Today, the federal government will announce its new immigration level plan.Under this plan, targets will be set regarding how many immigrants Canada wants to admit to the country during the next 3 years.Announcing these targets last year, the government said 465,000 new immigrants would be admitted to the country in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025.Setting of these targets is done annually.Normally there is not much debate about these goals, but this time Canada is dealing with inflation and a housing crisis, which has led to reports and surveys in recent days expressing concern about

The Quebec government is increasing its immigration target to about 60,000 people next year and imposing new French-language requirements for newcomers.Premier François Legault says the official target will remain steady at 50,000 people a year but a document his government released today shows that number will rise by 10,000 when immigrants admitted through other programs are factored in.The premier told reporters today his government will require all economic immigrants, who are chosen by the province, not Ottawa, to pass a French test before they are admitted.Quebec will also begin requiri

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a "carbon tax election," and is calling on the Liberals to exempt all home heating from carbon pricing until the next federal vote.Poilievre threw down the challenge in an address to his caucus this morning, where he chided the Liberals' decision to pause the levy only for home heating oil over the next three years.That decision, along with a pledge to increase the top-up to carbon rebates for rural Canadians, came amid weak polling for the Liberals in Atlantic Canada, where the federal carbon price came into

Montreal police say they've arrested 17 people in connection with an alleged real estate fraud scheme worth more than $5 million.Police say members of the alleged fraud ring used fake IDs to borrow against the value of five properties they didn't own.They say the fake IDs were used to sign legal documents and open bank accounts in the names of the real owners.The financing obtained from private lenders was withdrawn soon after it was deposited in the bank accounts.Police say the real owners of the properties have found themselves tied to mortgages they never took out and the lenders have lost

No Canadian citizens have been included in a list of more than 400 foreign nationals who would be permitted to leave Gaza for the first time since Israel launched its retaliatory war on Hamas militants more than three weeks ago.An agreement appeared to have been reached Wednesday to allow hundreds of foreign passport holders, along with some wounded people, to leave for Egypt.The General Authority for Border Crossings in Gaza published a list of those who would be permitted to leave that included citizens of Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Japan and Jordan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to be in Washington on Friday as part of US President Joe Biden's push for greater economic integration across the Western Hemisphere.U.S. Ambassador David Cohen says Trudeau will be part of meetings in to help shape the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, a Biden-backed trade framework.The project aims to create more jobs and restore faith in democracy by having roughly a dozen countries bolster the region's economic competitiveness.Biden announced the program at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June 2022.Cohen says Canada shares

The Punjab government has extended an open invitation to all the people of the state for an open debate between Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and all other political parties to be held in Ludhiana on November 1.CM Mann has named this debate 'Main Punjab Bolda Haan'.For security reasons, the police have also tightened restrictions on programs held in the university hall.Dr. Manmohan Singh Auditorium of Punjab Agriculture University has been booked by Punjab Government for this debate.The seating capacity of this auditorium is around 1000 but due to CM Mann's open invitation to 3 crore people of

Immigration Minister Marc Miller is laying out the federal government's priorities for improving Canada's immigration system today with a newly released report.The federal government's report outlines key actions intended to strengthen the immigration system, based on consultations with stakeholders.It says Ottawa plans to take housing, health care, infrastructure and other services into account when planning immigration levels.The report proposes creating a chief international talent officer position to better align immigration programs and pathways with the labour market.It says the federal

The City of Surrey is looking for businesses that are willing to lease their industrial land and then use the land as a truck parking facility.At yesterday's Surrey City Council meeting, council voted on a request proposal for a potential parking operator.Mayor Brenda Locke said on this occasion that the problem of large truck parking in Surrey is almost a decade old.Due to lack of facilities for truck parking, they are parked on roads.Now the city staff has been urged to find such places which can be used for truck parking.The Mayor says that a large number of trucks are based in Surrey and t