The Canada Revenue Agency last week received $7.6 billion in claims for relief cheques by self-employed and other uninsured workers suffering income loss due to the pandemic. “We know how very honest Canadians are,” said Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.
The recession is so stark and sudden a business counselling hotline is taking suicide calls from shopkeepers, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Parliament meets Saturday to pass a $73 billion payroll rebate bill that comes too late for thousands facing ruin, MPs were told: “I can’t underscore enough just how dark and dangerous these days are.”
The federal deficit has catapulted to $184 billion, more than triple the previous record. The budget shortfall is equal to 112 percent of all personal taxes paid to the national treasury last year: “The long-term effects of this are going to be very serious.”
Shipping sixteen tonnes of pandemic supplies to China in February was not the “best decision”, the Canadian Public Health Association said yesterday. Witnesses told the Commons health committee that federal regulators’ failure to stock up on masks, gloves and medical apparel was reckless: “The national emergency stockpile is probably the largest failure.”
Economic turmoil will continue into 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Job losses for March alone totaled 1,010,700 with millions more working reduced hours: “It could be in a year, a year and a half.”
About 11,000 Canadians may die of Covid-19, twice the average fatality rate from influenza despite “stronger epidemic controls” including travel bans and workplace shutdowns, the Public Health Agency said yesterday. The forecast confirmed figures detailed in a pandemic master plan reported March 18.
The value of new building permits collapsed 23 percent last month, a decline close to the crash of 1930. “We need to prevent that recession from becoming a depression,” Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos yesterday told reporters.
A federal medical officer yesterday acknowledged a “dire” shortage of pandemic supplies. The admission came eight weeks after the Department of Foreign Affairs shipped sixteen tonnes of supplies to China: “They may only have a couple of days left in some of their acute care hospitals.”
Hotelkeepers require 100 percent federal loan guarantees to survive the pandemic, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. One MP whose riding includes the most visited national park said local unemployment is near 85 percent: “Most hotels in Canada today are closed.”
Cabinet for a third time in two weeks yesterday rewrote a pandemic relief bill for employers, increasing the cost by $2 billion. Opposition MPs called it an “administrative nightmare” that could have been avoided with immediate tax rebates: “Not a single penny has moved.”
MPs will choose which local employers win 100 percent wage rebates for hiring students under the Canada Summer Jobs program, cabinet said yesterday. The Ethics Commissioner has already cautioned against sweetheart subsidies for friends and family: “If you do so, you may be in contravention.”
The $675 million-a year Public Health Agency of Canada was “caught flat-footed” by Covid-19 though it was created by Parliament for pandemic preparedness, the Canadian Medical Association said yesterday. Doctors confirmed medical supplies have been rationed after the Agency ignored repeated warnings to stock up: “They feel betrayed.”
Doctors and nurses yesterday appealed to the Commons health committee to have Parliament invoke the Emergencies Act. Only extraordinary federal powers can stem the tide of Covid-19, MPs were told: “A national crisis requires national leadership.”
Parks Canada has fallen $134 million behind in necessary repairs to national historic sites, says an internal report. The agency previously failed three federal audits in sixteen years for inadequate care of heritage properties including replacement of vandalized plaques: “There is very little in here for anybody in management to be proud of.”
A fifth of the Senate yesterday petitioned cabinet for subsidies to encourage jobless students to work on the farms this spring. The Department of Health has acknowledged it worries about “food security” due to shortages of migrant labour: “Students should learn more about the nature of agricultural work.”
