WEDNESDAY,APRIL8,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O NEWS | A
The waiting period is intended togive thegovernment time to
verify clients, prevent fraud and manage what is expected to
be a large number of applications, even as surveys show some
small businesses are wary of taking on more debt. Small busi-
nesses that had payrolls of $50,000 to $1-million in 2019 will
be able to apply for loans of up to $40,000 and pay no interest
until the end of 2022.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because
they are not authorized to discuss the deliberations.
The employer wage-subsidy bill, the subject of discussions
late Tuesday night between the government and opposition
parties, is designed to get businesses to keep employees on
their payroll even if revenue has declined because of the CO-
VID-19 pandemic.
On the initial proposal that was unveiled last month, busi-
ness groups were worried that eligibility would be limited to
companies that could demonstrate a 30-per-cent reduction
in revenue when comparing one month this year, such as
March, April or May, to the same month in 2019.
The bill gives companies the option of using January and
February as reference periods instead, under certain condi-
tions. It also includes a section that reduces the threshold for
March to 15 per cent. The proposed threshold would remain at
30 per cent for April and May.
Businesses had warned that many would not qualify for
the program using March, 2020, revenue figures because the
full brunt of the economic impact of COVID-19 did not hit un-
til the latter half of the month.
The draft legislation is separate from the Canada Emergen-
cy Response Benefit (CERB), which provides $500 a week for
up to 16 weeks for people who have lost their job or can’t work
because of COVID-19. There were 966,000 total CERB applica-
tions Monday and 537,000 so far Tuesday, as of 3 p.m. eastern
time, for a two-day total of 1,503,000.
In his daily news conference, Prime Minister Justin Tru-
deau said thegovernment is speaking with opposition House
leaders to set a date for the recall of Parliament to pass the
wage-subsidy legislation.
“Much of the wage subsidy is
going to be embedded with the In-
come Tax Act so that does require
us to move forward on parliamen-
tary legislation and that is what
we are talking about right now
with parliamentarians,” he said.
Dan Kelly, president and chief
executive of the Canadian Feder-
ation of Independent Business, reviewed a copy of the bill at
The Globe’s request and said he saw major improvement.
“These are big fixes. It is absolutely critical that we get all par-
ties aligned to move forward on this quickly.”
Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada,
lauded thegovernment for going back to the drawing board
and showing greater flexibility in the wage-subsidy program,
particularly in qualifying for the 30-per-cent decline in reve-
nue.
“There is a need for flexibility in special circumstances to
ensure that companies that are unnecessarily excluded from
the program now find a way to be included,” he said after re-
viewing the draft bill. “The goal here is to catch as many peo-
ple as possible in the safety net because it is either pay now or
pay later.”
Dennis Darby, president of Canadian Manufacturers and
Exporters, said thegovernment has made reasonable chang-
es that add flexibility, but he raised concerns about how
quickly the money can get to employers.
“The real issue is the speed at which they can get the mon-
ey into the hands of the companies, especially small and me-
dium-sized manufacturers,” he said. “You can’t run a manu-
facturing operation unless you have people.”
Mr. Darby said it’s important that MPs and senators get
back to Parliament this week to immediately pass the legisla-
tion into law.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Bill Morneau de-
clined to comment on the draft bill because it has not been
tabled in Parliament.
Another section of the bill appears to provide businesses
with some accounting flexibility so that large irregular book-
ings of an expense or income do not affect eligibility for the
subsidy.
The legislation states that companies must apply for the
benefit before October, 2020.
The legislation confirms thegovernment’s plan to cover 75
per cent of a wage, up to a maximum benefit of $847 a week.
The draft bill does not include some of the main demands
put forward by opposition parties.
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday
that while he would not comment on the contents of the bill,
his party is continuing to urgethe government to allow com-
panies to keep the federal sales tax revenue they have collect-
ed in recent months.
He adds that his party remains concerned that it will take
too long for businesses to be able to access the wage subsidy.
NDP finance critic Peter Julian said his party is reviewing
the bill and is encouraging thegovernment to support his
party’s policy proposals.
“We understand that we need to move quickly,” he said. “I
think there will be intense, but short, negotiations.”
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet released a
statement Tuesday saying the draft bill responds to some of
his party’s calls to add more flexibility to the wage subsidy. He
also said the program should be expanded to include trans-
fers to businesses that can be used for operational expenses
as opposed to limiting the program to staffing costs.Subsidy:Morethan1million
applyforCERBintwodays
FROMAThelegislationstates
thatcompanies
mustapplyfor
thebenefitbefore
October,2020.Despite a last-minute court battle
and a stay-at-home order, thou-
sands of Wisconsin voters on
Tuesday braved the coronavirus
outbreak to wait six feet apart in
lines for hours and cast ballots in
the state’s presidential primary
and local elections.
Some Wisconsinites who had
requested absentee ballots said
they never received them, forcing
them to choose between risking
their health to cast a ballot in per-
son or forgoing their right to vote.
The confusion and frustration
among the Midwestern state’s
citizens – as well as the 11th-hour
legal wrangling over whether to
hold the election during a public-
health emergency – served as a so-
bering preview of what may await
other states, or the country as a
whole, if the pandemic persists.
The general election that will
determine the next president –
Republican President Donald
Trump or a Democratic challen-
ger – is scheduled for Nov. 3.
In Wisconsin, more than half of
municipalities reported shortag-
es of poll workers, prompting the
state to call up 2,400 National
Guard troops to assist.
Outside Riverside High School
in Milwaukee – where officials
closed all but five of the city’s 180voting sites for a lack of poll work-
ers – masked voters stood in a line
that stretched for several blocks.
In Green Bay, poll workers sat
behind Plexiglas barriers. In Ma-
dison, election officials urged vot-
ers to bring their own pens – black
or blue ballpoint, if possible, be-
cause other colours or types of ink
could flummox ballot-counting
machines. More than a dozen
states have postponed elections
in the face of the pandemic.
On Monday, Wisconsin’s Dem-
ocratic Governor, Tony Evers, or-
dered the election postponed un-
til June despite having previously
said he lacked the authority to do
so. But the state Supreme Court
reversed his order in a ruling late
on Monday after Republican leg-
islative leaders challenged Mr. Ev-
ers’s decision.
Separately, in another Republi-
can challenge, the U.S. SupremeCourt on Monday overturned a
federal judge’s decision extend-
ing absentee voting for six days,
instead ruling all ballots had to be
postmarked by Tuesday.
That decision forced Jennifer
Archer, 35, to don a mask and
gloves, and head to the polls in
Milwaukee after her absentee bal-
lot did not show up.
“I know several people who al-
so never got their ballots,” she
said. “They had the option of com-
ing out and hoping for the best, or
sit this election out, but I didn’t
see that as an option.”
Others weren’t able to vote at
all. Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich
said in a phone interview that his
wife, who is immunocomprised,
never got her absentee ballot and
could not risk voting in person.
Hannah Gleeson, a 34-year-old
health-care worker who is 17
weeks pregnant, recently testedpositive for the coronavirus. She
is self-quarantining at home and
last week requested an absentee
ballot that has yet to arrive.
State records showed around
9,400 ballots had not been mailed
as of Tuesday morning.
The legal manoeuvring over
the election overshadowed Wis-
consin’s Democratic presidential
primary, the first nominating con-
test since March 17 in the race to
pick a challenger to Mr. Trump.
Former vice-president Joe Bi-
den holds a sizable lead over rival
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. The
pandemic has forced both candi-
dates off the campaign trail.
Wisconsin election results
won’t be released until April 13,
the deadline for absentee ballots
postmarked by Tuesday to be re-
ceived.REUTERSWisconsinvotersdefystay-at-homeorder
Lackofabsenteeballots,
clarityonprocessleads
toconfusion,frustration
amongcitizenswho
bravedlinesforlocal
andprimarycontests
DANIELACKERBELOIT,WIS.
NICHOLASPFOSISOMERSET,WIS.
BRUSSELSThe head of the Eu-
ropean Union’s top science
organization has resigned at the
height of the coronavirus crisis,
an EU spokesman said early
Wednesday.
Mauro Ferrari had only be-
come president of the European
Research Council on Jan. 1.
The news was first announced
by the Financial Times, based on
a statement released to the
paper by Dr. Ferrari, who said he
had “been extremely disappoint-
ed by the European response” to
the pandemic. He complained
about running into institutional
and political obstacles as hesought to swiftly set up a scien-
tific program to combat the
virus.
As the coronavirus spread
from China to EU countries, the
bloc was criticized for not acting
forcefully enough to set up a
co-ordinated response.
ASSOCIATEDPRESSEUSCIENCEPANELPRESIDENTQUITSOVERCORONAVIRUSRESPONSE
“Mild people are spreading it just
as much as severe cases, in fact
probably more so. And the world
- except for Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Singapore, South Korea and Chi-
na – the rest of the world sends
their mild people home and says,
‘Please, home quarantine,’ ” said
Dale Fisher, a professor of medi-
cine at the National University of
Singapore, who was among the 25
delegates in a World Health Orga-
nization mission to China in Feb-
ruary.
“And I think it’s a big mistake.
It’s like they’re all just lemmings
walking off a cliff, not learning
from countries that have suc-
ceeded.”
Chinese researchers who have
pored through the numbers
point to centralized quarantine
as a key reason Wuhan, which will
end its travel lockdown Wednes-
day after officially reporting only
two new cases in the past two
weeks, was able to limit the
spread of the virus. Numerous
questions have been raised about
the accuracy of the Chinese statis-
tics, in particular the number of
reported deaths in Wuhan.
But the closing of temporary
hospitals built to combat the vi-
rus and a broader easing of pres-
sure on the health-care system in
Wuhan have buttressed the offi-
cial argument that the worst of
the virus has, for the moment,
been kept in check in the city that
was the original epicentre of the
outbreak.
In the initial stages of the
pandemic, the rate of spread
among family members in China
was 10 per cent. Forced isolation
dropped that figure to 3 per cent,
Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiol-
ogist with the Chinese Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
said in mid-March. At one point
in early February, officials in Hu-
bei province, where Wuhan is the
capital, had more than 75,
people under medical
observation.
“This quarantine measure did
a great job in helping prevent
domestic infection. It’s brilliant,”
said Wu Tangchun, a public-
health expert at Huazhong Uni-
versity of Science and Technology
in Wuhan. “There’s no doubt that
it was a crucial factor in Wuhan’s
victory.”
He dismissed concerns about
the human-rights implications of
separating families. “Would you
rather get your children and el-
derly parents infected, or are you
willing to wait and stay away
from them for 14 days? This is a
choice between short-term and
long-term happiness. I don’t
think that’s hard to understand.”
Even after official declarations
that China has put the worst of
the outbreak behind it, central-
ized quarantine remains a central
pillar of the country’s pandemic
measures, as officials seek to fend
off the emergence of a second
wave. People flying into the coun-
try must spend 14 days ingovern-
ment-selected facilities, primarily
hotels that have been temporari-
ly repurposed for quarantine
measures, with people 15 and ol-
der in separate rooms – even if
that means splitting up couples,
or keeping parents and children
apart. On Tuesday, officials in
Beijing said they had gone two
weeks without a new case of com-
munity transmission.
The policy has forced huge
numbers of people into hotels
across the country – an ancillary
economic benefit for a hospitality
industry brought to its knees by
the outbreak.
“There’s billions of dollars in
stimulus money being spent by
government – here’s something
that aligns directly with pandem-
ic control,” a measure that’s good
for both the economy and public
health, said Craig Dalton, a
public-health expert at the Uni-
versity of Newcastle, who has
promoted “pre-emptive, low-cost
hygiene enhancement and social
distancing,” including eating
lunch alone and placing a sign onthe front door that says: “Wel-
come if you are well.”
Dr. Dalton dislikes the term
“centralized quarantine” because
of its authoritarian connotations.
He prefers “out-of-home quaran-
tine,” a practice some jurisdic-
tions in Australia have begun to
adopt, he says. In some cases,
people who are vulnerable to CO-
VID-19 because of their age or un-
derlying health conditions have
been taken out of their homes
and placed in hotels. In other
cases, people with just mild
symptoms have been isolated.
Either way, Dr. Dalton says, it’s
a crucial measure. In China,
“about 80 per cent of transmis-
sion happened in the homes, be-
cause that’s where the people
were and that’s where they were
most face to face with others.” In
the midst of the outbreak, people
are “probably most at risk inside
the house,” he said. For countries
seeking to contain COVID-19,
“out-of-home quarantine needs
to be really pushed,” he said.
In China, doctors point out
that the tough measure is neces-
sary to overcome a key obstacle to
pandemic control: human
nature.
“Home quarantine is a chal-
lenge to people’s sensibilities.
Some people can’t follow quaran-
tine orders set by virus preven-
tion departments, and that’s like-
ly to create risks for their fam-
ilies,” said Lin Ming, a pediatri-
cian at Xiehe Hospital, one of the
most important health-care facil-
ities in Wuhan.
With no vaccine yet available,
strict enforcement of isolation,
even if it separates family mem-
bers, “is definitely the best way
for us to cut off the spread of the
virus,” he said.
In a pandemic, he argued, “the
needs of individuals are subser-
vient to those of the group. Mak-
ing a small personal sacrifice, in-
cluding enduring discomfort, is
what we have to do.”WithreportingbyAlexandraLiAbarrierusedtosealoffacommunityinWuhan,China,isremovedonSunday.Thecitywillliftitstravel
lockdownonWednesdayafterreportingadeclineincoronaviruscases.NGHANGUAN/ASSOCIATEDPRESS
China:Centralizedquarantinewas‘crucial’
inWuhan’svictory,public-healthexpertsays
FROMA