Morning Update: Trudeau reaches out to bank CEOs for advice on economic recovery; How the downfall of a Toronto ‘smart city’ plan began long before COVID-19

Good morning,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached out to the heads of Canada’s six big banks to get their reading on the state of the economy and how COVID-19 relief efforts are faring, banking sources and federal officials told The Globe and Mail.

It was the first time that Mr. Trudeau has had one-on-one discussions with the CEOs since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, multiple banking-industry sources say, adding that the calls took place around the Victoria Day long weekend.

The consultations with the CEOs were high-level check-ins rather than deep policy discussions, intended to take the pulse of the efforts to deal with the economic effects of COVID-19, the sources said. They covered topics such as how relief efforts rolled out jointly by government and banks might need adjusting, where bank clients are feeling pressure most acutely, and which parts of the economy may need further support to recover.

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Don’t blame those who gather in parks – blame the city

Pictures and video of throngs of park-goers who crammed into Trinity-Bellwoods in Toronto on Saturday were the source of outrage over the weekend as temperatures reached beyond 20 degrees. People flooded the downtown park and many did not maintain adequate physical distancing, causing the city’s police force to patrol it Sunday.

For Globe and Mail columnist André Picard, the sight of thousands of people gathered in the park, while the city and province struggle to get the COVID-19 outbreak under control, was disconcerting. He was also troubled by the response.

“A chorus of shaming, name-calling and threatening everything from a police crackdown to park shutdowns,” Picard writes.

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Sidewalk’s end: How the downfall of a Toronto ‘smart city’ plan began long before COVID-19

Outfitted with robotic garbage sorters, adaptive streetlights, heated pavement tiles and – potentially – reams of data-collecting sensors, the project, called Quayside, was supposed to be a showpiece for the city and the company. Three levels of government had signed on to support creating something far grander than the generic condo towers that line much of the rest of Toronto’s downtown waterfront.

But the death of Quayside was part of a pattern of internal and external clashes and disappointments that stretches back nearly to Sidewalk Labs’ inception. What began with a blank canvas to reimagine cities often became defined by a tug-of-war between competing interests: first between urbanists and technologists, then between Sidewalk, its government partners and the city it hoped to build in.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

A procession for Snowbirds crash victim made its way through Halifax

Close friends and family members wearing black and the official Snowbirds colours of red and white laid flowers on Capt. Jennifer Casey’s casket during a homecoming ceremony on the tarmac near Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

The 35-year-old military public-affairs officer and Halifax native died in the crash of a Snowbirds Tutor jet in a residential area of Kamloops, B.C., last Sunday.

The national aerobatics team was on a cross-country tour to boost residents’ spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A bagpiper played while military members carried Casey’s casket from the CC-130J Hercules that had taken off from Abbotsford, B.C., Sunday morning after an earlier private ceremony with her Snowbirds teammates.

A police-escorted motorcade then left the Halifax airport to transport Casey’s remains on a loop through the north end of the city to Atlantic Funeral Home.

MORNING MARKETS

World stocks gain as German survey fuels optimism: Stocks edged higher on Monday after a survey showed German business morale rebounded in May, boosting optimism around economic reopenings. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Germany’s DAX rose 1.75 per cent. France’s CAC 40 advanced 1.20 per cent. Markets in Britain were closed for a public holiday. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended up 1.73 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng reversed early losses to close up 0.10 per cent. Markets in the U.S. are closed for Memorial Day. The Canadian dollar was trading at 71.55 US cents.

Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition includes high-yield portfolio shakeup, dividend stock advantage and why cash rules for retirees.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Canada, and the world, must stand up to China’s latest attack on Hong Kong

Globe editorial: “If China is allowed to reach into Hong Kong like this, it will spell the end of ‘one country, two systems.' How is it even possible for Beijing to pretend, as it is doing in the hallucinatory manner in which it so often sells its version of the truth, that these new measures are about preserving 'one country, two systems’? On the contrary, the open presence of mainland security forces in Hong Kong would be a complete evisceration of the principle, and the territory’s autonomy.”

Just about every big-time sports league in the world is in some stage of reopening. Except baseball

Cathal Kelly: “The NHL and its union are close to agreeing to a one-off, 24-team tournament. With the backing of its own players’ association, the NBA has asked Disney World in Orlando about its availability as a basketball superhub. It doesn’t seem like anyone in the NFL – from the general managers to the guys who carry the down markers – even considered a shutdown. But Major League Baseball is nowhere. No one has agreed on a thing. All they’ve done is bicker about money.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Exercise keeps our brains healthy – but does cognitive decline lead to physical decline?

For years now we’ve been hearing about the power of exercise to keep our brains healthy. Research in both animals and humans has shown that physical activity maintains blood flow to the brain and raises levels of growth factors that promote the formation of new neurons.

But some experts believe that may be only half the story. In 2018, a study used EEG brain imaging to explore one of the great riddles of public health: why people fail to exercise regularly even when they know how beneficial it would be. By flashing images of people exercising or lounging in hammocks, they showed that it takes extra neural effort to resist the lure of being sedentary. In other words, we’re wired to be lazy.

Why you might be binge eating while stuck at home during the pandemic

While staying at home may be flattening the curve, many are finding it is having the opposite effect on their food consumption. The pandemic has sparked a new enthusiasm for bread-baking (not to mention bread-eating), recipe searches and the emergence of hashtags including #covideating and #covid15, a play on the term “freshman 15” used to describe the 15 pounds university students are said to gain in their first year.

Part of the reason people may be eating more while in lockdown is because they’re experiencing a loss of other sources of pleasure, primarily interacting with other people, says Peter Hall, a professor of public health at the University of Waterloo.

MOMENT IN TIME

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For more than 100 years, The Globe and Mail has preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we are looking at the Group of Seven.

This image by Globe staff photographer James Lewcun was originally published May 27, 1981, and shows a Lawren Harris painting that had set an auction record for Canadian art at a Toronto sale the previous night.

South Shore, Baffin Island was inspired by the artist’s Arctic trip in 1930 and sold for $240,000 at a Sotheby’s auction. It was purchased by an unnamed buyer later identified as Vancouver art dealer Kenneth Heffel.

He got himself a bargain. The price represents a mere $683,000 in 2020 dollars and Harris paintings have blown way past that record in recent years, selling for multiple millions. In 2016, Harris’s Mountain Forms (1926) became the most expensive Canadian artwork ever sold at auction: With a hammer price of $9.5-million (to which a buyer’s premium is added), it set a new record at $11.2-million. Canadian landscapes from this mid-period of Harris’s long career are among the most sought-after works by Group of Seven artists.

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