Food & Energy
A month-long Conservative committee filibuster of cabinet’s budget bill has spilled into the House of Commons. MPs on Friday voided a whole day’s worth of debate on Bill C-47 as cabinet fumed.
“I find it shameful and disgusting,” said Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader. “The Conservative Party continues to play the role of a destructive force on the floor of the House of Commons.”
Conservatives protested the 2023 budget A Made In Canada Plan projects spending a half trillion dollars a year with ongoing deficits through 2028. Debt interest charges this year total $43.9 billion, almost equivalent to $49.4 billion federal spending on health care.
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Read MoreA Citroen 2CV made of wood, thought to be the only one of its kind, has sold for 210,000 euros ($225,000) at auction in France, setting a new price record for the iconic vehicle.
The car, in full working order and registered in France, beat expectations when it went under the hammer in the central town of Tours on Sunday.
The body of the 2CV was hand-crafted out of wood with the same famous curves as the post-war French classic.
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Read MoreJaguar is recalling all its US I-Pace electric vehicles (EV) due to battery fire risk. Owners are advised to park outside and charge their vehicles outdoors to prevent potential house fires.
Jaguar’s potential battery problem is similar to the recall of the Chevy Bolt EV, which also had vehicle batteries catch on fire.
After four separate incidents of $110,000 I-Pace electric car batteries catching on fire, concerns about their similarity to the fires that led to the recall of Chevy Bolt EV vehicles.
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Read MoreThe David Suzuki Foundation has a new enemy in its climate crusade: the lowly — some would say lovely — honey bee.
After years of encouraging and educating backyard beekeepers on how to raise and feed the perky pollinators, Canada’s elder enviro activist is now telling them buzz off.
That’s because a study from Concordia University in Montreal suggests urban bees are squeezing out more than 150 species of wild bees that have been pollinating the local flora for thousands of years.
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Read MoreNumber of mortgage holders voicing difficulty with housing costs up 11 points compared to last June
June 5, 2023 – Inflation has proven a difficult foe for the Bank of Canada to defeat. After the central bank paused for two rate cycles, economists are speculating that a rate hike may be forthcoming as soon as this week after higher-than-expected inflation numbers in May and economic growth in the first quarter of 2023.
This would spell more trouble for the more than half (54%) of renters and approaching half (45%) of mortgage-holders who say they are already finding their monthly payment for housing tough or very difficult to manage, according to new data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute.
Interest rates have risen significantly since the beginning of 2022 as the Bank of Canada has tried to cool rising inflation. This has affected both homeowners with mortgages as the cost of borrowing has gone up and renters, many of whose landlords are affected by the interest rate increases. Indeed, since June 2022, both renters and owners are more likely to report difficulties paying their rent or mortgage, respectively. One year ago, one-in-five (19%) renters reported it was very difficult, now one-quarter (24%) say the same. The proportion of owners who find their mortgage difficult to manage has risen from one-third (34%) to 45 per cent.
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Read MoreA motion introduced by the opposition to cancel the second federal carbon tax, also known as the Clean Fuel Standard, failed in the House of Commons on June 5. The Conservative motion said that the first carbon tax would add 41 cents to a litre of gas, while the Clean Fuel Standard—which they referred to as a second carbon tax—would add another 20 cents. The motion said this extra 61 cents per litre of gas would make life more expensive for Canadians.
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Read MoreNipawin, a Saskatchewan town about a 90-minute drive east of Prince Albert, decided not to go ahead with a plan to install three electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in different locations throughout the town.
The decision was made after some community members opposed the EV stations.
The town council voted to cancel the stations. It would have cost $40,000 if they had been installed.
“An extenuating amount of public opposition was received. Again, the Town of Nipawin is committed to the governance in the interest of its electorate and this was the majority feedback that was received. Hence, the decision was made to not proceed at this time,” said Joel Cardinal, chief administrative officer of Nipawin, in a statement.
The town said it receives fewer than one monthly request regarding EV stations.
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Read MoreThe chair of the Senate agriculture committee yesterday would not comment on an Italian junket so costly other senators expressed unease with the expense. Senator Robert Black (Ont.) submitted a $66,940 budget to lead a four-member farm delegation to Italy in July for a study of “soil conditions in Canada.”
“Europe is astronomically expensive at that time of the year,” Senator Donald Plett (Man.) told the Senate committee on internal economy. “The agriculture committee was given some very clear instructions to bring the costs of their flights down in different ways,” he added.
The Senate agriculture committee proposed to send two senators and two aides to Rome in mid-July to visit the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The budget included $42,600 for transportation including business class air tickets, another $13,120 for hotels at $820 a night for four nights, $2,800 for Roman taxis and $2,000 for meals.
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Read MoreCabinet is unsure of the scope of tobacco smuggling nationwide, according to a report to Parliament. Manufacturers have estimated bootleg cigarettes are worth billions in lost tax revenue.
“The excise reporting gap was estimated to be on average $400 million of federal excise revenue for the tax years 2014 to 2018,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons. However the $400 million figure included tax revenue lost to contraband of all kinds.
Figures were sought by Conservative MP Philip Lawrence (Northumberland-Peterborough South, Ont.) who asked, “How much does the government collect in tobacco taxes annually and what is the amount of federal tax revenue that is lost from the sale of illegal, untaxed tobacco?”
The Canada Revenue Agency said it collected $1,820,138,619 in tobacco taxes last year. There was no estimate of tax revenue lost to smugglers.
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Read MoreCanada’s largest pork producer is closing down farms and laying off staff in Alberta and Saskatchewan in response to low prices.
Quebec-based Olymel LP announced it will be closing five sow units in southern Alberta and one in Saskatchewan to reduce its pig herd by about a third to about 40,000 sows. About 80 employees have been laid off.
In a news release, the company said the closures would result in a net reduction of about 200,000 market hogs annually to its Red Deer slaughter plant. The barn themselves will be wound down over the next several months and remain closed until market conditions improve.
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