Hiya,
The backlog of passport functions that led to irritating delays for travellers has been “just about eradicated” and passport supply has returned to the processing instances earlier than the pandemic, says a federal cupboard minister.
Social Improvement Minister Karina Gould introduced the turnaround on Tuesday, throughout a information convention on the federal cupboard retreat in Hamilton, Ont.
Ms. Gould mentioned Service Canada, which handles passports, practically doubled its work pressure between March and December, increasing entry to service, opened extra places of work, and added processing capability.
“Since its peak in June, 2022, after dedicating assets to make sure these Canadians obtained their passports, roughly 98 per cent of the backlog of functions has been processed. The backlog is just about eradicated,” mentioned Ms. Gould.
“As was the case previous to the pandemic, there are going to be seasonal peaks which could imply there are lineups at places of work generally.”
Final spring, challenges securing passports prompted some Canadians to attend exterior authorities places of work for days in an try and renew them amid a resurgence in journey prompted by the lifting of many COVID-19 restrictions.
The Official Opposition Conservatives mentioned the federal authorities ought to have been capable of predict the elevated demand for passport renewal as international locations reopen their borders.
There was no speedy response Tuesday from the Conservatives on Ms. Gould’s feedback. Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre delivered a press release in Vancouver on one other topic however didn’t take media questions.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
FEDERAL COURT RULES ON BUREAU APPEAL OF ROGERS-SHAW MERGER APPROVAL – The Federal Courtroom of Attraction has dismissed the Competitors Bureau’s enchantment of a tribunal resolution approving Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposed $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. Story right here.
CABINET RETREAT IN HAMILTON – Former Financial institution of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins is amongst a bunch of specialists set to temporary Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cupboard throughout their retreat in Hamilton this week as they chart their authorities’s financial agenda for 2023. Story right here. In the meantime, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians don’t need to “plunge” into an election this 12 months – and he believes his governance take care of the NDP goes “extraordinarily effectively.” Story right here from World Information.
OTTAWA UNDERESTIMATING RECESSION, INTEREST-RATE RISKS: DODGE – The federal authorities is underestimating the dangers introduced by a attainable 2023 recession and extended excessive rates of interest, says former Financial institution of Canada governor David Dodge, who warns the Liberals could have a tough time delivering on all their current political commitments. Story right here.
LIFT RESTRICTIONS: PEI POTATO FARMERS – Prince Edward Island potato farmers say a brand new report on potato wart exhibits the 2021 resolution to halt exports to the US went too far, they usually need remaining restrictions lifted for farms the place the soil-borne fungus has not been discovered. Story right here.
CAMEROON REJECTS CANADIAN PEACE OUTREACH – Three days after Canada introduced it could be facilitating a long-sought peace course of for the armed battle in Cameroon, the federal government of Cameroon, on Monday evening, has dealt a extreme blow to the method by denying the substance of the Canadian announcement. Story right here.
FORTIN CLEARED BY MILITARY – The Canadian navy has concluded on the steadiness of possibilities that Main-Basic Dany Fortin “didn’t have interaction in sexual misconduct” after the senior navy officer was acquitted late final 12 months of sexual assault late in 1988. Story right here.
MORNEAU HAD IDEAS ON FIXING PM, GOVERNOR-GENERAL RESIDENCES – Former finance minister Invoice Morneau says he as soon as proposed bringing collectively previous prime ministers to assessment the situation and maintenance of two publicly funded residences for Canada’s leaders, however the thought was ignored. Story right here.
LAWMAKERS MOVE AGAINST LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR HITTING CHILDREN – Hitting youngsters remains to be authorized in Canada, however there are lawmakers who need to change that. Over the previous 12 months, particular person parliamentarians have once more taken intention on the safety, which is contained in Part 43 of the Felony Code; payments to repeal it at the moment are earlier than each the Home and Senate. Story right here.
INNOVATING ON INNOVATION – After years of disappointing innovation applications that haven’t mounted Canada’s continual financial underperformance, the Liberal authorities’s newest try at getting it proper is the Canadian Innovation and Funding Company, introduced within the 2022 finances. Story right here.
ONTARIO HOUSING PLAN UNDER FIRE FROM RURAL LEADERS – Premier Doug Ford and his high ministers obtained an earful from members of the Rural Ontario Municipal Affiliation on Monday, as mayors and councillors from small communities raised issues concerning the province’s housing plan and its transfer to permit improvement on elements of the protected Greenbelt. Story right here.
OTTAWA POLICE PREPARE FOR PROTESTS – Ottawa Police say they’re getting ready for protests forward of the one-year anniversary of the chaotic demonstrations in opposition to COVID-19 measures that clogged the downtown core for weeks, however that they have been unable to give a transparent indication of what residents ought to anticipate. Story right here.
ROUYN-NORANDA RESIDENTS RALLY AGAINST SMELTER – As analysis exhibits carcinogens of their youngsters’s our bodies, individuals within the Quebec metropolis of Rouyn-Noranda are demanding extra loudly that the native copper smelter – lengthy exempt from provincial emissions guidelines – ought to clear up its act. Story right here.
THIS AND THAT
HOUSE ON A BREAK – The Home of Commons is on a break till Jan. 30.
POILIEVRE OPENS CONSULTATIONS ON FIRST NATIONS REVENUE MODEL – Federal Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre, in Vancouver, mentioned he’s launching consultations with First Nations and business on a brand new non-obligatory income mannequin to ensure First Nations communities extra direct fiscal revenues from useful resource initiatives on First Nations lands. He mentioned Conservative caucus critics will take care of the consultations. “There are numerous questions such a proposal will nonetheless must reply. That’s the reason we are going to hear and get it proper,” he mentioned in a press release. He didn’t take media questions on the occasion the place he introduced the plan.
HEATHER SCOFFIELD EXITS – Heather Scoffield, the Ottawa bureau chief for the Toronto Star and economics columnist for the paper, has introduced her departure from the Star, efficient Tuesday. In a tweet here, she mentioned it was time to make some adjustments in her life after 30 years in journalism, with a decade in her management position on Parliament Hill. She mentioned she is, subsequent week, becoming a member of the Enterprise Council of Canada as its senior vice-president of technique.
PARTY CONVENTIONS – The federal Liberals have introduced plans for a nationwide conference on Could 4-6 in Ottawa. The federal Conservatives are holding their 2023 conference in Quebec Metropolis from Sept. 7-9.
ARCHITECTURE AWARDS – Governor-Basic Mary Simon, on Tuesday afternoon, was scheduled, in Ottawa, to current the Governor-Basic’s Medals in Structure and Panorama Structure recognizing 13 initiatives, and people from throughout the nation.
FORMER B.C. CHIEFS OF STAFF REFLECT ON POLITICS IN B.C. – Geoff Meggs, the chief of workers to former British Columbia NDP Premier John Horgan, and Mike McDonald, the previous chief of workers to former BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark, speak concerning the present state of BC politics in an version of Herle Burly podcast, accessible right here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Hamilton, Ont., attended non-public conferences, met for greater than half an hour with Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath and attended the cupboard retreat.
LEADERS
Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre, in Vancouver, delivered remarks.
NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh, in Qualicum Seaside, B.C., and NDP MP Gord Johns of Courtenay-Alberni, hosted a roundtable with residents on well being care, after which spoke to the media. Later, they toured the Port Alberni Terminals and meet with the Port Authority and Canadian Maritime Engineering Restricted. Within the night, Singh and NDP MP Lisa Marie Barron of Nanaimo-Ladysmith attended a meet-and-greet occasion in Nanaimo.
No schedules launched for different occasion leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Tuesday’s version of The Globe and Mail podcast, Senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase talks about why Canada, alone, can’t make the choice to ship Ukraine our Leopard-2 tanks. Ukraine needs about 300 tanks. President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that western battle tanks may very well be the important thing to driving Russian troops out of his nation. However the allies, together with Canada, are nonetheless deliberating on whether or not they need to ship them. Mr. Chase additionally explains why the tank problem stands out as the escalation that provokes a Russian backlash. The Decibel is right here.
TRIBUTE
David E. Smith, one in all Canada’s best and most inquisitive political students who possessed effectively into his 80s a teenage boy’s romantic love for his nation, died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on Jan. 2 at his dwelling in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. He was 86. Obituary right here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how Ontario Premier Doug Ford can flip carbon taxes conservative: “Ontario Premier Doug Ford faces two thorny taxation points as his Progressive Conservative authorities finishes the primary 12 months of its second mandate. The primary is an unfulfilled promise to chop company tax charges that Mr. Ford made through the 2018 marketing campaign. The second is the query of what to do with the income from the commercial carbon tax that the province started administering this month, taking up from an Ottawa-run model. Fortunately for Mr. Ford, these two issues can resolve one another – and will permit his authorities to push carbon coverage in a extra free-market path, away from the more-tax, more-spending observe that the federal Liberals have been on.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the query of why ought to Sir John A. take the blame for Canada’s injustices to Indigenous peoples: “Within the newest indignity visited upon the reminiscence of Canada’s first prime minister, Ottawa’s Nationwide Capital Fee has introduced plans to substitute an Indigenous title for what’s now the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. Why does everybody decide on Sir John A. and never Sir Wilfrid? Wilfrid Laurier, one in all Canada’s most beloved prime ministers, expanded the residential-school system and suppressed a 1907 report that exposed the colleges have been merciless and unsafe. His inside minister, Clifford Sifton, dispossessed First Nations of their lands with the intention to promote settlement within the Prairies. His governments additionally blocked Black and Chinese language immigrants from coming into Canada.”
André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on how well being reform can’t wait so right here’s the place to begin: “Each Canadian ought to have prepared entry to a primary-care supplier inside a 30-minute drive of the place they reside or work. Politicians must give attention to measuring and bettering well being outcomes for residents, not simply rising their well being budgets. And there must be a recognition that failing to repair well being care will compromise the nation’s financial system and future prosperity. These are a few of the daring foundational commitments to reform which might be crucial if we hope to tug Canada’s foundering medicare system again from the brink, in line with a blue-ribbon panel.”
Leslie Palti-Guzman and Rachel Ziemba (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Canada turned away Germany and Japan on LNG, however can’t preserve doing that: “Canada’s financial alternatives transcend the potential battery and processing applied sciences that Mr. Trudeau introduced up when he’d deflected Mr. Kishida’s LNG request, or the hydrogen challenge discussions that resulted from Mr. Scholz’s go to. Canada’s financial alternatives might additionally embrace a job for different vitality sources. Over all, Canada might take a look at the present world atmosphere and embrace all of them in its method to its vitality manufacturing. Doing so might assist attain financial and geopolitical objectives.”
Julia Rady (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how random acts of violence received’t finish if all we do is react to them: “Media protection tends to give attention to the speedy tragedy of such violence, or on requires better accountability from elected officers to “repair” it. Such violent incidents sometimes immediate authorities to depend on hindsight, to play the blame recreation regarding what went improper and to problem bland statements of regret. Approaches that tackle the broader, multi-faceted and underlying points that contribute to those breakdowns in society obtain far much less consideration. If we did attempt to broaden our views, we would be compelled to confront points and traumas deeply rooted in our failure to fulfill the wants of marginalized individuals, and a system the place an absence of help permits insecurity and psychological sickness to develop. Persons are hurting, and they’re hurting others. Checking out why requires taking an extended view, and asking ourselves how we are able to mitigate these issues, even when such measures require persistence and time.”
Allison Hanes (The Montreal Gazette) on how, sooner or later, Ottawa should get up for the Structure: “Let’s face it: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he dares even muse about standing up for constitutional rights and reining within the overuse of the however clause by the provinces, he is aware of he’ll earn a stern rebuke from Quebec Premier François Legault. If he doesn’t, he comes throughout as a doormat too weak to face up for probably the most fundamental rules of justice in a democratic society. This no-win scenario explains why Trudeau sometimes solely addresses this delicate and unsettled query when known as upon to take action — like when requested about it by journalists. It additionally explains why, regardless of lofty pronouncements, his authorities remains to be reluctant to do something concrete to stop provinces from making an finish run across the Canadian Constitution of Rights and Freedoms practically 4 years after Quebec and Ontario pioneered this artful technique.”
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