The committee monitoring how the R-C-M-P and governments are responding to the inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting has released its first annual report.
Myra Freeman, chairwoman of the progress monitoring committee, says she is pleased with the progress reported so far.
In particular, Freeman pointed to progress made by Ottawa and Nova Scotia on dealing with issues of gender-based violence — a key theme investigated by the Mass Casualty Commission.
The report, however, says little about the R-C-M-P responses because the work of the national police force has yet to be assessed.
Nova Scotia’s regulator has approved a 2.4 per cent power rate hike for 2025 to help Nova Scotia Power compensate for delays in Muskrat Falls electricity. But that figure for residential customers would have been far higher without a federal bailout. Because of the delays, the province’s private utility had to purchase fuel at a higher-than-normal price to provide electricity to its customers. Ottawa offered the utility a 500-million dollar loan guarantee in September to reduce the costs of borrowing money to cover the added fuel charges.
There will be a recount in the Annapolis electoral district after there were just seven votes separating the top two candidates in last Tuesday’s provincial election. The Progressive Conservative and Liberal candidates were the leading two candidates, with the initial count giving the win to the PCs. A recount is required under the Elections Act when the number of votes separating two candidates is less than 10. Only 45 per cent of eligible voters in Nova Scotia turned out to the polls for the election, making it one of the lowest voter turnouts in the province’s history.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says there’s been no word from the mediator that talks in the labour dispute with Canada Post will resume.
The union posted on its website Sunday that its negotiators are reviewing framework documents delivered to it by Canada Post aimed at reaching negotiated settlements.
The union also says while it’s ready for a re-start, the framework did not appear to take into account Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s comments about the agreement needing to be “ratifiable.”
MacKinnon temporarily suspended mediation last week saying negotiations hadn’t budged.
Canada’s ambassador to the U-S says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Friday night dinner in Florida with U-S president-elect Donald Trump was a very important step in trying to get the latter to back off threatened tariffs over illegal drugs and migration. Kirsten Hillman tells The Associated Press the prime minister was successful in getting Trump to understand that lumping Canada in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the U-S is unfair. Hillman also pointed out that 99.8 per cent of the fentanyl seized by U-S authorities in that country comes from Mexico, while less than one per cent of all illegal migrants crossing into the U-S last year were from Canada.
In sports,
In the Maritime Hockey League, the Pictou County Weeks Crushers edged the Grand Falls Rapids 5-4.
