National Business

TORONTO — Leon's Furniture Ltd. is laying off 3,900 employees or about half its total current workforce as it deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. The company says it will temporarily close 72 of its 205 corporate-owned stores across Canada.

WASHINGTON — The White House and Senate leaders of both parties announced agreement early Wednesday on unprecedented emergency legislation to rush sweeping aid to businesses, workers and a health care system slammed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Two newspaper publishers in Quebec and Atlantic Canada are temporarily laying off nearly 400 employees because of the impact of COVID-19.

CALGARY — The founder of Shaw Communications Inc., JR Shaw, has died, the company said Tuesday. He was 85.

NEW YORK — Three of the top five publishers in the U.S. will not be attending BookExpo, the industry's national convention. Organizers already had pushed back the event from May to July in the hopes of easing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

MONTREAL — WestJet Airlines Ltd. says roughly half of its 14,000 employees will leave the company — some temporarily — due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TORONTO — Ontario reported 85 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 588, as non-essential businesses in the province prepared to close. The large increase included two more deaths, both in long-term care home residents.

TORONTO — Ontario cut hydro rates for residential consumers, farms and small businesses on Tuesday in response to a surge in people forced to work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW YORK — With millions of American homebound due to the coronavirus pandemic, there's little surprise they're curious about what's going on in the world.

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — The operator of a work lodge north of Fort McMurray, Alta., says a guest who fell ill last week does not have COVID-19. Houston-based Civeo Corp.