(NL-Tariff-Worries)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’ll call a meeting with Canadian premiers to take a ‘Team Canada’ response to Donald Trump’s threat of imposing hefty tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports.
Trudeau’s comments follow calls by Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey and other leaders for such a discussion.
Furey said in a social media post that the U-S president-elect’s proposed 25-per-cent tariff on products from Canada would be devastating for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Trudeau says he had a call with Trump on Monday night, and he also spoke with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who chairs the premiers’ association.
(The Canadian Press)
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(Elxn-NS)
Tim Houston and his Progressive Conservatives have secured a decisive majority in the Nova Scotia election.
After the vote count was suspended at 1:30 a-m, the Tories were leading or elected in 42 of the legislature’s 55 ridings, the New Democrats were at nine, the Liberals had three and there was one Independent.
The riding of Yarmouth was too close to call, flipping back and forth between Liberal Leader Zach Churchill and the Tory candidate, Nick Hilton.
At his victory speech in New Glasgow, Houston returned to a theme that he used to start the campaign on October 27th — warning the federal Liberal government not to get in Nova Scotia’s way.
The Tories’ signature promise is to lower the harmonized sales tax by one percentage point to 14 per cent.
(The Canadian Press)
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(PEI-Flight-Reductions)
WestJet and Flair Airlines are cancelling flights from P-E-I next year.
WestJet is cancelling three weekly flights from the Island to Toronto during the peak summer season in 2025.
Charlottetown Airport C-E-O Doug Newson told C-B-C News the airline will still offer direct service to Calgary and Edmonton from P-E-I.
However, Flair Airlines won’t be operating out of Charlottetown at all as the company reduces the Canadian markets it serves.
(CBC News)
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(NB-Fredericton-Budget)
Fredericton city council has passed a 180-million-dollar budget that will increase public transportation funding in 2025.
The budget was first presented to councillors earlier this month, and it passed a final vote last night, despite efforts to send it back to city staff to find more savings.
The budget includes money that will double the frequency of buses on the city’s busiest routes and provide year-round patrols from uniformed security officers.
The unsuccessful efforts to defer the budget vote were led by Councillor Steven Hicks, who wanted staff to come up with ways to reduce the inside tax rate by three cents and freeze the outside rate.
(CBC News)
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(Northern-Food-Prices)
Residents in Nunavut and northern Labrador say grocers have been charging sky-high prices despite receiving a federal subsidy.
They sent more than a dozen emails to Canadian government officials this year about the Nutrition North subsidy program.
The emails ranged from desperate pleas to do something to lower food costs, to angry demands that retailers receiving subsidies be investigated.
The federal government announced last month it would launch an independent review of the program, with a final report expected in 2026.
(The Canadian Press)
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(NB-Drugs-Seized)
A 48-year-old man and a 19-year-old man have been arrested in connection with a drug investigation in New Brunswick.
R-C-M-P say officers seized an unspecified quantity of illicit drugs at a home in Village-Saint-Laurent last week.
They found methamphetamine and cocaine as well as firearms.
The investigation is ongoing.
(The Canadian Press)
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(PEI-Sextortion)
Prince Edward Island R-C-M-P say there have been three reports of attempted sextortion targeting teenage boys across the province in recent days.
Mounties say strangers posing as age-appropriate girls go on social media asking for intimate photo swaps and then threaten to show the images to the victim’s friends and family if they don’t pay.
Police believe this crime is highly underreported, and the number of cases could be much higher.
They are advising parents and guardians to have open conversations about sextortion with their children.
(The Canadian Press)
