In accounting for the spending drives in response to COVID-19 rolled out so far, the PBO projects Canada’s deficit could soar to $184.2-billion for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

'The Correctional Service of Canada continues to take a number of preventative measures to restrict the spread of COVID-19 in federal institutions,' according to the office of Public Safety Minister Bill Blair.

NDP MP Charlie Angus and Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith have joined one such effort, Infotagion, an international initiative launched by U.K. MP Damian Collins.

MPs say COVID-19 case work is consuming their days, and they're turning to ‘imaginative’ ways of reaching out to make sure constituents' needs are met and their voices heard.

A portion of the $1-billion fund announced by the feds to scale up public health services will be directed to First Nations communities, in addition to other funding.

'We are dealing with an administration that is both very unpredictable, very much America first, [and] not long-term thinking in terms of its relationship with its allies,' says former diplomat Michael Kergin.

‘We are very worried,’ echoes one psychiatrist whose association is preparing a ‘call to action’ to governments.

'We were able to achieve a win-win outcome, that will be the argument we continue to make and advance in our relationship with the U.S.,' says Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

'We should be weary of using a crisis like this to turn our back on our human rights obligations,' says University of Ottawa law professor Jamie Chai Yun Liew.