Top news
- With wildfires in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia forcing more evacuations, the federal government has authorized the Canadian Forces and other federal government agencies to provide support to the fire fighting and evacuation efforts.
- The new Treasury Board Minister Anita Anand has taken over the government’s spending review that is supposed to find $15 billion in savings. She has sent a letter to all her cabinet colleagues asking them to identify how they will meet the savings target by October 2nd.
- This week Politico published a list of confirmed chiefs of staff who have been appointed following the shuffle as ministers’ offices continue the process of staffing up after the cabinet shuffle of July 26.
Government announcements
- Minister Wilkinson announced that the Green Freight Program has opened a call for projection applications. This call, open until November 16th ,is for projects that will help transport fleets reduce their emissions.
- The Federal and Quebec governments announced they are providing $644M in support to battery materials production plant in Bécancour, Quebec. The $1.2B plant is a project of Ford Motors and South Korea manufacturers EcoProBM and SK On.
- Minister Sudds announced funding for 5,000 projects under the Community Services Recovery Fund. The Fund supports charities and non-profits as they seek to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
- Minister Champagne released Spectrum Outlook 2023 to 2027. This plan outlines how the government intends to allocate spectrum over the next four years.
- Service Canada announced that it has now enabled My Service Canada Account users to securely access this Social Insurance Number online for the first time.
- Minister Blair announced that he had implemented changes to the Canadian Forces Grievance and Harassment Process. The new process will allow Canadian Forces members to bring complaints directly to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, as recommended by Louise Arbour in her review of the military’s handling of complaints.
- Minister Joly announced new sanctions against 15 Russian individuals and three entities in response to recent Russian court decisions against Russian opposition leaders Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny.
Economic numbers of the week
- –4.5%: Statistics Canada reported that investment in residential housing construction declined by 4.5% in June, the fourth month in a row to see a decline.
Coming Up
- The federal cabinet will hold a retreat in Charlottetown, PEI from August 21-24.
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