September 2024

Air Canada could begin winding down operations and cancelling flights very soon, ahead of Sunday’s strike deadline. If the union representing its pilots cannot reach a negotiated agreement to avoid a strike or shutdown, the federal government must be prepared to resort to binding arbitration or force the pilots back to work, a group representing small businesses said Friday morning. The announcement comes as the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the union representing Air Canada pilots in the labour dispute, announced it would meet with Air Canada on Friday to try to reach an agreement. “We continue to meet with Air Canada today with the goal of reaching a new contract at the bargaining table and avoiding legal strike action and the impact it will have on our passengers,” Charlene Hudy, first officer and chair of the Air Canada ALPA executive council, told Global News in a statement. The story continues below the advertisement Unless an agreement is reached by Sunday, Air Canada or the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents 5,200 Air Canada pilots, could issue a 72-hour notice of a lockout or strike. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has urged all parties to ensure that flight services remain in place and that an agreement is reached at the negotiating table. Dan Kelly, CFIB president, said in a statement: “If Air Canada and the Air Line Pilots Association cannot reach an agreement, the federal government must be prepared to step in and impose binding arbitration or back-to-work legislation. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that small businesses and our economy do not suffer another costly disruption to Canada’s transportation system.” Learn more about Canada More videos The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada also issued a joint statement. Get the latest national news For news that impacts Canada and the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts directly when it happens. “Every year, millions of Canadians and Americans travel by air, as do essential and time-sensitive goods. The Government of Canada must act quickly to avoid another labour disruption that would negatively impact cross-border travel and trade, with negative consequences for people and businesses,” the statement reads. Business, industry and tourism groups have called on the federal government to intervene before a strike or lockout disrupts air travel. Air Canada President and CEO Michael Rousseau said in a statement Monday that while there is still time to reach an agreement with the pilots, “Canadians have recently seen the chaos that sudden airline shutdowns are causing for travellers, requiring us to do everything we can to protect our customers from an increasingly likely work stoppage.” The story continues below the advertisement The 72-hour notice period for closure or strike action could begin any time after midnight on Sunday, and operations are expected to stop completely by Wednesday, September 18. However, some operations are expected to begin winding down as early as Friday, the airline said. Rosseau said 80 per cent of Air Canada passengers could be affected by the work stoppages. The airline said it would begin an “orderly shutdown” of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations as soon as a strike or lockout notice is issued. 1:59 Business Affairs: What you need to know as Air Canada pilots’ strike looms Current trend How tariffs on Chinese semiconductors and batteries could affect Canadian wallets Researchers Discover Doritos Dye Makes Mice Translucent. Will Humans Be Next? Duncan Dee, Air Canada’s former chief operating officer, told Global News: “Air Canada will begin to wind down its operations by moving its aircraft closer and closer to its bases, where it has crews and mechanics available to service those aircraft in the event of a disruption, so that when operations do restart, it can do so much more quickly, with much less impact on the travelling public.” The story continues below the advertisement Air Canada Express flights will continue to be operated by third-party carriers, Jazz and PAL Airlines. However, these regional partners carry only about 20 per cent of Air Canada’s daily customers, many of whom connect to Air Canada flights. The airline said a work stoppage could affect 110,000 passengers a day. ALPA set up a “strike headquarters” near Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday. The union said in a statement that the move was intended to support its members in the event of a strike. Last month, the Pilots voted overwhelmingly to approve strike mandate if no agreement on a new contract can be reached. Co-pilot Charlene Hudy, chair of the Air Canada ALPA executive council, said in a statement: “Rather than attacking professional pilots who safely transport their passengers day in and day out, Air Canada should stop threatening to disrupt air travel and come to the table with serious proposals to keep Canada’s flagship carrier competitive in the global aviation marketplace.” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party would “never support” any back-to-work legislation. At a news conference earlier Wednesday in Ottawa, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for a “fair deal” and for Air Canada to negotiate in “good faith” with unionized workers. © 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Source link

A small majority of Canadians want opposition parties to work with the Liberals rather than call a snap election, a new poll suggests, despite persistently low approval of the prime minister Justin Trudeau. The Ipsos poll, conducted exclusively for Global News between September 6 and 10, and released Wednesday, gauged Canadians’ views on the new political reality after NDP pulls out of supply and confidence deal which allowed the Liberals to remain in power until next fall. The end of the affair makes the prospect of early elections more likelyNDP Leader Jagmeet Singh acknowledged after “tearing up” the deal last week, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is urging his fellow opposition leaders to quickly bring down the government after the House of Commons resumes Monday. But Ipsos found that 56 per cent of Canadians surveyed do not want the election to happen yet, saying they want all parties to try to work with the government on a case-by-case basis. The story continues below the advertisement Only in Alberta and Saskatchewan did a majority of respondents say they wanted the opposition to bring down the government “as soon as possible.” Singh said he would approach all votes in the House of Commons on a case-by-case basis and declined to say definitively whether he would support a motion of no confidence if one were brought forward. He said Wednesday he would “not listen” to Poilievre after the Conservative leader pledged to bring forward a no-confidence motion “as soon as possible” and challenged Singh to vote with him in favour. 1:49 NDP faces challenges after withdrawing support for Trudeau, Liberals Even though Canadians aren’t calling for an election, the same poll found that Canadians remain bitter toward Trudeau and the Liberals. Only 28 per cent of those polled nationally believe Trudeau deserves to be re-elected, a figure that holds true across all regions. Get the latest national news For news that impacts Canada and the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts directly when it happens. The Conservatives hold a nearly 20-point lead at 45 per cent to the Liberals’ 26 per cent, while the NDP — which presents itself as the only party capable of competing with the Conservatives after ending the supply and confidence agreement — is at just 16 per cent in Wednesday’s poll. The story continues below the advertisement The situation is different only in Quebec, where the Bloc Québécois obtained 34 percent of support, compared to 25 percent for the Liberals and 23 percent for the Conservatives. Canadians surveyed by Ipsos don’t believe the Liberals’ fortunes will change if Trudeau steps down. A majority (47%) of respondents said the party would fare the same with a new leader, while only 28% said it would fare better. The poll was released as the Liberals and NDP hold their annual caucus retreats. Speaking to reporters earlier Wednesday, Trudeau struck a confident tone about the upcoming fall session of parliament and said he and his party would be able to present an effective contrast to the Conservatives. Current trend RBC clients outraged by partial refunds after unauthorized withdrawals ‘Female anger’: Edmonton woman sparks debate over ‘manspreading’ on plane “The reality is that we are all focused on what needs to be done to ensure that Canadians are supported and have confidence in the future,” Trudeau said. 1:55 ‘We need solutions’: Mark Carney hopes to reverse Liberals’ fortunes Despite the frustrations expressed by Liberals in reports before the retreat and the concerns expressed by some during it, other Liberals who spoke publicly on the sidelines of the meetings expressed optimism about their party’s approach to the upcoming election year and about Trudeau remaining at the helm. The story continues below the advertisement The Liberals face their next test in a few days with two more crucial byelections in Montreal and Winnipeg. Trudeau says voters in these byelections and the next national election will have to choose between Poilievre’s plan to cut services and the Liberal plan to invest in Canada. Here are some of the results from an Ipsos poll conducted between September 6 and 10, 2024, on behalf of Global News. For this poll, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18 and older were surveyed online. Quotas and weighting were used to ensure that the sample composition reflects the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, if all Canadians aged 18 and older had been surveyed. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All polls and sample surveys are subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to, coverage error and measurement error. — with documents from The Canadian Press Learn more about the policy More videos © 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Source link

By the staff The Canadian Press Published on September 11, 2024 at 7:32 a.m. 1 min read Reduce the font size of the article Increase the font size of the article Liberal MPs will have one last chance to tell their leader how they think their party can improve its political prospects before returning to Ottawa to face Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons. The three-day retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., was the prime minister’s first opportunity Justin Trudeau The team has had to address him as a group since losing a long-time Liberal riding in Toronto to Poilievre’s Conservatives. 1:49 NDP faces challenges after withdrawing support for Trudeau, Liberals The defeat led to a turbulent summer and the aim of the rally was to reunite the party and turn its attention to the Conservatives. Current trend Researchers Discover Doritos Dye Makes Mice Translucent. Will Humans Be Next? RBC clients outraged by partial refunds after unauthorized withdrawals The story continues below the advertisement Despite the grumbling leading up to the retreat, Liberals who have spoken publicly on the sidelines of the meetings have so far expressed positivity about their approach to the upcoming election year. Get the latest national news For news that impacts Canada and the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts directly when it happens. The prime minister is expected to answer questions about the closed-door meetings on Wednesday before MPs are dissolved. They will gather in Ottawa on Monday for the start of the fall session, where they will immediately face their next test: a hotly contested byelection in another long-time Liberal riding. Learn more about Canada More videos © 2024 The Canadian Press Source link

The Liberal government will continue to work on the policies it promised to pursue under its now-expired agreement with the government. NPDHealth Minister Mark Holland said Monday. A week ago, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has ended the pact between the New Democrats and the minority Liberalsbefore some of the measures they had agreed to work on were implemented. These include a safe long-term care bill that has yet to be introduced and the implementation of a pharmacare bill that is still before the Senate. If the bill passes, the government plans to negotiate deals with the provinces to provide free diabetes medications and birth control to anyone with a health card. Singh takes credit for forcing the Liberals to accept the measure. “These are things that we felt very strongly about and where we found an intersection with what the NDP was concerned about,” Holland said at a news conference in Toronto. The story continues below the advertisement 0:44 Singh says Liberal-NDP deal ‘achieved a lot’ for Canada, day after ‘tearing up’ agreement He was at the University of Toronto’s faculty of dentistry, in its largest clinic, to provide an update on a flagship policy of the NDP and the Liberals, the national dental care program. Get weekly health news Get the latest medical news and health information delivered to your inbox every Sunday. Holland said nearly 650,000 people have already benefited from the dental program and four-fifths of dental providers are participating. The update comes a month after the minister announced a 75% participation rate. Participation was in doubt earlier this summer, when less than half of dentists, hygienists and denturists had signed up to provide care and associations warned there were flaws in the program’s design. In July, Holland revamped the process so dental practices could avoid registering in advance and process individual requests instead. The government began accepting applications from seniors in May and has since expanded eligibility for the program to eligible children under 18 and people eligible for a disability tax credit. Current trend ‘The system has collapsed’: One child dies every three days in Ontario’s health care system Air Canada could begin cancelling flights Friday due to impending strike The story continues below the advertisement 1:57 Dental Insurance Plan Participation Increases in July Now that the NDP’s support in Parliament is no longer guaranteed, the Liberals will have to find a partner for each individual vote. “The NDP made a political decision and it’s up to them to make it, but now we’re operating on a case-by-case basis,” Holland said. The minister said he talks “all the time” with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP about how they can work together. Talks with the Conservatives have not been as productive, he said. The Bloc indicated this week that it was prepared to support the minority government in exchange for measures that it considers to be gains for Quebec. House leader Alain Therrien said ahead of a caucus retreat that his party was pleased to regain its balance of power, calling the current situation a “window of opportunity” to pursue its priorities. Learn more about health More videos © 2024 The Canadian Press Source link