Good evening, let’s start with today’s latest COVID-19 developments:
Quebec has become the first province in Canada to announce a financial penalty for residents who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Adult Quebeckers who won’t get vaccinated and don’t have a medical exemption will be forced to pay a health “contribution,” Premier Francois Legault told reporters today. He added the amount of the penalty hasn’t been decided but will be “significant.”
He made the announcement today at a press conference in which he also named Luc Boileau as the province’s interim Public Health Director, following the resignation yesterday of Horacio Arruda.
Figures released today show COVID-19 hospitalizations on the rise in the province and elsewhere, with Quebec reporting 2,742 including 255 in intensive care units while Ontario has 3,220 in hospital and 477 ICU patients.
After Ontario said late last night that it intends to reopen schools for in-person learning next Monday, the province today provided guidance saying that only certain students and teachers who show symptoms of COVID-19 will have access to PCR tests.
Nationally: Following a conference call with premiers yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement, pledging that the provinces and territories will have enough COVID-19 vaccines to provide everyone eligible booster shots and fourth doses if they become necessary.
Internationally: With the Beijing Olympic Games set to open Feb. 4, Anyang has become the third Chinese city to lock down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in the country to about 20 million people.
Opinion: Canada has enough vaccine to give a shot to every child. So why isn’t that happening? - Globe editorial
Read more: It’s too soon to treat COVID-19 like the flu as Omicron spreads, the World Health Organization says
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Bridging Finance’s controlling shareholder in talks to sell family business Coco Paving
The controlling shareholders of troubled Bridging Finance, Jenny and Rock-Anthony Coco, are in talks to sell their family road-paving business, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Coco Paving has grown substantially over its 50-year history, particularly through its 2009 acquisition of multinational Lafarge SA’s road-paving assets in Ontario and Quebec.
The current sale talks coincide with the continuing scandal at private lender Bridging, where hundreds of millions of dollars from 26,000 predominately retail investors have disappeared.
Read more: How Bridging Finance fooled Bay Street – and hundreds of millions of dollars disappeared
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Canadian beef imports halted: China has suspended imports of Canadian beef following the discovery of an atypical case of BSE, or mad cow disease, on an Alberta farm last month. The Philippines and South Korea have also halted imports based on the discovery.
Fed chair Powell testifies: U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a congressional hearing that pointed to his likely confirmation for a second term as head of the U.S. central bank, said the economy should weather the current COVID-19 surge with only “short-lived” impacts and was ready for the start of tighter monetary policy.
Djokovic practises as visa questions linger: Novak Djokovic held a practice session today, a day after he left immigration detention, focusing on defending his Australian Open title even while he still faces the prospect of deportation because he’s not vaccinated against COVID-19.
MARKET WATCH
U.S. stock indexes gained ground today, with Nasdaq leading the advance, as investors appeared relieved that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress did not include any major surprises. Canada’s main stock index also advanced, with energy stocks leading advancers, thanks to a sharp rally in oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183.15 points or 0.51 per cent to 36,252.02, the S&P 500 gained 42.78 points or 0.92 per cent to 4,713.07 points, and the Nasdaq Composite added 210.45 points or 1.41 per cent to end at 15,153.45.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 202.49 points or 0.96 per cent to 21,274.81. The loonie gained 0.87 per cent to 79.533 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
Ontario is playing politics with classroom learning, with kids as the collateral damage
“The absence of a clear, empirical explanation for closing schools in January – and, even more conspicuously, for announcing they will open now, as hospitalizations are climbing – indicates that something else is driving these decisions.” - Robyn Urback
By pandering to the unvaccinated, Erin O’Toole remains offside with most Canadians
“For the most part, Canadians are a tolerant bunch, but they have lost all patience for vaccine holdouts and the incomprehensibility of their position.” - Gary Mason
LIVING BETTER
Listen and learn: Even people who don’t follow usually tennis have been rivetted to the recent saga of Novak Djokovic, the tennis superstar who is off the court for his anti-vaccination views. The Australian Open granted him a medical exemption to compete, but when he tried to enter the country, he was detained at the border, then ordered released after a hearing. On today’s episode of The Decibel podcast, tennis journalist Caitlin Thompson explains why Djokovic was detained, and what makes him such a polarizing figure in the tennis world, and why this may not be the end of the story.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Vancouver waterfront in need of repairs after severe winter storm
Third Beach littered with debris after a windstorm in Stanley Park, Vancouver, on Jan. 10, 2022.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail
After a severe winter storm that crumbled portions of Stanley Park’s seawall and hurled logs and other debris across area beaches last week, the Vancouver Park Board says it has no idea how much time or money it will take to undertake repairs of long stretches of waterfront.
The damage from the king-tide surge that coincided with high winds last Friday is prompting the city’s park commissioners to consider what to prioritize as they expect a multimillion-dollar repair bill. Those choices include delaying or abandoning a planned restoration of the Jericho Pier on the Kitsilano shore, which had been closed already because of previous storm damage.
It will likely also lead to a longer conversation about how the park board should plan for all of its shoreline, given the likelihood of even bigger king tides and damage as climate change accelerates and sea levels rise. Read Frances Bula’s full story here.
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