Canada's chief public health officer is warning that there will be new surges in the number of COVID-19 cases heading into the fall. Dr. Theresa Tam says the federal government is planning for what she calls a ``reasonable worst-case scenario.'' But she says health officials will also ramp up prevention measures since they are also expecting the usual flu season as well as COVID-19. The health model suggests the number of cases by August 23rd could be as high as 127,000 and the number of deaths as high as 9,115. Tam says continuing to build hospital capacity, while encouraging people to follo

A deal has been reached between the BC government and the maker of a drug that slows the progression of ALS symptoms. The Health Ministry says supplying patients with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, with the drug Radicava would cost about 120,000 dollars a year for each patient. The ministry says it expects as many as 183 patients will get coverage in the first year. The deal was worked out under the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the ministry says it meet B.C.'s cost mandate.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border will be extended another 30 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It means the two countries will continue their mutual ban on non-essential cross-border travel until at least Sept. 21. In a tweet, Blair says officials will keep doing what's necessary to keep communities safe. A formal announcement of the extension was expected to come later. The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to so-called ``discretionary'' travel like vacations and shopping trips since the pandemic took hold of the continent in mid-March. The Unit

Asylum seekers working on the front-lines of the COVID-19 crisis are getting an early chance at permanent residency in Canada.Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced the program today in response to public demand that the so-called "Guardian Angels" many in Quebec be recognized for their work in the health-care sector during the pandemic.Ordinarily, asylum seekers must wait for their claims to be accepted before they can become permanent residents, but the new program waives that requirement.To apply for residency now, they must have claimed asylum in Canada prior to March 13 and have

There are 121,234 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 60,917 confirmed (including 5,715 deaths, 53,441 resolved) Ontario: 40,367 confirmed (including 2,787 deaths, 36,689 resolved) Alberta: 11,969 confirmed (including 220 deaths, 10,713 resolved) British Columbia: 4,274 confirmed (including 196 deaths, 3,500 resolved) Saskatchewan: 1,511 confirmed (including 20 deaths, 1,325 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,071 confirmed (including 64 deaths, 1,007 resolved) Manitoba: 588 confirmed (including 8 deaths, 377 resolved), 15 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 268 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 263 reso

The RCMP says there has been an increase in the number of threats made against the prime minister and cabinet ministers. From January to July 2019, protective policing opened 100 investigations into threats, while from January to last month it launched about 130 investigations. That doesn't include the investigation police launched this week into an incident where a man yelled obscenities at a staff member at Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna's Ottawa office. Ottawa MPP Lisa MacLeod was reportedly put under police protection this week when she was threatened after speaking out against

WE Charity is scaling back its operations, making dozens of layoffs in Canada and the United Kingdom and looking to sell some of its real estate holdings in Toronto. WE Charity's U-K operations will be centralized in Canada, which means 19 full-time and contract employees in London will be laid off. At its global headquarters in Toronto, 16 full-time employees will be laid off and another 51 employees working on fixed-term contracts won't have them renewed. All this follows the uproar over the Liberal government's decision to award WE a sole-source contract to manage its student jobs program,

The Bank of Canada has cut its benchmark five-year mortgage rate to 4.79 per cent, the second cut in three months. The central bank in May had trimmed the rate to 4.94 per cent from 5.04 per cent. Three-year rates now dropped to 3.75 per cent and one-year rates remained unchanged at 3.09 per cent. The Big Six banks had already cut their advertised five-year fixed mortgage rates to the same level, though some special offers reduce rates to as little as 2.19 per cent. Lower rates risk propelling housing demand higher. The Bank of Canada's governor, Tiff Macklem, indicated about a month ago that

Canada's official fiscal watchdog says the federal wage subsidy program might cost $14 billion less than the government predicted. A new report today by Parliamentary Budget Office analyst Ben Segel-Brown estimates subsidizing wages for companies during the COVID-19 pandemic will cost $67.9 billion through the end of December.Finance Minister Bill Morneau estimated in his July fiscal report it would cost $82.3 billion.Segel-Brown says that figure was prudent at the time because of economic uncertainty and ongoing work to update the program's rules.The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy encourages