Audited public accounts for 2025-26 show Ottawa wrote off $4.5 billion in COVID-19 benefit overpayments it no longer expects to recover, up from $26 million a year earlier. Auditor General Karen Hogan's office said expected losses on Canada Emergency Business Account loans rose to $5.6 billion of $7.2 billion outstanding; all CEBA loans fall due at the end of December. The audit found more than 110,000 Phoenix pay transactions still waiting over a year on March 31, 2026, and said National Defence inventory errors understated the department's deficit by $751 million. Ottawa keeps pursuing overpayments it still expects to recover.
Payments Canada has begun the first phase of its Real-Time Rail, a national system moving money almost instantly, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Eight institutions are in the first phase, including Wealthsimple, Questrade, Koho, Peoples Trust and Bank of America; the big banks join in later phases, with all Canadian financial institutions targeted by mid-2027. Canada is the last G7 country to launch such a system, originally planned for 2019. Fintechs can now connect directly rather than through banks. The C.D. Howe Institute estimates economic gains above $16 billion. Faster payments raise fraud risks for consumers.
NL Housing will run a light case-management program for 30 people, the last of three programs replacing Horizons 106, which closes next month, the provincial government says. Participants will live in NL Housing units and get one or two weekly staff visits for life skills, household and bill management. Once support ends, participants may stay in their homes. The program is expected to cost $500,000 a year, with five new staff; 16 participants now live at Horizons 106. Stella's Circle and Ben Said Services will run the moderate and intensive programs. Government says all 45 current residents will be placed.
A proposed Lands Protection Act amendment would cut P.E.I.'s land limit for non-profit corporations from 1,214 hectares to about 161 hectares. The Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society would have to sell about 72 of its roughly 233 hectares; another Buddhist group would be similarly affected. A society spokesperson said there is "no evidence" of targeting but suspects Buddhists are disproportionately burdened, and called the 14-day comment period too short. Land Minister Darlene Compton said the change applies to any large non-profit landholder and aims to free farmland. Public feedback closes Tuesday, and she plans to table the bill this fall.
About half of workers in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador earn less than a living wage, according to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report. It puts Nova Scotia's living wage at nearly $29 an hour for a household of two full-time working adults and two young children, nearly $12 above the $17 minimum wage. Rising rent drove the sharpest increase, in the northern mainland. The report urges using the living wage to set minimum wages. The Labour Department says the minimum rose more than 30 per cent since 2021 and wage increases must stay predictable for small businesses.
New Brunswick's market diversification strategy aims to raise exports outside the United States to $1.32 billion by 2030, up from $1.14 billion last year, an increase of almost 16 per cent. Premier Susan Holt's government is targeting Asia, including India, Japan and South Korea, and Europe, where it plans an EU growth office. The plan offers support for export-ready businesses, more trade missions and greater port capacity in Saint John and Belledune. It targets 61 per cent growth in trade with the rest of Canada by 2029. The province is diversifying after U.S. tariffs; these are targets, not yet results.
Several Montreal emergency rooms were above 200 per cent stretcher occupancy late Monday morning, led by Lakeshore Hospital at 226 per cent, the Jewish General at 219 and the Montreal Children's at 217. More than 200 Montreal patients had waited over 24 hours. Across Quebec, the average stretcher wait Sunday was 18 hours and 40 minutes. The McGill University Health Centre cited more consultations, complex needs among older patients, limited beds, respiratory viruses and trauma cases. An infectious diseases physician there said flu season arrived about four weeks early. Other surgical departments are taking transfers meant for the Montreal General.
Honda announced an $867 million investment at its Alliston, Ont., plant on Monday, including $166 million to restart an engine shop closed in 2024 and retool for updated hybrid and gas models. Honda says it will maintain 4,000 jobs; Ottawa is contributing $313 million and Ontario $156 million. Separately, Ford's Oakville plant, closed in 2024 for retooling, has reopened making Super Duty pickups, mostly for U.S. buyers, with about 2,000 people back at work after plans to build electric vehicles there were cancelled. Both plants ship heavily to the United States, which imposes 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian-made cars.
A Huddle youth services hub, the first in northern Manitoba, will open in Thompson early next year at BGC Thompson's expanded building. Huddles aim to be one-stop sites for people aged 12 to 29, with planned supports for mental health, primary care, addictions, Indigenous wellness, peer support and social services. BGC Thompson, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and United Way Winnipeg will organize the program, and a youth advisory council will help decide which services. United Way Winnipeg runs Huddles with a $10 million, five-year federal commitment and provincial support. Manitoba's existing Huddles operate in Winnipeg, Selkirk, Portage la Prairie and Brandon.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have released the full 261-page Lloydminster Health Service Needs Assessment, five months after treating it as confidential and publishing only a four-page summary. The report, covering about 217,000 people within 150 kilometres of the border city, says the hospital is "no longer adequate for the population it serves," primary care is critically understaffed and mental health supports are lacking. Critics had said the summary misrepresented the findings. The provinces did not directly explain what changed, and say recommendations, including an after-hours primary care clinic and a mental health short-stay unit, are not commitments and need further evaluation.
Alberta has added $39 million over three years for planning and land acquisition for nine urgent care centres: eight announced in March 2025, in west and south Edmonton, Stony Plain/Spruce Grove, east Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Cold Lake and Fort McMurray, plus Sylvan Lake, added this year. The centres would offer same-day care for urgent, non-life-threatening conditions. Minister Adriana LaGrange said they would divert more than one-third of emergency visits and construction could start sooner if planning moves faster. NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman said the re-announcement lacks clear timelines or sites. The money covers planning and land, not construction.
Elections BC's final count flipped Burnaby South-Metrotown from the NDP to the Conservatives, raising the incoming Conservative majority to 64 of 93 seats; the NDP has 27 and the Greens two. NDP incumbent Paul Choi had led by 66 votes on election night, but after a recount and the addition of mail-in, absentee and telephone-assisted ballots, Conservative David Xie won by 64 votes. The margin was just large enough to avoid an automatic judicial review. Leads in Ladysmith-Oceanside, held by the NDP, and Kelowna Centre, held by the Conservatives, face judicial reviews because their margins were under 0.2 per cent.
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. will elect two vice-presidents on Dec. 14 after creating a second vice-president post. NTI spokesperson Annie Thomlinson said the new role responds to the organization's growing workload and operational requirements. Vice-presidents may chair board committees covering finance, wildlife and environment, social and cultural development, infrastructure and housing, or lands. Duties will reflect the winners' strengths and interests. Four candidates have registered: incumbent vice-president Paul Irngaut, Robert Bourassa, Adamee Itorcheak and Aaron Aopaloktok Pedersen, who had until Monday afternoon to withdraw. Beneficiaries who vote will again be offered vouchers; in a May by-election, NTI offered $100 grocery vouchers.
Residents of Wekweètì, a Tłı̨chǫ community in the Northwest Territories, are under a boil-water advisory issued Monday after a critical failure of the raw water intake pump supplying the community's water treatment plant. The territorial government says the plant cannot properly treat water until the pump is fixed, and residents should boil drinking water for at least one minute. The advisory is precautionary, and no illnesses linked to drinking water have been reported. The community government is working with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Health officials will monitor conditions and give formal notice when the advisory is lifted.
Yukon MP Brendan Hanley says how much of the 2026 federal budget reaches the territory depends on eligibility rules and territorial allotments not yet written. He pointed to a 50 per cent top-up of the groceries and essentials benefit in 2027, worth up to $2,570 for a family of four, and a fully refundable caregiver credit of up to $1,260. Local effects of $610 million for Nutrition North will not be known until a program overhaul is finished. Hanley said Yukon could qualify for a new $2 billion mental health and addiction treatment infrastructure fund, but application rules remain undefined.
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