Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government is taking steps to help the business sector. Last week they announced that the government would cover 10 per cent of wages. Trudeau says, clearly, Ottawa needs to do more and, to that end, he announced they are bringing that up to 75 per cent for qualifying businesses.

Trudeau says that they also know that small, store-front businesses are struggling with cash flow. So the government is launching the Canada Emergency Business Account. It will offer, to qualifying businesses, $40,000 loans which will be guaranteed by the government, and interest free for the first year.

And in other financial news, it was an unscheduled rate decision, but the Bank of Canada lowered its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to a quarter percent. The Bank of Canada says the change in policy rate is intended to provide support to the Canadian financial system and the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Questions about the U.S sending troops to the Canadian border came up again during the Friday briefing with the Prime Minister. The P.M. says his officials have expressed to the U.S the move would be a mistake.

The U.S is said to have been pondering the move in an effort to restrict non-essential travelers from entering the country. But there are reports that the White House has decided against the deployment. [with files from CJGX]