Top news
- Following a late departure from India due to technical issues with his plane, Prime Minister Trudeau arrived at the Liberal caucus meeting in London, Ontario, on Wednesday. Much of the discussion going into the caucus was about how the Liberals should respond to growing concerns about the cost of living that have been hurting their approval ratings.
- The PM used his closing remarks at the caucus to announce several new affordability-related measures. Including:
- Ending the federal sales tax on construction of new apartment rentals and encouraging the provinces to follow suit.
- A new requirement for municipalities seeking funding from the Canadian Housing Accelerator Fund is to end exclusionary zoning to qualify for funding.
- An announcement that the government is summoning the CEOs of major Canadian grocery stores to a meeting to discuss the need to stabilize grocery prices with a warning that the government will consider additional measures, such as an excess profit tax on grocers if the situation does not improve.
- A commitment to bring forward major legislative changes to the Competition Act, including giving the Competition Bureau power to compel the production of information necessary to do market studies, remove the efficiencies defence as am option for companies, and empower the Bureau to take action against collaboration that “stifle competition and consumer choice”.
- A one year extension to the deadline for repayments to loans from the Canada Emergency Business Account that was created to offer financial help to small businesses during COVID.
- During the caucus meeting, the PM also announced that London will receive $74 million in funding from the Canadian Housing Accelerator Fund. London is the first city to have its application approved for this program announced in Budget 2021.
- Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced he would bring forward his ideas to boost housing construction in the “Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act” that he will as a introduce as a PMB when the House returns next week. Among the proposal are requiring cities to boost the number of houses built by 15% each year, withholding transit funding from cities until their is high-density housing around transit stations and mandating the sale of 15% of federal government buildings so it can be turned into housing.
- Several provinces saw government websites go down this week with government’s of PEI, Yukon, and Quebec all reporting that cyber-attacks had been made against their networks.
Government announcements
- The Canadian Employment Insurance Commission announced that the 2024 premium rate will be $1.66 per $100 of insurable earnings for employees and $2.32 for employers. That is a 3% increase over the 2023 rate.
- The government has opened a call for proposals for the Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities Program. The program will fund pilot projects that help coastal communities deal with the impacts of climate change.
- Treasury Board has issued new guidelines for the use of generative AI by public servants. The guidelines include requirements that there is a disclosure where AI has been used to generate content and that public servants ensure that privacy and secrecy protections are respected with any data provided to AI programs.
- Minister Hussen announced the government is committing up to $3 million in matching donations to the Canadian Red Cross’s fund that offers humanitarian assistance in Morocco following the recent earthquake.
- Minister Champagne announced that he is changing the spectrum license conditions to require that all cell phone customers travelling on the TTC have access to cellular service.
- Minister Joly issued a joint statement with the Foreign Ministers of the other G7 nations condemning the “staging of sham “elections” held by Russia on sovereign Ukrainian territory.”
- At the request of the BC government, the federal government has amended the exemption on criminal charges for possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The revised rules give the police the authority to arrest those using illicit drugs at locations frequented by children.
Economic numbers of the week
- 1.6%: Canada’s manufacturing sales increased by 1.6% in July, an improvement over the 2% decline reported in June.
Economic numbers of the week
- The House of Commons resumes its sitting on September 18th.
- Prime Minister Trudeau will travel to New York next week for the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly from September 19-21st.
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