Ottawa plans budget-related legislation covering private investment in Canada's four largest airports and new expropriation powers to speed the proposed Alto high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City. The Nov. 5 budget lists 54 such measures in a legislative annex, usually a precursor to a budget bill, but gives only brief summaries, and no bill has been tabled yet. The budget sets aside $37.6 million over three years to select an airport operator by 2029. NDP and Conservative MPs, a transport union and a rail-route resident say omnibus bills limit scrutiny. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne called that criticism routine.
Ottawa announced Nov. 8 how it will divide a $600-million package, promised in June, for Canada's film, television and music sectors in the streaming era. The Canada Media Fund gets the largest share, $213.4 million, while Telefilm Canada receives $68.5 million, the Indigenous Screen Office $51 million and the Canada Music Fund $67 million. Independent production and local-news funds share $185.1 million. Canadian Heritage plans to repeat the funding annually until a new streaming policy is finished. It was promised after Ottawa had the CRTC pause and review a rule making foreign streamers contribute 15 per cent of Canadian revenue.
Ottawa is consulting until Jan. 29, 2027, on whether to add 12 Atlantic salmon populations to the Species at Risk Act list, including three in Newfoundland and Labrador: two on the island's south coast and one in southern Labrador. A 2025 assessment by COSEWIC, an independent scientific committee, rated South Newfoundland West endangered, Southern Labrador threatened and South Newfoundland East of special concern. Listing as threatened or endangered would make it illegal to kill, harm or possess those salmon without a permit, and require recovery planning. No decision has been made. Feedback goes through the Species at Risk Public Registry.
The University of Prince Edward Island says changing enrolment, revenue projections and rising costs are behind a spending review for the 2027-28 academic year. Its faculty association says proposed academic cuts range from about five per cent in some departments to more than 10 per cent in others, and could mean fewer courses, larger classes and cancelled programs. The association says UPEI's 2025-26 revenue of $244 million beat projections by about $41 million, while administrative spending grew more than 200 per cent since 2021-22. UPEI calls the review a planning exercise, not predetermined actions, with proposals going through normal decision-making.
Nova Scotia has extended by three years, to Nov. 9, 2029, a freeze on development-related fees and charges imposed by Halifax Regional Municipality and Halifax Water. The freeze, first announced in 2023, bars new development charges and increases to existing ones. The regulation change took effect Nov. 5. Through negotiations with Ottawa, the province kept established inflation-based adjustments, so eligible charges can still keep pace with consumer prices. Municipal Affairs Minister John A. MacDonald said federal infrastructure funding requires stable development charges, and the extension keeps the province eligible for federal money needed for housing and growth in its communities.
Federal officials say provinces and territories, including New Brunswick, can choose how much of up to 100,000 extra permanent resident spaces in 2027 they use to keep temporary workers and families already in Canada. The one-time spaces, beyond regular allocations, include added provincial nominee places. The budget's levels plan sets the Atlantic Immigration Program target at 6,000 a year; New Brunswick received 2,340 of the program's 5,170 admissions in 2025. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accuses Ottawa of hiding an immigration increase. A federally appointed panel had urged Atlantic population growth near 1.8 per cent; New Brunswick grew one per cent.
At least 50,000 Quebec CEGEP and university students are set to strike for one to five days between Nov. 9 and 13, with mandates at over a dozen institutions, including UQAM, Université de Montréal, Concordia and several CEGEPs. The student coalition CRUES wants student financial aid increased and opened to international and more part-time students, plus more public funding for higher-education staff and buildings. Strikes on Nov. 10 target paid internships in all programs, and a large Montreal march is planned Nov. 13. Picket lines may cancel many classes. The Fédération des cégeps says effects will vary and urges dialogue.
100 wordsSource: Le Devoir, by Zacharie Goudreault
Ontario health officials are warning of possible measles exposure after an unimmunized child in Durham Region tested positive on returning from an international trip. People on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET552 to Toronto, which landed Nov. 3, at Pearson's Terminal 1 between 7:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. that day, or in the Lakeridge Health Ajax-Pickering emergency waiting room between 10:40 a.m. and 5 p.m. that day should watch for symptoms until Nov. 24. Symptoms can appear seven to 21 days after exposure and include high fever, cough and runny nose. The Durham Region Health Department has followed up with known contacts.
Emergency departments in Manitoba's Southern Health region, including hospitals serving Winkler-Morden, Steinbach and Portage la Prairie, missed all three performance targets in 2025-26, its annual report shows. Nine in 10 patients were assessed within 6.6 hours, against a 3.9-hour target and up from 6.1 hours. One in eight left without being seen, and patients needing a bed waited a median 10.4 hours in emergency. The authority cites population growth, sicker patients, measles and wildfire evacuees; its staff vacancy rate held at 20 per cent. Only three of the region's 10 ERs run around the clock, the Manitoba Nurses Union says.
Saskatchewan introduced a bill on Nov. 4 that would let its Maintenance Enforcement Office take money from tax-free savings accounts to recover overdue child and spousal support. The Enforcement of Maintenance Orders Amendment Act, 2026 would also allow annual default fees on delinquent accounts, fees for payments returned for insufficient funds, and access to certain variable annuity payments. Similar future federal savings products could be added. The office, which already garnishes wages, seizes bank funds and suspends licences and passports, manages more than 7,000 files and has collected over $33 million this year. The changes take effect only if passed.
Premier Danielle Smith says Albertans who have applied to Ottawa for proof of citizenship will soon be able to renew their driver's licence by showing the application receipt. She announced it informally on her Nov. 7 radio show, saying formal rules would follow within days. Alberta now requires proof of legal status in Canada to renew licences. Smith said the government assumed 60 days would be enough for federal processing, but one Spruce View resident was facing a nearly three-year wait. Licences issued this way will lack the citizenship marker, and the province will work with Ottawa to speed processing.
Experts are urging B.C.'s incoming Conservative government to study costs before switching the Massey Tunnel replacement from an eight-lane tunnel under construction to a 10-lane bridge, which the party says would save up to $2.5 billion. The tunnel's latest estimate is $8.5 billion, finishing in 2031. The province reported $580 million spent by June; University of B.C. business professor Werner Antweiler estimates about $700 million now, some of it unrecoverable, and says a switch could delay completion to 2033-35 and could jeopardize Ottawa's $3-billion pledge. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson says a decision will come quickly after his government's Nov. 20 swearing-in.
The Nov. 5 federal budget proposes $575 million to renew the Inuit Child First Initiative, which helps Inuit children get health, education and social services, and move it to an Inuit-run program, Pirutsiagutiit. Launched in 2018 and modelled on Jordan's Principle, the initiative saw some supports, such as hamlet food vouchers, discontinued, prompting protests in Nunavut. If the budget passes, Pirutsiagutiit would be in place by April; how it will differ is not yet clear. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami welcomed the funding but criticized continued support for Nutrition North in its current form and little mention of Inuit in housing measures.
Final Statistics Canada figures show the Northwest Territories' economy shrank 1.9 per cent in 2025, driven by the collapsing diamond industry, while every other province and territory grew. Promised federal highway and defence investment may take years to have an effect as fuel and food costs rise. Regular MLAs Kieron Testart and Robert Hawkins introduced a bill to suspend territorial fuel taxes for a year, saving about $15 million, but failed to fast-track it. Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek questioned how much relief it would deliver and said the territorial government is instead examining a quick fuel subsidy, possibly for heating.
The Nov. 5 federal budget proposes $1.6 billion over 10 years to improve northern energy reliability: $713 million to help communities move from diesel to renewables and $929 million to upgrade or replace electrical infrastructure. It names work on Yukon's Mayo hydro facility and the Atlin hydro expansion in northern B.C., meant to add capacity to Yukon's strained grid, but does not say how much each will receive. Yukon Energy says Mayo needs a $180-million component replacement. Yukon Premier Currie Dixon said seeing the projects specifically named was encouraging. The spending still requires parliamentary approval, and some projects lack timelines.
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