Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos believes a long-term agreement with the provinces and territories on health care funding is imminent – and he hopes it can be unveiled in the next few weeks.
“Everyone agrees, including the premiers, that we need to focus on results for health workers and patients,” Mr. Duclos said at a news conference in Ottawa today.
Yesterday, The Globe and Mail reported that the parties are getting closer to agreeing on a 10-year funding deal that would provide a hefty increase in federal health transfers. An announcement could come next month at a meeting of first ministers.
Mr. Duclos declined to say if the federal government was prepared to meet demands from the premiers to cover 35 per cent of the cost of health care, compared with the current 22 per cent. But in any case the deal would include billions in new federal funding.
Western allies offer more weapons to Ukraine, but no decisions made on tanks
Demonstrators in Berlin protest for combat tank delivery to support the Ukrainian military amid Russia's invasion.LISI NIESNER/Reuters
Meeting in Ramstein, Germany, today, Ukraine’s Western allies pledged to donate large amounts of weapons, but not the German-built Leopard 2 tanks requested by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As well, the top American general cautioned Kyiv against mounting a spring offensive against invading Russian forces, adding he believed it would be “very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine” in this calendar year.
The defence ministers from NATO and other countries met at Ramstein amid concern that Russia will soon re-energize its military campaign to seize parts of Ukraine’s east and south that it says it has annexed but does not fully control.
Zelensky, speaking at the start of the meeting, thanked allies for their support, but said more was needed, and more quickly.
Ottawa green-lights commercial space launches in Canada
As global demand for access to space grows dramatically, the government of Canada has decided to support a nascent rocket launch industry.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced today that Ottawa is prepared to approve commercial space launches on Canadian soil, with a full regulatory framework to come.
Transport Canada has federal jurisdiction over rocket launches inside Canada’s borders. Alghabra said that, for the first time, his department will consider requests from private companies to launch satellites from Canada on a case-by-case basis.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Robbers’ goal was to harm police: A police investigation has found that twin brothers in the Victoria area who robbed a bank last June did so with the goal of killing police offers. Six officers were hurt in the heist, and the twins were killed.
Canadian presence at Australian Open dwindling: With a men’s singles loss by Denis Shapovalov and a women’s doubles loss by Leylah Fernandez’s team, Canada’s only bright spots Friday at tennis’s Australian Open were a singles win by Félix Auger-Aliassime that pushed him to the fourth round, and a win by Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner in women’s doubles.
How thieves stole and sold a condo: A former international student who now lives in China says an impersonator gained access to her vacant Toronto condo unit, staged a photo shoot, listed it and sold it, all without her knowledge.
MARKET WATCH
U.S. stocks closed with a rally to end in positive territory today, with shares of Netflix jumping amid news of a change of leadership while Google parent Alphabet climbed after announcing job cuts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 330.93 points, or 1 per cent, to 33,375.49, the S&P 500 gained 73.76 points, or 1.89 per cent, to 3,972.61 and the Nasdaq Composite added 288.17 points, or 2.66 per cent, to 11,140.43.
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite index rose 161.77 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 20,503.21.
The loonie traded at 74.68 US cents.
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TALKING POINTS
It seems great to be a Husband – so why can’t women be Husbands, too?
“Why is that, in this modern age of talking devices, self-driving car crashes and women having their own bank accounts, can only men be Husbands? It’s practically anti-feminist to insist on traditional definitions like ‘a husband is a married man.’ Webster? Collins? Thesaurus? All men!” – Vicky Mochama
Corporate Canada has been protected from competition for too long. It’s time to put consumers first
“You’d think in a country as vast as Canada we would want to make travel and communications as cheap and efficient as humanly possible. The point, after all, of putting planes in the air is not to give pilots something to do. It is to move passengers from one place to another. And yet the operating principle of Canadian regulatory policy is the opposite.” – Andrew Coyne
The Russian economy proved remarkably resilient in 2022. This year, the decay will set in
“Rather suddenly, the financial calculus is going against Russia just as the Russian recession deepens and the war bills, for things such as hiring tens of thousands of ruthless Wagner Group mercenaries, pile up in Mr. Putin’s office.” – Eric Reguly
LIVING BETTER
Original Anne of Green Gables manuscript from 1905 is now readable online
In a new digital exhibition, readers with an interest in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s creative process can now take a peek at her original 1905 manuscript for Anne of Green Gables – and more.
Developed with $250,000 in funding from Digital Museums Canada, the exhibit took two dozen people more than two years to complete. Beyond the manuscript, there are photos, videos, annotations and audio components.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Families blindsided by assisted deaths want answers
Mission, B.C., sisters Christie, left, and Alicia Duncan, whose mother Donna Duncan died with medical assistance last year, show the matching tattoos they got to honour her.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail
As people like Gary Hertgers and Christie and Alicia Duncan can attest, the already difficult grief over a family member’s death can have new layers since the federal government approved medically assisted death.
When Canadians receive medical assistance in dying, also known as MAID, families and caregivers are often with them, providing comfort along the way. But the situation becomes much more fraught, ethically and emotionally, when patients don’t want relatives and friends involved.
Under the law, a person’s right to privacy limits the medical information that can be shared with a third party. Even caregivers can be excluded from MAID assessments and find out, only near the end, that a loved one has even applied.
Read this weekend’s feature by Erin Anderssen.
Evening Update is compiled and written weekdays by an editor in The Globe’s live news department. 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.