A top European Union official says the 27 EU countries have sealed a deal on new aid for Ukraine just over an hour into a summit of the bloc's leaders and despite threats from Hungary to veto the move. “We have a deal,” European Council President Charles Michel said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He wrote that all “27 leaders agreed on an additional 50-billion-euro ($54 billion) support package for Ukraine within the EU budget.” The announcement came despite staunch objections from Hungary in December and in the days leading up to Thursday's summit in Brussels. It was not i

Statistics Canada says the country’s fertility rate reached an all-time low of 1.33 children per woman in 2022. The federal agency says that's part of a downward trend that began in 2009. The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to have temporarily disrupted the trend when the fertility rate rose in both 2020 and 2021. According to the report, other countries had a similar experience during those years. The decline in the fertility rate between 2021 and 2022 is the largest observed since the baby bust in the early 1970s. StatCan says it puts Canada in the middle of the pack of 10 high-income countries

Canada's economy appears to have ended 2023 on a stronger note than expected, which economists say could push back the timeline for interest rate cuts this year. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday the economy grew 0.2 per cent in November, marking the first expansion in six months. A preliminary estimate suggests real gross domestic product increased 1.2 per cent on an annualized basis in the fourth quarter, following a decline of a similar magnitude in the third quarter. That would bring economic growth in 2023 to 1.5 per cent, StatCan said. Those figures exceed the Bank of Canada's forecas

The federal ethics watchdog is asking parliamentarians and the public to read between the lines about advice he gave to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before his recent holiday trip. Konrad von Finckenstein told a House of Commons ethics committee today that under the Conflict of Interest Act, he can't publicly disclose conversations he's had with politicians. But he says that if Trudeau's stay at a family friend's property in Jamaica had been unacceptable, it would've been recorded on his office's website and nothing is there. Trudeau's office said earlier this month that the family's stay was

Canada is sending another $40 million in aid to organizations that are helping Palestinians in Gaza after pausing funding to the UN's relief agency in the region. The funding will go to groups including the World Food Program, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Canada suspended funding to UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinians in Gaza, in response to allegations that its staff played a role in the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7. That came after international outcry when the agency's director fired staff members suspected of being

Housing Minister Sean Fraser says post-secondary institutions will be able to apply for low-interest loans to build student housing starting this fall. Post-secondary institutions will have access to a pre-existing program that offers developers low-cost financing to build rental apartments. The Apartment Construction Loan Program was topped up with an additional $15 billion this fall, bringing the total funding available to $40 billion. Fraser is making the announcement today alongside other cabinet ministers as the House of Commons returns after a winter break. The announcement comes as the

Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada's main opposition party, took sharp aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the first day of proceedings in the House of Commons on Monday. In addition to besieging the government over housing costs and crime, Poilievre also accused Canada of being too divided under Trudeau's administration. Poilievre was speaking on Bill C-234, introduced by his MP Ben Lobb, which calls for the removal of the carbon tax for farmers. Attacking the Trudeau government, he said that if you continue to tax food donors and truckers who supply food, you are taxing all people. He ca

A federal inquiry into foreign interference begins a week of hearings today on the preliminary point of how to handle the shroud of official secrecy around the controversial issue. The inquiry says the initial five days of hearings will help identify ways to make information public, even though much of it comes from classified documents and sources. The discussions on national security and confidentiality of information will help set the stage for the next public hearings, likely to take place at the end of March. The March hearings are intended to delve into allegations of foreign interferenc

The leader of the main opposition in Canada's House of Commons, Pierre Poilievre is going to contest the federal election for a minister of Punjabi origin from the Ontario government.Yesterday Parm Gill has resigned as MLA and Cabinet Minister of the province.Parm Gill said that the people of his constituency wanted him to join Pierre Poilievre.Gill was a two-time MLA from Milton constituency.Premier Doug Ford had previously made him Citizenship and Multiculturalism Minister in 2021 and was Red Tape Reduction Minister at the time of his resignation.Gill said that he decided to submit his resig