Ontario will show the world its COVID-19 models. Will Ottawa do the same? Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Laid-off workers and their businesses already knew that emergency assistance from Ottawa wouldn't flow for several weeks. Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that hundreds of thousands of unemployed Canadians won't qualify for any federal assistance announced to date. We know that there are many vulnerable people who won't be able to access this support, who will need extra help," he said. As the contours of limited federal help become clearer, the difficulty of the task at hand for Team Trudeau—and thousands of public servants working day and night—draws into sharp relief. Canada simply had no ready-made response for a pandemic-induced economic crisis. But the PM yesterday repeated one of his go-to promises outside Rideau Cottage: more help is coming. Read Trudeau's full remarks here. A few hours later, Finance Minister Bill Morneau testified at the Commons finance committee's teleconference. He offered scant new details to MPs, mostly taking note of specific case studies of workers confused about eligibility. The meeting, which was at one point interrupted by a protracted buzzing sound, did produce a memorable quip on the parliamentary record from Tory MP Pierre Poilievre: "I hope the government's cash distribution will work better than this phone system." Don't we all. Show us the models: After the PM's daily presser, most reporters' questions pushed the government to release its projections for the spread of coronavirus. Trudeau claimed the feds are showing "tremendous transparency on the raw data," and committed to "be open with Canadians" about how our behaviour is shaping the curve. He also said he'd talk about data sharing on a call later in the day with the premiers. At his own daily briefing, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took a different tack. He pledged to release the province's modelling, even its projected worst-case scenario, today. "You deserve to know what I know when you’re making decisions for yourself, your family and your community," he said, blaming any delay on a desire from the number-crunchers to wait for the data to reflect the return of wintering snowbirds. Ford called the numbers "sobering" and a "wake-up call." Andrew Scheer's spending habits: It feels like a lifetime ago that the Conservative leader got in trouble for using party funds to help put his kids through private school. Yesterday, the Canadian Press learned more details of an audit of Scheer's expense claims—namely, that party money helped pay for an extra housekeeper, a minivan and private security. Your newsletter correspondent was on the phone with party insiders and government officials, all in an effort to take you inside last week's behind-the-scenes struggle to save the emergency aid bill that Canadians so desperately need. A months-long drafting process was shortened to a matter of days. Negotiations went off the rails until, in the middle of the night, the opposition struck a compromise with the government. Parliament is planning to reconvene in the near future. Here's hoping they all play nice. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
