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.

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

U.S. officials are warning COVID-19 could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, even with social distancing measures. Experts made the prediction at a media briefing yesterday with President Donald Trump, who warned that the country is heading for ``a very tough two weeks.'' Trump has extended social distancing guidelines through April 30th. New York is the deadliest hot spot in the U.S. with more than 15,000 deaths state wide, most of them in New York City.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government is moving forward with the private sector on agreements to purchase equipment for the response to COVID-19. He says production of ventilators, masks and test kits is now underway.One company, Thornhill Medical, says it is making 500 ventilators and hopes to have them ready within weeks.Trudeau says the government has signed letters of intent with five other firms to bolster the national stockpiles of badly needed equipment.The government is also allocating $2 billion to purchase personal protective equipment for health care professionals.

COVID-19 has caused thousands of temporary layoffs, and massive flight cancellations at Air Canada. The carrier will temporarily lay off more than 15-thousand unionized workers beginning this week. It will also cut between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of its flights. The layoffs will continue through April and May. The two-month furloughs will also affect about one-third of management and administrative and support staff.

The Tokyo Olympics will open next year in July, the same slot scheduled for this year's games. Tokyo organizers say the opening ceremony will take place July 23, 2021. That is almost exactly one year after the games were due to start this year. The IOC and Japanese organizers last week postponed the Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic. The rescheduled Olympics will start July 23, with the closing ceremony on Aug 8. The Paralympics were rescheduled to Aug 24-Sept 5.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is remaining in self-isolation at his home in Ottawa for close to two more weeks to ensure he does not have COVID-19. His wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau tweeted news of her recovery from the respiratory illness Saturday, but Trudeau says public health advice is that he remain in isolation for two weeks following her recovery. Trudeau, who first went into self-isolation on March 13 after Gregoire Trudeau was diagnosed with the illness, says there is still a chance he has the illness, and he is following the lead of many Canadians now working at home. The prim

The B.C. government says there are 92 new cases of COVID-19 in the province, for a total of 884. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says 81 people are hospitalized, including 52 in intensive care, and there has been one additional death. She says cases are continuing to increase among people who have been exposed in the last two weeks, and physical distancing remains critically important. Henry says on a positive note, nearly 400 people have recovered from the disease in B.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government is increasing a payroll subsidy to small business from 10 to 75 per cent to halt layoffs due to COVID-19. The subsidy will be retroactive to the middle of this month. Trudeau says the government still needs to hammer out the details on the implementation of this latest measure to shore up the economy. When it comes to paying for all of this, the prime minister says the government's economic foundations were strong before the pandemic and he is confident the economy will bounce back after COVID-19 passes. He hopes to provide more details by Mond