Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced legislation this morning that would remove GST charges from new rental developments and update the country's competition law.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised the new legislation earlier this month to address the housing crisis and affordability crunch.Experts have called on the federal government to remove GST charges off new purpose-built rentals to help spur construction of these kinds of homes.The bill is also supposed to strengthen the Competition Bureau by giving it the power to compel information from companies to conduct studies, tight

The federal government has tasked Food Banks Canada with handing out free menstrual products to members of marginalized low-income communities.Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien announced the pilot program Thursday.She says the government is injecting $17.9 million into the initiative.Through the project, Food Banks Canada will distribute free period products to community organizations across Canada.It is also going to partner with existing organizations that deal in period education to scale up their operations.The Menstrual Equity project is part of a broader push from the government to redu

Due to the tension between India and Canada over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Indian government has taken a big decision.External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that Canadians will not get visas for now.He cited security as the reason behind this.Indian visa processing services have been suspended from September 21 until further notice, the BLS Indian Visa Application Center said in a statement.80,000 Canadian tourists visited India in 2021, making them the fourth largest group according to the Immigration Bureau of India.Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesp

The Vancouver Police Department says it's beefing up security outside India's Consulate after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week there was credible intelligence about a potential link between India's government and the killing of a Sikh community leader in B.C.Const. Tania Visintin, the department's media relations officer, says police are "closely monitoring the situation" since Trudeau's announcement about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a vocal supporter of an independent Sikh homeland, who was shot dead in Surrey in June.She says Vancouver police aren't aware of any specific

The Alberta government is to release its long-promised report on whether the province should quit the Canada Pension Plan and pursue its own provincial program. Premier Danielle Smith, along with Finance Minister Nate Horner and panel chair Jim Dinning, are to release the report at a news conference in Calgary on Thursday. Smith has said regardless of the report's conclusions, Albertans would have the final say on whether to abandon CPP in a referendum. The Opposition NDP has said Smith is playing politics by seeking another wedge issue with the federal government. The NDP has also said the

The governments of British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador lost up to $2.47 billion in tax revenues over four years due to the growth in illegal tobacco sales, says a convenience industry report.The Convenience Industry Council of Canada report released Wednesday examined the downward trend in legal tobacco sales in the three provinces since 2019, compared with the rising growth in the underground contraband tobacco market."These cigarettes are illegally sold, tax and duty free, without any Health Canada regulations or inspections and retail for a fraction of legal tobacco pric

A new StatCan report says one in four adolescents in Canada have been cyberbullied and it's taking a toll on their mental health.The study says youth who have been victimized online have a greater risk of depression, anxiety, eating disorder symptoms and thoughts of suicide or suicide attempts.The report says transgender and non-binary youth, as well as females attracted to other females, are at higher risk of being victimized online.Adolescents living with chronic health conditions such as asthma, epilepsy or learning disabilities are also at higher risk for cyberbullying, especially if they

The federal privacy watchdog says Canada Post is breaking the law by gleaning information from the outsides of envelopes and packages to help build marketing lists that it rents to businesses.The office of privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne says information collected for the marketing program includes data about where individuals live and what type of online shopping they do, based on who sends them packages.The commissioner found Canada Post had not obtained authorization from individuals to indirectly collect such personal information.In a report on his office's investigation, Dufresne s

Canada's corporate ethics watchdog has launched an investigation into allegations that Levi Strauss Canada is working with companies that use forced labour in China.Sheri Meyerhoffer, the ombudsperson for responsible enterprise, is looking into whether the denim company known for Levi's jeans has supply relationships with Chinese companies that source materials from Uyghur people forced to work in the Xinjiang region.Meyerhoffer's office is tasked with investigating complaints about possible human-rights abuses in the operations of Canadian garment, mining and oil and gas companies.Levi Straus