Ontario lowers projections for how many new homes will be built

REGINA – A controversial Saskatchewan Party candidate who had been on track to win his seat in Monday’s election appears to have lost.

David Buckingham, the incumbent in Saskatoon Westview, was narrowly ahead of NDP challenger April ChiefCalf in voting on election night.

Elections Saskatchewan started counting mail-in ballots Wednesday, focusing on ridings with the closest races, including Saskatoon Westview.

ChiefCalf was put at 3,501 votes — 37 ahead of Buckingham.

Buckingham publicly apologized during the election campaign, after it came to light that he uttered a racial slur referring to a Black person a year ago in the government caucus office.

With the riding changing hands, Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party have 34 seats, still enough to form their fifth consecutive majority government.

The Opposition NDP almost doubled their seat count, sweeping Regina and taking all but one seat in Saskatoon, and sit at 27.

The Saskatchewan Party and NDP did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the result.

On Wednesday, poll workers were to count more than 20,000 mail-in ballots that were received Saturday.

Saskatchewan’s chief electoral officer Michael Boda said remaining mail-in ballots would be counted Nov. 9, along with those from hospitals and remand centers.

Once that’s complete, candidates can request a recount through a judge, he added.

“The chief electoral officer is not the one who calls for a recount. It has to be the candidates that are doing that,” Boda said.

Voter turnout was above 53 per cent, a small improvement from 52 per cent in the 2020 election.

“When you fall below the 50-per-cent rate, then you have some challenges in your democracy,” Boda said.

“What we’re trying to do is reduce barriers so that people have access to the ballot. But we’ll need to work with other partners on that front.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

EDMONTON – The federal government says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s application for a judicial review of Ottawa’s carbon levy is nothing more than political posturing.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Justice Minister Arif Virani say it’s disappointing, but not surprising, that Smith is engaging in a “political stunt” ahead of her United Conservative Party leadership review this weekend.

“She knows full well that the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of carbon pricing,” they said in a statement to The Canadian Press Wednesday.

They said the three-year exemption for home heating oil is meant to give Canadians time to switch to cheaper forms of home heating.

In Alberta, a family of four is to get $1,800 this year through the carbon rebate, the largest in the country, they said.

“We remain fully confident in the legality of Canada’s carbon pricing system,” their statement said.

Smith announced Tuesday her United Conservative Party government is asking the Federal Court to declare the carve out both unconstitutional and unlawful in hopes of seeing the carbon levy axed altogether.

In a speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, Smith reiterated that the federal government has created a “double standard” by exempting heating oil, but not the natural gas many Albertans rely on.

“The carbon tax is an unnecessary punitive cost that does nothing to address affordability — and a higher cost of living means everything in life is more expensive,” she said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have said carbon pricing was designed to combat climate change and put more money into the pockets of Canadians in the form of rebates.

When Ottawa offered the three-year exemption for home heating oil, it also announced it would double the rebate for rural Canadians.

Guilbeault and Virani said Smith’s government has refused to come to the table to open up their Oil to Heat Pump Affordability incentive program to Albertans.

Less than one per cent of households in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba use heating oil, according to the Alberta government.

In the past, Smith has urged lawmakers in Ottawa to pass an exemption for farmers using propane to dry grain and natural gas to heat barns.

Justin Brattinga, a spokesperson for Alberta’s Finance ministry, said in a statement the farm fuel exemption extends across the country.

“(This) is precisely our point. The heating oil exemption helps one specific region of the country and is a crass political move to attempt to buy votes in Atlantic Canada,” he said.

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has said Smith’s move is performative and demonstrates the premier would rather fight a lengthy legal battle with Ottawa than work to get a better deal for Alberta.

Still, he said, the federal government’s carve out for home heating oil has poisoned the well of public support for the carbon price.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

WINNIPEG – Manitoba may soon require new provincial court judges to take continuing education on intimate partner violence, sexual assault, systemic racism and other topics.

A bill now before the legislature would require judges to undergo the learning, which would also cover the experiences of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ persons in the justice system and in society.

The bill is based on one originally proposed in April by Cindy Lamoureux, the lone Liberal in the legislature.

The NDP government did not initially support the bill, but has now drawn up its own and has Lamoureux’s support.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe says unlike a private member’s bill, a government bill can come with money needed to ensure it is fully enacted.

The bill may not pass before the end of the legislature session on Nov. 7, as the Opposition Progressive Conservatives rejected a request to forgo normal time frames and speed the bill through the legislature.

“I think it is critical that it gets implemented here in the province of Manitoba as soon as possible,” Lamoureux said Wednesday. In a rare show of cross-party solidarity, Lamoureux and Wiebe stood side by side and spoke together to reporters.

Lamoureux’s bill, informally called Keira’s law, was named after Keira Kagan, a young girl who was found dead next to her father’s body at the base of a cliff in Milton, Ont. in 2020. A provincial committee found the death was “extremely consistent” with past cases of murder-suicide involving a father and a child.

Lamoureux’s bill called for new judges and justices of the peace to undergo training in coercive control in intimate partner and family relationships, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and systemic racism and discrimination.

The government bill introduced Wednesday will add permanent funding for the education and expand it to include the experience of Indigenous persons and LGBTQ persons in the justice system and in society generally.

“Folks know that overrepresentation of Indigenous people in our (justice system) is a focus of our government,” Wiebe said. The LBGTQ+ community has “unique experiences” that judges should have an understanding of, he added.

The Progressive Conservatives said they were not shown the bill before being asked to allow it to skip the normal debate time frame in the legislature chamber. The party’s house leader, Derek Johnson, said the NDP had months to pass Lamoureux’s original bill and did not.

Johnson said the Tories, who have bills of their own they would like to pass before the Nov. 7 deadline, will talk with the other parties.

“We’re absolutely open to negotiations,” Johnson said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.