Canada's environment commissioner says the country is nowhere near to meeting its goal of planting two-billion trees by 2030.
The Liberals first made the massive tree-planting promise during the 2019 federal election campaign and followed through with a 10-year 3.2-billion-dollar budget for it in 2020.
However, an audit of the first two years of planting says it appears the government isn't on track to get even four per cent of the promised trees in the ground by the end of 2030.
The province's online drought map shows most of southern B.C., including east Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver, is now ranked at drought Level 3, which means adverse drought impacts are possible. That's a drop from the most severe Level 5 rating, which covered much of the Island and inner south coast until this week.
It comes two months after Health Canada authorized a bivalent booster from Moderna that targeted the Omicron BA.1 subvariant and the original strain. Health Canada says a bivalent booster triggers "a strong immune response" against both of the more recent Omicron subvariants,as well as the original SARS-CoV-2 virus strains.
Interest rates will still apply on the provincial portion of a student’s loan. While this move is helpful for students graduating, said Rebekah Young, director of fiscal and provincial economics at Scotiabank, it is ultimately relief for interest payments on debt rather than money toward tuition or other post-secondary school expenses.
Mable Elmore, parliamentary secretary for senior services, says changes to the residential care regulation will strengthen the voices of resident and family councils. The councils, which she likened to residential stratas, are groups of people who meet regularly to promote the collective interests of residents and discuss concerns.
The word “inflation” appears more than 100 times in the document, making clear the government's primary economic concern. But beyond the top-line debt projections and the analysis of how Canada seeks to soften the impact of a potential recession, the fiscal update offers key details that shed light on Liberal priorities.
Darcy Sidoruk was 18 years old in 1982 when he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for the shooting two years earlier of family friend Yvonne Doucette in Dawson Creek. Sidoruk also admitted to shooting 19-year-old James Pitt, who picked him up hitchhiking outside Dawson Creek, shortly after the murder of Doucette.