📈 Immigration to Canada surges in April, worsening outlook for housing affordability

The working-age population (aged 15 and over) rose by over 100,000 in April, bringing the total to over 410,000 after 4 months in 2024. This represents a sharp acceleration (+47%) on the 278,000 increase recorded in the first four months of 2023.

In Greater Toronto, where population growth reached a record 107,000 at the start of the year, the acceleration is 66% compared to the growth seen in 2023. Greater Montreal and Greater Vancouver have not been left behind since the start of 2024, with growth more than double that seen in 2023.

#immigration
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🇨🇦📱🇨🇳Intelligence chief warns Canadians that China can use TikTok to spy on them

The head of Canada's intelligence agency is warning Canadians against using TikTok.

My answer as director of [the Canadian Security Intelligence Service] is that there is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China ... to be able to acquire ... personal information from anyone around the world. As an individual, I would say that I would absolutely not recommend someone have TikTok.

CSIS director David Vigneault.

Do you have a total ban on TikTok on your 2024 bingo card?

#China
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💸Cost of Canada's COP28 climate conference attendance, featuring rapper, hits $3M

In March, the National Post reported that Canada had spent nearly $1.4 million to attend the 28th United Nations climate change conference, commonly known as COP28, that took place in Dubai last year from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.

This week, updated numbers were released, putting the cost to fly and lodge 182 government-sponsored delegates closer to $3 million.

What about all that CO2 emitted to get to Dubai? Didn't Trudeau tell us we were in a climate emergency?

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💉Head of Toronto health board concedes drug decriminalization effort won’t succeed

Toronto’s attempt to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs has no hope of success, the head of the city’s health board conceded Thursday, because Ottawa is unwilling to consider an application opposed by the provincial government.

#Ontario
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🏠 Home building lags despite record number of construction workers

The number of construction workers in Canada hit a record in 2023, but housing production failed to follow suit, falling short of its potential output by a significant margin.

There were approximately 650,000 workers in the construction sector last year, but housing starts only totalled 240,267, below the 400,000 that could have been built if those workers were used to capacity.

And authorities said migrants would help solve the housing crisis. They lied, as usual.

#housing
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🚫🚬Next generation of Prince Edward Islanders could be hit with tobacco ban

The Prince Edward Island government is hoping a ban on tobacco sales to anyone born after a certain date will help create a new generation of smoke-free Islanders.

If the idea turns into action, the government would select a watershed year, and anyone born after it would be prohibited from ever legally buying tobacco products on P.E.I.

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In Canada, bodies go unclaimed as costs put funerals out of reach

Some provinces have logged a jump in unclaimed dead bodies in recent years, with next of kin citing funeral costs as a growing reason for not collecting loved ones' remains.

The phenomenon has prompted at least one province to build a new storage facility. Demand for memorial fundraisers has surged. The overall cost of a funeral in Canada at the top end has increased to about $8,800 from about $6,000 in 1998, according to industry trade group estimates.

In Ontario, Canada's most populous province, the number of unclaimed dead bodies rose to 1,183 in 2023 from 242 in 2013.

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🏳️‍🌈🚫Alberta premier, UCP banned from 2024 Pride events

A group representing 14 Pride societies in Alberta has banned the United Conservative Party and Premier Danielle Smith from 2024 Pride events.

It's like banning meat eaters from vegan fests.

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🇨🇦🇮🇳Hundreds of Indian students in Canada face deportation, protest against new rule

Hundreds of Indian students are facing deportation after Prince Edward Island changed its provincial immigration rules. Around 300 students are protesting and have threatened to go on a hunger strike if the province doesn't review its latest immigration policy.

They forget that studying in Canada as a foreign student is a privilege, not a right.

#Canada #India
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📉 Inflation cooled to 2.7% in April as food price growth slowed

Canada's consumer price index cooled to 2.7 per cent in April, down from 2.9 per cent in March, led by the slower growth of food prices, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

Though food prices still rose in April, they did so at a slower pace of 1.4 per cent compared to 1.9 per cent in March.

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💸Ottawa borrowed heavily without locking in at low rates

This year $414 billion in debt will be refinanced at higher interest rates.

Canada has just over $1.4 trillion in debt — more than double the $619 billion owed in the Liberal government’s first year — borrowed using bonds ranging between two and 30 years.

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Conservatives call for Speaker to resign over planned partisan event

Speaker Greg Fergus is facing criticism over anti-Conservative language in an ad for an upcoming partisan event in his riding — and the Conservatives are calling again for him to resign from his position as a neutral arbiter of House of Commons proceedings.

Conservative MP Chris Warkentin says an online posting for "A Summer Evening with the Honourable Greg Fergus" includes a line that takes aim at leader Pierre Poilievre — accusing him of pursuing Conservative policies "that would risk our health, safety and pocketbooks" while promoting a Liberal plan to "grow an economy that works for everyone."

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More Canadian businesses implementing 4-day workweeks, study says

There has been a 34 per cent increase in the number of Canadian businesses implementing four-day schedules in the past year alone.

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Alberta drug deaths hit record high in 2023

A total of 2,052 Albertans died from January to December of drug poisoning. Deaths jumped nearly 17 per cent over 2022, and are nearly 9 per cent over 2021's previous high of 1,885 deaths.

#Alberta
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✏️ Just over half (52%) of Canadians agree that foreign governments have interfered significantly in recent elections.

Only 44% express confidence that the inquiry led by Justice Hogue into foreign government interference will get to the bottom of what has been going on.

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🚶‍♀️Young people in Canada are trading Toronto for cheaper suburbs and cities

Every major city in Ontario recorded a net loss from interprovincial migration for the second year in a row, according to Statistics Canada data.

Toronto lost some 93,000 people to satellite cities and other parts of the province in a year. More than 16,000 moved to other provinces.

Not at all surprising.

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Ottawa to make pathway for newcomers who lack official status, speed up deportations

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says some immigrants to Canada who lack official status need a pathway to help them stay, while in other cases Ottawa must speed up deportation procedures.

People who aren’t here regularly need to be supported and taken care of. There needs to be either a pathway towards regularization and citizenship, which I know the (immigration) minister is working on. In some cases, we need to accelerate deportation proceedings.

Trudeau told reporters.

#immigration
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💰Military's former head of HR sues government, others for millions over handling of misconduct claim

Claiming they destroyed his career to score political points after he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, Lt.-Gen. Steven Whelan is suing his accuser, the federal government, Canada's top soldier and other military officials for $10 million in damages.

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🏠📈Bank regulator warns of housing-payment shock by 2026

The “payment shock” faced by some borrowers is among the most important risks currently in the financial system, according to the latest risk outlook from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

The regulator said that 76% of outstanding residential mortgages as of February will be coming up for renewal by the end of 2026. Most worrisome are the 15% of mortgages that have variable rates with fixed payments. Some of those loans are negatively amortizing — that is, the regular payments no longer cover the full interest costs because rates have gone up so quickly, so the principal balance is increasing.

#housing
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Trudeau's deputy accuses Pierre Poilievre of wearing more makeup than she does

When Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre asked in Tuesday’s Question Period whether the Liberal government would support an Opposition motion to “permanently ban hard drugs” in Canada, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Poilievere was wearing too much makeup.

Today we have a motion that will be voted in the House [of Commons] to permanently ban hard drugs. Will this government vote for that motion? Or will they admit that they plan to vote to legalize drugs again after the next election?

Pierre Poilievre.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader is wearing more makeup than I am.

Freeland responded.

What a circus.

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📈 Calgary population surges by staggering 6%, Edmonton by 4.2% in latest StatsCan estimates

Calgary's metro-area population grew by nearly 96,000 people last year. Edmonton, meanwhile, added more than 63,000 people.

That's the largest year-over-year increase for both cities in the modern Statistics Canada records, which date back to 2001.

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