Finance Minister Bill Morneau says wage subsidies for large and small businesses will cost about $71 billion. The program is expected to offset the cost of emergency benefits for workers, and reduce spending on those benefits to $24 billion. The wage subsidy will be available to large and small businesses who have lost significant revenue due to COVID-19. Morneau has encouraged businesses to rehire employees they may have laid off in the wake of COVID-19, and says the wage subsidy will be available in six weeks.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault says the number of COVID-19 cases in the province is now 4,611, an increase of 449 over yesterday. There were also two new deaths, bringing the provincial total to 33. Legault says there are 519 seniors' residences with at least one case, which he described as a source of concern for the province.

Six planes carrying Canadians stranded in Africa and Europe are to touch down today in the government's effort to repatriate travellers stranded by COVID-19. Global Affairs Canada says the planes will arrive from Algeria, Ecuador, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Hungary and Spain. The department says the government is planning more flights from Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Peru, Algeria, Poland and Pakistan in the coming days. Plans are also being made for several fights from India, starting on April 4 and continuing for the next four days until April 7. The government is rei

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says confusion over who is eligible for the government's promised wage subsidy must be cleared up. Scheer says the legislation as written and hastily passed by Parliament last week doesn't jibe with the Liberals' pledge. The government has said that all companies will get 75 per cent of salaries covered, if they've lost 30 percent of their revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's a departure from the original plan to cover just 10 per cent of salaries for small businesses. Scheer says his party is ready to return to Parliament to amend the law if needed bu

Alberta is reporting 64 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the province's total to 754. The province's chief medical health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, says another resident has also died at Calgary's McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre. She says up to 75 of the total number of cases appear to have been caused by community transmission, and that is concerning.

Canada's chief public health officer says there have now been 236,000 tests in Canada for COVID-19. Dr. Theresa Tam says 3.5 per cent are confirmed positive, and more than 93 per cent confirmed negative. She says adults under 40 represent about 10 per cent of hospitalizations. Tam says the greatest concern at the moment is the introduction and spread of the virus in places where high-risk populations reside, including long-term care homes, remote First Nations and prisons.

The federal government has purchased 157 million surgical masks and more than 60 million N95 masks, used by health-care professional to stop the spread of COVID-19. There are also 1,570 ventilators on order, with officials looking to secure 4,000 more. Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand laid out the state of the government's bulk buy efforts today.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is monitoring closely the spread of COVID-19 among health professionals who live in Canada but work in the U.S. Reports suggest many of the cases in Windsor, Ont., are a result of cross-border travel for essential work. That's the only reason people are currently allowed to cross the border. Freeland says stepped up measures have been put in place at the hospitals on the U.S. and Canadian side of the border.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is warning the province could run out of some kinds of medical supplies in three to seven days. He made the announcement as the total number of cases in Quebec rose to 4,162, which is an increase of 732 from yesterday. There were also six more deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the province's death toll to 31. Legault said he hopes new shipments of medical supplies will arrive in coming days, and thanked Ontario Premier Doug Ford for agreeing to send Quebec some equipment.