B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at a record low, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
In January, 375,000 Canadians received regular EI benefits, which is down by 20,000, or five per cent, from December 2022. StatCan says this is the lowest number of regular EI recipients since 1997, when data first became available.
The number of EI beneficiaries in January is also down 44 per cent from the previous year, and the declines are largest among young people. For women between the ages of 15 to 24, the number of EI beneficiaries fell 73 per cent from January 2022, while EI recipients among men aged 15 to 24 dropped 60 per cent.
Quebec saw the highest month-to-month drop in the number of EI beneficiaries with a decline of 11 per cent from December 2022. In PEI, EI claims dropped eight per cent, while in the declines in Alberta and Ontario were around five per cent.
Windsor, Ont., Quebec City and Oshawa, Ont., were the census metropolitan areas that saw the largest drop in the number of EI beneficiaries. In all three regions, EI claims declined by around 14 per cent compared to the previous month.
There has been a constant downward trend of EI usage since the spring of 2021 as COVID-19 restrictions around the country began to ease. The number of EI recipients peaked in May 2021 at nearly 1.7 million beneficiaries.
The latest numbers also come at a time when Canada has been experiencing unemployment rates at or around record lows, despite the Bank of Canada's interest rate hikes, which were expected to raise unemployment as the bank tries to fight inflation.
Earlier this month, StatCan reported that Canada's unemployment rate held steady at five per cent in February, just above the record low of 4.9 per cent reached last summer. The Canadian economy also added 22,000 jobs in February and 150,000 jobs in January.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.