2.6 per cent

The federal government has received approximately 500,000 employment insurance applications in the past four days, a figure that represents 2.6 percent of total Canadian employment. Only 27,000 applications were submitted during the same week last year.

• The spike in EI applications comes as companies in nearly every industry have begun laying off workers. “This is going to be very, very bad,” said one economics professor.
• On Twitter, one economist noted the number is in line with the percentage of job losses in July, 1932, the single worst week for layoffs during the Great Depression.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced additional income support for self-employed workers, or those who normally do not qualify for EI.

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CORONAVIRUS IN CANADA

934: cases in Canada reported; with 11 recoveries and 12 deaths reported.

• Premier Doug Ford said Ontario students may not return to the classroom this school year. The government is set to discuss ways to provide childcare for frontline health-care workers and first responders, Ford said.
• Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province will provide extra cash and staff to set up overflow homeless shelters and establish spots for people who need to self-isolate. An oil sands worker, who lives in a 1,500-room oil sands camp north of Fort McMurray, is waiting for COVID-19 test result.
• Kenney also announced several economic measures designed to blunt the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta and the recent crash in oil prices.
• A suburb of Montreal, Quebec with the highest proportion of seniors of any municipality in the province, confirmed its first COVID-19 case.
• Manitoba declared a state of emergency. The government will provide $27.6 million in funding for child-care spaces for frontline workers.
• Saskatchewan will open daycare spaces for frontline health-care workers.
• Nova Scotia extended the deadline to pay fines by 90 days.

The federal government will be providing financial assistance to companies to produce much needed medical equipment. “This initiative will help companies that are already making things like masks, ventilators and hand sanitizer to massively scale up production,” Prime Minister Trudeau said.

• Ottawa is preparing a multibillion-dollar bailout for the oil and gas sector. The package will be announced early next week, according to sources.
• Federal and Alberta government insiders are mum on details, but it is expected the sector will get more access to credit, especially for struggling small- and medium-sized operations, plus money to create jobs for laid-off workers.

Elsewhere: Canada’s deficit could surge to $100-billion, economists warn. However, Canada has some fiscal elbow room, as much as $41-billion in spending or tax cuts according to a February Parliamentary Budget Officer report. What would be cause for concern, according to the PBO, is if emergency measures become regular spending when the crisis is over.

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CORONAVIRUS AROUND THE WORLD

• U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the Defence Production Act to get needed medical supplies to the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak and the private sector mobilized against it.
• Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, reported 627 new deaths Friday, its biggest day-to-day rise since the outbreak began, and said new cases also shot up. Italy has seen more than 4,000 deaths – surpassing that of China – and 47,000 infections. The soaring numbers came despite a nationwide lockdown.
• Britain faces a “massive shortage” of life-saving ventilators. The country has between 5,000-8,000 ventilators for a population of 67 million. The country, slow at first to respond to the outbreak, has closed pubs, restaurants and other businesses for at least a month. 145 people with have died from COVID-19 so far in the U.K.
• “You were close to a coronavirus carrier. You must go into isolation,” reads one text message sent by the Ministry of Health in Israel. The mass cellphone surveillance, previously a secret counterterrorism program, is a now being used as a public-health effort aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus.

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CORONAVIRUS AND BUSINESS:

Canadian companies are laying off thousands of employees in what’s expected to be the first wave of massive job losses as global demand dries up and businesses shut down.

• Air Canada is laying off roughly 60 per cent of its flight attendants.
• Cirque du Soleil temporarily laid off most of its 4,500-person work force.
• The big four car companies are closing all North American factories.

Economists warn this is just the beginning. “My best guess is that we are very likely to do worse in March, 2020, than the worst month in the 1930s,” said one professor of economics.

The S&P/TSX Composite ended down 2.6 per cent, while the S&P 500 index dropped by 4.3 per cent, capping off the worst week for Canadian and U.S. stocks since 2008, each having lost 14 to 15 per cent.

What it means: Despite efforts by the Bank of Canada and federal and provincial governments, a dramatic slowdown in Canada’s economy is already underway.

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