Alright, Who Did You Vote For?

You get the government you vote for:

A new Ipsos survey conducted for MNP suggests that 31 percent of Canadians aren't earning enough to cover their bills.

Respondents said that their incomes aren't covering bills and debt payments, with 53 percent of respondents saying that they are $200 away from insolvency.

The survey, of 2,000 Canadians, was conducted between March 9 and 15, taking place just a week before the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate in an effort to curb inflation that has already hit Canadians' pockets hard.

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Two thousand Canadian adults were surveyed by Ipsos from March 9-15 — about one week after the Bank of Canada raised its main policy rate for the first time since 2018. The central bank ramped up its efforts to rein in inflation last week when it delivered its first half-point hike since 2000, and also announced it would start allowing its balance sheet to shrink later this month.

The survey for MNP demonstrates the extent to which some Canadians were being squeezed prior to last week's supersized hike.

A little more than half of respondents (52 per cent) said in March they were already feeling the effects of higher rates, according to the release from MNP on Monday.

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In the midst of a province-wide doctor shortage, forty percent of British Columbians who have a family doctor say they are worried about losing that health provider due to practice closure or retirement, new research shows.

One million British Columbians currently don’t have, or can’t get, a family doctor, according to a position paper published on April 12 by the BC College of Family Physicians (BCCFP).

“Family medicine is in a state of crisis,” BCCFP President David May said in a news release regarding the new research.

“Family doctors are leaving their practices and new doctors aren’t entering comprehensive family medicine. Without more support from the health care system, things will only get worse.”

 

Some people bring heartache on themselves:

Black Canadians are twice as likely to trust the government, according to a new report, while faith in local law enforcement or police among those surveyed was lower compared to the general population.

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The mineral deposit, located more than 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, holds a range of critical minerals, including those used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries and energy storage systems. Premier Doug Ford has linked development in the Ring of Fire to his plans to create an EV manufacturing hub in southern Ontario.

Leaders with Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations who are heading the EA processes on all three road projects say year-round access will improve living conditions in their communities.

"This is a move forward for us in terms of economic reconciliation, alleviating the conditions in the community and the poverty levels that we have faced in the decades past," Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum said Thursday during a news conference with Ford and Northern Development and Mining Minister Greg Rickford.

 

This crap has been done before.

It's all about money.

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Quebec became the first jurisdiction in the world Tuesday to explicitly ban oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups.

“Citizens rallied, citizens regrouped and actually won this fight because it was in their backyards … it would have had major impacts on their way of living on the territory,” Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, Équiterre’s climate policy analyst, told Canada’s National Observer.

The newly adopted law will end petroleum exploration and production as well as the public financing of those activities in Quebec. It passed only one week after the federal government approved a new oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador despite a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that found there is no place for new fossil fuel infrastructure in a climate-safe future.

 

Hans might be pleased but without those pipelines, trains, Saudi oil or equalisation payments, how will you live?