Now is not time to balance B.C.’s budget, says Conroy as province posts $5B deficit
By: Ashley Joannou
VICTORIA (CP) – British Columbia’s finance minister says now is not the time to balance the province’s budget.
Katrine Conroy says the New Democratic government does plan for a balanced budget “in the future” but it will be the responsibility of a later finance minister.
“Right now is not the right time. We have to make sure that we’re providing services to people, that we’re not making cuts,” she said while presenting the province’s public accounts for the 2023-24 fiscal year on Thursday.
Conroy released the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024 which peg the province’s deficit at $5.035 billion.
That’s lower than the most recent $5.9 billion forecast last quarter, but higher than the $4.2 billion originally predicted when the 2023 budget was tabled last year.
Conroy said the budget forecast was impacted by a drop in natural gas prices and revenue as well as a record $1.1 billion spent on wildfire management.
B.C. spent $401 million more than was budgeted in emergency responses to flooding and other events.
The province says year-end revenues were nearly $2 billion higher than the budget due to increased revenue from sources including vehicle insurer ICBC.
It says these were offset by lower revenues from natural resources. At the same time, year-end expenses were nearly $3.5 billion higher than the budget figure.
Tensions linger as students prep for return to campus after pro-Palestinian protests
By: Rianna Lim
TORONTO (CP) – As students prepare to head back to post-secondary campuses for the fall term, tensions sparked by the pro-Palestinian protest encampments that cropped up at several Ontario universities over the summer break are lingering for some.
Several students who supported or participated in the protests say they’re disappointed in how their schools handled the encampments, while some Jewish students say they’re anxious about returning to campuses where conversations about the Israel-Hamas war could be particularly charged.
Universities, meanwhile, say they’ve been working to ensure a safe campus for all students, with a commitment to freedom of expression.
The encampment at U of T was among several that emerged at universities in Ontario and other provinces, with protesters demanding their schools disclose investments in and divest from organizations profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
RCMP working with international police amid new slew of threats targeting synagogues
OTTAWA (CP) – Mounties say they are responding to additional bomb threats made across Canada today that they believe are linked to similar threats made the day before.
RCMP say they responded to the threats alongside local police at synagogues, museums, malls, ports, art galleries and more.
RCMP say they are working closely with domestic and international police to identify who may be involved in the threats, and that they will provide an update on their investigation when it can.
On Wednesday more than 100 synagogues, Jewish organizations and doctors in multiple cities across the country had received the same bomb threat.
Several institutions in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa were among those which confirmed they had received the threat on Wednesday.
Police determined there was no imminent physical threat of violence.
Montreal-area mayors say Quebec government has not delivered on promised flood relief
MONTREAL (CP) – A group of mayors from the Montreal region says the Quebec government has fallen short of its promise to increase financial aid for victims of torrential rain that hit the province earlier this month.
Last week, Quebec Premier François Legault suggested the province would expand its disaster assistance program to include sewer backups, which are typically covered by private insurance.
But this week, the government says only people whose sewers backed up because of flooding from a nearby waterway will be eligible.
The organization of 82 municipalities says the change is meaningless and won’t help many people whose basements flooded when up to 200 millimetres of rain fell on parts of Quebec on Aug. 9.
Listeria outbreak linked to plant-based milks appears to be slowing: PHAC
By: Hannah Alberga
(CP) – The Public Health Agency of Canada says a Listeria outbreak linked to several plant-based milks appears to be slowing down, with no new cases reported in the last two weeks.
However, the federal agency’s director of outbreak management says they won’t be comfortable declaring the outbreak over until early October due to Listeria’s incubation period, which can last up to 70 days, and the reporting delay that accompanies new cases.
April Hexemer says the last tally of cases reported on Aug. 12 remains unchanged, with 20 confirmed illnesses in four provinces and three deaths in Ontario.
The agency connected a Listeria case reported in August 2023 to a broader outbreak after several infections emerged in Ontario last June.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a national recall of several Silk and Great Value plant-based milk products on July 8.
The source of the illness was traced to a specific production line at a third-party beverage packaging facility in Pickering, Ont., used by plant-based milk manufacturer Danone Canada.
B.C. addictions minister allowed to respond to decriminalization court challenge
VANCOUVER (CP) – Canada’s Federal Court has agreed with British Columbia’s minister of mental health and addictions that she should be a respondent to a court challenge against the province’s decision to dial back its drug decriminalization policy.
The court says in a ruling issued this week that Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside should be added to the challenge originally filed in June by a coalition of non-profit groups including the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
The groups are seeking a judicial review, saying the decision to recriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use violates drug users’ Charter rights and “materially increases” their risk of death.
The changes sought by B.C. and granted by the federal addictions minister in May narrowed where people are allowed to possess drugs, namely in designated health-care clinics, private homes and where unhoused people are legally sheltering.
Nurses recruited from West Africa say Quebec training program has left them destitute
By: Maura Forrest
MONTREAL (CP) – A Montreal civil rights organization says a Quebec program to recruit and train nurses from overseas is leaving some participants in dire straits and dependent on food banks.
Some nurses recruited from West Africa say they’ve been left destitute after getting expelled for failing one part of the training program. They say they’ve lost access to their weekly stipend and their part-time work as orderlies.
One nurse, who spoke to reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said he worked for 10 years in his home country and quit his job to bring his family to Quebec’s Montérégie region. After failing one part of the training program, he said, he’s now living more precariously than he has in years.
