💰MPs approve $21.6B in supplementary spending

Parliament has approved $21.6 billion in government spending, in a late Tuesday vote in the House of Commons.

On the final day the money could be voted on, MPs rushed through the supplementary funding to the 2024 budget, including money for various programs such as First Nations child services, dental care and compensation to Quebec for services to asylum seekers.

The Conservative party opposed the additional spending in its entirety, while the Bloc Québécois only opposed one aspect of it — $1.1 million in spending for Canada's special representative on combating Islamophobia.

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🇸🇾Canada continues to review Syrian refugee claims as European nations pause intake

Canada will continue evaluating the asylum claims of people who have fled Syria, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday, even as some European countries are pausing those claims after the fall of the Assad regime.

Miller said Canada’s asylum system isn’t seeing the same pressure as European counterparts such as Germany and Austria.

We don’t face that flow in Canada, I don’t know what rank they occupy in terms of source countries for asylum seekers, but it’s pretty low.

See, it was never about asylum.

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Geoffrey Hinton, AI pioneer and University of Toronto professor, receives Nobel Prize for physics

Scientists Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning within artificial neural networks.

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CBSA lost track of nearly 30,000 people wanted for deportation orders

29,731 people are listed as “wanted” by immigration authorities — described as those who failed to appear for deportation proceedings, including those with immigration warrants issued against them.

The vast majority — 21,325 — went missing from Ontario, the largest cohort of immigration absconders in the country.

But don't worry. Trudeau says these people will leave the country voluntarily.
#immigration
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Natural gas rates to jump 17.5 per cent Jan. 1, says FortisBC

Residential gas customers are going to see a jump in their home energy bills starting in the new year, FortisBC says.

The company says the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) — the government agency responsible for regulating energy utilities in the province — has approved a 17.5 per cent rate increase.
#energy
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🇳🇿Canadian arrested with 10 kg of meth wrapped as Christmas presents at New Zealand airport

A Canadian woman has been arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into New Zealand — by disguising them as Christmas presents.

New Zealand Customs officials said 10.2 kilograms (22 pounds) of methamphetamine worth up to $2.2 million was discovered in the woman’s carry-on luggage when she arrived at Auckland Airport on a flight from Vancouver on Sunday.

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🇨🇳China criticizes Canada’s new Arctic policy which calls Beijing a potential threat

The Chinese government says it opposes Canada’s new Arctic foreign policy, which identifies Beijing as a potential threat in the region and discusses how China, despite having no territory in the Far North, is gaining a foothold there through Russia.

The Canadian government on Friday released a document detailing this policy, including its plans to talk with allies to protect the Arctic from military and economic challenges posed by Russia and China.

The policy also envisions a major role for the United States and it notably reframes the Far North as the “North American Arctic,” a phrase Ottawa uses 13 times in the document.
#China #US #Russia
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📉Bank of Canada cuts rates by half a point but signals ‘more gradual’ pace

The Bank of Canada delivered a second consecutive interest rate cut of half a percentage point on Wednesday, but signalled the pace of easing may slow as uncertainty builds in the Canadian economy.

The central bank’s policy rate now stands at 3.25 per cent after the fifth rate cut in a row.

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❌Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatens to cut off energy to U.S. in response to Trump's tariffs

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut off energy supply to the U.S. in response to the tariffs President-elect Donald Trump plans to impose on all Canadian imports.

We will go to the full extent depending how far this goes. We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin. I don’t want this to happen, but my number one job is to protect Ontarians and Canadians as a whole.

#Ontario #US
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Elon Musk calls Justin Trudeau 'insufferable tool' in new social media post

Billionaire Elon Musk is calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “an insufferable tool” in a new social media post on Wednesday.

Won’t be in power for much longer.

Musk also wrote about the prime minister on X.

Musk was responding to a video posted of Trudeau, in which the prime minister described Kamala Harris’ U.S. presidential loss as a setback for women’s progress.
#US #Trudeau
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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe calls for federal election

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has officially called for a federal election.

Maybe it’s time for Canadians to have a say and a choice and to determine who they would like to have a four-year mandate to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration. We would ask Prime Minister Trudeau to do the right thing, to give Canadians the opportunity to make the choice on who is going to represent them at the table… that can happen anytime.

#Saskatchevan
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Indeed, a proud feminist.
#Trudeau
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💊CBSA says Canada not significant source of fentanyl into U.S.

Canadian border officials told members of Parliament Thursday that Canada is not a significant source of fentanyl headed into the United States.

Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at the Canada Border Services Agency, made that comment to a parliamentary committee studying the impact of president-elect Donald Trump’s plans for border security and migration.

CBSA President Erin O’Gorman also said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has characterized the amount coming from Canada as “slippage” — small amounts sent over for personal use, mostly by post.

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🩺 Medical wait times in Canada are now the longest ever recorded

Medical wait times for patients seeking treatment across Canada are now the longest on record, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute.

The annual study, which surveyed almost 2,000 physicians across 12 medical specialties in 10 provinces, found that the median wait time for patients this year was 30 weeks from referral by a general practitioner, to consultation with a specialist, to treatment.
#healthcare
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💉Canada euthanasia now accounts for nearly one in 20 deaths

The rate of medical assistance in dying has grown in Canada for the fifth straight year.

The country released its fifth annual report since legalising assisted dying in 2016, which for the first time included data on the ethnicity of those seeking euthanasia.

Around 15,300 people underwent assisted dying last year, accounting for 4.7% of deaths in the country.
#MAID
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📊 Nearly half of Canadians favour mass deportations and 65% think there are too many immigrants: poll

Nearly half of all Canadians believe that mass deportations are necessary to stop illegal migration, new polling shows. A Leger poll done for the Association for Canadian Studies found that 48 per cent of Canadians hold that view.

The polling also found that 65 per cent of Canadians say Canada is accepting too many legal immigrants. That figure, less than a year ago in February, was just 50 per cent. In March 2019, only 35 per cent of Canadians held that view.
#immigration
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😷 One in three Canadians say government response to COVID was overblown: poll

Thirty-six per cent of Canadians agree with the notion that government reactions to the pandemic were exaggerated.

🔹Men were more likely (41 per cent) than women (32 per cent) to think governments overplayed the threat of COVID-19. The view was also highest among those aged 18 to 24 (40 per cent) and 35 to 54 (42 per cent), but dropped to 30 per cent for the 55 plus cohort.

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TikTok files legal challenge of federal government's shutdown order

TikTok is challenging the federal government's order to shut down its operations in Canada, claiming it will eliminate hundreds of jobs and could terminate a quarter of a million contracts it has with Canadian advertising clients.

The company filed documents in Federal Court in Vancouver on Dec. 5 seeking to set aside the order to wind up and cease business in Canada.

The government ordered the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business in November in the wake of a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.

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❗️Chrystia Freeland quits cabinet the day of fall economic statement

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from cabinet, the day she is set to present the fall economic statement.

In a resignation letter, she says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered her another role in cabinet Friday, but that the only “honest and viable path” is to leave cabinet.

The house of cards began to crumble.
#Freeland
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❗️Liberal Housing Minister Sean Fraser resigns from Trudeau's cabinet, won’t seek re-election

Housing Minister Sean Fraser says he will not be running in the next federal election, citing family reasons.

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Immigration minister plans reforms to asylum system to stop it being 'gamed'

Miller said there are ways to more quickly clear claims that do not appear legitimate, 'so that people know that they can't come here and game the system.'

As long as Canada is accepting asylum claims, there will be those who abuse the system.
#immigration
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