Canada's environment commissioner says the country is nowhere near to meeting its goal of planting two-billion trees by 2030.
The Liberals first made the massive tree-planting promise during the 2019 federal election campaign and followed through with a 10-year 3.2-billion-dollar budget for it in 2020.
However, an audit of the first two years of planting says it appears the government isn't on track to get even four per cent of the promised trees in the ground by the end of 2030.
Yves Giroux says his office analyzed the cost of processing applications for economic immigrants through the express entry system for five fiscal years. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, the report said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has 65 per cent more staff than needed to process applications on time.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he will appoint a "special rapporteur" to probe foreign interference in Canada and recommend what more to do about it, among several measures aimed at responding to renewed scrutiny of the Liberal response so far.
Canada will extend the Operation Unifier mission to provide engineering training in Ukraine until at least October, and Canadian medical trainers will be sent to help Ukrainian forces with combat medical skills.
Eby, speaking at a news conference, says B.C. residents are "very frustrated — and rightly so — with the small group of repeat, violent offenders" who are "cycling in and out" of the justice system.
Eby says the "historic" investment in B.C.'s food security comes as a direct response to events that occurred in the past few years, when flooding, wildfires and COVID supply-chain bottlenecks "essentially cut off" crucial supply lines in the province.
Kasari Govender released a nearly 500-page report Tuesday detailing the results of her office's public inquiry into hate incidents during the pandemic. The report says hate incidents have increased dramatically during the pandemic, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities, along with increases in gender-based violence, and online hate.