Ottawa shifts budgets to the fall as minister defends new fiscal focus
By Craig Lord Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Monday unveiled major changes to how and when the Liberal government will introduce federal budgets in the future as the focus on Ottawa’s current fiscal path intensifies. Champagne announced the Liberal government plans to table the federal budget in the fall going forward, starting with the Nov. 4 spending plan — ending the long-standing practice of releasing the document in the spring. The typically shorter economic and fiscal updates will now come in the spring, closer to the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Questioned by reporters Monday, Champagne argued this shift will offer the “clarity” departments, businesses and policy-makers need to plan better for upcoming fiscal years. The finance department also offered insight into how the Liberals plan to...
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Hospital in southwestern Ontario unveils Indigenous health strategy
By Celeste Percy-Beauregard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator A hospital near the most populous First Nation in Canada has debuted its first Indigenous health strategy. Around five per cent of Brantford’s population identified as Indigenous as of the 2021 census profile. But the Brantford General Hospital and Willett Urgent Care Centre in Paris — both overseen by Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) — also serve residents from the neighbouring Six Nations of the Grand River, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. “We want to ensure First Nations and Indigenous people feel safe when receiving health care at BCHS and stay connected to their culture, language, and traditions,” Michelle Bomberry said in a media release. Bomberry is the manager of BCHS’s Indigenous Health Services, which was introduced in...
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Gold demand puts Peru’s Amazon at greater risk from mercury poisoning, bishop warns
By Steven Grattan BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — As gold prices hover at record highs, a leading Catholic leader in Peru’s Amazon is urging countries that are destinations for the precious metal to help stem illegal mining that is poisoning rivers with mercury. Miguel Ángel Cadenas, an Augustinian from Spain who has lived in Peru’s Amazon for three decades, said illegal mining has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the Tigre, Nanay, Napo and Putumayo rivers as some areas where communities are at risk. Tests have found mercury levels in some fish above World Health Organization limits, and hair samples from local residents analyzed by scientists and doctors also showed elevated concentrations. “We are in a delicate situation,” Cadenas told The Associated Press. “Given that the Amazonian diet is rich in...
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New Indigenous ceramics gallery now a permanent feature of the Gardiner Museum
By Crystal St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com The Gardiner Museum in Toronto will open its new 9,000 sq. ft. ground floor space on Nov. 6 following a $15.5 million transformation, described as a once-in-a-generation renovation. The museum is one of the world’s leading institutions devoted to ceramics. Located on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, and founded in 1984 by George and Helen Gardiner, it houses more than 5,000 ceramic objects, from the ancient Americas and Europe to the works of contemporary artists. It’s dedicated to “clay” serving as “a bridge between cultures, histories, and people.” The newly renovated space features the new Collection Galleries; a fully-equipped clay studio called the “Makerspace”, where visitors of all ages can experiment with the medium; a Community Learning Centre for education...
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Attempted child abduction puts Tla-o-qui-aht community on high alert
By Nora O’Malley Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Ty-Histanis, BC – Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Councillor Elmer Frank (Hyou-sin-up-shilth) is asking community members to be diligent about locking doors, especially at night, after a “scary situation” unfolded on Sept. 29 involving an attempted child abduction. That evening a seven-year-old boy was taken from his home and carried through Ty-Histanis and left at the basketball court in Esowista, reads a memorandum released by Tla-o-qui-aht on Sept. 30. Ty-Histanis and Esowista are Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations communities located about 15-minutes from downtown Tofino. The basketball court in Esowista is roughly 10-minutes walking distance from Ty-Histanis. The boy was returned home to his parents, unharmed, read the memorandum. “RCMP are investigating. There have been conflicting reports. We don’t think there is any further risk,” said Chief Frank....
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Ottawa shifts budgets to the fall as minister defends new fiscal focus
By Craig Lord Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Monday unveiled major changes to how and when the Liberal government will introduce federal budgets in the future as the focus on Ottawa’s current fiscal path intensifies. Champagne announced the Liberal government plans to table the federal budget in the fall going forward, starting with the Nov. 4 spending plan — ending the long-standing practice of releasing the document in the spring. The typically shorter economic and fiscal updates will now come in the spring, closer to the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Questioned by reporters Monday, Champagne argued this shift will offer the “clarity” departments, businesses and policy-makers need to plan better for upcoming fiscal years. The finance department also offered insight into how the Liberals plan to...
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With deficit set to soar, Ottawa shifts budgets from spring to fall
By Craig Lord Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government plans to table the federal budget in the fall going forward, ending the long-standing practice of releasing the document in the spring. The upcoming Nov. 4 budget will be the first tabled on the new schedule. The typically shorter economic and fiscal updates will now come in the spring, closer to the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Ottawa said in a media release that this shift will help departments, businesses and policy-makers plan better for upcoming fiscal years, and help builders chart out the spring construction season. Future budget consultations will now take place over the summer months, as they did this year. The Liberals are also planning to split operating and capital spending in the upcoming budget...
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‘Dismissing our ‘Dismissing our Mi’kmaw voices’: Passage of bill angers Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw leaders
By Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post In a strongly worded press release sent out late Friday afternoon, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs expressed anger with the Nova Scotia government over its lack of attention to environmental matters and treaty rights. The assembly spoke out quickly Friday when the Nova Scotia Legislature wrapped up its fall session after sitting for only eight days. The session ended with the passing of Bill 127, which, among other things, makes way to criminalize Mi’kmaw land protectors and others seeking to save the environment from logging practices. Premier Tim Houston defended the short sitting, saying the government was “efficient and productive” in bringing forward several pieces of legislation he says will benefit the public. Members of the Assembly of...
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Ottawa Moves to Undo Tribunal Orders as Manitoulin Children Bear the Weight
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor In Ottawa’s courthouse halls, where marble and fluorescent light meet in solemn quiet, a legal battle unfolds that reverberates across the forests and lakes of Manitoulin. Ottawa now seeks to erase a human rights tribunal’s command — an order that demanded the federal government return to the table with First Nations, to rewrite and repair a child welfare system that has failed too many generations. The government calls the Tribunal’s decision “unreasonable,” accuses it of misjudging the evidence, and claims a breach of fairness. Words, cold and clinical, float above a human reality that cannot wait. This is no spectacle; it is a test of will, law, and conscience — a reckoning for a country that has spent decades...
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‘Dismissing our ‘Dismissing our Mi’kmaw voices’: Passage of bill angers Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw leaders
By Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post In a strongly worded press release sent out late Friday afternoon, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs expressed anger with the Nova Scotia government over its lack of attention to environmental matters and treaty rights. The assembly spoke out quickly Friday when the Nova Scotia Legislature wrapped up its fall session after sitting for only eight days. The session ended with the passing of Bill 127, which, among other things, makes way to criminalize Mi’kmaw land protectors and others seeking to save the environment from logging practices. Premier Tim Houston defended the short sitting, saying the government was “efficient and productive” in bringing forward several pieces of legislation he says will benefit the public. Members of the Assembly of...
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Northwestern Ontario forestry, energy interests advance regional priorities
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY — A number of stakeholders, largely from the forestry and energy sectors, got to provide regional input into a series of ongoing cross-province talks about energy policy. The Vaughn and Thunder Bay Chambers of Commerce held a roundtable discussion in the city on Oct. 2. The goal, said Thunder Bay chamber president Charla Robinson, was for regional interests to provide requested input into an issues paper on energy being developed by the Toronto-based business lobby. “They reached out to us to talk about what’s the Northwestern Ontario perspective,” Robinson said. “Vaughan has, very much a GTA-centric perspective on what is needed for the GTA, but northern Ontario is very different.” Those differences, Robinson said, include both the major industries that...
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After secretly working to destroy it, Ford government silent on long overdue review of Ontario’s Greenbelt
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer “I resigned from the government in 2017 because the Ford administration was coming to power, and I knew I couldn’t work for them.” Victor Doyle’s worst fears have come true. Over the past twenty years since Ontario created the Greenbelt, the world’s largest protected landscape of its kind, the man known as one of its central architects admits he’s relieved not to be inside the province’s planning offices anymore. One of Ontario’s former senior planners and the co-designer of the Greenbelt legislation, recently spoke with The Pointer. His instincts were prescient. Doug Ford was working his key donors ahead of the 2018 election, when he promised to open a “big chunk” of the Greenbelt to “some of the country’s biggest developers,”...
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First Nation seeks to ensure Ring of Fire developed on nation-to-nation basis
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com MARTEN FALLS — Marten Falls First Nation is taking legal action with the aim to make sure any resource development in its traditional territory is done as a nation-to-nation partnership, says the community’s chief. The remote First Nation, located about 430 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, has filed a notice of claim against Canada and Ontario over hydroelectric dam diversion projects in the 1940s and 50s that the community says was done without consent. The First Nation is claiming the projects irreversibly altered water flows in its traditional territory for the benefit of others and to the detriment of the community, said Marten Falls chief Bruce Achneepineskum. According to multiple reports when the initial notice of claim was first filed, the filing...
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Quebec LNG proposal not of ‘national interest’ at this point, says federal minister
By Miriam Lafontaine Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says it’s too early to say whether a liquefied natural gas facility pitched for Quebec meets the bar of being in the national interest. “My sense is this is not a project that is at a scale where we need to be looking at it,” the minister said. “It’s certainly not a project of national interest at this point.” The minister made the comment in Montreal on Friday during an announcement Canada would be investing $22 million to boost the country’s battery production capacity. Marinvest Energy Canada had been lobbying Hodgson’s department in recent months regarding a possible natural gas pipeline and export facility near Baie-Comeau, Que, just as the Liberal government was preparing to table legislation to fast-track major projects. The...
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Embattled figure in Native American politics resigns as chairman of pueblo governors coalition
By Morgan Lee SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An embattled figure in Native American politics has resigned as chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and ended his outside consulting work for the state of New Mexico days after he was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Records obtained by The Associated Press show James Mountain submitted his resignation letter Tuesday to the council, a prominent advocacy group for 19 Native American communities in New Mexico and another in Texas. He noted it was effective immediately. Also on Tuesday, Mountain terminated his work as a contract adviser to the state Indian Affairs Department, said Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Pojoaque Pueblo police arrested Mountain a week ago on suspicion of driving...
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Embattled figure in Native politics resigns as chairman of pueblo governors council in New Mexico
By Morgan Lee SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An embattled figure in Native American politics has resigned as chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and ended his outside consulting work for the state of New Mexico days after he was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Records obtained by The Associated Press show James Mountain submitted his resignation letter Tuesday to the council, a prominent advocacy group for 19 Native American communities in New Mexico and another in Texas. He noted it was effective immediately. Also on Tuesday, Mountain terminated his work as a contract adviser to the state Indian Affairs Department, said Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Pojoaque Pueblo police arrested Mountain a week ago on suspicion of driving...
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Indigenous Peoples grapple with claims downplaying the history of residential schools
By Alessia Passafiume As Indigenous Peoples marked the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this week, they also had to confront a persistent problem: public figures claiming the history of residential schools has been exaggerated or falsified. It’s a problem community leaders say poses a real challenge to reconciliation efforts across the country. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, mandated out of a legal settlement between the federal government and survivors of residential schools, concluded the goal of the schools was to erase Indigenous cultures. Between 1857 and 1996, 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools. They were barred from speaking their languages in institutions often rife with abuse and located far away from their families and communities. An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although...
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Northwest residents encouraged to get flu, COVID and RSV shots
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source KENORA — With respiratory illness season underway, the Northwestern Health Unit is encouraging residents to get their influenza, COVID-19 and RSV shots. Getting flu and COVID vaccines “with the most up-to-date strains is your best defence against severe illness and can prevent unnecessary visits to the hospital,” according to a news release from the health unit. Additionally, the vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is available to everyone 75 and older in the region. RSV is a seasonal virus that usually causes only mild illness but sometimes requires hospitalization, according to Health Canada. RSV symptoms include coughing, sneezing, wheezing, fever and a runny nose. One RSV outbreak in a facility was reported to the Northwestern Health Unit in 2024,...
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Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: Nasal naloxone spray: nowhere to be found
By Julie Chapman, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Megaphone Magazine Pharmacies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, both big and small, are out of nasal naloxone — the life-saving spray that reverses opioid overdose. London Drugs confirmed the shortage over the phone, while Owl Drugs and Jeff’s Pharmacy confirmed in person. When Megaphone asked why, it was told there hadn’t been enough people wanting to purchase the life-saving spray. Instead, those who are wanting to access naloxone are typically given one option — the injectable version. But for many people, injectable naloxone can be intimidating to use. The free kits require several steps: giving rescue breaths, drawing the medication into a syringe, locating an appropriate injection site — usually a thigh or upper arm — and inserting the needle. In the high-stress moments...
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Montrealers gather to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
By Miriam Lafontaine Shirley Pien spends a lot of time in Cabot Square, a park in downtown Montreal where many homeless people gather. The woman works as health navigator for an Indigenous-led health clinic in the city and makes it a priority to come to gathering spot on weekly basis. It’s a site many missing Indigenous women she knows used to frequent — until they disappeared. “In the last few months, there’s women we used to see regularly that we don’t see anymore. Nobody knows where they are,” said Pien, who hails from Naskapi Nation in northern Quebec. She was among many that turned out to the march held in Montreal on Saturday in recognition of the overrepresentation of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the country. “Hopefully...
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