B.C. was expected to experience less severe economic fallout than other provinces because it was in a better fiscal position heading into the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing it to provide large amounts of fiscal stimulus, according to the think tank’s economic outlook released on Monday.
Also, along with P.E.I. and Manitoba, lower per capita Covid-19 cases mean B.C. would likely suffer smaller economic declines.
The report forecasted a relatively modest contraction of 5.5% for B.C. in 2020, and an expansion of 6.7% in 2021.
As Canada continues to battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, parents and their children are preparing to face a very different school year with a return to classes weeks away.
While safety precautions in the classroom will vary depending on where you live, some parents still worry about the risk of sending their children back to the classroom with some choosing not to return to in-person classes at all.
From fears about taking the school bus to contracting COVID-19, CTVNews.ca asked viewers to submit their concerns about sending their children back to school. To help address some of their questions, CTVNews.ca spoke with infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy.
An article by Rabble yesterday said, with fingers pointing at Alberta, “Its political leaders, by allowing corporate interests to design the economy to their own benefit, have squandered the province’s vast natural wealth, leaving Alberta’s citizens with a mere fraction of what they could be enjoying today, even with the downturn in world oil prices.”
Suncor and Shell are off in other countries investing in energy projects. Major investors, corporations and banks are pulling their support out of Alberta. The rats are jumping ship. We’ve been left with an empty puppet in charge, who has squandered out bank accounts. Now he’s throwing our pension money and CPP at them — hollering, “Come back!! We have more…” Is the Heritage Trust fund even safe? Can Premier Jason Kenney continue to lead the province without the corporate sponsors that were guiding him? Is he capable?
We need a green new deal.
No, wait! I can explain…
Other places have been hard hit by Covid19 and oil profits declining. During the decline, some of these places are keeping their economies afloat by investing in renewable energy. Why can’t we? A Green New Deal would put the province to work building renewable energy sources. Okay, I see some of you shaking your heads… But it would:
put people back to work
stimulate the economy
encourage what investors we have left to stick around a little longer (because they told us we needed to do this)
reduce energy costs
open markets
I know some of you don’t believe that wind, hydro, and solar can replace oil & gas. But it doesn’t have to. However, oil & gas is not stimulating the economy or putting anyone back to work. And yes, it’s salable. We have British Columbia just over there making deals with the United States to bring in lower priced green energy to power their grids. If we were smart and innovative enough, we could have that market, plus lower our own energy costs.
The World Bank group is investing in renewable energy projects in over 100 countries to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response. They are offering $160 billion in financial support.
Bloomberg reported last year: “The market triumph of renewable energy marks the biggest victory yet in the fight against global warming. Solar and wind are proliferating not because of moral do-gooders but because they’re now the most profitable part of the power business in most of the world. An industry that once relied on heavy subsidies and was propped up by government mandates is now increasingly standing on its own.”
In an opinion piece on the CB,C by Graham Thomson, he said, “As Kenney proudly itemized the government’s achievements in the marathon session “to get Albertans back to work,” Total announced more sobering news.
“The French-based energy company declared that it is writing off $9.3-billion worth of oilsands assets in Alberta. Translation: We don’t have much faith in the future of the oilsands.
“Translation: Oh boy, the price of oil isn’t going to rebound. Ready the lifeboats; prepare to abandon ship.”
Linda McQuaig said in her article, ‘How Alberta capitulated to Big Oil and left Albertans poorer’ that “the real measure of success is what one makes of the hand one is dealt. And, by that measure, Alberta has been a train wreck.”
As school boards across Ontario consider reopening in September, parents worry about two things: Will my children and I be safe, and will my children learn appropriately?
A student tries out a new face shield to fight the coronavirus pandemic at a school in Cologne, Germany, in May 2020. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
The Ottawa School Board proposes to reopen its 72 schools five days a week in September. Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, supports the board. She recommended “starting with five days of school in-person and working to make this as safe as possible through reasonable and feasible infection prevention and control measures ….”
Unsafe premise
The error of Dr. Etches’ analysis begins with an unsafe premise — schools must reopen in September.
The first question should be whether schools can implement public health measures by September that will reduce risk of virus outbreaks to acceptable proportions. The answer to that question in many Ontario municipalities is no.
Furniture sits in an empty corridor at a school in Brampton, Ont., on July 23, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Other Ontario school boards are considering hybrid solutions — bringing back half their students on Mondays and Tuesdays, the other half on Thursdays and Fridays, and variations of this concept. This idea is unsafe.
Asymptomatic carriers among the returnees could transmit the virus to their classmates whether half, a third or a quarter of the student body attends.
Ontario boards failed woefully to educate students online from March through June. Since the proposal contains no measures to improve the education children will get online, the hybrid concept will simply continue this failure. It will also compromise face-to-face classrooms by deleting 60 per cent of instruction in them.
Reopen in January at the earliest
Ontario school boards should plan to reopen schools in January or September 2021. They should start now to renovate schools for safety protocols. Boards should work with the federal and provincial governments to develop resources to test each child for the virus every day.
Several companies and academic laboratories are developing easy-to-use diagnostic tests that could be used by schools, including a spit-test that looks for traces of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Federal and provincial governments should organize, fund and fast-track getting this, and similar tests, into schools for January or September 2021.
Boards should invest heavily now in remote education. Remote learning is a relatively new science that arose out of a revolution in educational theory and produced distinctive educational practices. It is interactive, student-centred, digital — altogether different from reproducing existing classroom practices online, as occurred from March through June.
Six-year-old Peyton Denette works on her speech and language skills with speech-language pathologist Olivia Chiu of Two Can Talk remotely from her home in Mississauga, Ont., in March 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Specialists to help teachers transform their courses into proper remote formats need to be hired, tech resources for universal and equal access must be purchased and people trained how to use them. Educators and staff should be trained in remote learning techniques.
Teachers, students need support
All of this will take time, leadership and investments. Teachers cannot become experts at remote education on their own. And students need help to adapt.
Children should return to school when the virus is sufficiently under control in their community and their school is made safe. Until then — which will not be this September — boards should concentrate on providing leadership and resources to make schools safe and enable superior remote learning.
The investments made now will pay back for years to come as elementary and secondary education is transformed.
We have in front of us a challenge and an opportunity, both of monumental importance. We have tens of thousands of great teachers waiting to rise to the challenge. Boards should empower them to seize the opportunity.
“We expected to see COVID-19 affecting renewable energy investment in the first half, via delays in the financing process and to some auction programs,” said BNEF Head of Analysis Albert Cheung. “There are signs of that in both solar and onshore wind, but the overall global figure has proved amazingly resilient—thanks to offshore wind.”
