Tag: COVID-19

Starr’s Point Index #6

Starr’s Point Index #6

Posted by | Jan 19, 2021 | |

Pandemic Number of countries reporting more cumulative cases of COVID-19 than Canada to Nov. 30, 2020: 28 Number of Countries reporting more cases than Canada to Jan. 15, 2021: 21 Canada’s increase in cumulative COVID-19 cases Nov. 30-Jan. 15: 85.3% Number of top 30 countries with faster rates of increase than Canada Nov. 20-Jan.15: 3 Country with fastest rate: Turkey 272.6%[1] Number of reported COVID-19 deaths in England as of Jan. 18, 2021: 78,636 [2] Number of reported COVID-19 deaths African continent to Jan. 14, 2021: 76,480[3]   Business insolvencies Number of insolvency filings by Canadian businesses second and...

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Pandemic Update: Another month of troubling numbers

Pandemic Update: Another month of troubling numbers

Posted by | Jan 3, 2021 | , |

It’s déjà vu all over again. As has been the situation for some months, what’s left of the Atlantic bubble did its job in December while the country’s overall rate of increase in COVID cases was once again higher than the United States. Confirmed cases in Canada increased by 53.8 per cent in December, compared with an increase of 46.4 per cent in the U.S. On a positive note, the rate of increase in both countries in December was down from November. And as the table shows, Canada’s rate of increase in December was 7.4 percentage points less than...

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CEWS blues: Let them eat cake – or play golf

CEWS blues: Let them eat cake – or play golf

Posted by | Dec 21, 2020 | |

Nearly half a billion to Air Canada and $120 million to Imperial Oil from CEWS received scant attention. And paying out dividends by long-term care operators while their residents were dying of COVID-19 didn’t quite elevate to the level of a political foofaraw. But maybe the circa-million dollar wage subsidy windfall for the Royal Ottawa Golf Club will do it. Last week, as the Prime Minister was trying with soothing words to un-ruin the holiday season for 441,000 audit-exposed recipients of the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), it was revealed that thanks to CEWS – the Canada Emergency Wage...

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COVID Update: Pandemic to worsen before getting better

COVID Update: Pandemic to worsen before getting better

Posted by | Dec 5, 2020 | , |

It has become a familiar story. Once again, Canada’s COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising faster than the U.S. In November, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada increased by 61.2 per cent, versus 47.5 per cent in the U.S. Both increases exceeded the October rate and in Canada’s case represented almost a three-fold rise since the first of September. Over the same three months, cases in the U.S. merely doubled. And deaths in Canada, which lagged well behind the increase in the U.S. for September and October, rose by 19.7 per cent in November, compared with only 16.0 in...

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New book says Canada needs to fight climate change like we fought the Nazis

New book says Canada needs to fight climate change like we fought the Nazis

Posted by | Nov 17, 2020 | , |

Timing may not be everything but it is important. Seth Klein was putting the finishing touches on his climate crisis call to arms A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency when COVID-19 hit. The war metaphors for the fight against the virus followed almost immediately and continued at many pandemic constrained Remembrance Day ceremonies last week. For now at least the pandemic and the resulting economic disruption have resulted in governments spending what it takes to wage war against the virus threat. Parallels have been drawn with World War II when the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 100...

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Richard Starr, The man behind the Point

About Richard

RICHARD STARR has had careers as a journalist, public servant, broadcaster, political staffer and freelance policy adviser. He is author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, a former radio and TV producer and weekly newspaper editor, and the author of three non-fiction books. Starr has lived in Dartmouth for more than 30 years.

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