Canada

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/57113728

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Pipeline companies won’t be getting a massive property tax break for Christmas at the expense of some rural homeowners. At least not this year.

BC Assessment has backpedalled on a plan to slash the assessed values of transmission pipelines. The move would have resulted in pipeline companies paying significantly less taxes in several municipalities and regional districts, and resulted in local governments significantly increasing property taxes for homeowners and business owners to make up the revenue difference.

But after two months of protest and warnings by local government officials, officials in Victoria have announced they won’t be overhauling the pipeline assessments for the coming year. In a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, the Thompson Nicola Regional District said it had been informed that BC Assessment won’t be changing pipeline values for 2026.

Prosecutors have withdrawn a second-degree murder charge against a man who spent 23 years in prison for the killing of a 10-year-old girl in 1989.

Ontario’s court of appeal set aside the conviction against Timothy Rees, 62, last month and ordered a new trial into the complex case, which includes recanted confessions, accusations of police conspiracy and mishandled evidence.

It came after two former federal justice ministers said a “miscarriage of justice” had likely occurred during Rees’s original trial more than 30 years ago.

Prime Minister Mark Carney reaffirmed he'll protect Canada's supply management system, as the United States signalled it's ready to fight over this country's dairy rules at the negotiating table.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told members of U.S. Congress Wednesday that Washington is not prepared to extend the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement (CUSMA) without addressing "specific and structural issues."

In remarks made public after Greer met with lawmakers behind closed doors, President Donald Trump's point-person on trade said Americans have concerns about "dairy market access in Canada" and "Canada's exports of certain dairy products."

"We've been clear about our approach to supply management. We continue to stand by that. We will continue to protect supply management," the prime minister said.

Canada plans to open two new consulates in Greenland and Anchorage, Alaska, as part of efforts to reinforce its presence in the Arctic, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to boost Canada's military and security presence in the Arctic, a frozen and mineral-rich expanse that is of increasing interest to U.S. President Donald Trump as well as superpower rivals Russia and China.

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"The region is so, so important now as we see Russian infrastructure moving further and further north and as we see the Northwest Passage becoming easier to traverse because of melting polar ice caps," [Anand] said.

Canada had planned to open a consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, in November but had to postpone because of bad weather. Anand said there was no date yet for when a Canadian consulate in Anchorage might open.

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Asked how Canada was responding to Trump's desire to annex Greenland, Anand said she has been pressing her counterparts in the Nordic countries "to ensure there's no mistake about the importance of the Arctic and certainly Canada's sovereignty."

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In a related op-ed, senior research fellow and board member of the NATO Association of Canada Marcus Wong urged Ottawa to "urgently take steps to strengthen its territorial and maritime sovereignty and security in the Arctic."

"Russia is rapidly rebuilding its Arctic defense and security capabilities while seeking to expand its claims over underwater territory, some of which overlaps with Canada’s own claims. At the same time, China has been working hard to lay the foundation for its “Polar Silk Road” and ensure that it can maximize the Arctic’s economic opportunities, going so far as conducting hydrographic charting of the Northwest Passage before Canada," Wong writes.

"Even the U.S., Canada’s closest ally and trading partner, disputes Canada’s jurisdiction over the NWP, and has proposed annexing Canada. Thus, critical concerns are being raised about Canada’s ability to safeguard its national interests and maintain territorial and maritime security."

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When we crunch the numbers, we don’t see a system bloated by high costs. And when we look at comparison countries, we see that budget cuts and falling revenue go hand-in-hand

British Columbia’s shortfalls in its response to the unregulated toxic drug crisis were strongly criticized during the first three weeks of the Drug User Liberation Front’s constitutional challenge.

Compassion club co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx are in court arguing the criminalization of their club violated members’ Charter rights.

Some of the sharpest criticism came from B.C.’s former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe, who held her position for 13 years before retiring last year.

Lapointe told the court that the province has taken an “issue management approach” to “give the impression positive matters were being taken,” without ever meaningfully evaluating if the money it was spending on the crisis was actually reducing overdoses or overdose fatalities.

B.C. Premier David Eby defended his right to criticize court decisions despite organizations that represent lawyers calling his recent comments unfair and irresponsible.

“The idea that the premier should not comment, should not indicate any position on the court decisions, is patently absurd,” Eby said in an interview in his office. “I will continue to point out that I think the decisions are unhelpful.”

The Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia said Eby was “undermining public confidence in the justice system” and his comments “reflect a troubling national trend in which politicians use the courts as punching bags to score political points.”

It quoted association president Rebecca McConchie reminding politicians that the courts are part of a system of checks and balances. “The job of the court is not to be helpful to the government. It is to interpret and apply the law without fear or favour.”

Shauna MacKinnon, the chair of Urban and Inner-City Studies at the University of Winnipeg published an article last February calling Canada's 30-plus year experiment of trusting the private sector to provide housing "a failure."

Despite a repeated push from advocates to create more non-market housing options, the province of Ontario still relies on the private sector to reach its housing targets. Unfortunately, Ontario has also repeatedly failed to reach its own housing targets.

Ricardo Tranjan, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives with a focus on housing, said for-profit development follows a market logic, and these delayed housing projects shouldn't come as a surprise given Ontario's reliance on for-profit developers to build housing.

"It's cyclical, we only build when we can make a lot of money out of it

or good money out of it," Tranjan told PressProgress.

Tranjan said that housing prices are currently falling in Ontario, which means housing starts will slow down, which will limit supply and drive up prices. Once prices go up again, supply will begin to increase.

Canada's non-market housing programs were gutted in the 90s by the Mulroney and Chrétien governments.

Since then, responsibility for housing has been downloaded to provinces

and certain responsibilities have since been passed down to municipalities. Meanwhile, housing affordability has continued to decrease.