Holt affirms interest in national energy corridor
At a first ministers' meeting in Saskatoon, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says a national energy corridor could help improve coast-to-coast relations.
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CTV News
36 minutes ago
- CTV News
New York transit executive selected to be new head of TTC
A New York City transit executive has been tapped to take over as the head of the Toronto Transit Commission, Mayor Olivia Chow announced Thursday. Mandeep Lali, who was previously in charge of subway operations at New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), will replace former TTC CEO Rick Leary, who resigned last summer. 'Mr. Lali has over two decades of global experience in transit,' Chow said during Thursday's news conference in Scarborough. 'He deeply understands public transit in a big, busy city. Mandeep Lali's depth of experience managing the most complex subway system in the world is exactly what we need to get Toronto moving.' TTC Chair Jamaal Myers called the hiring process an 'extensive international search' that lasted nearly nine months. He noted that Lali has 'immense experience' in both the private and public sector and has held senior roles at 'two of the world's most iconic transit system.' In addition to his experience at the MTA, Myers said Lali spent 13 years in 'progressively senior roles' at Transport for London. 'What made Mandeep stand out among all of the outstanding candidates that we considered was his clarity of vision,' Myers said. 'When we asked him what his goal for the TTC was he said, without missing a beat, 'To make the TTC the most reliable transit system in north American.' As a lifelong ttc rider, this was music to my ears.' More details to come...
Globe and Mail
37 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada's trade deficit hits record high $7.1-billion as tariffs hammer exports
Canadian exports cratered in April and the trade deficit soared to a record high, as U.S. tariffs hammered demand for Canadian goods and companies pulled back after rushing products across the border. Canada's merchandise exports dropped 10.8 per cent while imports fell 3.5 per cent, compared to the previous month. The country's trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports, ballooned to $7.1-billion from $2.3-billion the prior month – the highest recorded, and far above analyst expectations. Trade with the U.S. accounted for the collapse. Total exports heading south across the border fell 15.7 per cent in nominal terms and 9.1 per cent in volume terms. Exports declined in 10 out of 11 categories, led by a sharp pullback in motor vehicles and parts, consumer goods and crude oil. Imports from the U.S. dropped 10.8 per cent in April. Carney faces pressure to retaliate against Trump's steel, aluminum tariffs The decline in trade follows a barrage of tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump over the past three months. This includes tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles, as well as on all goods that don't comply with the continental free trade agreement's rules of origin. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 per cent. Mr. Trump's aggressive protectionism was also apparent in the latest U.S. trade numbers, published Thursday. U.S. imports from the rest of the world fell 16 per cent, the largest drop ever, while exports rose 3 per cent. That caused the U.S. trade deficit – a major focus for Mr. Trump – to contract sharply to US$61.5-billion in April from US$138.3-billion in March. The drop in cross-border trade is partly the result of Canadian and U.S. companies pulling back after racing to get goods across the border and stockpiling products earlier this year to front-run tariffs. 'As observed with many products, amid threats by the United States to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, exports of passenger cars and light trucks saw high levels in the three months preceding April,' Statistics Canada said, explaining the 17.4-per-cent drop in vehicle and parts exports. 'After tariffs on foreign motor vehicles were imposed by the United States at the beginning of the month, manufacturers in Canada reduced production in April, resulting in a sharp drop in these exports.' The Canadian trade numbers were also impacted by a large appreciation in the Canadian dollar in April. Most import and export transactions happen in U.S. dollars which must be converted back into Canadian dollars to compile the monthly statistics, Statscan said. 'All other things being equal, when the Canadian dollar appreciates against the US dollar, monthly trade values expressed in Canadian dollars are lower,' it noted. Still, the price effect only explains part of the contraction in trade. Export volumes were down sharply. Meanwhile, there was a 2.9 per cent increase in exports to countries other than the U.S., led by exports of 'various products' to China, unwrought gold to the United Kingdom, iron ore and wheat to Algeria and potash to Brazil. This suggests some trade diversification is happening, but the increase was much smaller than the 24.8 per cent jump in non-U.S. trade seen in March. 'We are cautiously optimistic that April's data marks the worst for the trade figures … We expect some rebound in exports over the next couple of months as producers adjust their output to be USMCA-compliant and the drag from the end of tariff front-running passes,' Bradley Saunders, North American economist at Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients. 'Nevertheless, the trade data present a downside risk to the advance estimate that GDP rose by 0.1 per cent month-to-month in April and yesterday's doubling in the US' steel and aluminum tariffs serves as a valuable reminder that Canadian exporters remain at President Trump's whim,' he wrote.
Globe and Mail
37 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
More than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids last year as numbers trend downward, data show
More than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids last year, a 15 per cent decrease from 2023, newly released data from the Office of the Chief Coroner shows. 'What goes through my head is a small degree of optimism in the fact that we have seen less people die last year, which is very good, but that's within a context of 2,231 people dying last year,' Dr. Dirk Huyer, the chief coroner, told The Canadian Press in an interview. His office had recorded 2,639 opioid deaths in 2023. 'I also have a degree of worry that this is a short interval, for whatever reason that we haven't identified, and that the numbers could potentially get worse again,' Huyer said. The mortality rate from opioid overdoses was 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024. That is down from the peak of 19.4 deaths per 100,000 people at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, when opioids took the lives of 2,880 Ontarians. How fentanyl transformed Victoria's Pandora Avenue from downtown hub to open-air drug market Fentanyl and its related substances were found in more than 83 per cent of opioid toxicity deaths, while stimulants were found in 69 per cent of deaths. Prescription benzodiazepines were seen in 45 per cent of deaths last year, a sharp increase from 33 per cent the year before. Non-prescription benzodiazepines were found in 62 per cent of deaths, slightly down from 66 per cent in 2023. The opioid crisis began to hit Ontario in 2015 and 2016 when illicit fentanyl made its way east from British Columbia. There were 728 opioid deaths in 2015 and by 2018, that doubled to 1,565 deaths. The crisis peaked in the middle of the pandemic. Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, declined a request for an interview about opioid deaths in the province. The Canadian Press has asked him on more than a dozen occasions since 2022 to discuss the opioid crisis but he has never agreed to an interview on the subject. Health Minister Sylvia Jones did not respond to an interview request. The Ministry of Health said the province is 'making it easier for people to break the tragic cycle of addiction by expanding access to safe and comprehensive mental health support.' 'Through Ontario's road map to wellness, the government is investing $3.8 billion over 10 years, and $124 million through the addictions recovery fund, supporting 500 new addiction recovery beds, more than 32 youth wellness hubs, over 100 mobile crisis teams, and innovative models of care like mobile clinics,' the ministry said in a statement. Explainer: What to know about Canada's toxic drug crisis and supervised drug-use sites Huyer lamented the fact that the province does not precisely know what's behind the decrease in opioid deaths, but postulated that it could be due to a slightly less toxic supply of drugs. 'I wish we knew because then I think everybody would be able to answer the question on where they should be focusing and how to help provide the best for everybody,' he said. Other hallmarks of the Ontario opioid crisis remain unchanged. Men account for 75 per cent of deaths, opioids disproportionally kill marginalized people and one in five opioid overdose deaths across the province occurs in the homeless population. The province has undergone a fundamental shift in its approach to the opioid crisis, which included banning supervised drug-use sites it deemed too close to schools and daycares. That legislation came about after a Toronto woman was killed by a stray bullet from a shooting outside one of the sites. Liberal health critic Adil Shamji, who still works part time as an emergency department physician and was on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic, said he's disappointed in the province's response. 'But there's no level of disappointment that can approach the level of heartbreak that families across Ontario are experiencing,' he said. The new homelessness and addiction treatment hubs also miss the mark, he said. 'They have no new services to offer and in many cases are underfunded, overwhelmed, and at a very immature stage where they're not able to meet the demand,' Shamji said. He said there's a void of leadership on the file. 'When you have the medical condition that touches on so many different people in so many different walks of life, it speaks to the need for a public health response and for leaders to come out with ambition, boldness and with the seriousness that it deserves,' he said. 'And we're not seeing that from this government, from the minister of health, from public health or the chief medical officer of health.' The Office of the Chief Coroner reported 197 opioid deaths across the province in April, the most recent data available, but stressed that number is very preliminary and will rise since death investigations and toxicology results often taken months to complete.
