Ottawa will spend $2B on medical equipment to tackle COVID-19
OTTAWA-Scrambling for supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government will spend $2 billion to buy protective medical gear, virus testing equipment and ventilators for infected patients who fall dangerously ill.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canada is competing in a global race for those supplies, making it critical for companies across the country to help ramp up domestic production of much-needed gear.
Trudeau said three companies in Ontario and Quebec have now signed deals with the government to increase production of ventilators, surgical masks and testing kits. He said five more companies have signed letters of intent - Precision Biomonitoring, Fluid Energy Group, Irving Oil, Calko Group, and Stanfield's - to produce even more of these products.
The prime minister said Canada has enough supplies for the "foreseeable future" but that more will be needed to prepare for the worst-case scenarios of the pandemic's spread. Government modelling shows that could be "fairly dire" for the country, he said, without elaborating.
"We're optimistic that they will be available in the coming weeks," Trudeau said of the coming made-in-Canada supplies.
"There's no question that we will need more masks, ventilators, and testing kits. But how many more we need depends entirely on you," he added.
"If you stay home and follow public health recommendations, you can slow the spread. And that means fewer patients in our hospitals, fewer patients to test, fewer ventilators to use on critical patients."
The federal government is also starting to provide targeted relief to sectors of the economy hit hard by the pandemic, with new aid for airports and broadcasters.
On Monday night, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced Ottawa is waiving rents that airports pay to the federal government for the rest of the year. The measure affects major airports across the country, including Toronto's Pearson and Billy Bishop airports.
Garneau's office said in a news release this will save 22 airports a total of about $331 million this year.
The government also said Canada's broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will not charge broadcasters licence fees for the 2020-21 fiscal year. In total, this will free up about $30 million in cash, the Canadian Heritage department said in a morning statement Tuesday.
Over the past two weeks, Ottawa has rolled out a massive relief program for businesses and individuals losing money during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes an expected $137 billion in direct aid payments and deferred tax payments, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said last week.
That figure is expected to grow significantly on Tuesday when the government reveals how much its expanded wage subsidy program will cost. Trudeau said Monday that the federal government will cover 75 per cent of the salaries paid by any business in Canada that has lost 30 per cent of its revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trudeau also vowed to do more to help industries particularly hard hit by the pandemic downturn, such as airlines, hospitality and Canada's oil and gas sector.
The latter industry has been slammed by a collapse in the price of oil, which experts and industry insiders say comes from a significant drop in demand for fuel as people around the world stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19, as well as a surge in supply of oil across the globe as Saudi Arabia and Russia grapple over production quotas.
On March 27, Morneau said the government is working on providing the sector with "credit that will be guaranteed by the federal government," sparking concerns from environmentalists that Ottawa will prop up large fossil fuel companies responsible for a huge share of Canada's annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga