Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press

Reproductive health advocates say the federal government's failure to commit to funding pharmacare in all provinces and territories is leaving people with a lot of uncertainty, and could create inequality across the country.

"It's really disappointing, honestly," said Liz Thompson, advocacy lead for Cover Contraception.

"It seems like they don't really know what they're going to do."

The Canadian Nurses Association says it hopes the new "united Team Canada" approach at the Council of the Federation will lead to harmonization of nurses' licences across the country.

The association was among a number of health-care advocacy groups at the recent annual meeting of Canada's premiers.

While health care tends to take centre stage when the premiers meet, this year's gathering with Prime Minister Mark Carney was dominated by discussion of U.S. President Donald Trump's global trade war.

The 2025 wildfire season is already one of the worst on record for Canada and there is a high risk that more fires will break out in August, federal officials said on Friday.

More than 5.5 million hectares of land have burned so far this year, more than double the 10-year average for mid-July.

That is still well behind the record fire season in 2023, when more than 6,000 fires burned more than 15 million hectares of land.

There were 561 fires burning as of Friday, including 69 that were considered out of control.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's chief of staff and the country's top public servant will be responsible for maintaining an ethics screen preventing him from making decisions that benefit his former employer, says a disclosure issued by the office of the ethics commissioner on Friday.

Ottawa is giving no sign that it intends to amend existing legislation on medical assistance in dying — something a UN committee called for earlier this spring.

The federal minister responsible for disabilities spoke at a hearing of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last week, about two months after the committee called on Canada to repeal the 2021 law that expanded eligibility for assisted dying to those whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.

The Liberal government has introduced legislation aimed at cutting down barriers to internal trade by recognizing provincial and territorial rules at the federal level.

Officials who briefed reporters this morning say the goal is to reduce the number of redundant standards across the country.

They say that, for example, a company that produces washing machines that meet a provincial energy efficiency standard won't have to meet a separate federal standard to sell outside that province.

Among the tour groups converging on Parliament Hill under umbrellas this week, new and newly re-elected members of Parliament are getting acquainted with their offices and colleagues ahead of the opening of the House of Commons this week. 

The first order of business for MPs is the selection of a new House Speaker on Monday morning, and at least six returning members are asking their colleagues to support their bid to take the chair. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has named 73 MPs to his party's leadership team and critic roles ahead of next week's return to the House of Commons.

He has named 48 Conservative members of Parliament to critic roles, while another 14 will become associate critics.

Most of them are returning MPs, though some have been shuffled to new positions left by people who were not re-elected on April 28. 

The Conservative caucus has tapped former leader Andrew Scheer to lead the party in the House of Commons when Parliament resumes on May 26 — a role that's needed because Pierre Poilievre lost his seat in last week's election.

"I'll be taking over the parliamentary leadership duties of the caucus until Mr. Poilievre rejoins us in the House," Scheer told reporters after emerging from an all-day caucus meeting on Parliament Hill Tuesday.

Newly elected Conservatives and returning MPs are set to meet in Ottawa this morning as the party charts its path forward after last week's election loss to the Liberals.

Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his bid to continue representing the riding of Carleton after 20 years as the area's MP, will not be in the House of Commons when it opens later this month.

In a video posted on social media Monday afternoon, Poilievre says he has a lot to be thankful for after the election, including an expanded coalition of Conservative voters.