Safe injection sites, you say?

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Ottawa approved sharp spike in large corporate writeoffs last year

The federal government approved a sharp spike in large corporate writeoffs last year, with 11 companies receiving $1.2-billion in combined writeoffs for tax debt and other financial obligations, new figures show.

The 11 companies accounted for nearly a quarter of the $4.9-billion in writeoffs approved last year, which covered a 1½ million cases of corporate and individual writeoffs.

Citing privacy reasons, the Canada Revenue Agency is not identifying the businesses and individuals who had their debts waived. The CRA can write off debts owed to the government for a wide range of reasons, such as bankruptcy, extraordinary circumstances or financial hardship.

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💸Canada's 10 worst natural disasters totaled C$30 billion in annual insured losses

Insured losses from natural disasters averaged C$2.2 billion ($1.63 billion) a year over the last decade, far exceeding the previous decade's average of C$632 million, according to the IBC, which expects escalating losses to continue.

The wildfire in Jasper this year surpassed C$880 million in insured damages, according to initial estimates, IBC said last week.

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Recent Angus Reid poll.

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❗️Jagmeet Singh breaks the supply and confidence agreement and will no longer prop up the Liberal government.

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🏦 Bank of Canada cuts key interest rate to 4.25%

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem confirmed a third consecutive interest rate cut on Wednesday. The 25-basis-point cut brought the central bank’s benchmark interest rate to 4.25 per cent.

If inflation continues to ease broadly in line with our July forecast, it is reasonable to expect further cuts in our policy rate.

Macklem added.

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✈️Air Canada offers pilots 30% pay boost as strike deadline nears

Air Canada has offered to boost the pay of more than 5,000 pilots by about 30 per cent within the next three years, according to people familiar with the matter, as it seeks to prevent a strike.

Pilots at Canada’s largest airline would received a minimum 20 per cent increase up front, followed by annual raises over a three-year period, said the people, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. Pilots with one to four years of service would receive more, the people said.

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🍻Convenience stores across Ontario allowed to sell alcohol beginning today

Convenience stores across Ontario are allowed to sell booze as of Thursday as the province significantly loosens its grip on the alcohol marketplace.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario said that by Tuesday it had granted 4,200 licences to convenience stores. That means roughly 40 per cent of convenience stores will be able to sell beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink cocktails.

All grocery stores will be able to sell alcohol by Oct. 31, but spirits will only be available in Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores and outlets.

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📊 Concern over immigration quadruples over last 48 months

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians’ concern over immigration has risen four-fold over the last two years.

One-in-five (21%) say “Immigration/refugees” is one of the top issues facing the country, putting it in a tie with climate change (21%), though still far off from the high cost of living (57%), health care (45%) and housing affordability (32%).

#immigration
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❗️Liberal national campaign director Jeremy Broadhurst is stepping down

Embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his governing Liberals have taken another hit with Jeremy Broadhurst quitting as national campaign director for the party.

After much consideration and discussion with my family, I have decided to step away from my role as National Campaign Director for the Liberal Party of Canada effective September 30, 2024. Given the stakes involved, the Prime Minister, the Liberal Party of Canada and all its candidates deserve someone who can bring more energy and devotion to the job than I can at this stage of my life.

Broadhurst stated.

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💸🇨🇳Canadian canola industry could take $1B hit in wake of Chinese trade actions

Canada’s canola industry could take a $1-billion hit in the wake of Chinese trade actions, according to a new report from an international credit rating agency.

The report from Morningstar DBRS estimates the potential losses Canada could incur if China’s recently announced plan to launch an anti-dumping investigation into canola seed imports from Canada results in China levying tariffs on the crop.

#China
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💰🇺🇸Canada’s economic gap with the U.S. reaches a new record

Canada’s economy has fallen behind its population growth for the fifth straight quarter, with real GDP per capita declining by 0.1 percent in Q2 2024.

Compared to the same period last year, per capita GDP is now down 2.2 percent. Compared to 2022, it’s down 3.6 percent.

🔹The gap between the Canadian and American economies has now reached its widest point in nearly a century. If this continues, we’ll have not persistently seen this wide of a gap since the days of John A. Macdonald.

#US
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Former federal public servant pleads guilty to awarding 72 sole-source contracts to his own company

A former federal public servant has pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust for directing 72 sole-source contracts worth $231,663 to a company that he fully owned.

Marc Primeau of Long Sault, Ont., had admitted to using his position at the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to direct the contracts and six other purchase orders to Access Security Logistix (ASL), a company he created.

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Quebec man who imported 26,630 fake $2 coins made in China gets jail time

A Quebec man has been jailed after he admitted masterminding one of the largest ever series of shipments of Chinese-made counterfeit toonies in Canadian history.

Jean-Francois Généreux from Sorel, Que., about 70 kilometres from Montreal, was sentenced to nine months in jail before the Labour Day weekend after he pleaded guilty to two criminal charges, including importing and introducing counterfeit money into Canada.

Quebec Court Judge Marc-Nicolas Foucault ordered the confiscation of 26,630 dodgy toonies that Généreux imported from a Chinese manufacturer in Quanzhou, China, so federal authorities can oversee their destruction.

#Quebec #China
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👤Canada's unemployment rate rises to 6.6% in August amid challenging job market

Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate increased to 6.6 per cent in August – up from 6.4 per cent in July.

The agency’s labour force survey says the economy added a modest 22,000 jobs last month, lagging the pace of population growth.

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🇨🇦🇺🇦🪖Canada plans to send Ukraine over 80K unarmed small rockets

Canada plans to send 80,840 surplus small unarmed air-to-surface rockets to Ukraine as well as 1,300 warheads in the coming months, Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a statement on Friday.

Canada will also donate chassis assemblies from 29 M113 armored personnel carriers and 64 Coyote armored cars, which the Canadian armed forces are no longer using, Blair said.

#Ukraine
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🇨🇦🇨🇳Ottawa ties Wealth One founders to possible Chinese interference

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has alleged that three principal shareholders in Wealth One Bank of Canada were vulnerable to coercion by China’s ruling Communist Party and may have engaged in money laundering as part of Beijing’s foreign-interference operations in this country.

Lawyers for three of the bank’s founders went to court last year to seek a judicial review of Ms. Freeland’s April, 2023, decision to order them to divest their shares in Wealth One, a Schedule 1 bank established in 2016 that caters to Chinese-Canadian clients. A Schedule 1 bank in Canada is considered a domestic institution, not a subsidiary of a foreign bank, and is authorized to accept deposits and provide mortgages.

#China #Freeland
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🚶‍♂️Five chiefs of staff set to leave the Trudeau government

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is contending with an exodus of senior staff just as the minority Liberals are returning to a precarious position in the House of Commons, having lost the automatic support of the New Democratic Party.

Five of his 38 ministers are losing their chiefs of staff in quick succession with several already gone, including the top advisers at Global Affairs, Heritage, Environment, National Revenue, and Mental Health and Addictions, according to six Liberal sources who each confirmed some of the names of those leaving.

It's all crumbling down.

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🎓International student enrolment down 45 per cent, Universities Canada says

A group representing almost 100 of Canada’s universities is warning the impact from the federal government’s cap on international students will be “far greater” than what Ottawa aimed for.

Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada, said that when the schools officially finish counting how many students have arrived and enrolled, there will be at least a 45 per cent drop of international students. The final tally will be reported in October.

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Bloc Québécois looks to make deals with Liberals as NDP ends agreement

The Bloc Québécois says its ready to wheel and deal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party for support during confidence votes now that the Liberal government’s confidence and supply agreement with the NDP has ended.

In an interview ahead of Monday’s party caucus retreat in the Outaouais region, Bloc House Leader Alain Therrien says his party is happy to regain its balance of power. He called the situation a “window of opportunity” now that the Liberals are truly a minority government.

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