Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Missteps, bets that didn’t pay off, a lack of preparedness. These factors and others have combined to leave Canada with a disappointing start to its COVID-19 inoculation campaign compared with its peer countries. While Justin Trudeau’s government made many of the right purchasing decisions and made them quickly, the race to vaccinate has two distinct phases: first to purchase the vaccines and then to secure them. It’s the second phase that has been a problem, exacerbated by other conditions.
An analysis by The Globe and Mail’s Marieke Walsh and Greg McArthur shows the scope of the flawed rollout in detail, and why the promises touted by Trudeau and his government were never really realistic. As a companion to that feature, a new Globe and Mail dashboard is tracking how different levels of government are delivering and administering the vaccines to needy Canadians.
Recent developments offer some encouragement that the rockiest phase of the vaccination campaign is in the past, but regular updates to the dashboard will provide insight into whether that’s true.
- Related: Europe starts review of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to try to overcome shortages as new variants appear
- Editorial: How a four-month gap between shots could end Canada’s pandemic, two months earlier
Ottawa will invest $2.7-billion to electrify Canada’s public buses
Making it easy for transit systems to convert their bus fleets to electric is a priority for the federal government, Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna said in an interview with The Globe and Mail ahead of the official announcement that $2.7-billion will be made available for electric buses and the infrastructure to charge them up. The Liberals see the decision as a win on both the environment file (transportation accounts for a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, McKenna said) and the job-creation file, as many zero-emission-bus manufacturers are based in Canada.
Wealthsimple selling U.S. book of business to robo-adviser Betterment
The global expansion plans Wealthsimple had when it launched in 2017 appear to have been shelved after the online investment manager sold its U.S. book of business today to Betterment Holdings of New York. The assets managed by Wealthsimple are worth nearly US$200-million, but chief executive officer Michael Katchen says the sale allows the company “to consolidate our investments and put more focus on what we are doing here in Canada.”
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
‘Buttergate’ puzzles dairy farmers: Whether or not they agree that the increased use of palm fats in dairy cow feed is resulting in firmer butter, dairy farmers are having trouble finding alternative products to feed to their cows.
Wireless code violated: The CRTC has ruled device-financing plans that stretch over three years must be put to an end, giving mobile phone providers one month to revise their customer contracts.
Premiers seek health funds: Canada’s premiers are once again calling on the federal government to ante up on health care funding, restating at their virtual conference a demand for a $28-billion hike to federal health transfers in this year’s federal budget.
Jays GM admits failure: Ross Atkins, the Toronto Blue Jays general manager who helped run the Cleveland front office while former pitching coach Mickey Callaway was allegedly harassing female employees, says it was a ‘failure’ that he didn’t know about the alleged incidents at the time.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street suffered losses today as the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair signalled the potential for higher long-term interest rates, spooking investors. Bay Street was also down, but rising crude oil prices mitigated the decline.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.11 per cent to end at 30,924.14 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.34 per cent to 3,768.47. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 194.95 points or 1.06 per cent at 18,125.72. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.11 per cent to 12,723.47.
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TALKING POINTS
Trudeau talks a little tougher about China now that Biden’s got his back
Campbell Clark: “Mr. Trudeau usually speaks of the imprisonment of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor as arbitrary detention, which isn’t quite as sharp and pithy. On Wednesday, he used the phrase ‘trumped up.’ Consequences? That’s not the kind of threatening term he tends to use when speaking of China. With rare exceptions, he has been palpably cautious. Until Mr. Biden came along.”
Reports on hydro fiascos in Manitoba and B.C. expose the rot at Crown-owned utilities
Konrad Yakabuski: “Provincial premiers allowed their better judgment to be clouded by a desire to build personal legacies in the form of gigantic dams that they perhaps hoped might one day be named after them. They allowed the heads of their respective Crown-owned electrical monopolies to indulge their own empire-building instincts to pursue those projects based on rosy assumptions concocted to dazzle unsuspecting taxpayers and avoid scrutiny.”
Bank of Canada knows how to handle inflation fears
David Parkinson: “At this point, it’s important to remember that the one thing the Bank of Canada worries about above all else – and the one and only thing its monetary policy is expressly directed at controlling – is inflation. The bank knows its economic estimates for the start of the year are too low. It knows the economy is on a higher trajectory than it anticipated. It knows massive additional fiscal stimulus programs are on the table on both sides of the border.”
LIVING BETTER
André Picard’s new book Neglected No More examines the disorganization of eldercare in Canada
The misunderstood truth about Canada’s eldercare system is that it’s not a system at all. Its flaws were laid bare by tragic outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the conclusion Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard reaches in his new book, Neglected No More, is unsurprising yet elusive: Eldercare in this country needs a complete rethink. Author and doctor Vincent Lam reviews Picard’s book, and recognizes the urgent need to change a system that has failed to treat elders as human beings.
Netflix to fund Canadian programs focused on female-led film and TV production
As part of a global initiative to support inclusive pipelines for filmmakers in technical roles, Netflix is funding two programs in Canada aimed at women. Today’s announcement earmarks US$5-million for several programs, including ones run by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the imagineNative Institute.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Jim Lowes, a recent living kidney donor who was inspired by Humboldt Broncos bus crash victim Logan Boulet, at his home in Burlington, Ont., on Feb. 25, 2021.Peter Power/The Canadian Press
Three years after Humboldt Broncos bus crash, Logan Boulet still inspiring organ donation
Logan Boulet continues to cast a long shadow, years after his death in the tragic 2018 collision between a tractor trailer and the Humboldt Broncos team bus in Saskatchewan. Five weeks before he and 15 others died in the crash, the 21-year-old signed an organ donor card, an act that was noticed by nearly 147,000 Canadians who also agreed to donate organs in the wake of his death.
Now, every April 7 is recognized as Green Shirt Day (to promote organ donor awareness) and Canadians like Jim Lowes have been inspired to become organ donors themselves.
“What a brilliant young man,” said Lowes. “Most kids at that age are not thinking about donating their organs.”
Read the full article by The Canadian Press’s Colette Derworiz.
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