According to Statistics Canada’s April labour force survey Canada lost a staggering 2 million jobs in April as the coronavirus shut down the Canadian economy.

The government agency reported on Friday that the unemployment rate increased by 5.2% in April to 13%.

“In April, both full-time (-1,472,000; -9.7%) and part-time (-522,000; -17.1%) employment fell. Cumulative losses since February totalled 1,946,000 (-12.5%) in full-time work and 1,059,000 (-29.6%) in part-time employment,” the agency wrote.

Statistics Canada reports that since the economic shutdown began in February, 2 million people have lost their jobs and another 2.5 million have seen their hours significantly reduced.

Their report also added that the job losses seen as a result of Canada’s economic shutdown are unprecedented, even when compared to past recessions.

“Total unemployment grew by 1,285,000 (+113.3%) from February to April. By comparison, during the 1981-1982 recession unemployment rose by 763,000 (+88.6%) over the course of 16 months,” Statistics Canada wrote.

“In April, almost all (97.0%) of the newly-unemployed were on temporary layoff (not seasonally adjusted), indicating that they expected to return to their former employer as the shutdown is relaxed.”

When broken down by province, Quebec saw the largest decrease in total employment (-18.7%) and Saskatchewan saw the smallest (-12.7%).

Amongst the worst hit sectors were the accommodation and food services (-49.1%), construction (-19.8%) and wholesale and retail trade (-19.7%).

In previous months the Trudeau government had announced massive aid packages to Canadians and businesses to help them deal with the coronavirus-related shutdowns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an $82 billion aid package in March to help aid the Canadian economy — the package was equivalent to 3% of Canada’s GDP.

When additional announcements such as an increased wage subsidy for some businesses and a $9 billion emergency benefit for students are added, the total of government aid spending rises to $145.6 billion.

In April the Parliamentary Budget Officer projected that the federal deficit will increase from $27.4 billion in 2019-20 to $184.2 billion in 2020-21.

The PBO also projects that the budget to GDP ratio will increase to 8.5% in 2020-2021 — the highest ratio since the Second World War.

While Canada is on lockdown, left-wing activists are keeping busy by getting people fired from their jobs.

An Ontario realtor and school council chair was fired from both positions after he questioned a tweet by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown about permitting a daily Islamic call to prayer to be broadcast publicly. 

Several cities in the Greater Toronto Area have altered bylaws or granted exemptions for mosques to broadcast their Islamic call to prayer out loud. 

In his now-deleted tweet, Ravi Hooda replied to the Brown’s statement asking whether the city would allow separate lanes for camels and goats or if there would be a bylaw requiring women to “cover themselves from head to toe in tents.” 

Shortly after he published the remarks, a number of people flooded Hooda’s timeline accusing him of Islamophobia and calling for him to be removed from his position. 

Left-wing activists with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) also joined in on the dogpile by publishing Hooda’s employment information.

CAHN is modelled after the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). They have been accused of ignoring far-left and Islamist extremism in the past.   

Currently, CAHN founder Bernie Farber is involved in a lawsuit with reformed white-supremacist Elisa Hategan, who claims that he allegedly participated in appropriating her life story. 

Despite apologizing for the remarks “unconditionally,” Peel District School Board and RE/MAX Canada announced that Hooda was removed from both positions. 

“We do not share or support the views of Mr. Hooda. We can confirm he has been terminated and is no longer affiliated with RE/MAX,” wrote the official RE/MAX Canada twitter account. 

“The Principal has begun an investigation. The individual is being removed from their role as School Council Chair and won’t be able to participate on council in any other capacity,” also claimed the official Peel District School Board Twitter account. 

Hospital wait times last year cost Canadians $2.1 billion in lost wages and productivity, a new study suggests.

According to a report from the Fraser Institute, over one million people had to wait for medically necessary procedures, costing each person around $1,963 on average. 

While these data were from 2019 – prior to the coronavirus pandemic – the study predicts the cost could increase due to coronavirus measures requiring elective procedures to be delayed or cancelled. 

“Healthcare workers across Canada should be commended for the superb job they’re doing to get us through this global pandemic. However, once elective surgeries are allowed to proceed again, they will likely face further challenges as they tackle the ever-increasing backlog of patients waiting for care,” said the Institute’s associate director of health policy studies Bacchus Barua.  

Data from the Fraser Institute’s 2019 Waiting Your Turn study were used to arrive at the results. The study found people waited a median time of 10.8 weeks for specialist appointments. 

The Fraser Institute called its estimate “conservative” because it did not take into accounts the additional 10.1-week wait to see specialists after receiving a referral. 

“Even before we started postponing surgeries as a result of COVID-19, patients across Canada were waiting a significant amount of time, and long health-care wait times mean lost wages and a reduced quality of life for patients,” said Barua. 

“Now is the time to consider policy options that may benefit patients and alleviate strain on our public health-care system once the COVID- 19 crisis has run its course.”

Alberta reported the largest estimated losses due to waiting for healthcare with $495 million lost. Alberta was followed closely behind by Ontario, which the Fraser Institute estimates lost $488 million due to wait times. 

Both Alberta and Ontario have recently announced that they will be resuming some elective surgeries as the provinces begin to ease some of the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis joined The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss a push to fix the Liberal government’s definition of “conversion therapy” in a bill that, as it’s presently worded, means even candid conversations among family members about gender and sexuality could be construed illegal.

Watch the full episode of the show here.

Murphy Oil is closing its office in Calgary and relocating to Houston due to the recent decline in the energy sector.

In a statement on Wednesday Murphy Oil, an oil and natural gas exploration company, announced it will be closing its offices in both Calgary and Arkansas as a cost-cutting measure.

“We realize, reluctantly, that we need to consolidate our offices to capture additional cost savings to remain competitive in this unprecedented industry environment,” Murphy Oil Chairman Claiborne Deming said.

“We simply do not have a choice and came to this decision only after exhausting all other cost saving measures.”

The move will put approximately 110 Calgarians out of work.

“The company recognizes the hardship this decision causes to many in [Arkansas] and Calgary, and we are committed to treating all those impacted consistent with past practices and plan to offer appropriate severance arrangements,” said CEO Roger Jenkins.

Murphy Oil attributes the move to extremely low oil prices seen over the past few months. The firm reported a loss of $416 million USD in the first quarter of 2020.

The CEO and company executives have also taken a pay cut.

Calgary has been faced with significant hardship over the past few years as the lack of pipelines, hostile government regulations and low oil prices have caused many energy firms to leave the city or downsize.

In December Husky Energy laid off 370 employees, and in November Encana announced it will soon be relocating to the United States.

The decline in the energy sector and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have led to an increase in unemployment and record levels of stress reported by Calgarians.

The story of Calgary’s drastic decline can be is told in True North’s in-depth documentary Calgary in Crisis — The tragic story of Alberta’s drastic decline. 

“Calgary was an exciting place, full of interesting people, living at the frontier of Canada’s thriving energy industry,” True North’s Founder Candice Malcolm says in Calgary in Crisis.

“Today, however, things are very different. With political uncertainty and policies adversarial to the energy industry in Alberta, the city has been ravaged by economic collapse.”