Ottawa urges Canadians to leave Lebanon while they can due to escalating violence
OTTAWA (CP) – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is urging Canadians to leave an increasingly volatile Lebanon while they can.
In a statement today, Joly says the security situation could deteriorate further without warning due to sustained and escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel.
Joly says it is not the time to travel to Lebanon, and for Canadians now there, it is time to leave while commercial flights remain available.
She warns that if the armed conflict intensifies, it could affect people’s ability to leave the country and Canada’s capacity to provide consular services.
Canada is not currently offering assisted departures or evacuations for Canadians in Lebanon, and these are not guaranteed.
Joly urges Canadians in Lebanon to consult the federal government’s travel advisories regularly and to register with the federal service for Canadians abroad to receive important updates.
“Canadians should make sure their travel documents and those of their spouse and dependent children are always up to date and secure,” Joly added.
Wildfire in central Labrador jumps Churchill River
CHURCHILL, N.L. (CP) – The wildfire in Labrador threatening the evacuated town of Churchill Falls jumped over the Churchill River earlier today, increasing the risk to the skeleton crew operating the town’s massive hydroelectric generating station.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey made the announcement during a news conference in St. John’s, saying there was heightened risk to the plant and the town.
Jennifer Williams, president of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, says if the fire gets worse, the Crown corporation has plans to evacuate the generating station and operate it remotely from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, a three-hour drive to the east.
Williams says the power being produced by the generating station has already been reduced, which will make it easier if evacuations are needed.
She says the reduction in output is not having an impact on customers in Labrador and Quebec.
The premier said six waterbombers are fighting the fire.
Liberal government’s proposed capital gains tax changes come into effect today
By: Nojoud Al Mallees
OTTAWA (CP) – The Liberal government’s changes to capital gains taxation came into effect Tuesday, despite significant pushback from business and physicians’ groups.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s spring budget proposed making two-thirds of capital gains — the profit made on the sale of assets such as a secondary residence or stocks — taxable, rather than one-half.
For individuals’ capital gains of $250,000 or less, the inclusion rate would remain the same, at 50 per cent.
At a time when the Liberals are looking to woo back young voters, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pitched the effective tax increase as a way to deliver generational fairness.
The Liberal government says the $19.4 billion it expects to raise in five years due to the changes will help pay for housing and other priorities for young people.
Freeland introduced a standalone motion on the changes, which easily passed the House of Commons earlier this month.
The NDP, Bloc Québécois and Greens voted with the Liberals in favour of the motion while the Conservatives, who had been silent on the tax changes until then, voted against it.
Ottawa keeps spending on influencers. Liberals say it’s about stemming disinformation
By: Mickey Djuric
OTTAWA (CP) – Her kids are not reading the newspapers on her kitchen counter. Instead, they’re looking at their phones to find information.
That’s the example that Treasury Board President Anita Anand brings up when she’s asked about the federal government’s efforts to get its message out via payments to social-media influencers.
She says it worries her that actors who seek to spread disinformation can more easily do that on the platforms where members of the younger generation, including her own kids, spend their time.
Since 2021, federal government departments and agencies have spent at least $1.7 million on influencers, and influencer marketing campaigns and strategies, documents recently tabled in the House of Commons and publicly available contracts show.
It’s just a fraction of what the government otherwise spends on traditional advertising.
“We need to evolve with the times,” Anand, who holds the government’s purse strings, said at a recent press conference.
Most of the social-media money is going towards institutions that have public service announcements to put out about health, travel or other topics that are also fodder for newspaper ads or commercials on TV and radio.
AFN national chief says child-welfare funding to top $20B as chiefs raise concerns
OTTAWA (CP) – The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says it is about to finalize a deal with Ottawa on child-welfare reforms that will top the $20 billion promised as part of a landmark settlement.
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak is calling it a “monumental agreement” and says she will continue to work with chiefs before they ratify it later this year.
Three regional chiefs representing more than half of First Nations recently penned a letter to Woodhouse Nepinak saying the AFN is overstepping by making decisions about reforms without consulting with children and families.
They also raised concerns that the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which jointly launched the human-rights complaint that led to the settlement agreement, is being frozen out.
Woodhouse Nepinak says the agreement is unlikely to include funding to ensure Jordan’s Principle is followed.
That’s a legal rule that says First Nations children must receive the health care and social services they need even if there is a jurisdictional dispute over which government should pay for it.
First Nations, Ottawa, B.C., announce $335M for protection off Great Bear coast
VANCOUVER (CP) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is working with 17 First Nations in British Columbia as well as the provincial government to expand protection for marine ecosystems off the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest.
He says the initiative will add about 14,000 square kilometres of newly protected areas, while supporting sustainable development for the waters off the rainforest on B.C.’s central and northern coast.
The federal government is committing $200 million to the initiative, while the B.C. government is contributing $60 million and $75 million is coming from philanthropic investors, for a total of $335 million to create an ongoing fund.
The initiative builds on the Great Bear Rainforest model, which has protected large swaths of old-growth forests while supporting job creation and economic diversification for communities along the coast.
