🌱🔌 Premiers Smith and Moe slam “unrealistic” net-zero electricity regulations

The Premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan took to social media to slam the Trudeau government for punishing their provinces with unrealistic net-zero electricity targets despite their major role in driving Canada’s economy.

On Thursday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault published his government’s Draft Clean Electricity Regulations, outlining the federal plan to eliminate fossil fuels and high-emission power sources from Canada’s electricity grid.

🔹Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was engaging in an unrealistic plan.

“Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional. They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” wrote Moe.

🔹Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also chimed in on Thursday evening saying that the government’s threats were “completely unnecessary.”

“I couldn’t agree more with Premier Scott Moe. Ottawa’s unrealistic net-zero targets and recent escalation is completely unnecessary. It’s time for the feds to face reality and work with us on pragmatic solutions,” tweeted Smith.

Earlier this week, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson threatened to bar provinces that refuse to comply with the standard from billions in tax credits and funding for renewable energy.

#Alberta #Sakatchewan

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Some news outlets report difficulty posting on Meta apps amid restriction rollout

News outlets have been unable to post on Meta’s social media sites some or all of the time since the digital giant began rolling out its restrictions on Canadian news in response to federal legislation.

CBC has noticed inconsistencies when posting on Facebook and Instagram, including instances where content submitted does not get posted, said CBC spokesperson.

At Bell, which owns CTV, some account users are still able to post to the brand’s accounts, while others cannot, a spokesperson said. The Toronto Star is still able to post on its Meta accounts, said spokesperson.

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Nearly 2,700 people made claims for $70-million lottery ticket, now officially unclaimed

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation say that the $70-million Lotto Max ticket was officially declared unclaimed today, making it the largest unclaimed prize in Canadian lottery history.

OLG says nearly 2,700 people made claims for the prize, but none were identified as the legitimate holder of the winning ticket.

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Conservatives call for committee's foreign interference probe to resume

The Conservatives are calling for a House of Commons committee to resume its probe into foreign election interference in Canada, citing a disinformation operation which targeted Conservative MP Michael Chong.

The House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee has not held a hearings on foreign election interference in Canada since June 20.

In a letter to committee chair Bardish Chagger, the Conservative Party's democratic reform critic Michael Cooper said news of the operation makes it necessary for the committee to resume hearings — and represents a government failure on the issue.

The Conservatives, NDP and Bloc have been united in calling for a public inquiry on foreign interference, which the Liberal government has so far resisted. The government has also faced opposition pressure to establish a foreign agent registry and expel Chinese diplomats from Canada.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Record levels of international students straining Canada's housing supply further

🔹The number of international students with valid student visas studying at Canadian post-secondary institutions is now at the highest level it's ever been.

Record numbers of international students coming to Canada is making the already inflated cost of housing worse. Average rents nationally jumped more than 10 per cent last year and are expected to rise again this year, although rents in hotter markets, such as Toronto and Vancouver, are up significantly more.

Data released earlier this year by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada show 807,750 international students with valid student visas studying at Canadian post-secondary institutions as of the end of 2022 which is 30% higher than in 2021.

🔹Universities are driving the numbers as a way to generate more revenue, because they can charge international students much higher tuitions.

Visiting students create inordinate demand at the very bottom of the rental market, where there’s already a tight market for low-income workers, fixed-income seniors and those who rely on social assistance.

🔹Most international students coming to Canada flock to Ontario, which in 2022 saw over 411,000 foreign students enrolled in the province’s post-secondary institutions. British Columbia ranked second with 164,000 students last year, followed by Quebec with 93,000, Alberta with 43,000 and Manitoba with 22,000.

#housing #Ontario #BritishColumbia

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New federal immigration minister pressures Quebec to increase family reunification capacity

At his first press conference as immigration minister, Marc Miller took aim at Quebec’s policy on family reunification.

“Quebec controls a good chunk of its immigration policy, particularly on the family reunification envelope, which is capped at about 10,000 right now,” Miller said. “There’s a backlog of of 30,000 families that want to come here and support their kids, and…Quebec says we need to cut it off.”

Under Premier François Legault, Quebec has been working to gain more and more control over immigration from the federal government. The province does have a say on things like economic immigration and family reunification.

Miller says family reunification is a topic he wants to address with the Legault government.

The Trudeau government wants to force even more migrants on Quebec.

#Quebec #immigration

🍁 Maple Chronicles

⚖️ Canada's judicial watchdog to probe apparent political donations by judges

🔹Canada’s judicial watchdog is probing if Ontario Superior Court judges made donations to a political party after their appointments, a practice that violates its ethical guidelines.

Elections Canada donations data and information on federally appointed judges and tribunal members suggest that possibly two judges and at least 15 tribunal members may have continued to make donations to political parties after being appointed by the Trudeau Liberal government.

Judges are subject to strict ethical guidelines set out by the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), the federal body that oversees the magistrature.

Among those guidelines are specific references to political activity: “Judges must cease all partisan political activity upon the assumption of judicial office.”

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Canadian Armed Forces deployed to fight wildfires

The Canadian Armed Forces have been deployed to help Alberta and the Northwest Territories as wildfires threaten multiple communities in the area, several of which are under evacuation orders.

It comes after the territorial government requested assistance from the feds due to growing difficulty fighting wildfires.

The CAF will assist with “firefighting efforts, air transportation, and planning, coordination and logistics,” tweeted Minister of National Defence, Bill Blair.

#Alberta #wildfires

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Suicidal woman recommended medical assistance in dying by Vancouver general hospital

A Canadian woman was reportedly offered information on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) by a clinician at Vancouver General Hospital after seeking medical assistance for suicidal ideations.

Kathryn Mentler went to the hospital in June to get professional help to treat her chronic depression and ongoing thoughts of suicide. Clinician asked if she had considered MAID, advising her that wait times to see a psychiatrist are extremely long due to Canada’s “broken” medical system.

This is not the first time MAID has raised questions about its ethics. A 47-year-old Toronto woman suffering from severe anorexia was encouraged by her psychiatrist to research medically assisted suicide in 2021.

#BritishColumbia #Ontario #MAID

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💰Cabinet ministers given Oct. 2 deadline to cut $15-billion from spending plans

Federal cabinet ministers have been given an Oct. 2 deadline to come up with specific cuts as part of an effort to shave about $15-billion from existing spending plans.

New Treasury Board President Anita Anand delivered the deadline in writing to her cabinet colleagues, meaning many ministers in new roles only have a few weeks to find cuts that were first promised in the 2023 budget.

The March 28 budget announced a goal of saving $7.1-billion over five years through a 15-per-cent cut to discretionary spending on consulting, professional services and travel over five years. It also announced a planned phase-in of a 3-per-cent spending cut by departments and agencies by 2026-27, with a goal of saving $7-billion over four years.

As well, both plans are expected to produce continuing savings in future years. And Crown corporations are expected to find a combined $1.3-billion in savings over four years.

The letter was sent to ministers just days before a cabinet retreat that is scheduled to take place in Charlottetown next week.

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📈 Canadian inflation jumps in July, raising prospect of another interest rate hike

Canada’s annual inflation rate surged more than expected to 3.3 per cent in July as core measures eyed by the central bank remained stubbornly high, data showed on Tuesday, increasing the likelihood of another interest rate increase.

Analysts had forecast inflation would rise to 3.0 per cent from the 27-month low of 2.8 per cent recorded in June. The consumer price index was up 0.6 per cent on a month-over-month basis, Statistics Canada said, also higher than a forecast of a 0.3 per cent gain.

Statscan said the rise in headline inflation was mainly attributable to a base-year effect in gasoline prices, as a large monthly decline in July 2022 was no longer affecting the 12-month movement.

The Bank of Canada projected in July that inflation would hover around 3 per cent for about a year, before creeping down to its 2 per cent target by the middle of 2025.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

💉🍫Government-funded drug site offers chocolate for dirty needles

▪️On Monday, the South Riverdale Community Health Clinic (SRCHC), quietly took down a poster from their front door offering chocolate in exchange for needles and issued an apology.

“Got Sharps? Want Chocolate?” read the poster. “For every full sharps container you return to COUNTERfit, we’ll give you a chocolate bar.”

COUNTERfit is a harm reduction program for women run by the SRCHC. The centre also runs a safe-injection site and a so-called safe-supply program which hands out opioids along with a host of other programs.

Jason Altenberg, CEO of SRCHC, said the poster never should have gone up. He said that the harm-reduction team has long encouraged clients to bring back used needles, but that this went too far.

▪️The poster was up over the weekend and only came down after a local mother tweeted a photo in disbelief after walking past the centre. The photo was viewed more than 325,000 times over the course of the next 24 hours, even garnering the attention of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“This is an actual sign from a drug-consumption site in Toronto. What is happening in Canada?” Poilievre posted in response to the photo.

#Ontario #Poilievre

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🏠 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver tops $3,000 a month

The average rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver is now more than $3,000 a month, according to the latest report from Rentals website.

That’s a 16 per cent jump from the same time last year and a grim new record for the city.

The average two-bedroom apartment is renting for $3,918 or $47,016 a year. That means two people with an average before-tax household income of $96,423 would be spending almost half their earnings on rent.

Some Vancouver businesses have been forced to close, saying “runaway housing costs” make it impossible to pay staff appropriately.

#BritishColumbia #housing

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Elementary school teachers in Ontario to hold strike votes

The union representing elementary school teachers in Ontario is preparing to ask its members for a mandate to strike after a “lack of sufficient progress” in negotiations with the Ford government.

On Monday, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) announced it would hold in-person meetings to conduct strike votes and “address bargaining issues.”

The meetings, the union said, will be held across Ontario from mid-September to mid-October.

The union said the government had “refused to engage in any meaningful discussions” about ETFO’s school priorities, including compensation, hiring practises, working conditions and smaller class sizes.

#Ontario

🍁 Maple Chronicles

💉Frequency of medical aid in dying continues to rise in Quebec

The head of the independent body that monitors the practice in the province says he worries doctor-assisted deaths are no longer being seen as a last resort.

Quebecers have stopped seeing MAID as an exceptional procedure for people with incurable illnesses whose suffering is unbearable, Dr. Michel Bureau said in a recent interview.

“We’re now no longer dealing with an exceptional treatment, but a treatment that is very frequent,” said Bureau, head of Commission sur les soins de fin de vie, which reports to the legislature.

🔹Quebec is on track to finish the year with seven per cent of all deaths recorded as doctor-assisted, Bureau said. “That’s more than anywhere else in the world: 4.5 times more than Switzerland, three times more than Belgium, more than the Netherlands. It’s two times more than Ontario.”

Earlier this month, Bureau’s commission sent a memo to doctors reminding them that only patients who have a serious and incurable disease, who are suffering and who have experienced irreversible decline in their condition can receive MAID.

The memo reminded doctors that the procedure must be independently approved by two physicians, and that doctors shouldn’t “shop” for a favourable second opinion.

With each passing year, the boundaries of what is allowed and what is humane are blurring more and more. Surprisingly, Quebec has decided to lead the growing trend of medical assistance in dying.

#Quebec #MAID

🍁 Maple Chronicles

💥Fireworks mishap results in $1M in damages at going-away party in Ontario

Police say damage is estimated at roughly $1 million after a firework tipped over and launched into a haybarn during a going away party in Central Elgin, Ont.

Roughly 50 family and friends of the property owner gathered on Sunday for a going-away party for a family member, Const. Brett Phair explained.

No injuries were reported but roughly $1 million in damage was done to “buildings, farm implements, and other equipment” impacted by the fire.

#Ontario

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Trudeau's evolution

2015: “prioritize investment in affordable housing”

2021: “first home out of reach, it’s time to change that”

2023: “housing isn't a primary federal responsibility”

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🩺 Half of Canadians do not have a doctor, or battle for appointments: survey

In the midst of a family doctor shortage across the country, half of Canadians do not have a primary care physician or have difficulty securing a timely appointment with their current one, according to a recent survey.

The survey, released Thursday by Angus Reid Institute and the Canadian Medical Association, found that one in five Canadians said they don’t have a family doctor.

For those fortunate enough to have one, the struggle persists, as 29 per cent of respondents said it was difficult to get an appointment. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said it usually takes a few days to get an appointment with their family doctor, while 15 per cent said they get in right away.

Among Canadians who do not have a family physician, 26 per cent have abandoned their search, while another 38 per cent have been looking for more than a year, the survey found.

#healthcare

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🇨🇳🇨🇦 China snubs Canada as it lifts travel bans

China – a major source of outbound tourists – has left Canada off a list of countries now approved for travel by tour groups, its embassy in Ottawa said.

Last week Beijing lifted a Covid-era ban on group tours to dozens of countries including the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia, but not Canada.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa said in a statement that the reason behind the snub was “the Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called ‘Chinese interference’.” China-Canada relations hit a new low this year amid accusations of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections and the attempted intimidation of MPs that led to the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat in May.

#China #Canada

@asianomics