The Canada Revenue Agency has now fired more than 200 people for falsely claiming a federal income benefit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CRA says as of March 15, 232 employees "inappropriately applied for and received" the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and have been terminated, an increase of 47 since December. The benefit, known as CERB for short, provided $2,000 per month to Canadians whose jobs were lost as a result of public health restrictions during the pandemic. They must repay the CERB funds they received if they have not already done so. The agency launched an internal review

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing back against premiers who are asking him to cancel an upcoming increase to the federal carbon price, saying they have not proposed better ideas to fight climate change. Trudeau says in a letter to premiers today that the last time they discussed the issue in 2022, their governments either didn't propose alternative solutions or couldn't meet federal standards for reducing emissions. The premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have all asked to Trudeau to forgo the April 1

Statistics Canada says the country posted its highest annual population growth rate in more than six decades last year. The agency says the population grew 3.2 per cent, its fastest pace since 1957 when it grew 3.3 per cent. The increase brought the population to 40,769,890on Jan. 1, 2024. The total was up by 1,271,872 people compared with the start of 2023. Statistics Canada says most of the growth was due to temporary immigration last year. Without temporary immigration, it says Canada's population growth rate would have been 1.2 per cent.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada is airlifting vulnerable Canadians out of Haiti by helicopter to the Dominican Republic as conditions continue to deteriorate. Haiti has been in a profound security crisis since mid-2021, when gangs took control of key infrastructure and started violent turf wars that have led to a collapse of most medical and food systems in the country. Two weeks ago, unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign once a transitional council is formed to oversee an international military intervention led by Kenya. Earlier this month, Canada ai

Members of Parliament have summoned the head of Bell Canada to testify next month about the company's decision to cut thousands of jobs across the country. CEO Mirko Bibic was originally invited to appear before the Canadian Heritage committee on Feb. 29 and then March 19, but MPs say he has so far been unable to attend. Last week, in a closed-door meeting, the committee agreed to summon Bibic to appear on April 11 to answer questions and discuss the cuts. When a witness declines an invitation to appear, a committee may issue a summons to compel their attendance. Bell Canada Enterprises Inc.,

The federal Liberal government will not be forced into an election over carbon pricing at least not today. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois all voted against a Conservative motion calling for a confidence vote in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for refusing to call off a planned April increase in Canada's carbon price. The price will go up by $15 a tonne next month as scheduled, adding another 3.3 cents to the price of a litre of gasoline and 2.86 cents for a cubic metre of natural gas. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says carbon pricing makes everything more expensive. But the Libera

A framework for a national school food program has landed on the desk of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, and with the federal budget just weeks away advocates hope the proposal will get the green light. The proposed plan comes as food prices continue to cause political headaches for governments across the country, said Tyler Meredith, a policy thinker and former economic adviser to Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "A proposal has now been put forward to Minister Freeland, and it's now for us to watch whether it'll be funded in the budget," said Meredith. "I'm cautiously optimist

The consequences of a symbolic House of Commons vote Monday that called on Canada to cease future arms exports to Israel are still reverberating as Liberals face criticism from Israel and within their own caucus. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly held a closed-door meeting with some Liberals late Tuesday after three MPs voted against the motion, saying they were blindsided by the details of the last-minute amendments. New Democrats say they negotiated those changes with the Liberals for days before the vote, and Joly herself was working with them late Monday to hammer out the details. NDP

Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the amended motion on the Israel-Hamas war the House of Commons passed Monday could make it harder for people seeking asylum in Canada to get out of Gaza. He says it could make the situation worse for a Canadian program that has already been, in his words, a "failure." Miller says he thinks the motion was fair and principled after it was altered to reflect 14 amendments proposed by the Liberals. The final motion eliminated a standalone call to recognize Palestinian statehood and instead saw MPs support progress toward a peace process and a two-state soluti