Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister speaks with provincial and territorial counterparts to discuss COVID-19 response

FILE: Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada at the Conference on Disarmament, Palais des Nations. (Photo by Violaine Martin via UN Geneva/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Today, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, held her fifth biweekly teleconference with provincial and territorial Finance Ministers.

Finance Ministers discussed the recent and alarming increase in COVID-19 cases across the country and provided updates on the state of affairs in their respective jurisdictions. The Deputy Prime Minister reiterated the Prime Minister’s concerns about new modelling predictions, which at current rates of contact show Canada is heading towards a surge in cases. She also assured her provincial and territorial counterparts that the federal government will continue to provide assistance for provinces and territories, and do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to support Canadians and Canadian businesses.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that Bill C-9 received Royal Assent yesterday, which implements the new Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, the new Lockdown Support, and extends the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy until June 2021. Applications for the new Rent Subsidy will open on Monday.

Finally, all Ministers reaffirmed their support for a unified approach to fighting COVID-19 across all orders of government, in order to minimize the impacts of the second wave of COVID-19 and support our collective economic recovery.