But AstraZeneca will come from the U.S. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Canada is on the cusp of its first AstraZeneca vaccine deliveries. When Health Canada approved that shot, the regulators cleared it for anyone aged 65 or older. The real-world data—that is, British seniors who've received the shot—suggested "emerging promising evidence" on its efficacy. Yesterday, a slightly different recommendation came from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which didn't recommend administering to seniors "due to limited information ... at this time. (Health Canada sets the rules for use, while the NACI offers advice and guidance.) The White House had bad news for Canadians. President Joe Biden is every bit the vaccine nationalist as his predecessor, and the U.S. won't export vaccines to Canada until Americans are fully vaccinated. The new NAFTA didn't account for the hottest commodity in a global pandemic. She's back: Janice Charette is once again (temporarily) the head of Canada's public service. Charette, who held the job from 2014 to 2016 and is now Canada's high commissioner to the United Kingdom, will take over on an interim basis as Ian Shugart undergoes cancer treatment. Back in 2016, when Charette was shuffled over to London after her ouster as clerk, the gig was rumoured to be a "consolation" for "shabby" treatment by the Trudeau government. Spending spree: Ottawa's extraordinary deficit appears to have left many of Canada's lowest-income households in a better financial position as COVID-support measures "exceeded losses in wages and salaries and self-employment income." Statistics Canada says disposable income in that demographic was up 36.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2020, and now represents 7.2 of the national share. Meanwhile, the wealthiest households' share dropped from 40.1 to 37.7 per cent. Without the federal help, StatsCan says the largest losses would've hit low-income earners. One warning sign: they also racked up mortgage debt at a faster pace than everyone else, "encouraged by dramatically reduced mortgage lending rates." At least for now, though, their home values are outpacing mortgage liabilities. Karina Gould, the international development minister, was clear in a statement yesterday: "The human cost of the ongoing conflict in Yemen is dire," she said, calling the unrest "the world’s worst humanitarian crisis." Gould pledged $69.9 million to UN agencies and the Red Cross. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau downgraded Saudi Arabia—the country fighting Yemen—from "ally" to "business partner" on NBC's Meet the Press. Still, Canada keeps on selling light armoured vehicles to the Saudis, to the tune of $1.1 billion in exports last year. What big business wants: Goldy Hyder, the president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, sent a letter to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Hyder pitched budget recommendations: don't hike corporate tax rates (which may rise south of the border), reduce barriers to foreign direct investment, vanquish interprovincial trade barriers, and adopt a new fiscal anchor that would limit debt servicing costs to 10 per cent of federal revenue. Global Affairs Canada has handed a Colombian consultancy a $1-million gig. For what, you ask? The department pledged $18.3 million to a public-private partnership that hopes to increase the incomes of 5,000 cacao farmers in Colombia. The project is the first ever to pay the NGO overseeing the work—SOCODEVI, in this case—only after key objectives have been met. (Scroll to page 55 to see all the complex formulae.) Commercial radio, still cool? Don't believe the hype about podcasts. New polling published by the feds says two-thirds of Canadians tune in to the radio on a weekly basis. Eighty-per cent of those listeners are driving in their cars at the time. Forty-five per cent said commercial radio was the "most important broadcast platform." Only 28 per cent of respondents name-checked the CBC on the same question, another 28 list music streaming services, and 19 per cent mentioned podcasts. Gen Z is, perhaps predictably, an exception—71 per cent prioritize streaming services on a weekly basis. Newfoundland's provincial election was originally set for Feb. 13. Then COVID-19, which never posed major concerns for elections in New Brunswick, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, forced delays. Now, voters might not know the outcome until April. File this under "Yes, that's a federal thing": The Copyright Board published royalty rates for the "use of recorded music to accompany adult entertainment"—yes, music royalties for strip clubs. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
