‘Desperate gesture’: Quebec group denounces Supreme Court move on historic decisions

HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative constituency campaign manager has resigned amid accusations of “vote-buying” with Tim Hortons gift cards.

Peter Zwicker, the Tory campaign manager for the constituency of Lunenburg, N.S., resigned Tuesday morning after the Nova Scotia Liberals lodged a complaint with election officials about the party giving gift cards to people at a drive-thru on Saturday.

Zwicker issued a statement saying the campaign was hosting an event with local candidate Susan Corkum-Greek at the Lunenburg Tim Hortons location, and he handed out gift cards valued at $2.07 — the price of a medium cup of coffee. He said that over 15 minutes he gave out cards totalling $51.75.

Zwicker said Corkum-Greek did not know this had happened, and he said he is “sincerely sorry” that his actions caused a distraction from the campaign.

The Liberals said they were made aware of the gift card giveaway by a community member who was present. The party said it was reported that a campaign worker handed out the cards to people in line at the drive-thru while Corkum-Greek was stationed at the other end, greeting patrons and requesting their support in the Nov. 26 provincial election.

“This potential vote-buying activity raises serious concerns about election integrity,” Liberal party president Margaret Miller said in a statement Tuesday.

“A Nova Scotia Conservative candidate allegedly out there bribing Nova Scotians to vote for her and her party — was this an isolated incident? This is certainly not behaviour people expect from their elected officials in this day and age,” she continued.

Elections Nova Scotia confirmed the receipt of the complaint from the Liberals, and a spokesperson said the agency is investigating.

During a news conference Tuesday morning, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston said he wasn’t at the drive-thru Saturday, but he was in Lunenburg later in the day knocking on doors.

“It wouldn’t be uncommon for political events to have coffee and doughnuts, this might be a spin on that. But we’ll let Elections Nova Scotia have their say,” he said, speaking to reporters before Zwicker issued a statement about his resignation.

Houston said handing out gift cards is not a party strategy, and that “local campaigns make decisions.”

Tom Urbaniak, a professor of political science at Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S., said in an interview Tuesday there is an ethical difference between offering doughnuts and coffee at a campaign event hosted by a party and handing people a direct gift.

“It has the echoes of a practice that was common historically in Nova Scotia … where candidates would distribute rum or boxes of chocolates and it was a form of vote-buying. But this essentially disappeared by the early 1990s,” Urbaniak said.

“That would seem to echo a historical (practice) now considered generally unsavoury,” he added.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

— With files from Michael Tutton.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Voters in Nova Scotia go to the polls on Nov. 26. At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.

Here’s a look at some of the promises announced by the three major parties on the campaign trail:

Progressive Conservatives:

— Cut the harmonized sales tax by one percentage point, to 14 per cent, by April 1. (Announced shortly before election call.)

— Increase the basic personal exemption on the Nova Scotia income tax to $11,744 from $8,744.

— Increase minimum wage in 2025 to $16.50 per hour from $15.20 per hour.

— Remove the tolls from the two Halifax harbour bridges at a cost to government coffers of $40 million.

— Open a Halifax-based medical clinic to treat the symptoms of menopause, which would cost $4 million to set up and $2.4 million a year to operate.

— Establish a 30-member provincial travel nurse team to help areas with nursing shortages, part of an estimated $5.3-million pilot program to begin at the end of 2024.

— Reduce the minimum required down payment for first-time buyers on a home costing up to $500,000 to two per cent from five per cent under a loan program administered by local credit unions.

— Launch a universal shingles vaccine program for people 65 and older.

— Make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres at a cost of $8 million.

— Impose a cap on electricity rate increases that will be based on the average of rate hikes across the country. (From platform)

— Reduce the small business tax rate to 1.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent; increase the small business tax threshold to $700,000 from $500,000. (From platform)

Liberals:

— Cut harmonized sales tax by two points, to 13 per cent. (Announced in February)

— Establish the position of ethics commissioner with order-making powers; give more resources to auditor general.

— Grant order-making powers to the privacy commissioner so that rulings related to access to information requests and other privacy matters can be enforced.

— Implement fine of $250,000 for any governing party that defies law on fixed election date.

— Remove the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax on all food that isn’t already tax-free, such as snack foods, granola products, and rotisserie chickens, at a cost of $11 million annually.

— Provide about $10 million in subsidies for independent grocers and food retailers in the form of grants and low-interest loans to help them expand and compete with big retailers.

— Build 20 new collaborative care centres and expand services at 20 existing clinics to help tackle the province’s family doctor wait-list.

— Offer a one-time $15,000 bonus to professionals such as pharmacists and therapists who commit to five years of service in the new collaborative care centres; double the existing incentive for doctors to $10,000 a year from $5,000.

— Lower provincial income taxes by raising the basic personal exemption amount to $15,705.

— Establish a public inquiry into illegal fishing; introduce a minimum fine for people caught buying illegally harvested lobster; create a dedicated fisheries enforcement unit and separate commercial fisheries office.

— Build 80,000 new homes by 2032 to help alleviate housing shortage. (From platform)

— Replace the federal carbon price with an Atlantic region cap-and-trade model for large industrial greenhouse gas emitters. (From platform)

— Make public transit free across province. (Announced in September)

— Promote flexible work arrangements to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

— Improve rent controls and close loopholes in the province’s regulations for fixed-term leases.

— Establish a provincial rent bank to provide zero-interest loans to renters who can’t pay their bills.

— Reduce immigration levels to align with provincial Labour Department targets.

— Create a minister of women’s health.

— Provide the public access to free menstrual products at all provincial buildings.

— Spend $300 million on local infrastructure and housing needs in Cape Breton.

NDP:

— Ban fixed-term rent leases and immediately slash the province’s rent cap in half to 2.5 per cent in order to prevent large annual rent increases.

— Establish rent control and provide a tax credit for renters from low and middle-income households.

— Prioritize the use of prefabricated housing to expand public housing stock. (Announced in May)

— Increase loans to help with down payments on homes, to 10 per cent of purchase price (up from five per cent), for a maximum of $50,000; extend the repayment period to 25 years from 10 years. (Announced in May)

— Reintroduce Coastal Protection Act to protect coastal areas, dunes and salt marshes, as well as to restrict development along parts of the 13,000-kilometre coastline at risk of heavy erosion.

— Offer an affordable homes rebate that would help households with incomes of less than $70,000 save an average of $900 per year on rent or mortgage payments.

— Create a compliance and enforcement unit for resolving tenant-landlord disputes.

— Open 45 doctor clinics across the province to provide primary care at a cost of $60 million in the first year of the plan.

— Remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all groceries, cellphone and internet bills and for the purchase and installation of heat pumps.

— Double the municipal finance grant to $30 million from $15 million in their first year of government.

— Establish a rent-to-own home program for Nova Scotians who earn less than $100,000 annually, with about 500 new homes built in the first year by using prefabricated construction.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

OTTAWA – The federal government is opening a research centre that will study the dangers posed by artificial intelligence technology.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the launch of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute in Montreal on Tuesday. He said the centre will be important for building public trust in artificial intelligence technology.

“If you want people to adopt it, they need to have trust,” he said. “If there’s no adoption, we will squander the incredible potential of many new technologies.”

The government says AI can be misused in election interference efforts, disinformation campaigns and cybersecurity breaches.

At a meeting in Soeul in May, world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology. Champagne said Canada was among the first countries to launch such an institute.

The Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute will collaborate with similar organizations in other countries as part of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes, which is set to hold its first meeting in San Francisco next week.

Governments and global bodies have been working to design guardrails for AI amid expert warnings the technology, which is already changing everyday life, could pose an existential risk.

The centre will be based at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. It will receive $50 million over five years from Ottawa, part of $2.4 billion in AI-related funding announced in this year’s federal budget.

The institute will work on projects directed by the government focusing on priorities like cybersecurity and joint testing with other countries. The government will also fund research by Canadian and international experts through the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Elissa Strome, executive director of Pan-Canadian AI strategy at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, said global collaboration is essential because AI technology doesn’t have borders.

Canada is a longtime leader in AI research, she said. “It’s the value-add that Canada brings to the global conversation, is this expertise and this leadership that we have in AI research.”

At the meeting in San Francisco, representatives from AI institutes around the world will look at emerging topics and opportunities for collaboration, she said.

“We hope to be able to come back from that meeting with some ideas on where we want to focus, at least to start with.”

Strome said there are already concerns and issues with how AI is being deployed, including misinformation, disinformation and synthetic content like deepfakes, but also opportunities to develop new technical approaches to identify or prevent false content.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.