Military deploys 350 soldiers to Northwest Territories, 68 per cent of population evacuated

Approximately 25,900 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Northwest Territories due to wildfires, which is 68 per cent of the population. A total of 238 active wildfires remain burning across the territory.

There are now nearly 600 firefighters in the field, with support from more than 300 military personnel, as well as helicopters, air tankers and heavy equipment.

A wildfire threatening the City of Yellowknife is about 15 kilometres northwest of the territorial capital. The weather and firefighting efforts have helped crews to limit the spread.

An update on Monday said nearly five millimetres of rain over the last 72 hours have provided opportunities for the fire to be pushed back.

#wildfires #NorthwestTerritories

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🏠💰Startup is offering loans for rental deposits

Ontario’s housing market has become so pricey that one financial startup is betting cash-strapped renters will need to borrow money to cover the soaring cost of moving into a new place.

The company’s loan product comes as the average price of a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto hit $3,370 in July, up from $2,709 in the same month in 2020. That means paying first and last month’s rent costs more than $1,300 than before.

Nesturo, which launched in late July, says its target demographics include students without a strong credit history, those moving to expensive cities for medical reasons or people in inadequate housing arrangements who need to move but don’t have enough funds saved up for a rental deposit.

Financial advisers caution that people who can’t afford to pay the higher costs of first and last month’s rent when they move and need to borrow will struggle even more to repay that loan on top of expensive monthly rent.

#Ontario #housing

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🏠🎓Quebec rejects cap on student visas floated by Ottawa to address housing crisis

The Quebec government says it won’t accept a cap on the number of international students it can admit, rejecting one of the options the federal government is considering as part of a plan to tackle a national housing crisis.

Universities and colleges, meanwhile, said they were surprised and troubled, respectively, by the suggestion, which was first raised by Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser at a Liberal cabinet retreat in Charlottetown on Monday.

Quebec’s reaction indicates that attempts to limit international student admissions could create conflict with the provinces. They have jurisdiction in areas of education and their postsecondary institutions have come to rely on lucrative international tuition fees.

“Quebec does not intend to impose a cap on the number of foreign students in its jurisdiction. Although issuing study permits is the responsibility of the federal government, education is the exclusive power of Quebec. It’s up to Quebec and its educational institutions to determine the number of people they can accommodate,” said Alexandre Lahaie, a spokesperson for Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette.

#Quebec #housing

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Poilievre postpones ‘axe the tax’ rallies due to wildfires

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has cancelled a handful of upcoming events, often billed as anti-carbon tax rallies, in B.C. and Yukon as this year’s historically wildfire season tears through communities.

“Due to the seriousness of the situation,” Poilievre is postponing his upcoming tour of B.C., Sebastian Skamski, Poilievre’s director of media relations, said in a statement posted today.

The Opposition leader was supposed to appear in Campbell River, B.C., for one of his “Bring it Home” rallies, which have repeatedly called on Ottawa to axe the carbon tax, as well as focusing on inflation and housing. Terrace, B.C., was his next scheduled stop on Aug. 23, and Yukon on Aug. 24.

#BritishColumbia #Yukon #wildfires #Poilievre

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Sask. government introduces parental consent for sexual health education

🔹Saskatchewan schools need to inform parents about the sexual health education curriculum and parents will now have the option to decline their children’s participation.

This announcement was made by the Ministry of Education Tuesday morning, adding that schools will also need permission from parents or guardians to change "preferred" names or pronouns of students under the age of 16.

🔹School boards in Saskatchewan will also need to pause their involvement with third party organizations connected to sexual health education as the province reviews educational resources.

“Our government has heard the concerns raised by Saskatchewan parents about needing to be notified and included in their children’s education in these important areas,” Education Minister Dustin Duncan said.

🔹Only teachers will be able to present sexual health material to students, except for professionals employed by government ministries or the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

Go Saskatchewan! 👏

#Saskatchewan

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🚙 Chrystia Freeland fined $273 for speeding in rental car

Police in Alberta last week issued Chrystia Freeland a speeding ticket.

“The Deputy Prime Minister was pulled over for driving 132 km/h while travelling between Grande Prairie and Peace River,” said spokesperson Katherine Cuplinskas.

While Freeland’s office has yet to comment on questions about what the limit was when she was pulled over by Alberta police, they did reveal the amount of the fine.

“She received a ticket for $273,” the spokesperson said.

It is especially curious since Freeland recently bragged that she doesn't own a car and rides a bicycle or subway everywhere.

“I right now am an MP for downtown Toronto,” Freeland said. “A fact that still shocks my dad is, I don’t actually own a car … I’m like, I don’t know, 300 metres from the nearest subway. I walk. I take the subway. I make my kids walk and ride their bikes and take the subway. It’s actually healthier for our family. I can live that way,” Freeland said to reporters recently.

Apparently you can't get that far on a bike.

#Alberta #Freeland

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💪🏋️‍♀️ Canadian transgender powerlifter could be banned after crushing competition

After having a transgender competitor win an event earlier this month, the Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU) is facing an ultimatum from the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) to get in line.

The IPF says that the CPU must align with the governing body’s rules on transgender competitors after seeing Anne Andres, a transgender female, crush her competition by more than 200 kilos in total at the 2023 Western Canadian Championship.

Andres’ total score was 597.5 kilos while second-place finisher SuJan Gill mustered 387.5 kilos.

IPF rules state that competitors must disclose their testosterone levels and provide government-issued ID with their gender identity. This would also align with similar policies from other international sports governing bodies.

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🏠 Ontario housing minister's chief of staff resigns amid Greenbelt controversy

The political staffer Ryan Amato who played a key role in the Ontario government's controversial move to open up thousands of hectares of protected Greenbelt land for housing development has resigned.

The resignation comes less than two weeks after Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk issued a scathing report into the government's removal of land from southern Ontario's Greenbelt in December — a vast 810,000-hectare area of farmland, forest and wetland stretching from Niagara Falls to Peterborough meant to be off-limits to development.

While the province added more protected land elsewhere, the removals are meant to lead to the construction of 50,000 homes in service of the province's goal of building 1.5 million new homes in the next decade.

Lysyk's investigation found the government's process for choosing which sites to remove was influenced by a small number of well-connected real estate developers with access to Amato.

The report said Amato — not non-partisan public servants — selected 14 of the 15 sites that were ultimately removed from the Greenbelt and the majority were chosen after suggestions from developers who lobbied him personally through encounters at an industry event or in emails sent by their lawyers.

#Ontario #housing

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Ottawa nearing ‘final stages’ to launch foreign interference inquiry

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday his government is nearing the “final stages” of the negotiations and internal planning needed to launch a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada and he expects to make an announcement shortly.

Mr. LeBlanc told reporters he has spoken twice with Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner to get his advice on striking the inquiry, but said he wouldn’t comment publicly on “sensitive discussions, in some cases with sitting judges.”

The government began talks with the opposition parties in June, with the goal of unanimously agreeing to the terms of reference for an inquiry and the person who would lead it.

The Conservatives said Tuesday that the Liberals have proposed some more candidates to lead the inquiry.

“The government has provided some additional potential names, which the opposition parties are currently reviewing,” said Sebastian Skamski, director of media relations for the Opposition Leader’s Office.

“Ultimately Justin Trudeau is the only one who can call a public inquiry. It is incumbent on him to get an agreement for a commissioner,” he added.

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13 per cent of Canadians consider moving because of wildfires: survey

In wake of the wildfires that have ravaged communities across the country, some Canadians are considering moving to avoid future wildfire encounters.

According to a recent Angus Reid survey, 13 per cent of Canadians say they would consider relocating to a place that feels safer after experiencing the impacts of wildfire and smoke conditions in the last five years. The survey found that women under 35 years old are most likely to relocate.

Nineteen per cent of B.C. residents and 16 per cent of residents living in Alberta say they would consider moving elsewhere to be less affected by future wildfires.

More than half of Canadians (55 per cent) are expecting even worse fire conditions in the future, while 26 per cent say this year's conditions, which led to a record-breaking wildfire season, will be the new normal.

#BritishColumbia #Alberta

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🇨🇦🇨🇳🇺🇸 Ralph Lauren probed in Canada over allegations of forced Uyghur labor

Canada's corporate watchdog on Tuesday, August 15, launched an investigation of Ralph Lauren's Canadian unit over allegations the fashion giant used forced labor from China's Uyghur minority.

A coalition of 28 civil society organizations last year filed a complaint with the watchdog alleging "Ralph Lauren Canada has supply relationships with Chinese companies that use or benefit from the use of Uyghur forced labour."

"I have decided that the Ralph Lauren complaint warrants an investigation," ombudsperson Sheri Meyerhoffer said in a statement. The brand's US parent company, she noted, has disputed Canadian jurisdiction over the matter, arguing that its subsidiary "is not responsible for decision-making" and all of its operations are overseen by the company's US headquarters.

#China #US

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Conservative Party gaining ground in Quebec: poll

The Conservatives haven't traditionally done well with Quebec voters, but new polling is showing the official Opposition is gaining support among the electorate.

The Conservative Party of Canada (25 per cent) is trailing right behind the Liberals, who now have 28 per cent support of Quebec voters, according to a recent Pallas Data poll.

The two parties are in a statistical tie with the Bloc Québécois, which is leading at 29 per cent in Quebec.

The polling falls in line with a Léger survey last month that put the Conservatives at 25 per cent in Quebec.

#Quebec

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YouTubers criticized for encouraging international students to use food banks

A growing genre of videos on YouTube and TikTok is angering some Canadians who say international students are being encouraged to abuse food banks in order to get “free groceries.”

A number of recent videos, with noscripts like “How to get free food in Canada” and “Free food in Canada for students,” have been shared on social media and elicited a mixed response at a time of soaring costs and high inflation. The videos instruct students on how to access food banks.

Food banks saw record-breaking numbers in 2022 and that trend appears to have continued in 2023.

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Developers bought Hamilton Greenbelt property a month before Ontario revealed plans to open it up for housing

A prominent developer and key figure in the Ford government's controversial Greenbelt land swap purchased a Hamilton property a month before Ontario announced its plans to open the protected farmland up for residential development.

According to property records, the purchase closed on Oct. 6, 2022 — three weeks after an unnamed developer requested that the province remove the land and other parcels from the Greenbelt.

Greater Toronto Area developer Silvio De Gasperis, head of Tacc Developments, along with Paradise Developments' Steven Weisz and Jack Eisenberger of Fieldgate Homes, purchased over 4.8 hectares at 411 Book Rd. W. for $2.8 million through their corporation, Book Shaver Developments Limited.

When they purchased the 411 Book Rd. W. property in Hamilton, it was in the middle of over 728 hectares of protected Greenbelt land, known as the Book Road land.

Less than a month later, on Nov. 3, the province informed property owners and developers that it was proposing to remove the Book Road land and 14 other sites from the Greenbelt, significantly increasing the land value. The province informed the public a day later.

#Ontario #housing

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🛢Canada steps up pace of oil production growth, seen rising 8% in two years

Canadian oil companies are ramping up growth over the next two years and will add nearly 8% to Canada's total output, analysts estimate.

The roughly 375,000 barrel per day (bpd) increase in two years would be more than Canada has managed to add over the last five years combined. According to Canada Energy Regulator data, Canadian oil production averaged 4.86 million bpd in 2022, up from 4.61 million bpd in 2018.

Much of the growth will come from oil sands producers like Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd tweaking operations to boost efficiency.

Companies are also moving forward on so-called "step-out" or "tie-back" oil sands thermal projects, where instead of building an entirely new facility to steam bitumen deposits, they are linking new areas with existing plants to speed up development and lower costs.

Meanwhile, the fight with the Canadian government, which has set a goal to cut carbon emissions by 40-45% by 2023, continues, especially in Alberta.

#Alberta

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🏦 Mortgages are becoming less affordable, according to data

Mortgage data from Canada’s two biggest banks are painting a picture of homeowners straining under high borrowing costs.

🔹Royal Bank of Canada disclosed that 43 per cent of its Canadian residential mortgages had an amortization period of longer than 25 years, as of July. That’s up from 40 per cent a year earlier, and just 26 per cent in January 2022.

Canadian banks have allowed customers to stretch payments for longer periods to help them bring down their monthly payments after a rapid rise in rates. RBC’s posted rate on variable mortgages is now above 7 per cent, from around 2.5 per cent before the central bank began tightening.

The situation has also brought about the return of mortgages that are amortized for more than 35 years. At the start of last year, those didn’t exist in RBC’s Canadian mortgage book; now, such loans represent 23 per cent of the portfolio.

🔹Toronto-Dominion Bank said 48 per cent of its Canadian mortgages had an amortization period of more than 25 years as of July, up from 35 per cent the year prior. Like RBC, it has experience a surge of loans being extended to more than 35 years.

#housing

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Unifor autoworkers overwhelmingly vote to authorize strikes at GM, Ford, Stellantis

Workers at a trio of major automakers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing their union to call a strike if bargaining committees can't secure new collective agreements in the coming months.

Unifor, Canada's largest private-sector union, says its members at Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis all voted between 98 and 99 per cent in favour of the strike mandate.

Unifor National President Lana Payne issued a release saying the union's bargaining teams are set to resume talks with support from members across the auto sector and are prepared to take any necessary action to achieve their goals.

She says their bargaining committees are focused on improving pensions, increasing wages and securing good union jobs in a future set to be dominated by electric vehicles.

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CRA still missing targets for call wait times, despite $400-million boost in funding

As of the end of July, the CRA's call centres were hitting their target of getting to a caller within 15 minutes or less only 31 per cent of the time. This is compared to a service standard goal of 65 per cent of calls.

In fact, the average wait time to reach an agent on the phone so far this year is 24 minutes, although Canadians routinely complain of waiting for more than an hour to sort out their taxation and benefit problems over the phone.

The issue has been going on for at least seven years now. A federal audit conducted for the year between March 2016 and March 2017 found that call centre agents answered the phone only about one-third of the time.

❗️This is despite the fact that the federal government allocated $400 million in the 2022 fall economic statement for fiscal years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 in order to “support the service standard of answering 65 per cent of calls within 15 minutes or less of a caller opting to speak with an agent.”

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Poilievre says parents should have final say about what is taught to children

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre said parents should have the final say over what is taught to their kids in schools.

Poilievre’s comments come amid growing opposition to gender ideology teachings and Canadian premiers implementing new parental rights policies requiring that parents consent before children can change their name or pronoun at school.

In an interview, Poilievre was asked what he thought of the “Million Person March.” The event is a planned nationwide multi-faith and multi-ethnic protest against gender ideology teachings that will take place on Sept. 20.

“My view is that parents should be the final authority on the values and the lessons that are taught to children. I believe in parental rights, and parental rights come before the government’s rights,” Poilievre responded.

#Poilievre

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A fight broke out at a Vancouver protest demanding the return of Covid masking

Why are masks still a thing?

#BritishColumbia

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🏠 Ottawa looking to drop 24 Sussex and build new home for PM elsewhere

The federal government is looking at dropping the dilapidated mansion at 24 Sussex in Ottawa as the prime minister's official residence and is considering several other sites in the city for a replacement, sources say.

The various federal agencies in charge of the PM's official residence have identified other plots of land where they could build an official residence that is larger, safer and more accessible than the one that served prime ministers from 1951 to 2015.

In the midst of a housing and cost-of-living crisis, the construction of a new official residence costing tens of millions of dollars would be a political headache for the federal government, which has been dithering over 24 Sussex's fate for years.

Plans to renovate 24 Sussex were made during Trudeau's first mandate but the government decided the price tag was too high and the potential for political controversy too great.

#Trudeau

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