🏠📉New condo sales in the Toronto area hit 15-year low

There were 1,461 new condo sales in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in the first quarter of the year. That marked the lowest quarterly amount since the 2009 financial crisis.

Interest rates are high, rents are high, home buying is unaffordable, corporations are laying people off. We are in a full-blown economic crisis, but politicians don't want to call it what it is. As if no one is going to notice.

#housing #Ontario
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🇨🇦🇮🇱🇵🇸Jewish groups call for end to funding for Edmonton Pride centre over its response to Hamas attack

Jewish organizations are calling for funding to be stripped from the Pride Centre of Edmonton, arguing that its “egregious” conduct since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel ought to disqualify it from government support.

There are three things you can watch forever: fire burning, water falling and minorities arguing over who is most oppressed.

#Israel #Palestine
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🔫Canada Post refusing to collect banned guns for Ottawa's buyback program

Canada Post is refusing to collect firearms that were banned by the federal government in 2020.

Liberals promised a buyback program to remove 144,000 firearms from private hands in both the 2019 and 2021 elections. The government officially announced the process in 2020 and is now hoping to finalize it before the next general election, set for the fall of 2025.

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🎓Asylum claims by international students have risen nearly 650 per cent in the past five years

Experts warn that the study-permit system is being exploited as a way to enter and remain in Canada.

The increase in asylum claims coincides with a steep rise in the number of international students arriving over the past five years.

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🩺 Doctors ask Liberal government to reconsider capital gains tax change

The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing they will affect doctors' retirement savings.

Kathleen Ross, the association's president, says many doctors incorporate their medical practices and invest for retirement inside their corporations.

The proposed changes would increase taxes on those investments, something the association says will add "financial strain" for doctors who do not have a pension to rely on.

Ross argues the change could also affect recruitment and retention of physicians in Canada.

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🇺🇸🇮🇳🇨🇦 Sharp rise in Indians detained at US border with Canada

Border agents have recorded a sharp rise in Indians attempting to illegally enter the US from Canada in a trend immigration attorneys expect could continue until the election.

There were 30,010 Indian nationals apprehended at the norther border in 2023 compared to just 2,225 two years earlier during the height of the pandemic, according to CBP.

A further 16,622 have also arrived this fiscal year, which began on October 1.

🔎 Source
#US #India #Canada #border

☠️ Blood Meridian

🩺 Trudeau dismisses plea from doctors to reconsider capital gains tax change

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rejecting a call from some doctors for his government to reconsider its planned capital gains tax hike.

Trudeau said the tax hike presented in the federal budget only asks "the wealthiest to pay a little bit more."

We just don't think it's right that a student, or an electrician or a teacher be paying taxes on 100 per cent of their income while others have the opportunities to use accountants and pay taxes on only 50 per cent of that income.

Canada is facing a severe doctor shortage. An estimated 6.5 million Canadians are going without access to primary care as family physicians retire en masse and medical schools struggle to recruit new residents to replace them.

#Trudeau #healthcare
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💰📉 Statistics Canada revealed global capital continues to flee Canada’s capital markets at a record pace.

🔹Canadian investors bought $24.2 billion in foreign securities in February, after sending $7.6 billion in January. The US was the biggest winner of Canadian investors chasing foreign investments. In total, a record of $16.3 billion in foreign bonds were purchased in February.

🔹Foreign investors dumped $8.8 billion worth of securities in February. This follows an unusually busy period of divestment over the past 3-months, amounting to a $31.0 billion sell off.

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📉Canada's retail sales fall, missing expectations

Statistics Canada said retail sales decreased 0.1 per cent to $66.7 billion, missing the agency’s early estimate of a 0.1 per cent gain.

Gas stations led the decline, falling 2.2 per cent. Core retail sales, which exclude fuel and motor vehicles and parts, were unchanged. Retail sales volumes fell 0.3 per cent.

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🪖Canadian military to destroy 11,000 Second World War-era pistols

The Canadian military plans to destroy 11,000 of its Second World War-era pistols by the end of this year.

The move comes as the Canadian Forces confirmed it has received the final deliveries of a new 9-mm pistol as part of a $19.4-million project.

The military purchased the Sig Sauer P320, which is being distributed to units. It replaces the Browning Hi-Power pistol that has been used by the Canadian Forces for decades.

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Canadians feel highest levels of anger, pessimism towards Trudeau government since 2018: Nanos poll

Anger and pessimism towards the Trudeau Liberal-NDP coalition have reached their highest levels since 2018, with nearly two thirds of Canadians saying they harbour primarily negative feelings towards those in power.

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🚙🔌Trudeau and Ford unveil Honda’s plan to build four new factories in Ontario

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday that Honda will build four new factories in Ontario, producing 240,000 electric vehicles as the Japanese auto giant expands its footprint.

#Ontario
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Alberta cabinet to gain power to remove councillors, change bylaws as province also adds political parties to municipal politics

A new Alberta government bill seeks to give cabinet new powers to compel councils to amend or repeal municipal bylaws and remove councillors, while also allowing party affiliations to be listed on municipal election ballots.

The changes are among many that will be introduced through Bill 20: the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 which was tabled in the legislature on Thursday.

#Alberta
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💉B.C. asks Ottawa for help on decriminalization fallout

British Columbia is asking Ottawa to help the province rein in public drug use arising from its decriminalization pilot project, after its own attempt to establish limits through legislation were derailed by a B.C. Supreme Court injunction.

#BritishColumbia
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🩺 Ontario scrapping sick notes to cut down on doctors' paperwork

Ontario says it will force employers to scrap requirements for sick notes as part of an effort to cut down on paperwork for family physicians.

The change will be part of new legislation tabled by the minister of labour in coming weeks, a government official says. The amendments would eliminate the need for a doctor's note from employees who want to use part or all of their three days of provincially-mandated annual sick leave.

#Ontario #healthcare
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Canadian municipality now requires a QR code

A Canadian town in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has become the first municipality in the country to officially require a QR code to enter and leave.

Officials say that the requirement of a QR code to enter or leave the archipelago Îles-de-la-Madeleine will only be for tourists, while residents will be required to show their driver’s licence to enter or leave.

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Trudeau talking to the voices in his head

#Trudeau
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💉British Columbia to recriminalize use of drugs in public spaces

The province of British Columbia announced plans to recriminalize the use of drugs in public places Friday.

In a statement, Premier David Eby insisted that his government is "caring and compassionate for those struggling with addiction," but that patience for disorder only goes so far.

#BritishColumbia
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Canada’s output per capita, a measure of standard of living, plummets

Real output per capita has fallen to seven per cent below its long-term trend since the pandemic, resulting in a decline of roughly $4,200 per person, according to a new report by Statistics Canada.

To reverse the trend, GDP per capita, a metric used by economists together with other economic indicators to evaluate a country’s standard of living, would need to grow at an average yearly rate of 1.7 per cent.

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🇨🇦🇮🇳 Indians immigrate to Canada in record numbers

The number of Indians immigrating to Canada has more than quadrupled since 2013. Between 2013 and 2023, Indians immigrating to Canada rose from 32,828 to 139,715, an increase of 326%.

Between 2016 and 2019, Indian international students enrolled in U.S. universities dropped by 13% but increased by 182% at Canadian universities. Diplomatic issues between India and Canada have reduced Indian student visa approvals in the short term.

Why wouldn't they, if it's that easy?

#immigration #US #India
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👊Alberta rejects “unconstitutional” federal plastics registry and production cap

If the federal government proceeds with its proposed plastics registry and production cap, Alberta will take them to court once more.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault proposed creating a plastics registry, forcing some companies to report their plastic production and implementation regularly.

This unilateral announcement is a slap in the face to Alberta and our province’s petrochemical industry, and the thousands of Albertans who work in it.

Said Alberta’s Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz.