Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says the federal government will contribute $19 billion to the effort.

The money is to help the lower-tier governments with needs such as funding child care, bailing out cities whose expenses have soared and revenues plunged, increasing contact-tracing capacity, and buying personal protective equipment.

The pandemic is a health crisis, but Trudeau says it has a deep economic dimension.

He says workers can’t work if their children don’t have safe care, and many can’t get to their jobs if they don’t have access to safe transit systems.

That means funding needed services better so they don’t have to rely on crowding many people into small spaces for their finances to make sense.

Canada-U.S. border to stay closed until August 21st

Heavy restrictions on travel between Canada and the U-S will remain in place until at least August 20th.

Acting U-S Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed the news in a tweet earlier Thursday.

The border has been closed to so-called “discretionary” travel like vacations and shopping trips since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in mid-March.

The extension comes with COVID-19 cases resurgent across the U-S — and with polls in Canada suggesting strong support for keeping the rules in place.

(The Canadian Press)