988 will be adopted as the official three digits for the hotline A long-anticipated three-digit suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline will come online in 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said Wednesday. The CRTC said it will use 988 as the hotline’s number — the same three digits adopted for a similar hotline in the United States that launched in July. Mental health experts say Canada needs a 3-digit suicide crisis hotline Minister admits it’s taking Ottawa ‘a long time’ to set up suicide hotline MPs voted unanimouslyRead more

Resources to earn $28.4 billion in 2022-23 fiscal year Alberta’s United Conservative Party government is making the highest ever repayment of debt in the province’s history — $13.4 billion — thanks to a record-breaking surge in resource revenues. Finance Minister Jason Nixon says the repayment, as forecasted in Alberta’s first-quarter update on Wednesday, shows his government’s commitment to fiscal discipline even when the treasury is overflowing with oil and gas money. That discipline includes not restoring the benefits cut via a suspension of indexation three years ago. “We remain focused on using the surplus wisely,Read more

‘We’re just getting kicked … and this is just yet another thing lining up to give us a boot,’ farmer says Alberta farmers say the discussion and misinformation around federal targets to reduce fertilizer emissions are ignoring the voices of local producers and hurting the country’s agriculture industry. The federal government has set a target of reducing emissions from the use of fertilizers by 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030. That target was released almost two years ago but has been thrust back into the political spotlight this summer. Canada’sRead more

Schools are expecting orientation attendance to match pre-pandemic numbers As the countdown to the first day of school begins, post-secondary institutions in Canada are getting ready to host their first fully in-person orientation week for incoming students — a rite of passage that was postponed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Maddie Fines, a first-year student at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., it’s a chance for a fresh start. “I’m really looking forward to just branching out and meeting new people,” she told CBC News. This excitement is feltRead more

Manufacturing and distributing will be hit hardest, according to a new climate-based analysis Floods, droughts and major storms that wash out highways, damage buildings and affect power grids could cost Canada’s economy $139 billion over the next 30 years, a new climate-based analysis predicts. The report, titled Aquanomics, was published Monday by GHD, a global engineering and architecture services firm. In an interview with CBC News, the firm’s Canadian water lead Don Holland said that the value of water and the costs associated with it are underacknowledged. “I think we all knowRead more

Discontent with CAQ, Liberals has English speakers exploring their options Standing before a crowd of cheering supporters after winning a historic majority in 2018, François Legault took a moment to address anglophones in the province. “I want to assure you that my government will be your government,” he said, speaking in English. Days later, Legault appointed himself the minister responsible for the English-speaking community, saying he would “govern in a respectful manner with the historical anglophone community.” But in the years since, many anglophones say, Legault has failed to live upRead more

2 companies with similar name to Toronto developer Paradise Developments incorporated since February 2021 A million dollar-plus home in the Greater Toronto Area’s hot real estate market for only $700,000. A five per cent down payment. A 30-year mortgage at a 2.75 per cent interest rate. Those were the appealing terms of a real estate deal that local realtor Horace Dockery said has been circulating in Toronto’s Black community since last summer. The offer was for pre-construction homes in developments constructed by Paradise Developments Inc. — a licensed developer currentlyRead more

‘This is news to us,’ wrote TUPC director William Komer in an email to CBC A deal that would have seen The United People of Canada (TUPC) buy a church building near downtown Ottawa collapsed because the controversial group failed to make deposits totalling $100,000, according to court documents. The sworn affidavit from the building’s owner, Patrick McDonald, states TUPC failed to make three separate payments toward the purchase of the former St. Brigid’s Church when they were due on Aug. 10. That violated the agreement of purchase and sale for the property and, coupledRead more

Lack of available rentals means international students are turning to charities for shelter The housing crunch is so bad in Timmins, Ont., that a local gurdwara, or Sikh temple, has opened its limited space to students who haven’t yet found accommodations. More international students are choosing to attend post-secondary school in northern Ontario. But that means more support and help is needed, particularly when it comes to housing. ‘I see a lot of red flags now,’ says international student unhappy with state of room rental International students scrambling to findRead more

Chris Amyotte, 42, died after being shot by beanbag guns by VPD Vancouver police say a man who died after officers used a beanbag shotgun on Monday had asked bystanders for help following a “violent incident” that occurred moments earlier. Police have not confirmed the man’s identity, but the family of Chris Amyotte, an Ojibway man from Manitoba, said it was he who died on the Downtown Eastside. Amyotte’s cousin, Samantha Wilson, said witnesses told her he had been bear-sprayed and was asking for help before police arrived at the scene,Read more