Voyageur 116
Canada Slipped Into a Recession, but per Person, the Economy Grew, and Canada's ERs Ran Out of Beds. Patients Are Getting Examined in Chairs.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canada Slipped Into a Recession, But Per Person, the Economy Grew.
Statistics Canada said on Friday that the economy shrank 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, the second quarterly drop in a row. By the textbook definition that is a recession, and word travelled fast. Everyone from the Financial Times to investor Mohamed El-Erian hurried to weigh in, and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to try and tar PM Mark Carney as the only G7 leader to steer his country into one.
Economists are less rattled, however. The reduction is 0.6 per cent annualized over two quarters, which BMO's Robert Kavcic said is barely a scratch when compared to the 5.3 per cent average of the past three (non-pandemic-related) recessions. The trade tiff with the United States has battered manufacturing and real estate, but finance, resources and health care have continued growing.
There is a twist that we found interesting, though, in that Ottawa's immigration crackdown has now also reduced the population for two straight quarters, so GDP per person in fact rose 0.9 per cent, the first real gain after years of decline. That’s the number that matters, and it’s the one that tends to move the loonie.
Read more: Financial Post / BNN Bloomberg
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A photo from the old country:
ERs Ran Out of Beds. Patients are Getting Examined in Chairs.
A young woman walked into a Saint John emergency room with what looked like a minor shoulder injury. With no stretcher free, a doctor assessed her in a chair in a busy public hallway. It turned out she was bleeding internally and needed emergency surgery to stop it.
Her physician, Fraser Mackay, said she should never have been assessed in a chair like in some sort of remote African village. Okay, he didn’t say that last bit, but it’s a sad indictment that "chair medicine" and "waiting room care" have become routine answers to Canada's gridlocked emergency rooms. Patients now get seen in chairs, hallways, closets and washrooms. Appalling.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says that half of patients admitted to hospital spend more than 16 hours in the ER before getting a bed, and one in ten wait more than 48. The country recorded 16.1 million unscheduled ER visits last year, up more than half a million visits compared to the year prior.
For Canadians considering a move home to retire or to be near aging parents, please note that this is the system waiting for you.
Read more: National Post / Canadian Institute for Health Information