Nothing has changed but a few of the players:
The annual pace of inflation cooled to 1.7 per cent last month, down from 2.3 per cent in March, the agency said. That’s a little higher than the 1.6 per cent expected by a poll of economists.
Canadians were primarily finding relief at the gas pumps in April.
(Sidebar: where is this relief? I didn't see it.)
Statistics Canada said gas prices fell 18.1 per cent year-over-year in April, thanks mostly to the end of the carbon price, but also because global oil prices fell amid declining demand and higher production from OPEC countries. Natural gas prices also fell 14.1 per cent annually in the month.
Excluding energy from the consumer price index, StatCan said inflation would have come in at 2.9 per cent for April — an increase from 2.5 per cent for the same calculation in March.
The only province that didn’t experience a slowdown in inflation last month was Quebec, a province that has its own cap-and-trade system and therefore didn’t benefit from the end of the federal carbon price regime.
But while consumers found it cheaper to gas up in April, pressure was building at the grocery store.
Prices for food bought from the store rose 3.8 per cent last month, StatCan said, accelerating from 3.2 per cent in March.
On an annual basis, prices for fresh vegetables rose 3.7 per cent, the cost of fresh and frozen beef was up 16.2 per cent, and prices of coffee and tea rose 13.4 per cent, the agency said.
Grocery store inflation has now outpaced the overall consumer price index for three months in a row.
Canadian travellers also felt the pinch as travel tour prices rose 3.7 per cent monthly in April, reversing course after a decline of eight per cent in March.
The April inflation figures come a little more than two weeks before the Bank of Canada is set to make its next interest rate decision on June 4.
The central bank held its policy rate steady at 2.75 per cent at its decision in April, saying then that it needed more time to see how Canada’s trade war with the United States was impacting the economy.
So, as was predicted, the carbon tax - still in place - just made things more expensive for everyone.
Remember that THIS is what Canadians voted for and will do so again.
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Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland will not comment on whether she asked the cabinet-appointed chair of a Crown bank to work as financial agent for her failed Liberal leadership campaign. The Business Development Bank denied comment, saying political activity by its directors was not public business: “It would be inappropriate to comment.”
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Neil Macdonald, former CBC pundit and husband of Canada’s Ambassador to Vatican City, has deleted social media posts in which he mocked Pope Francis’ funeral, attempted a Hitler joke and ridiculed Conservative voters as bigots and losers. Removal of Macdonald’s Substack account followed a new Treasury Board directive on misuse of social media: “It can diminish the confidence.”
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The Charter, in this case, worked because the Charter is a communist rag written by a dead communist:
A federal agency that disregarded employees’ appeals for religious exemptions from vaccine mandates breached the Charter Of Rights, a labour board has ruled. The National Research Council was cited for twice dismissing pleas from Christian staff who objected to the source of cells used in production of Covid shots: “The state is in no position to be, nor should it become, the arbiter of religious dogma.”
But it is.
Ask Israel.
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