Parliament's spending watchdog estimates the Liberals will spend more this year on a wage-subsidy program than expected, but less in 2021. The Liberals estimated last month that the program would cost $83.5 billion this fiscal year when taking into account take-up through the summer and its extension since the fall.Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's fall economic statement also estimated the program would cost almost $16.2 billion in the coming fiscal year that starts in April 2021.Parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux's office says in a report today that the figure for this year could be

The federal government says it has signed an agreement with the United States to send a Canadian astronaut around the moon.The planned trip in 2023 is part of a broader U.S.-led effort to establish a new international space station above the lunar surface to allow for exploration of the moon and future missions to Mars.The Gateway Treaty unveiled today also calls for a second flight for a Canadian astronaut to that future space station, known as the Lunar Gateway.The government says the agreement will make Canada the second country to send an astronaut into deep space, though the trip will no

The RCMP will be changing its policies over collecting and using information gathered on protesters following a series of recommendations from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki acknowledged inadequate data-handling practices in response to the investigation into surveillance of opponents of the now-defunct Northern Gateway pipeline project. The BC Civil Liberties Association first lodged a complaint in 2014, saying the Mounties improperly collected and shared information about people and groups who peacefully opposed the project. The complaints comm

The Canadian military is investigating after a master sailor from Manitoba is believed to have accidentally fallen overboard. Duane Earle, of Winnipeg, went missing while deployed on HMCS Winnipeg. A government news release says Duane Earle is thought to have accidentally fallen overboard in the Pacific while the ship was west of San Francisco. It says the master sailor wasn't identified as missing until later Monday and the ship turned back to begin a search.At his Ottawa news conference this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said every resource is being dedicated to the search. Earle i

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the average price of homes rose 13.8 per cent in November, largely influenced by sales in the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto areas. The association says the average home price was 603,000 dollars. But with the Vancouver and Toronto markets excluded, that price drops by 122,000 dollars. Sales activity was up by more than 32 per cent between this November compared with the same time last year. The association says there were year-over-year price gains in Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Chilliwack, the Okanagan Valley, Victoria and elsewhere

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has signed a contract to receive up to 168,000 doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine before the end of December. The Moderna vaccine has not yet been approved by Health Canada but Trudeau says deliveries could begin within 48 hours of that happening. Trudeau also says Canada is set to receive about 200,000 of its total early shipment of COVID-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer next week. He says there will also be 70 sites across the country ready to administer these doses, a big jump from the 14 distribution sites in place this week. Moderna's vaccine doesn'

The federal government has reached an agreement with Moderna that would see doses of its COVID-19 vaccine shipped to Canada within 48 hours of Health Canada approval.The chief medical adviser at Health Canada says things are on track for her department to approve a second vaccine for COVID-19 very soon. Dr. Supriya Sharma says things ``look positive'' for the vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna but there are still some outstanding manufacturing documents needed before the decision can be made.Ongoing reviews of two more vaccines are less certain, with AstraZeneca's potentially needing more

Quebec and Ontario have administered the country's first COVID-19 vaccinations to a health-care worker from a Toronto nursing home and a Quebec care home resident. Anita Quidangen, a personal support worker at the Rekai Centre, received the first dose at a hospital in Toronto. Her coworker Derek Thompson was also inoculated and he says the shots represent progress for all front-line workers in the province. Just shortly before that Quebec also administered its first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to residents of long-term care homes in Montreal and Quebec City. In Quebec City, Gisele Leves

Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand says the government has hired five Canadian companies to deliver tens of thousands of kilograms of dry ice each week to keep COVID-19 vaccines cold. She says provincial governments will be able to order dry ice on demand to make sure vaccines that have to be kept at low temperatures stay usable. Anand says federal government has also ordered more than 400 freezers of various sizes and temperature capabilities. Canada is still finalizing how many doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine will arrive Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada is still