The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Some Leaders Just Tell The Truth. Period. No Spin, No Lies.

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

She does it again ... straight talk from Angela Merkel. We should all take note.Plus Saskatchewan outlines its reopen plan, and a feature interview on how the charities we depend on are in deep trouble because of the virus crisis.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest edition the latest episode of the bridge daily here we are at th Thursday already of week six. Time just flying by. You know, it's slow some days in isolation. Other days it seems to be like speeded up. Here in Stratford, there was another one of those kind of weird days. Here we are nearing the end of April, and yet it's still freezing outside. And every once in a while you see snow flurries.

It's nuts. On the other hand, if it was your bright, warm spring day, it'd be nuts because you'd want to go outside, and you'd want to get out there, and you'd want to be doing things, and you'd want to be enjoying spring outside. So it's a, you know, double-edged sword here. Nevertheless, we're in isolation and you know what? We're staying calm and we're carrying on. Interesting to see today the first of the Canadian provinces

that formally came out with its reopen plan. Now, if you've been watching some of the reopen plans south of the border, they're crazy. And you never know exactly what they're going to do because they keep changing their mind. One day it's this, one day it's that. One day the president is all gung-ho for a state like Georgia to do what it's saying it's going to do, and the next day he's saying, no, no, no, that would be crazy to do that. So it's chaotic on parts of the situation in the states on reopening. Not so here.

At least I didn't think so. Saskatchewan was the first province to give its sense of how it plans to reopen. Premier Scott Moe gave it today. It's not happening today in terms of the reopen. Won't happen until May 4th. That's assuming everything continues as it's going. Saskatchewan and Manitoba next door have been pretty good on the numbers. They've had problems, but they have not had overwhelming problems like some other provinces.

So Premier Moe announces today that Phase 1 of the reopen will start on May 4th, and it's very low-key. It's very cautionary. You know, roughly, first phase allows medical services to resume with, you know, a number of precautionary measures, looser restrictions on outdoor activities like fishing. It's okay, you can go fish. And for many people in Saskatchewan, fishing is not an issue where you're going to have physical distancing issues. Anyway, businesses will be expected to continue to follow distancing rules.

People are expected to stay home if sick. Restrictions lifted in phases in accordance with the Reopen Saskatchewan plan. And so phase one is May 4th. Phase two isn't until May 19th. And it would allow certain retail businesses and select personal services to reopen. That's phase two. Phase three won't kick in until they've studied how phase one and two have done and whether it's had an impact, negative or positive. That will determine what happens with Phase 3.

So a very carefully structured reopen plan in Saskatchewan as things start. Now, I found that interesting in light of what we witnessed and have witnessed in the last few days in the U.S., kind of craziness of how some of their states are considering a reopen. Tattoo parlors in Georgia, that's right. That's an essential service. Let's get those tattoo parlors in Georgia. That's right. That's an essential service. Let's get those tattoo parlors open. My God, we need them.

Anyway. You know who I think is leader number one, because I've talked about her a number of times. Angela Merkel in Germany, the Chancellor, she had a great quote today. Some are calling it leadership through honesty. Here it is. Nobody likes to hear this, but it is the truth.

We are not living through the final phase of this crisis. We are still at its beginning. We will still have to live with this virus for a long time. Angela Merkel, speaking in Germany today. How many leaders have you heard say that? Well, there have been some. And there have been others who are trying to deny that basic

fact. This isn't over. This isn't even nearly over. We're still at the beginning. And it's going to last a long time. One of the ways it'll be stopped dead in its tracks is if, bingo, they find a vaccine and it's proven to be successful. Or they come up with antivirals that will blunt the impact of COVID-19,

if you have it. Well, we're still looking for both of those. And it was encouraging to see the Canadian government plowing yet more money into the search for a vaccine. Last week, we highlighted the work going on at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. That lab is one of Canada's leading labs looking for the vaccine. They are moving along.

They're confident of where they're at. They're still in animal trials and probably will be for another week or two. And if successful there, then it will move into the human trial stage, if approved. And when we talked to the director of that lab last week, what did he tell us? He told us that they're already four months into the 12 to 18 months minimum time they think it would take to come up with a vaccine. So if that's all true and it stays on the minimum run, you know, we could have good news by Christmas. But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But what will help is government's funding research like that that's going on in Saskatoon. And there are other places in the

country where research is going on. The government is funding those as well, but I think it was another 23 million went to the lab in Saskatoon that we featured last week. And we'll keep our eye on what's going on there, as we will obviously in all the other labs, not only in Canada, but around the world. And keep in mind, those labs are talking to each other. Those scientists, those researchers, they're talking to each other. Continually.

At least weekly, sometimes a number of times a week. Because they're keeping each other informed about what they're discovering. And that kind of international cooperation is key to fighting this pandemic. You may see countries squabbling with each other, but the scientists, the researchers, and in some cases the doctors are not. And that's good for all of us on this story.

Okay, here's what I wanted to focus on today, apart from those points that I just made. And this is something I've got to say I had not thought of in the last few weeks. And perhaps you haven't either. But we've seen the government, the federal level and also provincial governments, pouring money into various areas that have been hit awfully hard by COVID-19.

And they're trying to look after people who've lost their jobs, who have been laid off, who can't pay their rent, who can't pay their credit cards. You name it. There's hundreds of billions of dollars going into supporting programs for people and businesses who have been impacted that way. Well, one area that says they are desperate for money, desperate for money and help,

are Canada's charities. And there are lots of them. Well, near the end of March, they got together and went to the federal government to say, we could use your help. Now, you may say, okay, charities, but really, what do they represent in the grand vision of things? Well, as it turns out, they represent a huge chunk of the Canadian economy, much greater than you might have thought. So I wanted to talk to one of them today for a few minutes to not only inform myself, but to help you understand

what's happening on that front in this story. So who did I reach out to? I reached out to Dr. Samantha Nutt. She's a Canadian physician. She's a doctor, Dr. Samantha Nutt. But she's also the founder and executive director of War Child Canada. And you may recall that she used to be on a panel with me fairly often

in the old days on the national when we were looking at international issues. And Sam, as we call her, was always a vital part of that discussion. So here we go today with the conversation I had with her this morning about this issue about charities and COVID-19. Here it is. Sam, why don't you start by giving us some context in the overall picture of the importance of charities in Canada to the country's overall economic position? Well, that's an excellent question, Peter, because really we often think of charities just for the good work that they do, and that's critically important and the provision of a lot of our social services and health and welfare. But charities are actually major employers in this country. We contribute about 10% of working Canadians are employed in the charitable sector, which is about 1.4 million Canadians. And on top of that, we contribute to about 8%

of our annual GDP. So in addition to the important philanthropic and humanitarian work that charities engage in, they also contribute very significantly to our economy and especially right now are facing the biggest threat to their existence that we've ever seen. Well, let's get to that point because it's almost exactly a month ago now that, what, about 200 different charities banded together and made the case to Ottawa that, listen, this situation is terrible for us. We're into a drastic slide in revenues coming in through donations or what have you. You've got to help us out. What's been the response been?

Well, we've had more than 250 charitable organizations sign this appeal to the financemen and the prime minister asking for stabilization for the sector in the form of a couple of different areas who wanted the wage subsidy to include charitable organizations. That has happened. And so that's been a very, very important step. And many charitable organizations are able to access that revenue and keep some of their frontline workers employed. But we also wanted it to go further than that, recognizing that the charities are in a very, very unique situation. And I'll just explain that very, very briefly. So in addition to the decline in donations that many charitable organizations have experienced, which is understandable as Canadians themselves are having to make really tough decisions and are losing jobs and are having a hard time to pay the rent and pay the mortgage and put food on the

table. In that context, charities across the board, and we know this from Imagine Canada surveys, 70% of charitable organizations have experienced a contraction in their revenues in their donations. So they're losing donations, they're losing event-based revenue. A lot of charitable organizations do benefit fundraisers and that kind of thing, which generates millions of dollars for their core operations and programs. Those revenue streams have also declined significantly.

And then at the same time, as we go through this and the longer this crisis lasts, charitable organizations, it's going to take even longer for them to begin rebuilding their operations and replenishing their budgets. Because we need Canadians to feel secure, we need the economy to be really back in a better place before people will have the confidence to give. As well as all of that, and this is really, really important, charities don't have much in the way of cushioning, Peter. I mean, if you look at charitable organizations, in normal circumstances, when you give, we rightly expect our donor dollars

to go to work right away to help people who need it most. We don't want our charities amassing small fortunes to be able to use for a rainy day. And the CRA regulates that among charitable organizations. So the sector is uniquely vulnerable in a sense that our revenues are quickly evaporating. We have very little security when it comes to any kind of economic cushioning to be able to withstand this crisis. And our ability to be back up and running quickly because the impact will be felt so much longer within the charitable sector is severely compromised. And this is what we articulated to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. And while some of the measures that they have introduced are helpful,

they really represent only a small portion of the challenges that we're facing. I get all that. Where I see the potential problem is when you're making that pitch to governments, whether it's the prime minister, the finance minister, whoever it may be, they must kind of look at you and go, I get it, I understand your problem, but we have this huge problem in front of us, COVID-19, and we're spending billions of dollars

to try and address that. It's kind of the wrong time to be trying to help you out. I mean, is there some of that? Is that a problem? I think the biggest problem is, you know, well, first of all, charitable organizations have asked for stabilization funding for the sector. Initially, the request was for $10 billion,

which is a lot of money. But when you think about the hundreds of billions of dollars that are currently being spent to stabilize various industries, it represents a fairly small fraction of the overall package in terms of what the government is spending money on. As a result of wage subsidies and certain announcements of funding pockets of about $350 million for frontline agencies like the United Way and the Red Cross who are engaging in direct COVID-related work. We've dropped that number down in terms of the request to the federal government. It's now sitting at about $6 billion as a stabilization

package. I think that the bigger challenge within government is that there are so many fires that they're trying to put out right now, so many complex needs. They're dealing with this urgent, immediate situation that requires them to make sure people's health and their food security and their well-being are being sustained. bigger questions around how do you save or keep afloat targeted industries, whether it's tourism or the airlines or the charitable sector, for example, that those questions are being bumped to a future date because it's just complex and knowing where to start is really challenging. And knowing as well, Peter, how long this is going to go on for. It's very difficult to know how much money you should put towards stabilizing a particular industry when we don't know if it's going to be three months or six months or a year before those businesses can realistically be operating. We're getting from government. At the same time, the message that we've been pushing is that charities are not discretionary spending in that sense. We tend to think of it that way, that we'll invest in charities and do good things if we can afford it. But the reality is that it's charitable organizations that are working hard with their stakeholders who have been adversely affected by this, whether it's in

Canada or in other corners of the world. And we need those charities to be up and running. We need them to continue to do the work that they do for their constituents, for their stakeholders. And to see the sector become decimated really is not in the best interest of the government. And frankly, it's not in Canada's best interest either. All right. Last question, and it brings it down to the level of War Child Canada. You mentioned that there's more than 200, 250, I think you said, different charities involved in this push towards government for help, each one of them with different issues

as a result of the situation we're in right now. For War Child Canada, if you were to explain it, you know, in 30 seconds or a minute, what would you say that the impact, the negative impact for your operation has been as a result of this issue of funding? It's been brutal. We had major events planned throughout this year. It's our 20th anniversary that we're expected to raise millions of dollars for our organization and for our programs that have disappeared. We don't know when or if they can ever take place.

And at the same time, we're seeing a contraction in general revenues from foundations and other donors. While we're being asked by our field operations and our field programs in hard hit areas of the world, including in Africa, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East, where this crisis is hitting now and hitting hard. And we're being asked to do more, even though we're facing the biggest threat to, to our existence. Sam, we appreciate your time. Good luck on, on this. And we'll talk again soon about those, those areas where you, you hope to be able to help, whether it's in Africa or Afghanistan or wherever it may be.

Thanks for this. Thanks so much, Peter. And there you go, Dr. Samantha Nutt, the founder of War Child Canada. And we'll talk to her again next week because, as she said right there, the focus on especially third world countries and how they're going to deal with this pandemic when it hits them

because in its greatest force it has yet to hit continents like Africa. So we'll talk to Sam next week on that. Tomorrow, being the end of the week, it's the day we focus on your thoughts and your comments and your questions. And once again, there have been quite a few of them, and I will highlight those that I think warrant some extra discussion. So make sure you send yours in. If you've got some last minute, you want to get them in tonight or first thing tomorrow morning, please do that. You can reach me

at themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com It's always a good podcast on the day that we focus on your thoughts. And so

I'm looking forward to doing that again tomorrow. I've seen some of the letters so far, and there are some great ones, some very good ones, some ones that have given me thoughts about something we might do next week. But we'll get to that tomorrow when we read your letters, kind of the mailbag edition of the Bridge Daily. That is the Bridge Daily for this Thursday. I'm Peter Mansbridge.

Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.