National News

The Liberal plan to give first-time homebuyers a tax break on a newly built home could have substantial impacts on housing affordability — with a few caveats — a new analysis finds.

The Liberal government introduced legislation on June 5 to eliminate the GST portion from new home sales of up to $1 million for first-time buyers, which works out to as much as $50,000 off the cost of a new build or a substantially renovated unit.

For homes sold above $1 million, the GST relief is phased out as the price tag nears $1.5 million.

A government push to steer Canada Post and the union representing 55,000 mail workers toward common ground hit a big pothole Monday.

As an increasingly acrimonious impasse drags on, Canada Post rejected a framework put forward by the union for a binding arbitration process, which Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu asked the parties to work toward just five days earlier.

Canada has unveiled its priorities for the G7 leaders' summit just one week before it gets underway in Alberta as the government defends its decision to invite India to the summit.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's office says Ottawa's top priority for the summit will be strengthening global peace and security, which includes countering foreign interference and transnational crime, as well as improving responses to wildfires.

Tiff Macklem is wearing an Edmonton Oilers pin as he reflects on coming very close to beating big odds.

It's a significant day for the governor of the Bank of Canada: he's just laid out his reasons to the entire country and a global audience for keeping the central bank's benchmark interest rate steady for a second straight time.

That night is also Game 1 of the NHL's Stanley Cup finals; Macklem ends his press conference with a hearty "Go Oilers!"

Canadian scientists working on asteroid missions, exploring the universe through the James Webb Space Telescope or helping to put rovers on Mars say they can in some way thank Marc Garneau, who left an enduring legacy both as an astronaut and head of the country's space agency.

While best-known in later years as a federal cabinet minister, Garneau, who died this week at 76, was also a Navy officer, a systems engineer, and an astronaut with a lifelong passion for science, according to his friends and colleagues.

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.

In 2023, as Canada suffered through its worst-ever wildfire season, the federal government was looking at creating a national disaster response agency.

Two years later, the country is again facing another summer of wildfires. There is still no sign of such an agency, though governments are tapping the private sector to help with evacuations.

Ali Asgary, a York University professor of disaster and emergency management, said the work to establish a national agency is "unfortunately … not going as fast as our crises are going."

The federal and provincial governments have announced they will match Red Cross donations to help those affected by wildfires burning in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Both provinces declared provincewide states of emergency last week to allow various levels of government to co-ordinate resources and support.

The federal government announced Wednesday that it would match every dollar donated to the Canadian Red Cross that will support wildfire disaster relief and recovery efforts across Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu on Wednesday called on Canada Post and the union representing 55,000 postal workers to return to the bargaining table and hash out terms for binding arbitration, with the two sides still far apart on key issues.

In a social media statement Wednesday, the minister also asked the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) to continue to work toward a deal outside of that process.

Safeguards have been written into the government's border bill to ensure civil rights and due process are upheld in proposed immigration regulations, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Wednesday.

Critics and advocacy groups are calling the wide-ranging border security legislation a threat to civil liberties in the immigration and asylum system.

One proposed change in the legislation would prevent people from making asylum claims if they've been in Canada for more than a year.