True North

According to Ontario’s 2018 “sunshine list” two top Liberal aides under the Kathleen Wynne government earned a combined salary of nearly $1 million.

Public sector employees earning more than $100,000 a year in salary are legally obligated by The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act to list their earnings annually.

During the last year of Liberal leadership the list ballooned to over 15,000 individuals, up by approximately 2,000 since 2017.

The two aides listed this year were Wynne’s former chief of staff, Andrew Bevan and the Mary Rowe, the former Premier’s executive advisor.

Bevan, whose salary was around $314,000 by 2017, was earning over $552,000 by the next year.

Despite the hefty salary increase, Bevan’s job virtually ended when the election was called in May, which Wynne spectacularly lost to current Ontario Premier, Doug Ford. Due to the electoral defeat, the Liberals lost their party status in the province’s legislature, forcing Wynne to step aside and quit the party’s leadership.

On the other hand, Rowe was earning $259,000 in 2017 but by 2018 that figure was more than $428,000.

If converted into percentages, this would mean that Bevan received a 77% raise in one year, while Rowe got a raise of 64% on her next annual salary.

During the same period, Wynne herself was making approximately $162,000 as the Premier of Ontario in 2018, down from $209,000 the former year.

In comments on the disclosures, current NDP opposition leader, Andrea Horwath called the high salaries the “legacy” of Wynne’s government.

“I also noticed that Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals not only handed out huge salaries to those at the top — growing the gap between the rich and the rest of Ontario — but 10 out of 10 of those top salaries she was handing out also went to men. This is the legacy of 15 years of Liberal government,” said Horwath.

The current Premier, Doug Ford who promptly defeated Wynne and the Liberals on June 7, 2018 blasted the disclosures on his personal Twitter account once they were released.

“They call this the sunshine list, but for hard-working people of Ontario, there is nothing sunny about it. Liberals insiders and fat cats are getting raises while real folks in Ontario haven’t gotten a raise in years,” tweeted Ford.

In contrast, since coming into office, Conservative Premier Doug Ford has frozen the salaries of public sector executives and has implemented a hiring freeze to prevent the further bloating of Ontario’s bureaucracy.

The struggling Albertan oil and gas industry remains a key issue in the provinces upcoming election as the industry lauds Jason Kenney and the UCP.

As the campaign enters its second week, the energy sector remains a hot topic as both Premier Rachel Notley and UCP leader Jason Kenney claim to be the greater supporter of Alberta’s principal industry.

The industry, however, would much rather see Kenney take command of the province.

“A Kenney government would be very strongly welcomed by the oil industry,” said Rafi Tahmazian, a senior portfolio manager specializing in energy investing at Canoe Financial.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) estimates that Canada has lost an average of $14 billion a year in investment since the oil price crash in 2014.

Notley, who has been premier since 2015, has failed to get any new pipelines built — overseeing an overall decline in the energy sector.

According to CAPP’s estimates, energy contributes around 30% of Alberta’s economy and about 15% of the GDP of Canada.

On Friday Kenney announced that his government would dedicate $30 million to combat attacks on the energy sector by foreign special interests groups.

$10 million of this funding will be dedicated to a litigation fund for First Nations in Alberta to use to defend their resource rights.

Meanwhile, the NDP has toted the success of their “Keep Canada Working” campaign in raising public support for the energy sector.

Notley has also remained firm on her commitment to a carbon tax, despite the obvious harm it is causing the oil and gas industry.

Although she attributed a carbon tax as necessary to get the “social licence” for pipelines, the Notley government has not seen any pipelines come into fruition.

Notley recently came out saying she will oppose the carbon tax unless the federal government helps her get pipelines approved and built.

Kenney has pledged to scrap the provincial carbon tax and fight the new federal carbon tax which came into effect this year.

The UCP currently has held a massive lead of the governing NDP, with the most recent poll by Mainstreet reporting a 14 point lead for the UCP.

CBC Poll Tracker gives the UCP a >99% chance of victory based on current polls.

The Alberta general election will be held on Tuesday, April 16.

Canada has received its biggest influx of immigrants  since the first world war, new statistics show.

In the latest from Statistics Canada, over 320,000 immigrants came to Canada in 2018, the highest number since 1913.

Immigration was the primary driver of Canada’s population growth, in 2018 Canada added nearly 530,000 people — the highest since 1990 and the fastest rate in the G7 countries.

These numbers do not include illegal border crossers, who have arrived in droves over the past couple years — overwhelming the emergency shelters in multiple cities.

Immigrants in 2018 represented 80% of all the population growth in Canada.

A slowing natural population growth, births minus deaths, and higher immigrants quotas instituted by the Trudeau government have resulted in nearly all population growth in Canada by immigrants.

The natural growth hit a low in 2018, at just above 100,000, the lowest level since the 1940s.

The Trudeau government has pushed for increased numbers of immigrants, pushing yearly levels up to 350,000 by 2021, hinting that they may eventually push the number up to 450,000.

Around the same time, immigration minister Ahmed Hussen announced a government-sponsored campaign to fight “anti-immigrant rhetoric” and communicate the benefits of immigration.

If the government counts illegal border crossers, however, the government may reach their immigration goal much sooner than 2021, particularly as spring makes travel easier.

Nearly 20,000 illegal border crosser walked into Canada in 2018, with numbers expected to be higher in 2019.

Joshua Boyle, the Canadian man who was taken captive by a terrorist cell while travelling in Afghanistan has appeared in court for the first time since being charged for a number of abuses.

Boyle is facing 19 charges for his crimes against two victims: his estranged wife and co-captive Caitlan Coleman, as well as another unidentified victim.

Coleman, who has successfully repealed a publication ban on her identity, alleges that Boyle was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive towards her during their relationship.

Boyle and Coleman were held captive in Afghanistan by a Taliban affiliated terrorist cell called the Haqqani network. While in captivity, Coleman has also alleged in the past that Boyle was abusive towards her and threatened

Since being freed from captivity in 2017 by Pakistani forces, Boyle has consistently made headlines.

Shortly after his release and two weeks before his arrest, Boyle was granted a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has since defended the interaction.

Several observers have also pointed out Boyle’s flirtations with radical Islam and the reasons behind his visit to Afghanistan.

According to correspondences sent to the Toronto Sun by Joshua Boyle himself, he was even offered a position in the Taliban while still a captive.

Furthermore, Coleman wasn’t Boyle’s first wife. In 2009 Boyle was briefly married to convicted murderer and Al-Qaeda terrorist Omar Khadr’s sister, Zaynab Khadr.

Among the evidence presented at Boyle’s trial was a 911 call in which Boyle called the police on his wife for threatening to kill herself. However, Crown prosecutors claim that the call was an attempt by Boyle to divert attention away from his own wrongdoings.

Currently, Boyle is facing the following charges:

• One count of sexual assault while threatening to use a weapon
• One count of sexual assault with a weapon
• One count of uttering a threat to cause death
• Nine counts of assault
• One count of assault with a weapon
• Three counts of unlawful confinement
• One count of administering a noxious substance
• One count of public mischief
• One count of criminal harassment

During the trial, Boyle attempted to leave the proceedings with his father but was informed by the judge that he could not.

A woman in a New Brunswick hospital had to face an 11-hour wait time before eventually succumbing to her illness.

Marianne Porter was admitted to the emergency room at Moncton Hospital for what was believed to be a hernia. Porter eventually died from kidney failure at 9am on Saturday.

Although Porter’s vitals were okay when she entered the hospital, she had to wait for a total of 11 hours before being seen by an emergency doctor. Doctors eventually attempted to treat Porter throughout the night but she eventually succumbed to her illness.

Moncton Hospital has been particularly hit with long wait times. Patients are often faced with being placed in the emergency room before being admitted to their appropriate ward.

The hospital has been struggling to meet its wait time target because of this issue.

“As much as we may look at the data in terms of numbers, in terms of wait times and percentages of hours, for example, at the end of the day, it is our patients and the community at large that we are failing by not meeting their needs in a more timely fashion,” said Dr. Serve Melanson, the president of the New Brunswick Medical Society.

This problem of long wait times and poor health-care availability extends beyond the province of New Brunswick.

In an interview with True North’s Andrew Lawton, Colin Craig, President of secondstreet.org, says 217,000 people left Canada to seek healthcare in the United States in 2017. However, the figure does not include Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, P.E.I, or Nova Scotia.

At the higher end of the statistic it’s around 324,000 people who have left Canada for healthcare reasons.

According to Craig, the reasons of medical travel are anecdotal and varied but many Canadians are also leaving the country for treatments which are offered by Canada’s healthcare system but endure long wait times.

The report by Second Street found that Canadians spent nearly $1.9 million per day for healthcare trips into other countries during 2017.

Craig notes in his interview with True North that not only wealthy Canadians were responsible for this spending but also people from the middle class.

“We’ve talked to a lot of middle income Canadians who are scraping the money together to go and get faster healthcare because they don’t want to pain for a year, they don’t want to wait months and months and months while a disease is potentially spreading throughout their body,” said Craig to True North.

While many Canadians have to face long wait times in the emergency room or elsewhere, in Porter’s case, both overcrowding and wait times were seen to have contributed to her eventual death.

The recent federal budget left a lot to be desired for Canada’s struggling energy sector, the industry association said.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has lamented that even though the government has recognized the problems facing Canadian energy, the government has failed to provide any help.

“They’re recognizing that the investment levels are down, they’re recognizing that prices are down and that unemployment is up, and yet they’re not really taking any meaningful action to support our industry,” said CAPP vice-president Ben Brunnen.

“The reality is when we see those indicators all facing down, from an oil and gas perspective, and no recognition from the government of a willingness to support our industry, it’s a pretty strong message towards our industry that we’re not a priority for this government, and that’s disappointing.”

CAPP says that the country is missing out on about $14 billion in investment per year since the oil price crash in 2014.

Canadian oil still suffers from low prices due to high global production and a lack access to markets.

Under the Trudeau government, multiple pipeline projects which would have given Canadian oil and gas new markets to sell too have been cancelled with others up in the air.

CAPP President Tim McMillan says that this reality was not recognized by this year’s budget.

“The budget has not addressed the systemic issues facing the industry, nor did it offer any solutions to the growing competitiveness gap,” he said.

“In fact, it seems like it removed the oil and natural gas industry from its narrative altogether.”

David Yurdiga, MP of Fort McMurray-Cold Lake, says his riding, which is known for its energy sector has suffered greatly from the decline of its main industry.

“We see things not going as well as we’d like them to be in a lot of different sectors. Just look at retail or the restaurant industry. Go into a restaurant in Fort McMurray and there’s not always a lot of people.”

Despite other budget promises which will help some Canadians, Yurdiga believes that the only solution for Fort McMurray  is to bring good-paying energy sector jobs back.

”Everything else is putting a Band-Aid on the problem. We need jobs. Nothing more, nothing less.”