Vital updates:

• The Ontario government is returning to the legislature today, and has announced that its priorities for the upcoming session will include:
  • Investing in Ontario’s health care system to ensure the province is prepared for a potential second wave of COVID-19 and for any future public health challenges;
  • Building Ontario’s production capacity for personal protective equipment, ventilators and other medical gear so the province never has to rely on any other jurisdiction again for these critical supplies;
  • Protecting families and those most vulnerable and helping them get back on their feet as the province reopens;
  • Helping young people and workers receive the skills training they need to join the modern workforce and contribute to the recovery of the province;
  • Accelerating the construction of critical highway, transit and broadband infrastructure projects to create jobs and boost the local economies of communities across Ontario;
  • Providing relief to Mainstreet Ontario and small business owners so they can recover from the impact of COVID-19 faster and get back to the work of building their business; and
  • Expanding manufacturing by creating the conditions to bring investment and jobs to the province and world-class, Ontario-made products to consumers around the world.
• A resolution on a guaranteed basic income will be top priority at the Liberal Party policy convention in November. No policy specifics have been announced, and this does not guarantee that a basic income will become law or even a Liberal Party policy.
• The head of the Ontario Hospital Association is warning that increasing COVID-19 case rates could lead to another provincial lockdown. Premier Ford has previously stated that the “uptick” in cases, as he put it, was not enough to trigger a rollback of the re-opening, but he also did not rule it out. With the number of COVID-19 cases on a steady increase again, businesses and organizations would be well-advised to consider contingency plans for a rollback of previous re-opening legislation, or even a province-wide lockdown, this fall or winter.

Reading recommendations:

• Bank CEOs said to warn Feds against spiraling Canada debt, Shelly Hagan, BNN Bloomberg
• How to land a job when companies have shifted to virtual hiring, Joshua Bourdage, Eden-Raye Lukacik, Nicolas Roulin, The Conversation
• The Great Rethink: If Canada wants to stay a trading nation it needs to up its game, Gabriel Friedman, Financial Post