The federal government is considering more severe measures to enforce physical distancing and necessary self-isolation in Canada.
Addressing media from outside Rideau Cottage where he remains in self-isolation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday scolded Canadians who are not following the directives of public-health officials — staying two metres away from anyone else, avoiding groups and only going out for necessary reasons.
“We’ve all seen the pictures online of people who seem to think they’re invincible. Well, you’re not. Enough is enough. Go home and stay home. This is what we all need to be doing,” he said. “We’re going to make sure this happens, whether by educating people more on the risks or by enforcing the rules if that’s needed. Nothing that could help is off the table.”
Trudeau was to meet with the premiers via teleconference on Monday to discuss ways to improve messaging to Canadians and to co-ordinate how to ensure Canadians follow the rules. Many provinces have declared states of emergency and restricted border traffic, and Quebec and Ontario have mandated the closure of all non-essential businesses.
“We will look at different measures that could be necessary to enforce these rules,” he said. “We’d rather not and we know that millions of Canadians are doing their part, but those who are not doing their part are putting at risk everyone else, including the eventual recovery of our economy and the well-being of millions of Canadians.”
“There are a number of ways quarantine orders can be enforced. Those could include random inspections (and) those could include hotlines.”
-Health Minister Patty Hajdu
One measure under consideration is bringing in the federal Emergencies Act, but Trudeau said that depends on whether the act can offer any powers nationally that the provinces don’t already have under their own emergency legislation.
That will be discussed at the premiers’ meeting, Trudeau said, so all parties understand what tools each different level of government has and where more might need to be done.
“I can tell you that we haven’t taken anything off the table, from the Emergencies Act to new measures or existing measures under the Quarantine Act. There are significant tools that are at our disposal,” he said.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu said officials are discussing methods to ensure people follow the mandatory 14-day quarantine upon returning to Canada.
“There are a number of ways quarantine orders can be enforced,” she said. “Those could include random inspections (and) those could include hotlines.”
“Enough is enough. Go home and stay home.” -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
More funds
Also on Monday, the federal government announced increased funding for research, agriculture and advertising.
Building on Friday’s news of a wartime-like procurement plan that included targeted funding for the production of necessary supplies such as ventilators, masks and tests needed in the fight against the coronavirus, the federal government has allocated funds to support efforts to vaccinate against and treat COVID-19.
This $275 million for coronavirus research and medical countermeasures, part of the $1-billion COVID-19 response fund, will be used to advance projects that are already underway by academia and the private sector, and ensure domestic supply of potential vaccines.
This includes $192 million to deliver direct support to Canadian companies for large-scale projects such as AbCellera, a Vancouver-based biotech company at the forefront of developing antibody-based drugs. It was the first company in North America to receive a sample from a COVID-19 patient, and quickly identified more than 500 human antibodies that are candidates for treatment.
Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science and industry, said the aim is to develop antiviral therapies for COVID-19 treatment and prevention, and to begin clinical trials by the summer.
Medicago, a Quebec City-based company, has identified a viable plant-based vaccine candidate currently at the pre-clinical testing phase, and will receive funding to proceed with clinical trials and scaled-up production for pandemic response.
Ottawa has also signed a contract with Bluedrop, a Toronto-based digital health firm that was among the first in the world to identify the spread of COVID-19 using artificial intelligence and a range of datasets, including global air travel, to accurately track the spread of the disease around the world
“Our government will use Bluedrop software to support modelling and monitoring of COVID-19 spread and inform future federal decisions related to the virus,” Bains said.
Additional funding of $23 million will go to the University of Saskatchewan’s international vaccine centre to help the centre expand and renovate its animal vaccine production facility to meet the standards required for producing human vaccines; $15 million will be earmarked to expand and upgrade the National Research Council’s Human Health Therapeutics research centre in Montreal, allowing the NRC to partner with researchers across the country to produce vaccines and therapies for clinical trials.
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau announced support to help farmers and producers, as well as food processing companies, manage the impact of COVID-19.
Farm Credit Canada is receiving an extra $5 billion in lending capacity “to help farm and food business owners on a case-by-case basis with potential deferrals of the principal and/or interest portions of their loans,” Bibeau said.
In addition, all eligible farmers who have an outstanding advance payments program loan deadline on April 30 or earlier will receive a stay of default for an additional six months.
“This represents a total of $173 million in deferred loans for farmers and food processors who are facing tight margins in a cash crunch,” Bibeau said.
Finally, the federal government announced a $50-million advertising campaign to educate Canadians about COVID-19. The ads will include faces Canadians know and trust, Trudeau said, and will roll out late this week or early next week.
On Tuesday, the House of Commons will reconvene for an emergency meeting to pass a legislative package allowing the government to proceed with a number of financial measures announced to help Canadians affected by COVID-19.
As of Monday afternoon, there were 340,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, in 189 countries. In Canada, there were 1,474 confirmed cases and 20 deaths.
