Trudeau says he, too, is frustrated by holiday travellers
Pace of vaccine rollout also a concern, PM says
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his frustration Tuesday as signs pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic taking a dark turn in Canada.
In London, Ont., the morgue was at capacity, a field hospital was opened in Burlington, Ont., Quebec officials were mulling a near-total lockdown and New Brunswick decided to tighten up as well as cases continued to rise at an accelerated pace.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam noted it took five months for Canada to hit 500,000 cases. But now, it is taking just two weeks for 100,000 new cases to emerge.
“This evermore-rapid accumulation of cases will continue until we can make significant progress in interrupting spread, which is why we must all continue our efforts,” she said at a briefing in Ottawa.
While officials said upwards of a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive by month’s end, the pace at which they’re being administered is only just starting to accelerate.
As vaccines arrive, they are transferred to the provinces, which have control over administering the shots to individual recipients.
What more the federal government could do to help is expected to be on the agenda at a meeting between Trudeau and his provincial and territorial counterparts Thursday.
“I think all Canadians, including me, are frustrated to see vaccines in freezers and not in people’s arms,” the prime minister said.
Trudeau stressed Tuesday the federal sick-leave benefit, worth up to $1,000, was introduced so Canadians wouldn’t feel pressure to go to work with COVID-19 symptoms, not as a safety net to help people who head out on vacation.
“We didn’t imagine when we passed it unanimously in the House with the support of all parties, that people would use it to pay for their quarantines after having gone south for a twoweek vacation,” the prime minister said.
“So that is something we are going to fix right now.”
He also expressed disappointment in federal and provincial politicians who travelled abroad, despite months of recommendations against non-essential travel.
“As leaders we’ve been encouraging and exhorting Canadians to continue to do the right thing,” he said.
“So it is unfortunate to see a number of politicians not take their own advice.”