Hello,
The Bank of Canada says the country’s economy will be able to find its way out of the COVID-19 crater...eventually.
The bank released a new fiscal projection this morning that pegs the economic devastation of the pandemic at a 15-per-cent drop in this year’s second quarter. The bank says Canada’s economy will be able to recover about halfway back to previous levels by the end of this year. However, it expects the physical-distancing measures that have constrained businesses could continue into 2022.
“Many workers and businesses can expect to face an extended period of difficulty,” the bank’s Monetary Policy Report said.
What will the government do if the economy remains anemic for months or years? Senators on the national finance committee say it’s time for the country to institute a universal basic income.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
After Britain banned Huawei from the country’s 5G mobile network, Canada is now the only country to not have a ban or restriction in place on the Chinese telecom giant. A source tells The Globe that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is not expected to make a decision on Huawei any time soon, and that the matter hasn’t come up for discussion in months.
The U.S. recently imposed Magnitsky-style sanctions on senior Chinese Communist Party officials, and Canada is under pressure to do the same. Bob Rae, Canada’s incoming ambassador to the United Nations, said such a move could have consequences on Canada’s relations with China.
A woman has alleged online that Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet sexually assaulted her while he worked as a manager in the music industry. Mr. Blanchet said in a statement that he denies the allegations.
And as Ontario prepares to open bars on Friday, experts are warning that recent resurgences of the novel coronavirus are coming from drinking establishments. “We’re letting our guard down,” said Leighanne Parkes, an infectious-disease specialist at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the future of emergency benefits and employment insurance: “CERB is available to people who left work for a variety of reasons – like having to take care of a child at home. EI isn’t. Will EI be available to people who can’t get child care, and if so, will it stay that way when the pandemic ends?”
Shannon Maree Torrens (The Globe and Mail) on investigations into the source of the novel coronavirus: “People are still dying from COVID-19 around the world, and there’s still so much we do not know about the nature and origins of the novel coronavirus. As the pandemic rages on, we should be focusing on transparent, international collaboration in pursuing a cure and a vaccine in concert with China, which would bring far more benefit to the entire world than an exercise in antagonistically apportioning blame. If we are to ostracize China and reject constructive engagement now, it will only extend the pandemic. This is not naive; it is pragmatic.”
Raywat Deonandan (Ottawa Citizen) on mandatory mask-wearing: “Smoking rates did not drop until smoking bans were enacted. Seat belt usage did not exceed 50 per cent in Canada until it was made mandatory in the 1970s. Enormous fines are still needed to prevent some drivers from making highways dangerous for everyone else. We have a poor track record of “‘doing the right thing.‘”
John Michael McGrath (TVO) on the reopening of bars and restaurants: “Parents don’t get to opt out of parenting, and we don’t get to raise our children over Zoom. If the schools aren’t open in September, the likely alternative is not another semester, or schoolyear, of muddling through. It’s that parents — in most cases, mothers — will drop out of the workforce to care for their children. Whatever economic recovery the government tries to nurture through the rest of the year could evaporate as household budgets take a massive hit and consumer spending drops with it.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on the WE Charity debacle: “In fairness, who knew it was wrong to award a nearly billion-dollar no-bid public contract to the organization that hired your mom?”
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Chris Hannay