60% of Canadians believe Ottawa should balance the budget, but only 25% believe that the federal government should reduce spending

🔹Internal government polls, from July through to the beginning of October, found nearly 60 per cent of Canadians believe Ottawa should balance the budget.

🔹The government’s internal polling found barely one in four say the government should reduce overall spending.

🔹The polling showed strong support — 42.5 per cent — to increase spending on housing even if that means rising deficits.

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🇨🇦🇵🇸🇮🇱Canadian government will resume funding to United Nations relief agency for Palestinians: source

The federal government is resuming funding to UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians.

In addition to going ahead with a scheduled payment in April of $25 million, Canada's international development minister also intends to announce new funding, according to a senior government official.

The Canadian government announced a pause on funding in January after Israel alleged that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

UNRWA moved quickly to fire the 12 staff members on Jan. 26, as soon as Israel made its allegations.

#Palestine #Israel
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PQ leader wants Quebec referendum on immigration

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is urging Quebec Premier François Legault to hold a referendum on immigration in order to end a jurisdictional impasse with Ottawa.

St-Pierre Plamondon even went so far on Tuesday as to suggest the wording of the referendum question: Do you believe Quebec should decide for itself regarding immigration planning in Quebec?

The leader’s suggestion follows the latest public confrontation between Quebec and Ottawa over the issue.

On Monday, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he had instructed his bureaucrats to proceed with the settling of 20,500 family reunification files, even though Quebec has placed an annual ceiling on such forms of immigration to 10,000.

#Quebec #immigration
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🏦 Central bank holds interest rate at 5 per cent

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 5 per cent on Wednesday, citing continued concerns about the inflation outlook. The bank has held its rate at 5 per cent since last July.

It’s still too early to consider lowering the policy interest rate. Looking ahead, we continue to expect inflation will be close to 3 per cent through the middle of the year before easing in the second half.

said Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem.

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💸 Federal tax change could raise electricity, gas bills in some provinces

Electricity Canada is sounding the alarm over a proposed tax change it warns could see some private utilities saddled with millions in additional income taxes.

Michael Powell, its vice-president of government relations, says that would likely mean some privately operated electricity and natural gas companies would have to hike the rates charged to consumers.

He says the problem arises from an adjustment to the Income Tax Act proposed in the government's bill to implement its fall mini-budget.

It would bring Canada in line with the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland on tax rules for companies that operate across more than one country.

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🏦 Trudeau should curb spending to make way for Bank of Canada rate cuts, economists say

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should rein in spending in his upcoming budget if he wants interest rates to come down quickly and alleviate the cost-of-living pressures slamming his polling numbers.

During the pandemic, spending rose further and in 2020 Canada posted its biggest deficit since World War Two.

Economists and analysts said time was running out for the prime minister to get his fiscal house in order. A delay would not only damage his credibility at a time when his poll numbers were abysmal but also could force the central bank to keep rates higher for longer.

#Trudeau
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💸 Companies at heart of ArriveCan scandal received more than $100M in government contracts

Companies run by two consultants at the heart of the ArriveCan scandal received over $100 million in government contracts since 2011, according to a new government tally.

Speaking to the House public accounts committee Wednesday, federal Comptroller General Roch Huppé said he ordered a tally of all contracts given to GC Strategies and its predecessor Coredal — both owned by Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony — following conflicting reports by the government and media in recent weeks.

In total, he said GC Strategies and Coredal received 118 contracts worth over $107 million, a number that is sure to raise more questions about the value-for-money offered by the two-person company that billed itself as an IT staffing firm.

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Michael Spavor reaches multimillion-dollar settlement with Ottawa for Chinese imprisonment

The federal government has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Michael Spavor to compensate him for the nearly three years he was incarcerated under harsh conditions in a Chinese prison.

The mediated settlement came after Mr. Spavor threatened to sue Ottawa and fellow prisoner Michael Kovrig, alleging he was arrested by China because of information that he unwittingly shared with Mr. Kovrig. That information, he alleged, was later passed on, unbeknownst to Mr. Spavor, to the Canadian government and its Five Eyes intelligence partners in the course of Mr. Kovrig’s duties as a diplomat with Global Affairs Canada’s Global Security Reporting Program (GSRP).

A source said Mr. Spavor’s settlement is worth about $6-million, not including legal fees and expenses.

#China
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Montreal Chinese groups sue RCMP for alleging they hosted illegal 'police stations'

Two Montreal-area Chinese groups and their director have filed a defamation suit against the RCMP for alleging they hosted clandestine Chinese government "police stations."

Chinese Family Services of Greater Montreal, the Centre Sino Québec de la Rive-Sud, in the South Shore suburb of Brossard, and Xixi Li, the executive director of the two groups, say the federal police force acted improperly when it revealed the groups were the subject of an investigation.

According to a court filing, the groups say the RCMP did not properly investigate before publicly accusing them of being linked to foreign interference, an allegation they deny.

The organizations are seeking more than $4.9 million in damages and say the allegations have cost them $3.2 million, including lost government funding.

#Quebec #China
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🇨🇦🇺🇸 U.S. officials investigating after five Canadians killed in Nashville plane crash

U.S. authorities continue to investigate a plane crash in Tennessee that killed five Canadians. A single-engine plane crashed alongside a highway west of downtown Nashville on Monday, killing all five people aboard.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it has assigned a representative to the U.S.-led investigation. Authorities in Nashville did not have any updates Wednesday regarding the identities of the people on the plane.

#US
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🪖Canada’s military facing ‘death spiral’ on recruitment, minister says

The Canadian Forces is facing “a death spiral” when it comes to recruitment, even as the government is “constrained” on more defence spending, Defence Minister Bill Blair says.

Blair made those remarks after speaking to a crowd attending the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence on Thursday, though stressed the government’s commitment to spend more on defence.

Over the past three years, more people have left than have entered. That is, frankly, a death spiral for the Canadian Armed Forces. We cannot afford to continue at that pace. We’ve got to do something differently.

Blair said.

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🏳️‍⚧️Trans youth policies make majority of Canadians 'uncomfortable': survey

A new survey from Nanos Research shows a majority of Canadian adults express at least some discomfort around policies on transgender inclusion in sports, hormone treatments for youth and changes to students' pronouns in schools.

Approximately 57 per cent of surveyed adults said they were uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable with "a transgender person taking part in organized sports for people of their current gender identity." While not a majority, a further 44 per cent said the same when asked about "a transgender person using the washroom or change rooms for people of their current gender identity."

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🪖Ottawa asking weapons-makers for plans to ramp up ammunition production

Canada is giving two weapons manufacturers millions of dollars to come up with a plan to make more 155 mm ammunition.

Defence Minister Bill Blair said $4.4 million will go to IMT Defence and General Dynamics to develop detailed proposals to increase production.

We’ve donated tens of thousands of rounds of NATO-standard, 155 mm artillery ammunition to Ukraine. But Ukraine needs much more ammunition – and quite frankly, so does Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces.

Blair said.

Blair said Canada’s production capacity is now up to 5,000 shells per month from 3,000, thanks to a $4.8-million dollar spend last year. But cost estimates for building domestic production capacity of the M795 rounds are nearly 100 times that.

#Ukraine
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🇨🇦🇭🇹 Canadians among dozens of foreigners stranded in Haiti as country spirals into chaos

Canadians are among dozens of foreigners stranded in Haiti, where unrelenting gang attacks on state institutions have paralyzed the country and shut down international airports.

Caribbean leaders have been trying for months to get political actors in Haiti to agree to form an umbrella transitional unity government, but so far they have been unsuccessful.

Global Affairs Canada says 2,908 Canadians are currently registered in Haiti.

#Haiti
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🏠📈 Average asking rent prices reach $2,193 in February, up 10.5% from 2023

A new report says the average asking price for a rental unit in Canada was $2,193 per month in February, marking a 10.5 per cent jump year-over-year and the fastest annual growth since September 2023.

The data shows the average monthly cost of a one-bedroom unit in February was $1,920, up 12.9 per cent from the same month in 2023. The average asking price for a two-bedroom was $2,293, up 11.3 per cent annually.

Asking rents in Canada have increased overall by a total of 21 per cent, or an average of $384 per month, from two years ago, just before the start of interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada.

🔹Alberta maintained its status as the province with the fastest-growing rents, with total average asking prices up 20 per cent annually last month to reach $1,708.

🔹British Columbia and Ontario posted the slowest growth in February, with annual increases of 1.3 per cent and one per cent, respectively.

#housing #Alberta #BritishColumbia #Ontario
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Footage from a “safe” injection site in Vancouver. Doesn't feel safe.

#BritishColumbia
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ArriveCan faces more scrutiny as Public Sector Integrity Commissioner opens investigation

Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Harriet Solloway is launching an investigation into alleged wrongdoing related to the ArriveCan app, as well as accusations that two former border agency officials faced reprisals after criticizing their superiors.

The commissioner says that her office takes note of a motion approved unanimously last month by the Commons government operations committee asking her office to investigate.

The motion passed after MPs heard testimony from two former Canada Border Services Agency officials who worked on the ArriveCan app and who said they were suspended without pay in retaliation for testimony they provided to the same committee in November.

Ms. Solloway’s office is an independent watchdog that reports directly to Parliament and was created in 2007. It investigates wrongdoing in the federal public sector and was created as a way to help protect whistle-blowers from reprisal.

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🇨🇦🇨🇳 Chinese tourism to Canada falls sharply amid geopolitical tensions

Before the pandemic, Canada welcomed roughly 750,000 visitors a year from China, who collectively spent nearly $2-billion on hotels, meals and other items during their stays. Today, arrivals are nowhere close to what they were.

In 2023, there were around 225,000 Chinese visitors to the country, according to figures from Statistics Canada. While that was up sharply from the year before, it was still less than one-third of peak volumes in 2018 and 2019.

There has been a sharp drop in direct flight service between the countries, and since China eased its pandemic restrictions on outbound travel, it has not put Canada on its list of approved destinations for group tours – a decision that reflects heightened diplomatic tensions.

Destination Canada, a Crown corporation that promotes the country to overseas markets, doesn’t project a recovery in Chinese visitors until 2027.

#China
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😡Most Canadians think Canada is broken and are angry with Trudeau government

Most Canadians believe “everything is broken in the country right now,” and more people agree with that statement than just one year ago, according to a new national survey.

🔹Canadians across political lines were on the same page when it came to the perception that Canada is broken, with 70 per cent agreeing with the statement.

Most Conservative voters (85 per cent) backed the idea. Notably, two-thirds of NDP voters (66 per cent) agreed, in addition to 58 per cent of Bloc Québécois voters and 43 per cent of Liberal ones.

🔹Overall, 59 per cent of Canadians polled in 2024 were angry over how the country is being managed, up nine percentage points from last year.

#Trudeau
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✈️ 70 per cent of Air Canada pilots willing to walk away if pay doesn't improve, union boss says

Air Canada pilots union, representing nearly 5,300 pilots, is demanding parity with American counterparts. A decade ago, pilot salaries at Air Canada and United Airlines were nearly equal; today, the Americans earn twice as much.

According to union chair Charlene Hoody, seven out of 10 pilots are considering working south of the border, moving overseas or leaving the profession altogether if salary negotiations fail.

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Auditor-General fires two employees for failing to disclose government contracts

Two employees in the Auditor-General’s office have been fired for failing to disclose they had contracts with the federal government and a third case is under investigation.

The cases related to the two fired employees have been referred to law enforcement.

The issue of connections between government employees and federal contracts is under heightened scrutiny on Parliament Hill following a report last month by Auditor-General Karen Hogan into spending and management decisions related to the ArriveCan app. Ms. Hogan’s report raised several concerns about the government’s interactions with GCStrategies, which has won millions of dollars in federal contracts across several departments since 2015.

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