Alberta premier defends speech outlining grievances with Ottawa
After a fractious federal election campaign focused on perceived Liberal failures, the Conservative House leader is now signalling the caucus may be willing to support some of Prime Minister Mark Carney's legislative agenda when the House of Commons returns later this month.In an interview with CBC News, Andrew Scheer, who is considered by party sources to be the front-runner to serve as their interim parliamentary leader, said the Conservatives could back Carney if he needs legislative support
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Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
EDITORIAL: Our cost of living is still in crisis
While the good news is that Canada's inflation rate dropped to 1.7% in July, on a year-over-year basis compared to 1.9% in June, the bad news is that the cost of food and shelter both went up significantly. That means there's little relief in sight for the cost-of-living crisis facing many Canadian families. What kept the so-called 'headline' inflation rate to 1.7%, Statistics Canada reported, was the continuing effect of Prime Minister Mark Carney dropping the consumer carbon tax to 0% in March, significantly decreasing gasoline prices. As the federal agency reported, the falling price of gasoline — by 16.1% year over year in July, following a 13.4% decline in June — 'continued to reflect the removal of the consumer carbon levy.' Excluding gasoline, the inflation rate rose 2.5% in July, matching the increases in May and June. So, it's good news for consumers that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the Tories eventually pressured Carney and the Liberals to eliminate the consumer carbon tax. But increases in the cost of food and shelter are both major concerns. The cost of groceries (meaning food purchased from stores) rose at a faster annual pace in July (3.4%) than in June (2.8%) and at twice the headline inflation rate of 1.7%. As of July 2025, Statistics Canada reported, Canadian families were paying 27.1% more for groceries than they were in July 2020. Meanwhile, the cost of shelter rose by 3% in July year over year, up from a 2.9% increase in June, 'the first acceleration in shelter prices since February 2024.' The cost of rent also rose at a faster pace year over year — up 5.1% in July following a 4.7% increase in June. Those numbers would have been even worse were it not for slower growth in mortgage interest costs, which rose 4.8% year over year in July compared to 5.6% in June; they've been declining on a year-over-year basis since September 2023. While the inflation rate is influenced by many factors — including ones beyond the federal government's control — July's inflation numbers are even more reason for the Carney government to be laser-focused on making life more affordable for Canadians when Parliament resumes in the fall.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
The scramble to keep public media afloat
With local public media stations on the brink of collapse following President Donald Trump's successful push to strip federal funding, one group announced plans Tuesday to raise tens of millions of dollars in a bid to keep local newsrooms alive. The Public Media Bridge Fund hopes to raise $100 million over the next two years to support local news organizations at risk of closure, the organization said, following congressional approval to rescind more than $1 billion in federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB — the independently-run, congressionally-funded nonprofit — announced this month it would shut down. Advocates and public media executives have warned that the funding cuts and subsequent closure of CPB will devastate rural communities that rely on local stations, with rural stations less able to weather the slashed federal funding compared to urban and suburban stations with larger donor bases. 'The people who are paying the price are local communities, in an era where local community connection is being eroded and local news is in crisis,' Tim Isgitt, CEO of Public Media Company — a nonprofit public media consulting firm that launched the bridge fund — told POLITICO. 'These members of Congress voted to kill what, in many communities, is their only source of local news and information and they did it eyes wide open.' Conservatives in Congress have long sought to eliminate federal funding for public media, and scored a major victory with Trump's rescissions package. In May, Trump issued an executive order looking to restrict all funding for NPR and PBS. CPB, PBS and NPR challenged the order. But Congress, which appropriated more than $500 million to CPB annually, codified the president's move in this year's Rescissions Act. 'I don't want to sugarcoat this, but the loss of CPB funding to local rural communities is devastating,' said Isgitt. 'We're doing what we can to do what Congress failed to do: protecting stations.' Isgitt expects things to worsen in November, when CPB normally doled out funding to affiliates. Newsrooms that depended on at least 30 percent of funding from CPB are now at risk of going dark, he said. 'From Mississippi to Idaho, local public media organizations are run by people who live in their communities, governed by people who live in their communities and reporting on community issues,' said Isgitt. The loss of CPB funding, he added, will 'have ripple effects across the system.' 'This is a highly interconnected and, in some ways, interdependent system. So when a significant portion of local organizations start to fail, it's going to have an impact on other distressed local organizations that are also losing money. And I don't know where those dominoes stop.' For this fall alone, Isgitt said, the fund is hoping to raise $50 million — but in order to sustain endangered newsrooms for the next two years, they'll need a minimum of $100 million, he added. So far, philanthropic organizations including the Knight Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation have committed $26.5 million to the Public Media Bridge Fund. While Isgitt said there is no official list designating which newsrooms will receive a disbursement, he said the Fund is compiling additional data to determine the most at-risk stations. Isgitt said he remains hopeful, though he admits reaching the full $100 million goal will be difficult. 'There is a recognition from philanthropy across the board right now that there's a need and there's an opportunity to keep the system from collapsing,' said Isgitt. 'However, philanthropy is being asked to fill a lot of gaps right now, and I don't know how sustainable that is overtime.' Solve the daily Crossword
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
The scramble to keep public media afloat
'The people who are paying the price are local communities, in an era where local community connection is being eroded and local news is in crisis,' Tim Isgitt, CEO of Public Media Company — a nonprofit public media consulting firm that launched the bridge fund — told POLITICO. 'These members of Congress voted to kill what, in many communities, is their only source of local news and information and they did it eyes wide open.' Conservatives in Congress have long sought to eliminate federal funding for public media, and scored a major victory with Trump's rescissions package. In May, Trump issued an executive order looking to restrict all funding for NPR and PBS. CPB, PBS and NPR challenged the order. But Congress, which appropriated more than $500 million to CPB annually, codified the president's move in this year's Rescissions Act. 'I don't want to sugarcoat this, but the loss of CPB funding to local rural communities is devastating,' said Isgitt. 'We're doing what we can to do what Congress failed to do: protecting stations.' Isgitt expects things to worsen in November, when CPB normally doled out funding to affiliates. Newsrooms that depended on at least 30 percent of funding from CPB are now at risk of going dark, he said. 'From Mississippi to Idaho, local public media organizations are run by people who live in their communities, governed by people who live in their communities and reporting on community issues,' said Isgitt. The loss of CPB funding, he added, will 'have ripple effects across the system.'
