Author: The Canadian Post
Elections Alberta has issued a citizen initiative petition asking whether Alberta should cease to be part of Canada and become an independent state. Proponent Mitch Sylvestre’s Stay Free Alberta campaign can collect signatures from Jan. 3 and needs 177,732 valid names — 10 per cent of votes cast in the 2023 election — by May 2. What Elections Alberta approved Elections Alberta issued the petition on Jan. 2, 2026, under the Citizen Initiative Act, the law that lets electors force a provincewide vote on a constitutional question. Organizers have 120 days to gather signatures, starting Jan. 3 and ending May…
British Columbia has lowered the threshold for its homeowner grant to $2.075 million for 2026, down from $2.175 million — the first decrease since 2020 — as assessed values fell by as much as 10 per cent across Metro Vancouver, the province announced Jan. 2. Metro Vancouver values lead the slide BC Assessment says homeowners in and around Metro Vancouver can expect decreases of up to 10 per cent in their assessed values, reflecting market conditions as of July 1 last year. About 1.14 million properties were assessed in the Lower Mainland, and the region’s total assessment value fell to…
The City of Surrey is suing CIBC and Coast Capital Savings to recover more than $2.5 million it alleges a former finance clerk stole through 183 fraudulent cheques over seven years, in a civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court whose allegations have not been proven in court. The city’s claim against the banks In a notice of civil claim filed last month, the city alleges Sunny Catlin, who worked as an accounting clerk in Surrey’s finance department, “manipulated” deposit processes to divert funds to accounts held by her, a company she controlled and her mother. The lawsuit says Catlin…
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blamed Calgary’s renewed water crisis on neglect during Naheed Nenshi’s years as mayor, saying the city failed for years to check the Bearspaw feeder main; Nenshi, now the NDP Opposition leader, called the accusation “total garbage” and said inspections were always done. ‘Frustration doesn’t begin to describe it’ Smith laid the city’s latest water problems squarely at her chief political rival’s feet on Friday, saying the issues stem from neglect from when Nenshi was mayor. She said the city failed for years to check on the state of the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, which ruptured Tuesday…
Drug makers may legally produce generic versions of Ozempic in Canada starting the week of Jan. 5, after Novo Nordisk’s exclusivity ends Jan. 4, but experts say Health Canada approvals are unlikely before late spring, so patients should not expect cheaper semaglutide on pharmacy shelves for months. Nine companies are already in line As of Dec. 29, Health Canada had received nine submissions seeking approval to make semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s brand-name diabetes and weight-loss drugs. Sandoz Canada, Apotex, Teva Canada, Taro Pharmaceuticals and Aspen Pharmacare Canada are the named applicants; the remaining companies…
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency added Peace by Chocolate bars and NuttyHero nut and seed butters to its long-running pistachio recall on Jan. 2, the latest expansion of a salmonella investigation that has pulled hundreds of pistachio products from Canadian shelves since last summer. What was added Friday The recall now covers a range of Peace by Chocolate products sold across Canada, individually or in variety packs: the Dubai Style Chocolate Pistachio and Kunafa Bar, The Peace Maker specialty bars, the Trans Canada Trail — Peace Seeker bar, the Classic Box, the Proudly Canadian box and assorted filled chocolates. Some…
Calgary home sales fell 14.2 per cent in December from a year earlier, to 1,126 transactions, and the city’s residential benchmark price dropped 4.7 per cent to $554,700, the Calgary Real Estate Board reported Jan. 2, closing what the board called a “year of transition” after several years of strong price growth. A cooler end to the year There were 1,219 new listings in December, down 1.5 per cent from a year earlier, but because sales slowed more sharply, the number of homes available for sale grew 28.9 per cent to 3,860. That left roughly 3.4 months of supply on…
Manitoba Hydro repaired the downed transmission line feeding Pimicikamak Cree Nation and began restoring power in stages on Jan. 1, nearly four days after the line snapped over the Nelson River and left the community without heat in -30 C cold; full service was confirmed the next day. ‘Praise the Lord! We have light again!’ For residents who rode out the outage, the first sign of success was ordinary: a light coming back on. “I seen my outside light on. I said, ‘praise the Lord! We have light again!'” said Brenda Monias, who stayed in the community through the entire…
The chief of Pimicikamak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba asked Prime Minister Mark Carney on Jan. 1 to deploy the Canadian Armed Forces, saying a days-long power outage had frozen water tanks, knocked out sewage systems and left the community without potable water — a crisis beyond local and regional capacity to fix. A community without power since Sunday Pimicikamak Cree Nation, at Cross Lake about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, lost power late Sunday when a transmission line crossing the Nelson River snapped. Temperatures plunged to around -30 C with the wind chill, and homes quickly went cold. Chief…
Calgary officials urged residents on Jan. 1 to take three-minute showers and keep the city’s daily water use below 485 million litres, after the Bearspaw South Feeder Main ruptured on Dec. 30 for the second time in less than two years and left the system, in the mayor’s words, “very much in the red zone.” A pipe in the red zone Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the Bearspaw South Feeder Main remained “very much in the red zone” two days after it ruptured on Dec. 30, and that the city was using more water than it could produce and store. The…
