The federal government says it will spend more than $2 billion to build 17,000 homes, including thousands of affordable units. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement today in Kitchener, Ont., alongside Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen. The Rapid Housing Initiative will be extended for a third round to build 4,500 affordable housing units, some of which will be part of women-focused housing and homelessness projects. At least another 10,800 homes will be built through the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, 6,000 of which will be affordable units. The federal government is also creat

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled plans to create a special team focused on countering Russian disinformation and propaganda. It's part of a package of new measures designed to support Ukraine and punish Russia for launching a war six months ago that has killed tens of thousands of people and affected millions of others around the world. In addition to imposing sanctions against 62 more people, Ottawa is also planning to spend nearly four-million-dollars on two projects to bolster Ukraine's military and police services. He told a special meeting this morning of leaders from dozens of

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government's decision to allow the return of turbines to Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, as Ukraine renews its calls for Canada to reverse course. Ukraine has called on Trudeau and his government to reverse their decision to exempt Siemens Canada from sanctions against Russia so it can repair six turbines for use in a pipeline that supplies natural gas to Germany. One turbine already repaired at Siemens' Montreal facility has been delivered to Germany and was supposed to go to Gazprom, which operates the pipeline, but the Russian compan

Family of a Saskatchewan woman being held in custody in the United States say they want her extradited quickly to deal with her charges in Canada. Dawn Walker, who is 48, is facing two charges in Oregon related to identity fraud along with two charges in Saskatoon of child abduction and public mischief. She was arrested Friday when she and her seven-year-old son were found in Oregon City after a two-week search. Police allege Walker was involved in a custody dispute with the boy's father and faked her death and that of her son before illegally entering the US.

Canada's top military commander says he's considering changes to the Armed Forces' vaccine requirement. Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre says any change will need to balance the military's requirements against various factors, including the ongoing risks posed by COVID-19. Eyre first ordered all service members to get fully vaccinated last year, and the order remains in place even though a similar mandate for most other federal public servants was suspended in June. He says any change will need to balance the military's requirements against various legal, medical and ethical facto

The deputy mayor of Harbour Breton, Newfoundland, figures the town's three grocery stores will be out of food in the next day or two. The community of about 1,600 remains cut off due to the worst forest fires the province has seen since 1961. The province is getting a ferry to start bringing supplies to stranded communities and to help people leave. It's expected to arrive tomorrow, but will be docking in a town about 50-kilometres away from Harbour Breton that also is running low on supplies. Roy Drake says his community of about 16-hundred remains cut off due to ongoing forest fires. The pr

The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show Canada and BC both continue to report historic low unemployment rates. The jobless rate across the country was pegged at 4.9 per cent last month, unchanged from June, although the data shows 31,000 jobs disappeared, most of them in the public sector. Economists say more than one million job vacancies in all corners of the country are waiting to be filled. The number of people looking for work in BC barely budged in July, edging up to 4.7 per cent from its 4.6 per cent setting in June. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland commented on the report as

Former Supreme Court of Canada judge Thomas Cromwell is leading an independent review of Hockey Canada's governance that begins immediately. There have been calls for a change of leadership at Hockey Canada for the way it handled recent sexual assault allegations against players. Members of the 2003 and 2018 world junior team have been accused of separate incidents of group sexual assault. It was also revealed that the organization maintained a fund for uninsured payments, including settlements of sexual assault complaints, that was funded by player fees. The independent review is expected to

Defence Minister Anita Anand says Ottawa and an Ontario company have agreed to deliver armoured vehicles to Ukrainian forces to help their fight against Russian troops. Anand also says Canada is sending up to 225 Canadian Armed Forces members to Britain for an initial period of four months to teach Ukrainian soldiers the basics of soldiering. Her announcement today comes nearly six months after Canada suspended its previous training mission in Ukraine just weeks before Russia invaded its neighbour back in February. Since the invasion, Ukraine says roughly 10-thousand of its soldiers have been