Cabinet yesterday appointed a five-member panel to find ways to pay for a universal pharmacare program. The final report is not expected until after the next general election: "There is lots to work out." READ MORE
Want All Subscribers To Pay
All Canadian cable and satellite TV subscribers should be obliged to pay for LGBTQ programming, the country's only gay-themed channel has told the CRTC. Out TV Network of Vancouver said it faced “continued marginalization and discrimination” with a 60 percent decline in subscribers. READ MORE
New ArriveCan Plan By 2026
Canadians driving across the U.S. border will be asked to pre-submit photos and license plate numbers to the Canada Border Services Agency beginning in 2026, says a federal report. The “traveller modernization” plan is separate from the Agency’s $59.5 million ArriveCan program that ended in failed audits and an RCMP investigation: "Officers will be given smartphones to access the digital referrals." READ MORE
Rely On An “Honour System”
Health Minister Mark Holland’s Public Health Agency has failed an internal audit on conflicts of interest. Auditors said management operated a feeble honour system that asked staff to disclose unethical contracting without any “clear reporting mechanism for employees to report other employees’ conflicts.” READ MORE
Boat Tax Flopped, Data Show
The number of pleasure boats registered in Canada dropped by almost a tenth since Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced a luxury tax, new figures show. Manufacturers had predicted the tax would only punish Canadian industry and prompt boaters to register their vessels tax-free in the United States: "The tax can be easily avoided." READ MORE
Tells CBCers To Drop Polling
CBC News should stop commissioning its own election polls, the network's Ombudsman said yesterday. It followed viewer complaints over a 2023 opinion survey published three days before balloting in a provincial vote: "Devote less time to the horse race and more time to the issues." READ MORE
Federal Flood Insurance Soon
A long-promised federal flood insurance plan will be operational in about 18 months, says the Department of Public Safety. Homeowners on flood plains would be asked to pay up to $900 a year for extra coverage under threat of being disqualified from disaster relief: "This is a priority." READ MORE
Guest Commentary
Imagine if the government removed all the children because we were Mormon, that Mormons were declared unfit parents, that parents left behind could not leave Stirling and were governed by petty regulations. Then imagine parents knew our children would be told everything they’d been taught was not only wrong but ridiculous, that our morals were evil, our faith childish, our family values absurd, our self-image distorted. Would you not feel an agonizing sense of failure? Would you not feel deep loneliness and loss of hope?
