Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

The federal government will appeal a recent Federal Court ruling that struck down a cabinet order underlying Ottawa's ban of some single-use plastics, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Monday.

The Nov. 16 decision said Ottawa had overstepped by labelling all "plastic manufactured items" as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Evidence shows "thousands" of different items in that category have different uses and chemical makeups, and there is no evidence all of them can harm human health or the environment, Justice Angela Furlanetto found. 

The New Democrats intend to back the Conservatives on a motion to pull the carbon price off all home heating until after the next election, NDP House Leader Peter Julian said Thursday.

"The reality is we need to make sure that affordability is available to all Canadians and that's why we're supporting this motion," said Julian.

The decision delivers another political blow to the Liberals, who have been scrambling for days to defend their decision to pause the carbon price on home heating oil for the next three years.

Canada's senior public health officials are urging Canadians to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine this fall following the authorization of the first shot targeting the latest variants Tuesday.

Health Canada's regulatory branch approved Moderna's new Spikevax shot, which is formulated for the XBB.1.5 lineage of the Omicron variant. 

Moderna said in a statement the first doses would be shipped to arrive in Canada on Wednesday.

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.

Two years ago, Canada embarked on an odyssey to plant two billion trees in just 10 years. 

An audit of the program so far says that unless things drastically change, it won't even get one-tenth of those trees in the ground in time. 

The audit was one of five reports issued Thursday by Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco, who said he cannot stress enough how important it is for the government to live up to its commitment on trees.

"There is no solution to climate change and terrestrial biodiversity loss that does not include forests," DeMarco's report said.

Canada's Parliamentary budget officer said he is troubled by what he describes as the selective use of facts from his new financial analysis of carbon pricing. 

Yves Giroux said the report has to be put into context alongside the costs of all other climate policies, including doing nothing.

"There will be costs no matter what we do," Giroux said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's 2023 federal budget promises "transformative investments" in Canada's green economy as the country tries to maintain its place in the global clean tech revolution and realign its supply chains toward allies who won't use energy as a political weapon.

"Together these two great shifts represent the most significant opportunity for Canadian workers in the lifetime of anyone here today," Freeland said Tuesday in the House of Commons, according to her prepared remarks.

The U.S. military shot down a fourth high-altitude object in just over a week on Sunday, this time closer to heavily populated areas in southern Ontario and the U.S. East Coast.

Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said in a statement Sunday evening that a "high-altitude object" was detected in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron.

"NORAD launched Canadian and U.S. aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in U.S. airspace by U.S. aircraft," Anand said.

To flush or not to flush?

It is a question Canada's Competition Bureau says it cannot answer.

Three years ago, Friends of the Earth Canada and lawyers from Ecojustice filed a grievance with the bureau saying the makers of 20 disposable wipes were falsely advertising the products as safe to flush down the toilet.

In February, the Competition Bureau informed Friends in a letter that it was closing its inquiry because it's not clear what it really means to be "flushable."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today will unveil the full details of a plan to try and take some of the sting out of inflation for Canadians feeling it the most.

Both Liberal and NDP sources tell The Canadian Press the plan includes doubling GST rebate cheques for six months as well as a temporary dental-care benefit for some families with young children, and an expanded housing allowance payment.

All three are initiatives the NDP has been asking for since the spring as inflation began weighing heavily on Canadians with low and modest incomes.