June 5, 2020

Your CFA Daily Update on COVID-19

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CFA Input into the future of the CEWS

The CFA provided detailed comments to the federal government as part of their consultation on the future of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Special thanks to the Government Relations Committee the Board of Directors and several active members for providing input into our response.

Ontario considering Stage 2 of reopening

Premier Doug Ford is signalling that he could announce the next phase of loosening Ontario's pandemic restrictions as early as next week, despite a recent uptick in new cases of COVID-19. Ford said the question of moving to Ontario's Stage 2 of reopening is now being considered by the senior officials who form the COVID-19 command table. Stage 2 would allow a wider number of office-based businesses to reopen and expand the maximum size of social gatherings that's currently limited to five. 

The province's top criteria for further easing its semi-lockdown is a consistent decline over a two- to four-week period in the daily number of new cases. That benchmark has not declined consistently in the three weeks since May 14, when Ford announced Ontario's first stage of looser restrictions, including allowing non-essential retail stores outside of shopping malls to open for customers. 

Canada added 290,000 jobs in May

After losing more than three million jobs in March and April, Canada's economy added 290,000 jobs in May, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The data agency reported that 290,000 more people had paid employment in May than in April. The surge means May was the best one-month gain for jobs in Canada in 45 years, although it happened from an admittedly low bar. It also means the economy has now replaced about 10 per cent of the jobs it lost to COVID-19.

Despite the job gains, Canada's official unemployment rate rose to 13.7 per cent, as 491,000 more people were looking for work in the job market, notably students, whose search for summer work isn't normally recorded in the months before May.

In February, Canada's jobless rate was 5.6 per cent. It increased to 7.8 per cent in March and 13 per cent in April. The number of unemployed Canadians has more than doubled since February.

The vast majority of the new jobs came in Quebec, which added 230,900. Every other province added jobs except Ontario, which lost 64,500 positions.

What do we mean by 'job,' anyway?

Scotiabank economist Derek Holt said that while overall the job numbers were certainly positive, he's taking them with several grains of salt because it all depends on what is meant by "employment" in these unprecedented times.

StatsCan's job numbers are based on a survey of Canadians, which means they are based on answers by human beings and subject to interpretation. Nearly three million Canadians reported they worked no hours in May, but still told the data collectors at StatsCan that they consider themselves to be employed. 

"Whether or not you believe that Canada created about 290,000 jobs last month depends, critically, upon what fraction of those who worked no hours in May but said they were employed will ultimately return to their jobs," Holt said.

Right now, the millions of people on Canada's federal government wage subsidy program are not considered to be unemployed, despite not actively working, "and hence not as a lost job," Holt noted. "Some will indeed return to full or part hours, and we all hope this to be the case for all, [but] some won't regain the full hours they had before ... and some will not return at all."

If those people don't return to active work, May's job surge could vanish as swiftly as it appeared. 

Still sending cheques? Managing cash flows during this time can be challenging, and sending paper cheques remains the more expensive and time-consuming method of making payments. Ascendant is extending the offer to CFA members to access their software with zero onboarding fees, allowing you to use their platform to seamlessly and safely collect banking data from your clients and manage your cash flows more efficiently. Learn more about digital, digital payments with Ascendant

Federal government to provide $14B to provinces, territories to 'safely' restart economies

The federal government is providing $14 billion to the provinces and territories to help them "safely and carefully" reopen their economies — but the premier of Canada's most populous province says it's not nearly enough.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement at his daily news conference outside his residence at Rideau Cottage this morning, saying the money will help pay for more personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line health care workers and businesses, and for child care so that parents can go back to work.

Some of the money going to provinces and territories is meant to help them improve the state of long-term care, and to help municipalities continue providing core public services such as transit. The government is saying little at this point about how the money will be carved up and when it will flow.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said it's a "start" but $14 billion falls far short of what's required to address the "massive need" in his province. "The reality is, we have a $23 billion problem in Ontario, and $14 billion for all of Canada ... just won't cut it," he said.

Federal Government Announces One-Time Payment To Individuals Who Are Certificate Holders Of The Disability Tax Credit

The Prime Minister announced that the government is introducing a one-time, non-taxable payment of up to $600 for Canadians with disabilities. The government will also establish a national workplace accessibility stream to help people with disabilities find and keep a good paying job. In addition, five new projects are being funded across the country to support Canadians in obtaining supportive devices that will help them overcome barriers in the workplace. 

Quebec: Reopening the rec sport sector

Deputy Minister of Education and Minister responsible for sports and recreation Isabelle Charest announced that public health authorities have authorized the gradual resumption of activities for outdoor team sports as of June 8.

Supervised training and outdoor skills competitions will be authorized as of next Monday.

More than 30 sports federations have developed guides and protocols to ensure that such trainings will be consistent with public health measures.

The government anticipates a potential resumption of team matches at the end of June, depending on the state of public health. However, major adaptations will have to be made to the sports in order to comply with public health guidelines.

Private swimming pools open to the public, especially those in campsites, as well as supervised practice of individual outdoor sports, such as yoga classes and guided outdoor activities, will also be able to resume their activities from 8 June.

As for minor, semi-professional and professional sports teams, the resumption of training and matches is not permitted for the time being, but the public health authorities and the government are working very closely with the sports organizations to ensure that training and matches can resume from the end of June.

Quebec: 80,000 applications for 10,000 orderly positions

A few weeks ago, Quebec Premier François Legault launched a recruitment process for more than 10,000 people who will undergo condensed training to become orderlies. The government received nearly 80,000 applications.

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Feedback from our Members

“I wanted to thank the CFA team for all the information, the updates and all that you do. It’s really wonderful to have such a wonderful group of committed professionals helping us all navigate through these uncharted waters. You guys are doing an amazing job and the Oxford Learning team is very grateful! We will get out of this and hopefully come out stronger for the experience.”

 - Lenka Whitehead, President, Oxford Learning Centres

COVID-19's impact on the world is creating waves across all sectors and industries.

Every member of the CFA community is dealing with an issue that is affecting the world, our industries, our communities, our businesses, and our people.

We would like to hear from you if you have any topics, issues or questions to navigate turbulent times in order to support you further: 

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