Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday said he will “be the person who actually goes and does” fix the national housing crisis. Testifying at the Commons human resources committee, Fraser complained his predecessors did not do enough to restore affordability: “I am going to be the person.”
Certain politicians have “made it more dangerous to be a Jew in this country,” Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) yesterday told the Commons justice committee. Lantsman identified no MP by name but pointed to a photograph of one cabinet minister holding hands with a Holocaust denier: “Do not be fooled.”
A New Democrat MP yesterday said nobody wants to visit his hometown’s central district due to opioid use and homelessness. “It is as bad or worse” in other cities, said MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.): “Nobody wants to go into the downtown anymore.”
A GST holiday for apartment builders will cost taxpayers at least a billion more than cabinet claimed, the Budget Office said yesterday. The $5.8 billion cost, the highest estimate to date, compares to a Department of Finance figure of $4.5 billion: “There is a large amount of uncertainty.”
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations yesterday confirmed it spent millions to uncover the “heartbreaking truth” of unmarked Indian Residential School graves in Kamloops, B.C. No remains have been recovered to date and no accounting of what became of the $7.9 million has been disclosed: “The community had received $7.9 million for field work.”
The Commons yesterday by a unanimous 327-0 vote endorsed a justice committee report that it take immediate steps to protect faith communities. The vote followed warnings from postsecondary students that Canadian universities were fostering vulgar anti-Semitism: “I have personally heard ‘death to the Jews’ chanted in Arabic.”
The Commons environment committee by unanimous vote has ordered disclosure of subsidy contracts under a federal program claiming to lower industrial greenhouse emissions. Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Dauphin-Swan River, Man.), sponsor of the motion, called it “nothing more than another slush fund.”
Federal union executives yesterday protested a Treasury Board order that teleworking employees return to their jobsites at least three days weekly. Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said cabinet reneged on a 2023 agreement to negotiate telework terms: “We will be encouraging our members to file tens of thousands of individual grievances.”
The Department of Immigration is phasing out costly hotel subsidies to shelter illegal immigrants and refugees. It will be up to local authorities to find “permanent, sustainable” housing for foreigners by 2026, it said: “Funding in 2026 will be conditional.”
Catherine Tait, the $497,000-a year CEO of the CBC, yesterday denied misleading the Commons heritage committee over payment of millions in executive bonuses while the network pleaded financial hardship. All but Liberal MPs expressed exasperation: “I want to make a personal objection.”
Cabinet learned a lot from its short-lived experiment in decriminalizing public use of cocaine in British Columbia, Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks said yesterday. The program scheduled to run to January 31, 2026 was abruptly cut short on complaints of public disorder: “Is this a failure?”
Cabinet yesterday moved to invoke closure on its latest omnibus budget bill introduced a week ago. The 686-page bill amends 48 separate Acts of Parliament and raises the federal debt ceiling to $2.13 trillion, a record: “Every single Canadian will be affected by this budget in some way or another.”
Canada Post should work with its unions to cut costs after posting a $748 million pre-tax loss in its latest Annual Report to Parliament, Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said yesterday. Duclos told reporters the post office faced stiff competition from non-union rivals like Amazon: “Decrease costs by working with unions.”
Legalization of marijuana normalized drug use among seniors, says in-house Department of Health research. Pensioners now routinely use cannabis to relieve insomnia or boredom, said a federal report: “It’s extremely common right now.”
The Department of Natural Resources is hiring consultants for advice on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by Canada’s trucking industry. It follows the latest data confirming a continued rise in emissions: “We need everyone to help drive down the emissions.”
