What We’re Watching: New travel restrictions for those with COVID-19 symptoms start Monday – iPolitics.ca

Week3 begins: PM out of self-isolation but still working from home

With Sophie Gregoire Trudeau now fully recovered from the bout of COVID-19 that put her husbandinto self-imposed self-isolation for 14 days, the prime minister is now officially free to venture past the stoop of Rideau Cottage, but so far, theres no indication that hes planning to take advantage of his restored mobility rights any time soon.

READ MORE:Bill with emergency COVID-19 aid becomes law; offers $2,000 benefit for workers

Instead, likethe tens of thousands of Canadiansnowon pandemic-imposed lockdown,hes expected to keep working from home for the foreseeable future aside, that is, from his regularly scheduled mid-morning forays before the cameras.

Over the weekend, he announced new restrictions on domestic travel, which, as the Star reports, will kick in on Monday at noon, and prevent anyone presenting COVID-19 like symptoms such as fever, coughing, or difficulty breathing from boarding domestic flights or inter-city train services like Via Rail.

He also rolled out another round of emergency funding earmarked for the most vulnerable Canadians: seniors, youth and the homeless, as well as women and children fleeing domestic violence.

So, whats on the prime ministerial to-do list for this week?

While he doesnt tend to share the details in advance, it will almost certainly include regular huddles with his cabinet which, of course, he can now do in person, at least in theory as well as more announcements on what his government is doing to combat the spread of the virus, although not necessarily with quite so much frequency as has been the case for the last two weeks.

One thing he can at least tentatively cross off his to-worry-about list, however, is the prospect of American troops massing in proximity to the Canada-U.S. border, which was reportedly under serious consideration by U.S. President Donald Trump, but, as per the Wall Street Journal, was abruptly dropped after Canadian officials strenuously objected to the scheme.

Two House committees set to hit virtual meeting circuit

After reopening briefly last week for what turned out to be a considerably more contentious emergency sitting than expected, the House of Commons is nowback on hiatus until April 20, buttwo key committees have gotten the green light to start holding weekly meetings in the interim to track of the governments response to the pandemic.

Courtesy of the motion adopted at the end of last weeks marathon House sitting, the House finance and health committees have been duly authorized to get together at least once per week not in person, of course, but via video or teleconference call and accessible by the public through the parliamentary website. The committees will hear from ministers, public health officials and other expert witnesses who can provide real-time updates from the frontlines of the campaign to flatten the curve.

In addition to the weekly briefing sessions, as of March 30, the finance committee will also start getting a bi-weekly report on exactly how Finance Minister Bill Morneau has been using his temporary new fiscal freedom to funnel public funds into the fight against the coronavirus, as laid out in the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act adopted byParliament last week.

The motion also stipulates that either minister or his delegate will appear before the tele-committee to discuss the contents of those reports and if a majority of committee members arent satisfied with how the government is exercising his powers under the Act, they can file a report of their own to the speaker, which would trigger a recall of the entire House.

Meanwhile, Morneau will also have to set aside time to host a bi-weekly conference call to provide his opposition critics with regular updates on his efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the crisis.

As of Sunday morning, there was still no word on when the first round of tele-meetings would take place, but considering how keen the combined opposition forces are to continue holding the minority Liberal government to account despite the break in regular parliamentaryprogramming, its a safe bet that the virtual circuit will be up and running as soon as the technology required is in place.

Conservative leadership race officially on hold until May 1

Afterweeks of resistingincreasingly frantic pleasto hit pause on the race to replace Andrew Scheer and despite a franticlast-minute push from supporters ofpresumptivefront-runner Peter MacKay to stick to the pre-pandemic schedule the Conservative Party bowed to the inevitable on Friday with the announcement that the leadership election process has been suspended, effective immediately. As a result, the June 27 convention has been cancelled, with a final decision on the post-COVID-19 timeline to be made on May 1.

READ MORE:Conservative leadership race suspended, citing non-essential business closures

In the interim, the party notes, leadership campaign fundraising has also been suspended, as the party wont be processing directed donations, while the four candidates set to face off on the ballot will be asked and encouraged to refrain from contacting party members until after May 1.

Althoughthe membership deadline has been bumped to May 15, the suspension wont offer aretroactive reprieve for now former leadership hopefuls like Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who made the initial cut to be listed as an authorized applicant only to fall short of the requirements to be designated as a verified candidate.

As for the final four which, addition to MacKay, includes Conservative MP Erin OToole, who is widely viewed as a close second to MacKays, as well as rookie MP Derek Sloan and Toronto-based activist Leslyn Lewis it will be fascinating to see how their respective teams will deal with the party-imposed ban on fundraising and outreach.

Then again, given the ongoing lockdown, its not as though any of them would have been booking venues for in-person rallies.

As for MacKay, he may come to regret his very public pitch for the contest to carry on as planned during a Canada-wide public health crisis, particularly his much-retweeted two-word response to CTV News host Evan Solomon.

After all, depending on how the party decides to proceed, this could wind up being the first-ever leadership battle to be waged nearly entirely via social media messaging and meme drives, and its doubtful thatMacKays most recent tour of the political TV circuit will garner many votes from either rank-and-fileparty members or the undecided voters he hopes to win over when he leads his party into the next general election.