offshore banks or shelters.

Justin Trudeau was up shortly thereafter for his daily presser, noting the start of National Nursing Week, before he spoke about enhanced measures for medium-sized businesses, and then reiterated the messages around the LEEFF, citing that these were bridge loans and not bail-outs, and that the government was only to be a lender of last resort. When asked whether this was some kind of attack on oil companies with the focus on environmental plans, Trudeau insisted that many of them had net-zero-by-2050 plans, so this condition should not have been more onerous on them – but that didn’t stop the usual suspects from complaining that this wasn’t the kind of help that the energy sector was looking for.

During the ministerial presser, Chrystia Freeland said that they working with the US to deal with the inevitable increase in cross-border traffic as economies started re-opening, as premiers express reservations around the possibility of visitors once again coming to Canada.

Meanwhile, here’s economist Kevin Milligan on the path of the labour market and the economy, that’s worth thinking about.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1259641163989970945

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1259641908436930560

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1259642852260278272

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1259644740460404736

Good reads:

  • Carla Qualtrough says the government is considering a training programme for unemployed people who want to work in long term care facilities.
  • Federal food inspectors are being told they’ll face sanction if they refuse to work at the meat plants that have seen COVID-19 outbreaks.
  • The Canadian Forces are postponing and curtailing several overseas missions because of the global pandemic.
  • Here is more about the acoustic shock symptoms suffered by interpreters on Parliament Hill, that the “virtual” meetings have exacerbated.
  • The CRA says it has identified some $4.4 billion in taxes that companies and individuals have avoided (but identification is a long way from collection).
  • The federal veterans ombudsman is leaving the job after 18 months (but it seems to be amicable).
  • The proposed MOU with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs has the elected chiefs up in arms, and they’re now calling for Carolyn Bennett’s resignation.
  • A few legal groups are looking to challenge some of the lockdown measures, particularly restrictions on travelling between certain provinces.
  • The Liberals are debating whether or not to use the same protected nomination rules as they did in the previous election. (Protected nominations are a bad thing).
  • Andrew Scheer says he’s concerned that the Commissioner of Elections is investigating an anti-abortion group, insinuating it’s a partisan attack.
  • Dominique Anglade has been acclaimed the new leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, making her the first Black woman to lead a party in the province.
  • Doug Ford admitted his family broke physical distancing rules when his daughters came over for the weekend (without their husbands or boyfriends).
  • Maclean’s profiles how BC flattened its curve fairly aggressively.
  • Susan Delacourt makes note of Justin Trudeau wearing a mask last week versus Donald Trump who eschews them, and tries to discern a deeper meaning.
  • Paul Wells finds a paper on pandemic preparedness Dr. Theresa Tam wrote just before the current crisis hit, and looks to what she had to say in it.
  • Colby Cosh delves into the curious data regarding smokers and COVID-19.

Odds and ends:

My latest Loonie Politics video looks at the current drama in the Senate with Senator Bovey’s defection, and what it could signal in the near future.

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