National News

A British Columbia community's "out-of-the-box" plan to ease its family doctor shortage by hiring physicians as city employees is sparking interest from across Canada, says Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi.

The mayor said the community has hired its first family doctor for a city-operated medical clinic, and the Victoria-area city is looking to hire seven more under the first-in-Canada pilot project.

The family doctors will be paid as community employees, receiving full medical benefits, vacation and a pension, he said.

An "overheated" immigration system that admitted record numbers of newcomers to the country has harmed Canada's decades-old consensus on the benefits of immigration, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said, as he reflected on the changes in his department in a year-end interview.

The system, he said, needed some discipline to get the country back on track.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is adding eight fresh faces to his cabinet in a shuffle today, though they may not have much time in those new roles after all.

Just before Trudeau moved to shore up his front bench Friday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh declared he is finally ready to vote down the government and attempt to trigger a snap election in the new year -- though Parliament won't return for a month and he may not get that chance until March.

The New Democrats will bring forward a non-confidence motion to bring down the Liberals in the next sitting of the House of Commons, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Friday.

In the latest blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's struggling Liberal government, Singh wrote a letter address to Canadians in which he doubled down on his call for Trudeau to resign but also said the NDP will vote to bring down the government, regardless of who is at its helm. 

The family of a 52-year-old man who received medical assistance in dying while on a day pass from a Vancouver psychiatric hospital has launched a constitutional challenge to the procedure's legal framework.

The notice of civil claim filed Friday at the B.C. Supreme Court says the businessman and father of three, who suffered chronic back pain and long-term mental illness, suffered wrongful death in December 2022.

It accuses Dr. Ellen Wiebe and her clinic of malpractice, though none of the allegations have been proven in court.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh began 2024 by propping up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government. He is ending the year calling for Trudeau’s resignation.

Singh's gradual effort to limit his alliance with the Liberals hastened this week after Trudeau's finance minister quit, plunging the government into more political chaos and raising questions about whether Trudeau can even stay on as prime minister much longer.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering his options after Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation Monday heightened calls for him to step down.

Freeland resigned as finance minister on Monday — the same day she was scheduled to present the fall economic statement and just days after Trudeau told her she would be moved out of the finance job.

Trudeau's decision appears to have backfired spectacularly, igniting a chorus of calls for him to resign, including from several Liberal MPs, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the Toronto Star's editorial board.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking some time to reflect after Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation, the natural resources minister said on Tuesday.

"The prime minister, as I understand it, a number of caucus colleagues have said that the prime minister has said that he will reflect on both the decision that minister Freeland made, but also what he's heard from members of his own caucus," Jonathan Wilkinson said.

"I think we all need to give him a little time to reflect, and I respect that fact that he's going to take some time to reflect."

Inflation edged down slightly to 1.9 per cent in November as price growth continued to stabilize in Canada.

Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report Tuesday showed inflation was down from two per cent in October.

Shelter costs increased at a slower annual pace of 4.6 per cent, while rent price inflation accelerated to 7.7 per cent.

Grocery prices continued to grow faster than overall prices, rising 2.6 per cent from a year ago.

Members of Parliament are set to begin their holiday break later today, capping off a tumultuous fall sitting filled with non-confidence votes, filibusters, stalled legislation, a growing deficit and the finance minister's resignation.