Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Freeland’s fall fiscal update: Billions for battling COVID-19, but largely quiet on several Liberal campaign promises
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has released a fall fiscal update Tuesday that sets aside nearly $30-billion over six years for additional spending on the COVID-19 pandemic – including $4.5-billion specifically for dealing with the Omicron variant response.
The update also states that the $40-billion announced this week to compensate First Nations children and to reform Canada’s child-welfare system will be spread over seven years – with the government booking nearly a quarter of that amount in the fiscal year that ended more than eight months ago.
It is perhaps most notable for what is not included. It is primarily an update of federal spending and revenue projections and does not mention many of new spending promises made in this year’s Liberal Party election platform. Those promises added up to $78-billion over five years.
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The latest COVID-19 developments: Trudeau on a call with premiers tonight, sources say, plus South African study on Pfizer vaccine efficacy
Developing story: The federal government wants to revive its advisory against non-essential international travel, sources say, as the country grapples with an increase in cases that’s only expected to escalate as the Omicron variant takes root.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with the country’s premiers this evening evening to discuss a raft of new measures. The virtual gathering follows a federal cabinet meeting earlier in the day where ministers deliberated on the new rules.
Separately, early data show that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is less effective against the new Omicron coronavirus variant, but still provides relatively strong protection against severe illness and hospitalization from the strain, according to a major South African health insurer.
Two doses of the vaccine seem to provide protection of up to 33 per cent against an Omicron infection, compared with people who have no vaccination, but the protection rises to 70 per cent in preventing hospitalization, the data suggest.
The report, released today by the largest private health insurer in South Africa, is based on a review of more than 211,000 COVID-19 cases, including 78,000 cases since mid-November that are presumed to be Omicron, which has been dominant in South Africa for several weeks. The study has not been peer-reviewed.
Read more:
- Long-term care visitors in Ontario required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19
- Several Canadian universities cancelling in-person final exams amid rise in COVID-19 cases
- How rapid antigen tests work, where to find them
- Editorial: 25 million Canadians need a COVID-19 booster – and they need it now
Arctic facing ‘rapid and pronounced’ shifts as climate change grips the region, report card shows
The Arctic is facing a complex and ever-widening cascade of environmental changes that will increasingly challenge northern communities and affect people around the globe.
That is the takeaway from this year’s Arctic Report Card, an annual compilation of observations and trends by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with contributions from Canada and other circumpolar countries.
The report documents long-observed effects such as reductions in sea ice and snow cover, retreating glaciers and thawing permafrost. Other, more recently observed phenomena range from a proliferation of woody shrubs and beaver dams across the tundra to a Bering Strait awash in marine garbage because of increased shipping traffic.
“As the Arctic transforms, science in some cases is running to keep up,” the authors write.
- What might youth-led climate action look like?
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
House debates on holding Mark Meadows in contempt: The U.S. House of Representatives began debate today on recommending criminal contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, after he said he would no longer co-operate with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
Scores killed after truck explosion in Haiti: A truck carrying gasoline exploded in a fireball in northern Haiti, killing at least 60 people and injuring dozens of others, the latest in a string of disasters that have hit the Caribbean country.
Toronto police ask for help to identify suspect in Barry and Honey Sherman murders: Police are turning to the public to help identify an individual captured on surveillance video around the time of the murders of billionaire philanthropists Barry and Honey Sherman. They say the person walked into the area of the Sherman house, which isn’t captured by video, and stayed there a while before leaving.
CP Rail completes acquisition of Kansas City Southern: Canadian Pacific Railway has wrapped up its acquisition of the U.S. railway and placed the shares in a voting trust as the U.S. Surface Transportation Board reviews the deal. The trust allows Kansas City Southern shareholders to be paid while ensuring the railway operates independently until the U.S. regulator issues its decision on the deal valued at US$31-billion.
SkipTheDishes building its own ‘dark stores’ across Canada to expand home delivery business: The Winnipeg-based company is becoming the latest competitor in an increasingly crowded marketplace for the delivery of groceries and other household items, with plans to build 38 “dark stores,” or retail locations that fill e-commerce orders only.
Listen to The Decibel: An Ethiopian journalist reports on the ‘secretive war’: Two years ago, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But for more than a year now, a civil war has raged in Ethiopia between the federal government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Throughout the conflict, reports have emerged of violence against civilians being committed by all sides. Ethiopian freelance journalist Lucy Kassa, who has been investigating these attacks, joins the podcast to dig into what she has heard from women and girls who have been attacked by soldiers on both sides of the conflict.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street stocks ended lower after data showed producer prices increased more than expected in November, solidifying expectations the Federal Reserve this week will announce a faster wind-down of asset purchases. The TSX also closed down on the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 106.77 points or 0.3 per cent to 35,544.18, the S&P 500 lost 34.88 points or 0.77 per cent to end at 4,634.09, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 175.64 points or 1.14 per cent to 15,237.64.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 99.88 points or 0.48 per cent to 20,648.57.
The loonie slipped 0.39 per cent to 77.749 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
Deals in the oil sands are coming, as Canada’s biggest energy companies put cash and science to work
“The power dynamic in Alberta’s oil sands is now clear. On one side of the table, you have six cash-rich energy companies pledging they will work together and use science to tap long-life properties in an environmentally responsible manner. On the other side are global companies under increasing pressure to quit the sector.” - Andrew Willis
Bank of Canada’s new mandate comes with one wrinkle: politics
“Will a future government, five or 10 years from now, decide to reverse these changes and remove the employment pledges from the document? Will another government push to add its own priorities to the bank’s job – say, carbon reduction, or export expansion, or domestic industrial policy?” - David Parkinson
LIVING BETTER
12 wonderful pet gifts, and adoptable pets, perfect for your home this holiday season
Lanta, a baby French Bulldog, is receiving medical care at the Toronto Humane Society. She needs surgery for cherry eye, a common ailment for squish-faced breeds.Amberly McAteer/The Globe and Mail
The Globe’s annual pet gift guide is back, with products your furry (and scaly) companions will love – modelled by rescue dogs, cats and a turtle, too, at the Toronto Humane Society.
TODAY’S LONG READ
What a long-forgotten B.C. RCMP task force uncovered about residential school abuses
The Kuper Island Indian Residential School on Penelakut Island, B.C. in a June 19, 1941, archive photo.Supplied/Library and Archives Canada via Reuters
In February, 1999, Mounties in British Columbia zeroed in on a cold patch of ground near the old Kuper Island Residential School and began digging.
As members of a provincial squad focused on residential-school abuse, they had interviewed nearly 400 former students and heard stories of sexual abuse that would haunt some officers into retirement. But the Kuper Island dig was their most tangible encounter with that history.
A former Kuper Island student had told them of an unmarked gravesite near the school, which operated in various forms from 1889 until 1975, so officers hired a contractor to start excavating. Read the full story by Patrick White.
Evening Update is written by Beatrice Paez. 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.