Air quality advisories issued in 5 provinces, 1 territory
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
While there may not be any easy short-term fixes to inflation, Concordia University economist Moshe Lander assures that "the end in sight will come."
"The best thing that we can do at this point, as much as it's terrible, terrible to hear, is we just have to sit and deal with this and just find a way to get through it," he told CTV's Your Morning on Thursday.
"If we can get through COVID, we can get through a one-year rough inflation patch."
The annual inflation rate in May rose to its highest level in nearly four decades, with Statistics Canada reporting a 7.7 per cent increase compared to a year ago.
Energy prices rose 34.8 per cent compared to the year before, with gasoline prices up 48 per cent in that time. Excluding gasoline, the annual inflation rate in May rose to 6.3 per cent compared with 5.8 per cent in April.
The Bank of Canada has raised its key interest rate target three times so far this year, bringing it to 1.5 per cent, in an effort to temper inflation.
The news comes amid a report from Scotiabank on Sunday advocating for lower government spending to help reduce inflation.
"It is fair to say that fiscal policy authorities in Canada are doing nothing of any significance to slow inflation at the moment," the report said.
Lander said, while cutting government spending would be the correct policy to take, the position would amount to "political suicide."
"People won't hear it as being the correct solution," he said. "I think what people want right now is governments to put money in their pockets to help with the rising gasoline prices, with the rising rents and housing costs, and so the idea of taking the exact opposite policy, even though it's the correct one, would be really politically unpopular."
On rising gas prices, economists and others have pushed for a temporary reprieve to the collection of gas taxes, a move some Canadian provinces and American states have adopted.
"That's really not going to affect inflation all that much," Lander argues.
"It's a nice visual for Canadian consumers but it's not going to do much, and the problem with it is that it kind of contradicts the government's policy on the environment. So, I don't know that that's exactly the solution that's going to solve the inflation problem."
One senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute told CTVNews.ca in March that while good politically, a temporary stop to gas taxes would encourage consumption and lead to the opposite of demand destruction, or where the price for a product is so high it literally kills demand for it.
Sheila Block, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told CTV News Channel on Thursday that stimulative government policies do increase demand and result in greater economic activity, which can contribute to inflation.
"But on the other hand, government spending is very important in protecting the incomes of those who are most negatively affected by those increasing prices, and those are seniors on fixed income, those are low-income workers and that also includes people who are on social assistance who often are just the most hurt by these price increases," Block said.
Because of external factors, such as the war in Ukraine, she said much of inflation is out of the hands of the Bank of Canada and federal government.
While she doesn't expect the rate of inflation will drop to the Bank of Canada's two per cent target in the short term, Block said interest rate hikes are having some effects as evidenced by the recent slowdown in the housing market.
But efforts to reduce prices through interest rate increases will mean a slowing down of the economy. "So I really think it's going to be a tough road ahead," she said.
With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.