OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned aside U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion the Canada-U.S. border might reopen soon and dampened expectations at home about how quickly restrictions might be eased and the economy rebooted.

Prior to an evening conference call with premiers and territorial leaders, Trudeau said it would be “absolutely disastrous” to move too early to lift epidemic controls and called on Canadians to “be disciplined.”

“We must stay the course. We cannot let the progress we’ve made go to waste. Above all we cannot put lives at risk.”

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said a reopening plan could come as soon as next week if the number of new cases remains low. Other premiers like Quebec’s François Legault have mused about possible school opening dates before walking back those remarks.

Trudeau said we are “still many weeks away from talking about actually doing anything to reopen our economy even with the variations across the country of the local state of the pandemic.”

The U.S.-Canada border isn’t opening again any time soon if Canada has anything to say about it.

And the prime minister underlined that any effort to reopen things cannot start unless Canada has the ability to do “massive testing,” aggressive contact tracing, and has measures in place to deal with any resurgence of the virus.

That’s because there is still no vaccine, or treatment, for COVID-19, and so there is no widespread immunity to the virus that has infected 10,124 Ontarians, and killed 500 in this province, according to a Star tally.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford backed the prime minister, saying he should resist any pressure from the White House to reopen the Canada-U.S. border.

“He should say ‘no’ right away. Until we have this under containment, we need to keep our borders closed,” said Ford. “We need to make sure that in our airports we have the proper people that are at least asking questions, making sure people self-isolate.”

“If there was one thing that we could have improved on — and I’m not being political because I’m a big supporter of what the federal government has done — we should have shut down the borders a lot sooner,” Ford said.

“I don’t want them (Americans) in Ontario. I want to protect our people of Ontario first.”

There is evidence that many of the drastic measures taken by Canada mid-March have slowed the pace of the outbreak here even as the virus wreaks havoc in long-term care and nursing homes across the country.

That may be what prompted Trump to say Wednesday that “It will be one of the early borders to be released. Canada’s doing well. We’re doing well. We’ll see, but at some point we’ll be doing that.”

A mutual agreement reached last month between Trudeau and Trump to limit all non-essential cross-border traffic is set to expire April 21 but talks are now on to extend it, according to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The U.S. president contrasted Canada with other countries that “are heavily infected,” adding “we’re keeping very strong borders with those nations.”

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said while the rate of growth of new infections has slowed, deaths in long-term-care homes and seniors’ residences make up nearly half the federal tally of 1,048 deaths as of Thursday morning.

“It is impossible to imagine the anguish that families and indeed our elders are going through in this situation,” Trudeau said. “There is so much fear, so much uncertainty. We need to do a better job of being there for them.”

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On the agenda for Thursday’s first ministers’ call was how to top up the wages of essential workers such as those who work in nursing homes with the elderly and disabled, and whether more regulations might — as Trudeau suggested — do “a better job of protecting our most vulnerable.”

Ford among others welcomed the idea of at least talking about those proposals, saying he wanted to hear what Ottawa could do to help.

But a senior Western provincial source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there is a lot of confusion among provinces about just how Trudeau’s proposed wage top-up or commercial rent assistance would work.

The source said all levels of government are making policy on the fly to address the pandemic’s fallout, but said some proposals from Ottawa appear to be offered with little or no advance consultation with provinces.

He pointed to Wednesday’s announcement of a wage top-up for workers deemed essential in the fight against COVID-19, who make less than $2,500 a month, and to Thursday’s announcement of additional aid for small- and medium-sized businesses to help them cover the next three months’ rent. Both are policies that still need to be worked out with the provinces.

The provinces have jurisdiction over property owner-tenant relationships, and over long-term-care facilities.

The wage top up Trudeau outlined would be targeted at “those on the front-line in hospitals and nursing homes, those ensuring the integrity of the food supply, or providing essential retail services to Canadians,” according to the federal government’s background document, which said details would follow.

The provincial source said it appears provinces would have to kick in matching funds, but noted it’s possible some provinces may want to direct money toward other workers who have lost jobs in the crisis, not those who are still working.

So far, however, the only province that has asked for direct help from the military to ease the pressure in long-term-care facilities is Quebec. Ford said everything’s on the table in the crisis.

Trudeau said Thursday it was an “unusual” request, since provinces typically only demand soldiers be sent in to fight floods or forest fires, but that Ottawa was looking at it and trying to figure out the best way to help.

Trudeau underscored again Thursday the government would continue to tweak its financial assistance programs for Canadians as long as needed.

The federal government has still not announced any specific help for the oil-and-gas sector, where multiple blows including diminished shipping capacity, winter train blockades, low prices due to the global supply fight between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and now the plunge in demand due to the COVID-19 crisis have slammed the industry.

With files from Robert Benzie and Canadian Press

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