COVID-19 Government and International Response: June 1, 2020

WHAT TO KNOW

Global COVID-19 cases have reached 6,340,273, up from 5,978,968 at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Canada now reports 91,647 cases, up from 89,386 cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Ontario reports 28,263 cases, up from 27,210 cases on Friday.

The growth rate of new cases in the province continues to remain under 2%, with 404 (1.5%) new cases reported since yesterday. Of the province’s total cases, 22,153 have been resolved (78.4%) and there have been 2,276 deaths (8.1%). The province has now completed 732,720 tests and reports 6,427 tests are currently under investigation. More information here.

The City of Toronto has shared a breakdown by postal code of all COVID-19 cases here.

A province-by-province breakdown of Canada’s COVID-19 case count can be found here.

FEDERAL

This morning Prime Minister Trudeau announced that funding delivered through the federal Gas Tax Fund will be accelerated this year to help communities as quickly as possible while respecting public health guidelines.

This means that $2.2 billion in annual federal infrastructure funding for communities will be delivered in one payment in June. Early delivery of the full funding for 2020-21 will help communities quickly move forward with infrastructure projects that will improve our quality of life and help restart local economies. More information here.

Last week, the Canadian Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program opened for applications to provide rent relief to small businesses that had been forced to close or had lost a significant portion of their revenue due to COVID-19. Today, the government announced it will provide rent relief for eligible business tenants in all national parks, national historic sites and national marine conservation areas. More information here.

PROVINCIAL

The Ontario government announced that it will continue to support provincial electricity consumers by providing stability and greater customer choice, while helping those struggling to pay their energy bills as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Details of the new programs were provided by Premier Doug Ford, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, and Bill Walker, Associate Minister of Energy. More information here.

Today, the government announced that it has enacted a new regulatory amendment that will put non-unionized employees on Infectious Disease Emergency Leave during the COVID-19 outbreak any time their hours of work are temporarily reduced by their employer due to COVID-19. This will ensure businesses aren’t forced to terminate employees after their ESA temporary layoff periods have expired. More information here.

TORONTO

The City of Toronto and United Way Greater Toronto (UWGT) have partnered to develop a COVID-19 Shelter Interim Recovery Strategy. When complete, the strategy will guide City and partner agency response to homelessness over the next six- to 12-month interim recovery period. More information here.

INTERNATIONAL