🌎🇺🇦Canada 7th in foreign aid spending, but a fifth goes to refugees inside the country

Canada spent just over US$8 billion in aid last year, of which $1.5 billion went to supporting refugees, asylum claimants and Ukrainians.

The tabulation includes provincial and federal spending in this area, and it folds in Ukrainians who came to Canada on an emergency visa to wait out the war, but who are not technically refugees.

The spending accounts for 19 per cent of Canada's foreign aid, compared to an average of 13.8 per cent among other OECD countries.

#Ukraine
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Trudeau cabinet withholding documents on foreign interference from inquiry

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had initially promised that the Commission into Foreign Interference would have full access to secret documents, including “all relevant cabinet documents” even if some of that sensitive information can’t be made available to Canadians.

But a dispute has arisen after the government invoked cabinet confidence to redact some cabinet records and to deny the Justice Marie-Josée Hogue inquiry access to an unknown number of documents involving foreign interference.

Justice Hogue said there were redactions in some of the cabinet documents handed over to the inquiry and added “discussions as to the applications of these privileges is ongoing.”

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💸📈Canada to spend more on debt after rate forecasts edge higher

Canada will spend $1.9 billion more on public debt charges in the 2024-25 fiscal year than it had planned in last month’s budget, according to new expenditure estimates submitted to lawmakers on Thursday.

That would lift total debt payments to $56 billion this year, a 3.5% increase compared to the forecasts outlined in April by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Getting poorer by the day.

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🚫Canadian border workers vote in favour of possible strike

Border workers have voted in favour of a strike mandate which could lead to "significant disruptions" to the flow of goods, services and people through Canadian ports of entry, their union said Friday morning.

Members voted 96 per cent in favour of the mandate, clearing the way for a possible strike over the summer.

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Canadian military's ability to battle forest fires will be limited this year, top general warns

The Canadian military’s ability to help battle forest fires will be limited this year because of reduced readiness and the need to send troops to Latvia, warns the country’s top general.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre also complained that the use of military personnel in fighting wildfires in Canada has become, in some cases, “wickedly wasteful.”

#wildfires
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🌱🔌🚙 Canada considers Chinese EV tariff following U.S. move but is not committing to it

Canada is looking at the massive new U.S. import tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles imposed by President Joe Biden earlier this month, but is not making any commitment to following suit north of the border.

Chinese brands are not a major player in Canada’s EV market at the moment but imports from China have exploded in the last year as Tesla switched from U.S. factories for its Canadian sales to its manufacturing plant in Shanghai.

And the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association says Chinese EV makers have already made big inroads in Europe and are looking to North America next.

#US #China
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🚫Premier says sex education group will be banned from giving school presentations

Premier Blaine Higgs says he will ban a Quebec-based sex education group from presenting at schools in New Brunswick after a presentation he believes was "clearly inappropriate."

To say I am furious would be a gross understatement. This presentation was not part of the New Brunswick curriculum and the content was not flagged for parents in advance. The fact that this was shared shows either improper vetting was done, the group misrepresented the content they would share ... or both.

Premier Higgs said.

#NewBrunswick
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Conservatives, Bloc investigating Ottawa’s refusal to share foreign-interference documents

The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have forced a meeting of a House of Commons committee to investigate the federal government’s refusal to turn over all cabinet documents on foreign interference to a public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian democracy.

Ottawa is facing pushback from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue for citing cabinet confidentiality in redacting records provided to the public inquiry investigating interference by China and other hostile states in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

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🇨🇦🇵🇸 Canada pledges more visas for Gazans

Canada said on Monday it will issue visas to 5,000 Gazans, more than it originally pledged.

The visas for Canadians' relatives living in the enclave represent a five-fold increase from the 1,000 temporary resident visas allotted under a special program that Canada announced in December.

Trudeau wants them all.

#Palestine
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🪖Soldiers leaving Canadian Forces over ‘toxic leadership’, top adviser warns

Canadian Forces Chief Warrant Officer Bob McCann highlighted his warning April 23 during an appeal for changes in how leaders dealt with lower ranks.

Job dissatisfaction, repeated moves to new locations across the country and toxic leadership have been cited in past military reports as the top reasons that Canadian Forces personnel leave.

No wonder. Who would want to serve in a woke army with the possibility of being sent to Latvia to teach Ukrainians how to waste NATO equipment?

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Conservatives put forward motion to oust Greg Fergus as Speaker of the House

Conservatives are asking the House of Commons to vote to remove Speaker Greg Fergus from the role over partisan language that appeared in an ad for an event in his riding.

Conservative MP Chris Warkentin moved a motion Monday afternoon that, if passed, would find Fergus in contempt of Parliament and declare the Speaker's chair vacant.

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Shrinkflation in Canada: 11 startling examples of how companies are selling less for the same price

Shrinkflation doesn't surprise me. I'd be concerned if the products started weighing more. That would mean they started adding bugs.

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🇨🇦🇮🇳🇺🇸 Undocumented Indian migrants chart new path to US via Canada

In fiscal year 2023, U.S. border agents encountered nearly 97,000 undocumented Indian migrants nationwide, including more than 30,000 at the northern border, according to data from the Customs and Border Patrol or CBP.

In recent months, the numbers have continued largely unabated. Between October 2023 and February 2024, nearly 14,000 Indians were encountered at the U.S.-Canada border.

#US #India
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🇨🇦🇨🇳 China can’t use Canada as trade path for cheap goods, Freeland says

Canada absolutely recognizes that China has an intentional, state-directed economic policy which is leading to overcapacity and oversupply in specific sectors. We cannot let Canadian industry be wiped out by Chinese oversupply and overcapacity.

Freeland told reporters.

She pointed out Canada also has a free trade agreement with every other Group of Seven country, and suggested China could try to exploit those connections.

Canada will not be a country through which there can be transshipment, and we’re very mindful of that.

Also Freeland: 💭Maybe if I blame it all on China, no one will notice that I'm doing a bad job.

#China
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B.C. First Nation now referring to 215 suspected graves as 'anomalies' instead of 'children'

Three years after Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc first published the explosive news that they had uncovered the graves of 215 children, the First Nation is now officially referring to the 215 as “anomalies” rather than confirmed graves.

People would make up fewer stories if they actually had to answer for them.

#BritishColumbia
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💸Tamara Lich reveals Ontario still withholding $5.5 million raised by Freedom Convoy

Freedom Convoy protestor Tamara Lich revealed in a recent interview that the Ontario government is still withholding funds sent by supporters of the 2022 protest to Give Send Go.

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⁉️Did you know that there are so many things Trudeau loves more than Canada?

One is celebrating other cultures instead of his own. This photo just screams: “I'm so liberal and open-minded, please vote for me.”

#Trudeau
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🏠Trudeau and Ford governments reach $357M deal in federal funds for affordable housing

Ottawa and Queen’s Park have reached a deal ensuring $357 million in federal funds will flow to the province to build affordable housing.

#Ontario #housing
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🦌Parks Canada to spend $12M on B.C. deer cull, while Canadian hunters say they'd do it for free

Parks Canada has earmarked $12 million to fund a multi-phase “Fur to Forest” program, which employs non-Canadian helicopter-mounted sharpshooters to eradicate an invasive herd of European fallow deer from Sidney Island. That’s nearly double the $6 million the program was initially forecast to cost.

The program sparked controversy upon its launch in December, particularly in light of the fact local efforts by private hunters have kept the animals’ numbers in check. Locals told reporters last year those efforts resulted in the removal of nearly 2,000 deer, and at no cost to taxpayers.

#BritishColumbia
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💳 Rising number of Canadians only making minimum payment on credit cards

A TransUnion report published Tuesday said the number of Canadians paying only the minimum monthly amount on their credit card rose eight basis points to 1.3 per cent in the first quarter compared with last year.

Total consumer debt in Canada was $2.38-trillion in the first quarter, compared with $2.32-trillion in the same quarter last year, and down only slightly from a record $2.4-trillion in the fourth quarter.

The report said 31.8 million Canadians had one or more credit products in the first quarter, up 3.75 per cent year-over-year.

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Canada could face two more decades of stagnant growth, report warns

The study from Canadian financial firm Omnigence warns that Canada is headed for a “protracted bout of stagflation” in which the country will continue to suffer low growth and higher inflation.

Canada is expected to have the lowest real growth rate among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development over the next three years.

But hey, people are really woried about the climate crisis.

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