National News

Two different federal infrastructure programs have provided funding for more than 43,000 electric vehicle chargers since 2016, but fewer than one in five of them are actually operational, new data show.

The information provided by Natural Resources Canada came as Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson visited Quebec City Wednesday to announce another $25 million to fund 1,500 EV chargers in Quebec.

That announcement is the latest in a constant stream of EV charging announcements in local communities across Canada, as the government aims to help build 84,500 chargers by 2029.

Eddie Head felt a deep pull toward his Saskatchewan First Nation as it was enveloped in devastation. 

He had been a community leader for decades for James Smith Cree Nation and served a term as chief. But as he learned about the horrors of a stabbing rampage over the Labour Day weekend last year, an even more difficult connection became clear — the killer was his nephew. 

"I felt obligated to come back home," Head says from the band office in the community northeast of Saskatoon.

The federal government has put a price tag on how much it would like to see Google and Facebook spend under legislation that requires the tech giants to compensate media companies for Canadian journalism.

Federal officials estimate Google would need to offer $172 million and Facebook $62 million in annual compensation to satisfy criteria they're proposing be used to give exemptions under the Online News Act, a bill passed over the summer that will force tech companies to broker deals with media companies whose work they link to or repurpose.

A new poll suggests nearly half of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze household budgets, and young people are more likely to say their finances are in poor shape. 

It also suggests the Conservatives, who are hammering home a message about affordability, are gaining popularity, with 38 per cent of respondents saying they'd vote for the Tories if an election were held today.

And support for the Liberals, who focused their recent cabinet retreat on the housing crisis, is slipping. 

About 160 firefighters battling a blaze in British Columbia's Interior have pulled out of their camp after they were subjected to what the BC Wildfire Service calls "persistent bear activity."

The service says the bears threatened the safety of personnel "within and around" the camp near Gold Bridge, about 100 kilometres west of Lillooet, B.C., prompting the decision to move everyone Wednesday evening.

Nic Kokolski, an information officer with the service, says the animals had been moving around tents and other camp infrastructure.

Canada's minister for women, gender equality and youth says policies in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick that require parental consent before students under 16 can have schools use their preferred pronouns and names puts transgender and nonbinary kids in a "life-or-death situation." 

And while Marci Ien declined to comment on whether Ottawa sees a role for itself in any potential court challenges, the cabinet minister said the Liberal government is keeping an eye on what unfolds. 

People whose homes were destroyed by the wildfire in and around West Kelowna, B.C., are being contacted to schedule escorted bus visits to view the damage.

Only people whose properties are completely destroyed or damaged to the point they're uninhabitable will be invited to participate at this time, the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre said in a statement on Wednesday.

The process is aimed at ensuring people who have lost their homes "have the privacy, time and space to be the first to see their properties," it said.

A state of emergency in the Northwest Territories has been extended until Sept. 11 and its premier says she understands the frustration of those forced from their homes. 

"I want to go home, too. We all want to go home. It's hard being evacuated," Premier Caroline Cochrane said Wednesday following a visit to an Edmonton evacuation centre alongside federal ministers Randy Boissonnault and Dan Vandal, Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

A chief in Saskatchewan says her heart is broken after ground-penetrating radar located 93 areas of interest at the site of a former residential school.

English River First Nation Chief Jenny Wolverine said it’s believed 79 of the areas of interest at the Beauval Indian Residential School could be the size of possible children’s graves and 14 could be the size of ones for infants.

"It breaks my heart that there's likely more, or even that there's even one," Wolverine said Tuesday in Saskatoon. 

"The experience of residential school is horrific." 

Russian intelligence services and police will help cybercriminals operate with "near impunity" against their targets — including Canadians — in coming months, a new federal report predicts. 

The assessment released Monday says Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, very likely act as cybercrime safe havens from which digital criminals within their borders can operate against western targets.