A father and a daughter are reunited as an Air Canada flight with a group of Canadians passengers from Morocco arrive in Montreal on Saturday March 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrej Ivanov

Trudeau says Canada is not at the point of declaring a federal emergency

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is not at the point where the federal government needs to take emergency measures to force people to stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Trudeau says provinces and local governments continue to take steps to restrict people's movements and the federal government stepping in is a last resort.

Nova Scotia is the latest province to declare a state of emergency, restricting gatherings to no more than five people.

Premier Stephen McNeil says people are blatantly ignoring the need for social distancing.

Police in Nova Scotia are being given the power to enforce social distancing with $1,000 fines for individuals and $7,500 fines for businesses.

Nearly 1,400 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Canada and 19 people have died.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2020.

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Carli Berry

Carli Berry

Carli Berry has been telling stories in the Okanagan for the past three years and after finding her footing in the newspaper industry, joined the Infonews team in January 2020. Recipient of the 2019 MA Murray award for feature writing, Carli is passionate about stories that involve housing, business and the environment. Born on Vancouver Island, she is happy to say Okanagan Lake reminds, her slightly, of the ocean. Carli can be reached at (250) 864-7494 or email cberry@infonews.ca.

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