Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed a new head of the federal public service.John Hannaford, who is currently the deputy minister of natural resources, will become clerk of the Privy Council next month.Janice Charette, the current clerk, is set to retire June 24 after nearly 40 years in the public service, including as Canada's envoy to Britain.Hannaford was also a deputy minister of international trade and a foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, and served as Canada's ambassador to Norway from 2009 to 2012.Trudeau says in a statement that Hannaford brings a wealth of experience and a str

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the Liberal government respects the choice the people of Alberta have made at the ballot box.She made the comment on her way into the federal Liberals' weekly cabinet meeting, hours after United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith was declared victorious over the NDP's Rachel Notley in yesterday's provincial vote.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement after her victory congratulating Smith, saying he wants to work together to deliver results for Albertans when it comes to creating jobs and advancing clean energy.Federal Conservative Lead

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says the government is using a new system to bring spouses, children and parents of recent immigrants to Canada more quickly.Family members who want to move to Canada can apply to join their sponsor while they wait for their permanent residency to be approved, but they're often denied the necessary visa because of concerns they're unlikely to leave once it expires.The new system uses advanced analytics to identify people who have a permanent residency application in the system and approve their visa to visit Canada more quickly.The minister says he hopes the tu

The Vancouver-based company Lululemon is promising 2600 new jobs over five years.C.E.O Calvin McDonald says the company has secured an additional 125,000 square feet of office space in downtown Vancouver.McDonald says he's confident in the decision after the federal government said the company could hire foreign workers for certain highly skilled positions without needing to apply for a labour market impact assessment.Federal Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says if Ottawa hadn't acted, the company's headquarters may have left Vancouver.

A Florida man has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges after the frozen bodies of a family of four migrants were found near the Canada-U.S. border last year.Steve Shand, 48, entered the plea today via videoconference as part of his long-delayed arraignment in Duluth, Minn.Shand faces one count each of bringing people into the U.S. illegally and of transporting them inside the country.He was arrested in January 2022 in a remote area of northern Minnesota, where border agents encountered him with two Indian nationals in a rented passenger van.Just over the border, near Emerson, Man., RC

The British Columbia government is preparing to build a new cancer care centre in Kamloops.Health Minister Adrian Dix says the new centre at the Royal Inland Hospital will include radiation therapy, meaning patients will no longer have to travel the roughly two hour trip to Kelowna for that treatment.Dix says a 'concept plan' for the centre, which was promised as part of the 2020 election, has been approved, and a business plan will be completed this calendar year.Dix says he expects the building to be ready to see patients in 2027 and that cancer centres typically cost between $200 and $300 m

Quebec Premier François Legault says the province will require that the vast majority of economic immigrants to Quebec speak French before they arrive.Sixty-five per cent of immigrants to Quebec come through the economic immigration stream, which is controlled by the province.Legault says his government is also considering increasing the number of immigrants it accepts every year to 60,000 people from 50,000 people, by 2027.He says the rise in immigration would come from people arriving through the economic stream, adding that his government is not considering increasing the number of people

More than a dozen MPs in the Canada-Pakistan friendship group are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call out Pakistan's arrest of its former prime minister.Imran Khan, who is now the opposition leader in Pakistan, was arrested earlier this month on corruption and terrorism charges triggering violent protests.The country's supreme court ordered Khan released saying the arrest was illegal.Khan was ousted as prime minister last year in a non-confidence vote he claims without proof was part of an illegal plot orchestrated by Washington and his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.Sixteen

The B.C. and federal governments have boosted their funding to a Vancouver-based company that helped develop the first antibody therapy treatment for COVID-19.AbCellera Biologics has announced a 700 million dollar plan to add lab space, equipment and technology at its manufacturing plant.B.C. will provide 75-million dollars to fund research and clinical trial projects while the federal government is contributing 225 million dollars.AbCellera says the latest expansion will help it turn basic research into usable medicines, while developing programs to get those medicines into clinical trials.