Is it time for Canada to send in the Army?

The military could offer 2,500 medical personnel to help overwhelmed nursing homes

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings.

As the week draws to a close, anyone who applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) should double-check the date of their initial application. Canadians must re-apply for the CERB every four weeks to continue receiving benefits, and the initial four-week period ran from Mar. 15 to Apr. 11. Because applications are staggered each weekday by birth date, and weekends are wild-card days, anyone can apply from today until Monday.

Not all industries have been affected equally, of course. Food-processing plants have been a particularly difficult case, sowing fears of meat shortages nationwide. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke to reporters about her discussions with industry leaders regarding outbreak prevention, reduced employee hours and stabilizing prices and supply.

Send in the troops. Much has been written about long-term care homes and the strain they're currently facing. One solution: ask the military for assistance. Quebec has already done so, and Ottawa said it would consider the request. But Col. Annie Bouchard, a retired Canadian Forces Army surgeon, tells Maclean's the military has about 2,500 deployable medical personnel who could easily help in overwhelmed care homes. The only problem is that they're legally unlicensed to work in the provinces, though the federal government could solve that if it wanted to.

Another tricky industry to moderate: construction. Specifically, the crews who are still working on the massive Parliament Hill renovation, even as MPs and senators are instructed to keep away to help with physical distancing. While Ontario Premier Doug Ford instructed construction crews to shut down, the Parliament Hill reno is a federally funded project beyond Ford's jurisdiction. "Much of the activity is relatively isolated and can be performed without the need for close interaction with other workers," a spokesperson from the department wrote to CBC News.

Scheer digs in his heels. If it were up to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, MPs would still be able to meet in-person at least four times a week. That's his latest request in what's become a persistent call for the Prime Minister to confront the Official Opposition more regularly. Scheer is also doubling down on his attacks against China, adding his name to an open letter that chastises the pandemic as "China's Chernobyl." Two of Scheer's potential successors, Peter MacKay and Erin O'Toole , have also signed the letter, as well as several academics and politicians, including former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler.

Talk about first-world problems. Mere months ago, Canadians complained about an election cycle sans issues, when one needed a microscope to find the differences between the Grits' and Tories' middle-class tax cuts. This pandemic has changed that. As Andrew MacDougall writes in Maclean's, a precarious oil industry, tense relations with China, travel regulations and pandemic preparedness will completely change the political landscape.

The next federal election isn't scheduled until 2023, but with a slim minority government elected before this crisis struck, Elections Canada is considering how they'd be able to operate if the government were to fall earlier. They've assembled a special group to outline how one might look, focusing primarily on expanding the mail-in ballot system.

The rent is too damn high. In yesterday's press conference, Justin Trudeau announced a new program aimed to help small businesses pay their rent during the pandemic. It's called the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA? Not nearly as pun-possible as CERB, but whatever), which will offer financial assistance for businesses struggling during April, May and June. No details yet as they hammer out the plan with each province.

In other financial-relief news, Ontario's Finance Minister Rod Phillips announced a change to the Insurance Act that will allow for incoming rebates on car insurance for 12 months after the pandemic cools down. The government says it will be better able to digest the influence of this deregulation once they lift the state of emergency. For more on how Ontario is handling things, watch the full video of Doug Ford's press conference here.

Nobody beats New Brunswick. With no new coronavirus cases reported yesterday, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said his province could be the first to reopen its borders. Their total provincial caseload remains at 117, with just 13 hospitalizations. He made the comments hours before hopping on a conference call with Trudeau and all the premiers yesterday evening, wherein the group discussed what an economic reopening would look like. Though the details of their plan aren't yet public, the jist is that they are aiming to work collaboratively and not too quickly, which Canadian business owners say is just fine by them.

A pandemic by any other name. In Maclean's, Patricia Treble details how COVID-19 has changed the English language, spiking the popularity of terms like "self-isolation" and "elbow bump" while generating an entirely new entry into the Oxford English Dictionary: "COVID-19." It will be interesting to see what term the world adopts to describe this era. The Great Lockdown? The Great Pandemic? World War COVID? (Hopefully not that last one. That would be honestly be awful.)

Because it's not 2015. One of the lighter moments of Trudeau's press conference came when he noted how many Canadians gazed out their windows to see wind whipping snowflakes yesterday. "It's been snowing in some places this week, including here in Ottawa, because that's just what 2020 brings," he deadpanned, sighing into the camera. Watch the clip here, and read the full transcript from his speech here.

—Michael Fraiman

Politics News & Analysis