Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault has been tasked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead the federal government's share of the work to rebuild Jasper, Alta. In July, a wildfire destroyed one-third of the Rocky Mountain tourist town and displaced some 2,000 residents. Boissonnault, an Edmonton member of Parliament, will be responsible for co-ordinating federal resources with the Alberta government, the municipality and Indigenous groups. "This role that the prime minister has asked me to play in terms of ministerial lead is important, but it’s a whole-of-government approach," Boissonna

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canadians in Florida should leave and people planning to travel there should postpone as the state braces for the impact of Hurricane Milton. The storm was downgraded this morning to a Category 4 but is expected to bring deadly storm surge, rain and winds. It's expected to make landfall later today in the Tampa Bay area, which is home to more than 3.3 million people, and then move east affecting other populated areas including Sarasota, Orlando and Daytona Beach. Millions of people have been ordered to evacuate. Florida is a popular destination for C

A tornado crossed Interstate 75 in Florida as Hurricane Milton approached the state, the National Weather Service in Miami said on social media. The serviceposted a photoon the social platform X of the funnel crossing the highway Wednesday morning with the words: “TORNADO crossing I-75 as we speak! Seek shelter NOW!” Steady rain fell and winds began to gust in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday morning as a mightyHurricane Miltonchurned towarda potentially catastrophic collisionwith the west coast of Florida, where some residents insisted they would stay even after millions were ordered to evacu

A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada. A statement from the United States Attorney's Office in Montana says Haptei John Kozak pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of making false statements during a firearms transaction. Judge Donald Molloy also imposed a $10,000 fine and three years of supervised release, along with ordering that Kozak forfeit 12 firearms. U.S. attorney Jesse Laslovich says in the statement that black-market firearm smu

One of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's key advisers and the driving force behind the province's recovery-focused addiction treatment push is leaving the job. Premier Smith says her chief-of-staff, Marshall Smith, will retire from public service by the end of October. Marshall Smith has been held up as the architect of the government's approach to the drug-overdose crisis, prioritizing recovery over harm-reduction. Rob Anderson, executive director of the premier's office, is set to take over the chief-of-staff role. Marshall Smith has also been at the centre of a controversial poli

While hearing the petitions of bullying in the panchayat elections in Punjab, on Wednesday, the High Court has stayed the panchayat elections in about 300 villages. This ban has been imposed in those villages, which had approached the court. The Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress are constantly making accusations of rigging in the panchayat elections. In fact, during the process of panchayat elections, regarding the nomination in many villages, somewhere N. O. C. somewhere there have been incidents of paper gaps about 250 petitions were filed in the High Court.

Canadian border officers in British Columbia made 60 seizures of methamphetamine destined for export to Australia between March and August. The Canadian Border Services Agency says the seizures totalled nearly 400 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and close to 1,300 litres of a liquid form of the drug. The agency says the liquid was seized in June in a single-day operation at the Fraser Surrey Dock, southeast of Vancouver. The crystal meth was found in separate seizures at the Tsawwassen container examination facility, the international mail centre and international cargo operations, and at

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is travelling to Laos today to take part in the ASEAN Summit. Canada is not a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but has a strategic partnership with ASEAN and is hoping to conclude a trade deal with the 10-nation bloc by the end of next year. Canada and Indonesia are also working toward a trade deal that's set to be signed by the end of this year. The trip marks the first official visit to Laos by a Canadian prime minister and Trudeau is set to meet with leaders from several member nations during the summit. Together, the ASEAN countries repres

Leaders from the three main political parties in B-C are set to square off today in the only televised debate before election day. The three candidates also took part in a radio debate last week,which saw them joust over affordability, health care and the opioid crisis, while trying to undermine each other's credibility to form the next provincial government. Tonight's T-V debate, which will take place from 6:30 to 8 P-M, comes about a week-and-a-half ahead of Election Day on October 19th. Advance voting goes from October 10th to 13th and October 15th to16th.