Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the government's new major projects office will work to get construction underway on the Alto high-speed rail line within four years. He says the work would determine the final route for the planned high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced in February that the government had awarded a $3.9-billion, six-year contract to a consortium to design the project. The 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail network would take passengers from Montreal to Toronto in just three hours on trains travelling

Canada hosted a virtual meeting of G7 finance ministers today to discuss further measures to increase the pressure on Russia. John Fragos, press secretary for the minister of finance and national revenue, says the group also talked about ways to limit Russia's "war machinery." Fragos says the G7 is united in its opposition to Russia’s "illegal and unjustified" war on Ukraine. He also says Canada is deeply concerned by Russia’s escalation of the conflict in the wake of Wednesday's Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace. The G7 group is made up of Canada, the United States, France, Ger

Alberta RCMP have recovered the bodies of two boaters who disappeared last month after a canoe capsized on a lake in the Rocky Mountains. Mounties have identified them as a 33-year-old woman from Banff, Alta., and a 34-year-old man from Canmore, Alta. Four people were in the canoe when it overturned on Upper Kananaskis Lake, an area tucked behind several mountain tops near the Alberta-B.C. boundary. RCMP have said bystanders in boats and on paddleboards pulled a 30-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman from the water but the two others were unaccounted for. It was the second ti

People living in Metro Vancouver will soon have access to more affordable housing with 400 new rental homes opening and breaking ground in Coquitlam, North Vancouver and Vancouver. “We’re taking meaningful action to deliver homes for people throughout Metro Vancouver that give people a place to build their futures,” said Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. “These latest 400 affordable homes will bring added stability and opportunity, helping even more people find a place to call home in the communities they love." The Province, through BC Housing, provided nearl

Nepal's president has appointed former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki as interim prime minister, the first woman to head the South Asian country's government, following massive protests that collapsed the previous administration. Karki, a popular figure when serving as the court's only female chief justice in 2016 and 2017, was to be sworn in later Friday. The appointment was announced by President Ram Chandra Poudel's spokesman Kiran Pokhrel. Street demonstrations starting Monday in Kathmandu over a social media ban turned violent, with protesters attacking government buildings a

Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Khadoor Sahib constituency in Punjab, Manjinder Singh Lalpura, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison by a court in Tarn Taran in the case of beating and molesting a girl. A total of 11 accused, including Lalpura, were declared guilty in this case by the Additional Sessions Judge 2 days ago. Today, apart from Lalpura, the other accused have also been sentenced to 4 years each. All the accused were present in the court at the time of sentencing. Very strict security arrangements were made in the court. With this sentence, Lalpura's membership of the Vidhan Sabha has

Schools across Quebec have been forced to cancel bus service after the government pulled all of the roughly 1,200 Lion electric buses in the province off the roads. The provincial government said it took the preventive measure after a Lion electric school bus caught fire in Montreal earlier this week. Several children and a driver were inside the bus when it caught fire but no one was injured. In response to the government's decision, some school service centres chose to cancel bus routes, and others cancelled the school day entirely. The Quebec government said it pulled the buses so that they

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it will lift its overtime ban as of Monday at 12:01 am local time, and instead implement a ban on commercial flyer delivery. CUPW president Jan Simpson is calling on Canada Post to get back to the bargaining table in hopes of wrapping up the ongoing dispute before the holiday season. The union has banned overtime work since late May as it works to secure a new contract with Canada Post. Late last month, the union responded to Canada Post's latest offers with a proposal that called for higher wages but made some allowances for part-time worker

Premier Danielle Smith's Alberta Next panel received a relatively warm welcome from a crowd in Lethbridge during the seventh stop of its provincewide tour taking the public's temperature on Alberta's relationship with Ottawa. The friendly audience was interspersed with pushback from people in attendance who voiced their displeasure with the government and many of the proposals being put forward. The town halls are aimed at addressing grievances Smith says are allowing separatist sentiments to fester and the results are to inform which questions may be put to a referendum next year.