Politics

The vice-chair of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency says the spy watchdog will face “very difficult choices” about what it examines in coming years due to federal budget cuts. The federal budget presented last month included a plan to reduce government spending and save $13 billion annually by 2028-29.Most federal departments and agencies must find savings of 15 per cent over the next three years.The review agency, which keeps an eye on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and several other intelligence organizations, expects to have less money due to the belt-tightening.Agency vice-chair Craig Forcese told a media briefing Wednesday there’s a good chance the watchdog will reduce the number of studies it does each year.Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree ack...

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Wednesday that an updated federal AI strategy is set to be released in 2026, a delay that he did not explain when testifying to parliamentarians. In September, Solomon told an AI conference in Montreal that the “refreshed” strategy will be tabled later this year, “almost two years ahead of schedule.”He told the House of Commons science and research committee in his opening statement that the strategy remains ahead of schedule, but instead said it will come “in the new year.”Solomon highlighted several investments the government has made in the past year in AI research and development, and to support Canada-based data centres and other infrastructure through a “sovereign compute strategy.”“We are investing in every aspect of this ecosystem,...

Canada’s public safety minister says the government is delaying long-promised regulations for marking firearms another two years because it’s focused on the impending national launch of the federal gun buyback program. The marking rules, which had been set to come into force on Monday, sought to require domestic manufacturers to label all new firearms with a serial number and country identifier to help law enforcement with tracing weapons used in crime.The government said in a notice last month that the rules — first proposed over 20 years ago — will now come into effect in December 2027, which will allow “additional preparatory time” for manufacturers “to take steps to comply with the regime when it comes into force.”That was the same justification given when the rules were delayed by two...

Prime Minister Mark Carney was pressed on Wednesday about whether or not his federal government was aware Algoma Steel was planning to lay off nearly 1,000 workers when it was given $400 million in loans from Canadian taxpayers. In response to questions from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Carney did not explicitly say whether he was informed ahead of time, but suggested Algoma Steel would have had to lay off even more workers without the loan.“These are difficult times in Sault Ste. Marie and our hearts go to them and their families. As I quote the CEO of Algoma Steel who said ‘it would be an even darker day if this government hadn’t acted,'” said Carney.“That loan, that support saved two-thirds of those jobs.” ...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledged that his government was aware that massive layoffs at Algoma Steel were imminent, well before the province agreed to loan the company $100 million in taxpayer funds. The steel giant announced Monday it would lay off roughly 1,000 workers as a Sault Ste. Marie plant closure is being made to adapt to a “fundamentally altered” landscape in the face of tariffs from the United States.Weeks earlier, at the end of September, the Ontario and federal governments had partnered to loan Algoma a total of $500 million, 20 per cent of which was put up by the Ford government.“This direct support will help Algoma pivot its operations away from U.S. dependent markets ...

By Catherine Morrison The Canadian Press Posted December 3, 2025 11:56 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size The government is pledging another $235 million in funding for Ukraine, with National Defence Minister David McGuinty and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand announcing Canada’s latest commitments. McGuinty says Canada will work with NATO allies to purchase a package of critical military capabilities sourced from the United States valued at around USD $500 million. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for br...

Quebec Premier François Legault blasted federal culture minister Marc Miller on Tuesday, accusing him of downplaying the decline of French in Quebec and calling his comments an embarrassment to the province. “Marc Miller is a disgrace for all Quebecers,” Legault told reporters. “I don’t know how he’s going to show up at a cultural event in Quebec after saying nonsense like that.”Earlier Tuesday, Miller said he was “fed up” with the politicization of the language debate. He was named federal culture minister responsible for Official Languages on Monday, replacing Steven Guilbeault, who resigned from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet last week. Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller speaks to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in...

Culture Minister Marc Miller expressed support Tuesday for removing a religious exemption on hate speech from the Criminal Code. Miller told reporters he doesn’t “think people should be using the Bible, the Qur’an or the Torah to escape from committing a hate crime or claim that … what would otherwise be a hate crime is done in the name of a religious text.”Miller chaired the justice committee until he rejoined cabinet on Monday. He said in French in a followup comment he was offering his own perspective and it remains to be seen what the government and the justice committee will do.The Bloc Québécois said in a press release Monday the party had the government’s support for an amendment to get rid of the exemption.The comments follow a report by the National Post saying the Liberals had re...

The federal government’s response to a report it commissioned on national pharmacare was “shockingly dismissive,” NDP interim leader Don Davies said this week as he called on the Liberals to come clean on their plans for the program. “I think it’s politically dishonest,” he said in an interview.Davies was involved in the negotiations that brought forward the Pharmacare Act last year.The law, which passed just over a year ago, was a key part of the supply-and-confidence deal between the NDP and Liberals under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.It required the government to set up a committee of experts to recommend the best way to create a universal, single-payer pharmacare system.That committee reported to Health Minister Marjorie Michel in October and its report was made public last mon...

A new report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s new housing agency is on track to build 26,000 homes over the next five years. That comes after Carney said during the federal election campaign that his government would double the pace of housing construction to 500,000 a year, but without specifying in that vow whether it would be the promised new federal agency that would do so.The impact of Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency created in September, on easing Canada’s housing crisis will likely be “modest,” the PBO report said.The PBO report says the agency is currently on track to increase housing supply by 2.1 per cent over the next five years. 4:31 ...