Ottawa, May 5 (IANS): Canada has joined the European Union (EU) and other countries in a global effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 when the country's five provinces began easing restrictions on businesses and services imposed during the pandemic.

The goal of the EU-initiated "Coronavirus Global Response" is to raise more than $8 billion for medical research, and the Canadian government has so far committed $604 million toward vaccine development and finding treatments for the disease, reports Xinhua news agency.

"It is really important that the world comes together to collaborate," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his daily COVID-19 news conference here on Monday.

"Even once we find a vaccine -- whether it's in Canada or elsewhere around the world -- we will share the vaccine in its formula."

On the same day, Canada's two largest provinces gave the green light to the reopening of mainly seasonal businesses in Ontario, and storefront retail operations outside the Montreal area in Quebec.

The Montreal metropolis has more than half of the province's COVID-19 cases, and with no sign of the pandemic curve flattening, Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced on Monday that the opening of retail stories in the province's most populous region, scheduled for next May 11, would be delayed by a week.

Meanwhile, non-essential medical activities, such as dentistry and physiotherapy can now resume in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as in Manitoba, which also authorized restaurants to open patios and hair salons to welcome customers.

Schools will remain mostly shuttered in Canada, except for in Quebec, where elementary students will begin returning to their classrooms next Monday.

There were a total of 60,772 COVID-19 cases in Canada with 3,854 deaths.