Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
ArriveCan’s audit report published today
Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s report into federal spending on the ArriveCan app found what she called a “glaring disregard” for basic management practices and concluded that IT staffing firm GC Strategies was directly involved in setting narrow terms for a $25-million contract it ultimately won. The report, released today, was produced in response to a motion approved in the House of Commons in November, 2022, shortly after The Globe and Mail first revealed that the cost of the pandemic-era app for international travellers had climbed to at least $54-million.
Here are more details:
- Hogan found that federal departments spent about $59.5-million just on outsourcing work with private contractors, not including in-house costs.
- The report questions why officials approved invoices from contractors in cases where “details of work performed were often missing.”
- The report was not able to answer who was ultimately responsible for selecting GC Strategies to work on ArriveCan.
Manitoba man charged with first-degree murder in deaths of family members
Manitoba RCMP have charged a 29-year-old man with five counts of first degree murder following the death of his common-law partner, their three children, and the woman’s teenage niece in a rural community southwest of Winnipeg on Sunday.
Inspector Tim Arseneault said the youngest victim was a two-and-a-half-month-old girl, who died alongside her four-year-old brother and six-year-old sister. The woman, who RCMP did not name, was 30 years old and her niece was 17. All five victims lived together in Carman, Man.
A house in Carman, Manitoba, is the centre of a police investigation into five suspicious deaths on February 12, 2024.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
B.C. Senator challenges reports suggesting China targeted MPs
A B.C. senator is casting doubt on the findings of two federal election-monitoring reports that suggest the Chinese government in 2021 may have targeted then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and former fellow MP Kenny Chiu through disinformation campaigns. Yuen Pau Woo raised his concerns in a Feb. 6 submission to the foreign interference commission that is probing meddling primarily by China in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The two documents in question, written by the federal government’s Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force. He questioned SITE’s assumption that Chinese Canadians came to their views on O’Toole’s position regarding China because of foreign, rather than Canadian, sources of information.
What does restoring affordable home ownership actually mean? One economist crunches the numbers
In recent months, politicians have been speaking with increasing urgency about housing affordability in Canada. But it’s not clear that policy makers, or the broader public, understand what restoring affordability actually means in terms of dollars and cents, according to Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at credit union hub Alberta Central.
In a report published last week, Mr. St-Arnaud crunched the numbers on the size of adjustments that would be needed to bring affordability, specifically for the home ownership segment of the market, back in line with historical trends in seven of Canada’s largest cities.
- Forget downsizing: Canadian seniors staying in large houses well into their 80s, due in part to lack of options
Israel rescues two hostages in Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town in the Gaza Strip as air strikes carried out to cover the raid killed more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children. The overnight bombardment brought devastation in Rafah, which is packed with some 1.4 million people, most of whom fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza to escape fighting.
In Hamas’s cross-border raid on Oct. 7, an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and militants took 250 people captive, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in the territory, displaced over 80 per cent of the population and set off a massive humanitarian crisis.
Palestinians sit by the destruction from the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024.Hatem Ali/The Associated Press
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Queen’s Park: Ontario wage-cap legislation is unconstitutional, the provincial Court of Appeal ruled in upholding a lower-court decision that tossed out Premier Doug Ford’s controversial Bill 124 because it violated rights to free association that include collective bargaining.
Pakistan elections: Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister defended the widely criticized delay in announcing the results of last week’s parliamentary election and denies the vote was unfair.
David Shribman U.S. politics analysis: Donald Trump is the biggest disrupter in an age of disruption. When he abandons NATO, it calls all American defence responsibilities into question.
Labour: Canada’s national accounting organization has laid off a fifth of its employees in advance of the pullout of all its Ontario and Quebec members, as part of an industry split.
Groceries: As food prices continue to rise, Canadian shoppers increasingly turning to what is referred to as ”imperfect produce.”
China: Recent detentions raise renewed questions about the safety of foreigners in China. According to Global Affairs Canada, some 92 Canadians are currently detained in the country.
MARKET WATCH
Resource shares help lift TSX to 10-day high, Dow at fresh record
Canada’s main stock index rose on Monday to a 10-day high, led by gains for resource shares, as an expectation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates to support the U.S. economy if it fell into trouble bolstered investor sentiment.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 57.70 points at 21,067.30, its highest closing level since Feb. 2. In the U.S., the Nasdaq slipped after briefly surpassing its record closing high from November 2021, while the Dow rose modestly to a fresh record. The S&P 500 lost 4.12 points to end at 5,022.49 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 42.74 points to 15,947.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 135.76 points to 38,807.45.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.35 cents UScompared with 74.31 cents US on Friday.
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TALKING POINTS
The all-consuming stage of adulthood they never told you about: Looking after aging parents
“The best way to prepare for your aged parents’ care needs is to have conversations with them about how things are going, and their preferences in terms of extra help.” - Rob Carrick
The NDP’s effort to ban the promotion of Big Oil misses the mark
“But in his plan to ban all advertising from an entire sector, it’s also raised criticism from those who care about free speech. Imagine if Ms. Angus’s test was applied to Canadian sectors that consume, instead of produce, massive amounts of fossil fuels: travel, transport, home-building?” - Kelly Cryderman
Canada has a secrecy problem. The Supreme Court just made it worse
“With the top court overturning a series of decisions that favoured transparency, it is now the duty of elected officials to do what is right. Mandate letters are just one example of a place where governments must reveal rather than conceal.” - Editorial Board
LIVING BETTER
If you’re looking to put together healthy lunches and dinners fast, it can help to have some go-to strategies. Dietitian Leslie Beck offers these seven hacks. They include doing some prep on weekends, making extra portions and keeping prewashed leafy greens handy.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Scientists probe high and low in rare study of winter air pollution
Elisabeth Galaraneau, principal investigator of SWAPIT, on the observation level at the CN Tower.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The view from the CN Tower never gets old, but when Elisabeth Galarneau stepped out onto the roof of the iconic structure’s main observation deck last week, it wasn’t Toronto’s panorama that elicited her enthusiasm – it was the grungy layer of haze hanging over the city.
As a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s air quality research division, Galarneau has spent her career investigating the molecules and microscopic particles that make up the air we breathe. Now, she has set her sights on improving scientists’ knowledge of the complex brew of air pollutants that city dwellers are exposed to in the dead of winter.
The project, dubbed SWAPIT, for Study of Winter Air Pollution in Toronto, focuses on Canada’s largest city. The results, however, are meant to inform cold-weather pollution in urban centres across the country and at similar latitudes elsewhere. Read the full story by Ivan Semeniuk.
Evening Update is written by Sierra Bein. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.