First Nations chiefs are gathering in Calgary today as they prepare to vote on a landmark $47.8-billion child welfare reform agreement with Ottawa. The deal was struck in July between Canada, the Chiefs of Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the Assembly of First Nations after a nearly two-decade legal fight over Canada's underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal said that was discriminatory, and tasked Canada with coming to an agreement with First Nations to reform the system, along with compensating children who were torn from their families and put

Alberta's government has launched a national ad campaign targeting the federal government's incoming emissions cap for the oil and gas sector.Premier Danielle Smith says it's a de facto production cap that would kill jobs and stifle the economy. The province's $7-million ``Scrap the Cap'' campaign also says the federal regulations expected later this year would make groceries, gas and all of life's necessities even more expensive. University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe says he believes the emissions cap is bad policy, but the argument that it would drive up gas, and therefore grocery,

A former Alberta justice minister is to be sanctioned after the provincial law society determined he undermined respect for the administration of justice'' when he phoned Edmonton's police chief after receiving a traffic ticket. The Law Society of Alberta cited Kaycee Madu for the 2021 Call last year, and a hearing took place in June. In a hearing report, committee members say Madu's conduct is worthy of sanction, although a punishment has yet to be determined. The report says the committee is to reconvene to determine a proper sanction, which could amount to a suspension or even disbarment.

The operator of a pulp mill in northwestern Alberta has been fined $1 million for letting almost 31 million litres of toxic wastewater flow into the Peace River. Environment and Climate Change Canada says the effluent released in April 2021 was ``acutely lethal'' to fish. Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. pleaded guilty last month to asection of the Fisheries Act. The conviction means the company's name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry. The federal government says the pulp mill was shut down for maintenance and waste was directed to a spill pond, where it was to

Canada is listing the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a terrorist group, while the U.S. has added a Canadian citizen affiliated with the organization to its counter-terrorism list. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says Samidoun will now be listed under Criminal Code offences that ban people from donating or providing property to the group. Samidoun is also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and Ottawa says it "has close links with and advances the interests of" another group that Canada already lists as a terrorist entity, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pale

A Calgary official says a water main break has closed a road and left some homes and businesses dry, but says it is not related to a feeder main rupture earlier this year in the same area of the city that resulted in months of water restrictions. Ryan Kidd, the city's deputy director of water services, says the recent break happened in a smaller, 250-millimetre cast-iron distribution line that serves the immediate area, which is near Bowness Road and 51 Street Northwest. Kidd says water began bubbling up at street level on Sunday night and crews immediately shut down the line for repairs, ad

The Alberta government says it has revoked the licence of an Edmonton daycare for risking the health and safety of children. The province didn't provide specific details of how children attending Waverley Day Care were being put at risk, but says the risk was great enough to close the daycare immediately. Waverley Day Care was operating on a probationary licence that was set to expire on Oct. 31, but the facility was shut down this week. The province says the closure affects 56 child care spaces. Waverley Day Care was the second Edmonton child care centre to be shut down by the

Statistics Canada is expected to provide its latest snapshot of the job market this morning when it releases its labour force survey for the month of September. Economists polled by Reuters are forecasting the Canadian economy added 27,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate to have ticked higher to 6.7 per cent. The economy added 22,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose to 6.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada is expected to release its business outlook survey and its Canadian survey of consumer expectations this morning. The reports come ahead of the central bank's i

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on provinces and territories to start negotiating pharmacare deals as soon as possible. Trudeau spoke to reporters this morning as he wrapped a visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Laos, where he touted the "real progress" made in Ottawa after the Senate passed the pharmacare bill. That legislation was central to the political pact between the Liberals and the NDP, who pushed hard for the bill to be introduced. Now that it is law, the pharmacare legislation allows the provinces and territories to cut deals with the federal gover