Good morning everyone. Bon vendredi tout le monde.
I’m happy to be joined today by Ministers Leblanc, Hajdu, and Anand, as well as by Dr. Tam and Dr. Njoo.
First, let me begin by saying that it is with deep sadness this morning that we all learned of the passing of His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh.
Prince Philip was a man of service, motivated by a sense of duty to others.
I know that through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, he helped empower millions of young people from all backgrounds, including here in Canada, to realize their greatest potential.
And that’s just one example of his many contributions.
Le prince Philip était un époux, un père, un grand-père et un arrière-grand-père bien-aimé.
Mes pensées, et les pensées de tous les Canadiens, accompagnent la reine Elizabeth II et tous les membres de la famille royale.
La hausse des cas de COVID-19 continue d’être inquiétante.
Dans plusieurs endroits au pays, des mesures plus strictes sont nécessaires pour freiner la propagation du virus.
Mercredi, lors de notre 29e rencontre des premiers ministres des provinces et des territoires, j’ai répété aux premiers ministres qu’ils peuvent compter sur le soutien continu du gouvernement fédéral.
On est là pour tous les Canadiens.
Si vous en avez besoin, il y a plusieurs programmes en place pour vous aider.
Si, par exemple, vous devez manquer du travail parce qu’un de vos jeunes enfants est malade, ou que son école est fermée, vous pourriez être éligible à la Prestation canadienne de la relance économique pour proches aidants.
Si vous êtes incapable de travailler parce que vous êtes malade ou que vous devez vous isoler en raison de la COVID-19, vous pourriez être éligible à la Prestation canadienne de maladie pour la relance économique.
Ces programmes peuvent vous fournir de l’aide financière, que vous soyez salarié ou travailleur indépendant.
Alors, à toutes les mères et les pères de famille qui travaillent fort, et aux autres personnes qui ont besoin de soutien, n’hésitez pas à aller sur le site Canada.ca/le-coronavirus pour avoir toute l’information sur nos différents programmes.
Il faut faire tout ce qu’on peut pour combattre cette troisième vague.
Chaque effort compte et chaque effort peut sauver des vies.
Right now, we’re seeing more and more young people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
So to young people – there are more contagious and more serious variants out there.
Even if you’re younger, you can get very sick – very, very quickly – or you can give the virus to someone you love who can get very sick.
I know you’ve already done so much and sacrificed so much, but we just need you to hang in there a little bit longer.
And to people of every age, we still need your help. Together, we’re going to get through this.
Our path out of this pandemic is vaccines.
So that’s my number one focus.
Vaccine delivery and rollout is something I talked about with the premiers on Wednesday.
So far, we’ve delivered more than 10.5 million doses to the provinces and territories.
And I know that they’re working to get these shots into the arms of Canadians as fast as possible.
This is a true team effort, especially now that we’re in the ramp-up phase of the vaccine rollout.
Every day, more grandparents and parents are sharing their vaccine selfies on family group chats.
Every day, more Canadians are safer.
Vaccines are saving lives and that’s why we’re doing everything we can to get more and more doses to the front lines.
Until the end of May, we’re scheduled to receive a million doses a week of the Pfizer vaccine.
In June, we’ll have almost 2 million doses a week delivered from Pfizer alone.
For Moderna, we’ll be receiving 2 million doses in April, and almost 3 million in May.
And we’re anticipating to receive over 7 million in June.
What this all means is that by the end of June, we can expect to have received at least 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.
Our government is in close contact with all companies that have approved COVID-19 vaccines in Canada to get the latest information on shipment schedules and amounts.
Everyone is working around the clock to make sure Canadians are safe.
This is true on vaccines, and it’s true on a whole range of other things people need to stay healthy.
On that front, I can confirm that we’re extending the support of the Canadian Red Cross until the end of September for up to 27 long-term care and retirement homes in Ontario, as necessary.
The Red Cross will continue to help each home with their individual needs, while supporting better infection prevention and control measures.
Every senior deserves to be safe and to live in dignity, and we’ll always be there for the residents of long-term care homes and their hard-working staff.
To all of the Canadian Red Cross employees and volunteers, and to everyone at the Government Operations Centre who helps coordinate these deployments – thank you.
You’re doing incredible work.
On espère tous que la pandémie sera bientôt derrière nous.
Ce matin, on a appris que 303 000 emplois se sont ajoutés à l’économie canadienne pendant le mois de mars, ce qui comprend des emplois à temps plein et à temps partiel.
Le taux de chômage est tombé à son plus bas depuis février de l’année passée.
C’est une nouvelle encourageante, mais il reste encore beaucoup de travail à faire.
On sait que plusieurs personnes sont encore sans emploi ou ont des heures réduites, d’autant plus que de nouvelles restrictions sont mises en place à travers le pays.
We will continue to be there for families, workers, and small businesses.
For those who need support, we’ve created the Canada Recovery Benefit and we’ve strengthened Employment Insurance.
For hard-hit businesses, we have measures in place that you can count on like the wage subsidy and the Canada Emergency Business Account.
Of course, there’s also the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy that can help your business or organization directly, including with additional supports if you’re affected by lockdowns.
As I’ve said from the start, we’ll be here with the support you need.
On that note, on April 19, we will present our 2021 Budget.
We’ll continue to focus on our plan to keep Canadians safe and healthy.
We’ll also share more about our plan to create good, middle-class jobs so we can rebuild an economy that works for everyone.
The pandemic has highlighted – and worsened – far too many gaps in our society.
That’s something we’ll keep working on to address.
And as we do, we’ll continue to stand up for what matters to Canadians, whether that’s finding a good, well-paying job, staying healthy, or having our kids breathe clean air.
These are your priorities, so they’re our priorities too and they’re priorities on which we will continue to deliver.
As we’ve seen over the past year, it’s vital that we all work together to get through this crisis.
So that’s why I’ll be inviting all party leaders to meet individually with me to discuss the upcoming budget early next week.
Avant de terminer, je veux encore remercier tout le monde qui fait des efforts pour aider à lutter contre la pandémie.
Que ce soit les travailleurs de la santé qui sont fatigués et qui s’inquiètent pour leurs patients, les travailleurs essentiels qui sont toujours au poste malgré les risques d’attraper le virus ou tous les gens à la maison qui font attention et qui respectent les consignes de santé publique.
Merci, et on ne lâche pas!
Il y a de plus en plus de gens vaccinés et ensemble, on va passer à travers.
Merci.
