During the daily national briefing in Ottawa, deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland says personal protective masks ordered from 3M in the U.S crossed the border last night. U.S president Donald Trump created a stir when he asked 3M to cease exports of masks to Canada.

Freeland says the messaging they have consistently been sharing with their counterparts in the United States is that the relationship between the two countries is truly reciprocal and they are best served if they can work together. She notes that the supply chains are interdependent and that the trading relationship with the U-S requires constant work and constant gardening and in this time of a pandemic it requires particular attention.

The Deputy Prime Minister, when asked why the government didn’t offer a blanket payment to all Canadians instead of multi-faceted programming, said there are two distinct advantages offered by the wage subsidy program being offered on top of CERB benefits: it maintains a link between employer and the employee knowing they still have a job and the ability of the business to keep going – functional and intact – so they can help ramp up the economy when the public health rules are relaxed.

It was announced Wednesday that companies will now have the option of using January and February of this year as reference points to show a 30% loss. And businesses will only need to show a 15% decline in revenue from March instead of 30%.

Charities and non-profit organizations will have the choice to include or exclude, when calculating government loss in revenue.

And the federal government will cover 100 percent of wages for students hired under the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

There are now 18,447 cases of the coronavirus in Canada, with 401 deaths. (CJGX/vmf)