October 2024

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre proposes eliminating the federal sales tax on newly constructed housing, saying it would help lower mortgage costs and speed up housing construction. Poilievre told a news conference in Ottawa on Monday that as prime minister he would eliminate the goods and services tax or harmonized sales tax on new homes sold for less than $1 million. Poilievre said the tax cut could save Canadians $40,000 in total, or $2,200 a year in mortgage payments on an $800,000 home, and help build 30,000 new homes each year. “We will also reduce bureaucracy. We are going to eliminate programs that, according to the Liberals themselves, have not allowed us to build any houses,” he told reporters. Poilievre said he would cut the Liberal government’s Housing Acceleration Fund and Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to fund the sales tax cut. Story continues below advertisement Over several years, this plan would save the government a total of $8 billion, he added. 2:55 Freeland announces new rules for secondary apartment owners In Canada, home buyers only have to pay GST/HST when purchasing a new home directly from the developer. Get the latest national news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts sent directly to you as they happen. According to the Canada Revenue Agencysales of owner-occupied used homes are generally exempt from the GST/HST. “In most cases, the GST/HST does not apply to the sale of an owner-occupied home since the owner is not a builder. Only houses sold by builders are taxable,” specifies the ARC on its website. Poilievre said that without the tax on new housing construction, businesses would pass those savings on to consumers, “because if they don’t, then buyers will buy from someone else.” The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association welcomed the Conservative proposal, saying the change would mean new townhouses in the capital would be eligible for a full GST rebate. Story continues below advertisement The association estimates that government-imposed taxes and fees, including HST, represent about 20 per cent of the average cost of a new home in the capital. “Increasing the GST rebate threshold will support affordability, increase housing supply and restore fairness for current and future generations of homebuyers,” said Jason Burggraaf, Executive Director of GOHBA, in a press release. Current trend Georgian president does not recognize parliamentary elections and calls for protests Woman found dead in oven at Halifax Walmart located by her mother, organization says 4:49 ‘Immigration U-turn’: Poilievre slams Trudeau’s policy shift as Liberals express displeasure From December 15, first-time buyers as well as those purchasing a new construction will soon be able to take out insurance mortgages with a 30-year amortization, compared to a typical payback period of 25 years. In an announcement last monthDeputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said the price ceiling for underwriting insured mortgages would be increased to $1.5 million, up from the previous mark of $1 million. Meanwhile, the federal government last week announced reduced immigration targets for the next three yearswhich Some experts say this will impact housing affordability. from next year. Story continues below advertisement The Liberal government plans to build nearly 3.9 million housing units by 2031 as part of an ambitious housing plan that has been unveiled earlier this year. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that Canada will need to build 3.1 million housing units by 2030 to close the housing deficit. Immigration Minister Marc Miller said last week that reducing immigration targets could reduce Canada’s housing needs by as much as 670,000 units by the end of 2027. – with files from Craig Lord and Uday Rana of Global News and The Canadian Press. Learn more about Canada More videos &copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Source link

The very thin US presidential race between the US vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump could be decided by American voters living abroad in countries like Canada, a former envoy said. Bruce Heyman, a Democrat who served as U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Obama administration, says a large number of voters from key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin could decide the election. November 5 live just across the border in Canada. The latest FiveThirtyEight polling averages in these and other states show that Harris and Trump are separated by a fraction of a percentage point, making each vote consequential. “I’m just appealing, please, Americans in Canada, please, if you are registered to vote (and have received an absentee ballot), you need to collect your ballot, because with only a short week to go, we need to make sure it gets in the mail,” Heyman told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview broadcast Sunday on The West Block. Story continues below advertisement Heyman has worked for years with organizations such as Democrats Abroad to boost American expat voting. The group’s Toronto president told Global News about five percent of the approximately 700,000 American citizens who live in Canada exercise their right to vote all the time. 1:36 “Democrats Abroad” encourage Americans in Canada to vote Heyman said he helped increase turnout among U.S. voters abroad by 73% in 2020 compared to four years earlier, which helped U.S. President Joe Biden win some of the battlegrounds again which are currently being played out. “It was American voters abroad – Canada, it’s you – who won the state of Georgia, who won the state of Arizona, and who had a significant impact on many of these other battleground states won by Joe Biden,” he said. Receive national news daily Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day. “We have significantly ramped up this effort for the Harris campaign.” Story continues below advertisement Biden ultimately won the 2020 election by fewer than 45,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin combined, which helped him win enough electoral college delegates even though he trailed Trump by about seven millions of votes nationwide. The situation was similar in 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton by about 77,000 votes in all key states, although Clinton won the overall popular vote. Even though this year’s race appears even closer, Heyman says the United States has been bitterly divided for years, forcing Republicans and Democrats to fight on the margins of various groups, including Americans abroad. Another key demographic is Republican women, who Harris appealed to by highlighting Trump’s rhetoric and his role in bringing down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling led several states to enact strict restrictions that prevented women from accessing reproductive health care. “That’s why the vice president is out with (former Republican Rep.) Liz Cheney: They’re working Republican women on the fringes right now,” Heyman said. “Remember, everything is at the margin. You don’t have to win them all. But if you can get 10 or 20 percent of Republican women to recognize Donald Trump for who he is, then I think Kamala Harris will be in a good position on Election Day.” 2:02 US election 2024: Trump and Harris compete for undecided voters in swing states Current trend AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals allegedly invented things no one ever said GoFundMe for woman found dead in hanging Walmart oven as donations climb to $194,000 Like many officials and analysts in Canada, Heyman worries about the impact a second Trump presidency could have on Canada and on the world stage. Story continues below advertisement Trump has promised blanket tariffs on foreign imports, mass expulsions of undocumented immigrants and a transactional approach to alliances like NATO, which has already put Canada under pressure for failing to meet its goal of spending at least 2% of its GDP for defense. Trump said he would not come to the defense of allies who do not meet that threshold if they were attacked – a key NATO commitment – and even suggested he would let aggressors like Russia “do what that they want.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised Canada will reach 2% by 2032, a timeline Heyman said Trump would likely disagree with. Trump also did not commit to continued U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion. Canada may need to step up its efforts “significantly” alongside Europe to try to fill this gap, Heyman added. 9:40 a.m. ‘He’s extremely serious’: John Bolton on Trump’s warning to NATO allies Meanwhile, mass expulsions could lead to a surge at Canada’s borders, he said. Story continues below advertisement “If we experience something like we experienced in a small way during his last administration on Roxham Road with the Haitians (migrants seeking asylum in Quebec), it could be like a big multiple of that if he actually implements what it says it’s going to do. every day,” he said. These and other issues make Heyman fearful about the future of the Canada-U.S. relationship as a whole under Trump. “I think the greatest threat to Canada in the history of our country is a second Trump term,” he said. “It doesn’t mean a tsunami is coming, but if you know there’s a warning, you have a choice: You can sit down and order another pina colada on the beach or go to higher ground. This is a choice that Canada will have to make after November 5. —With file from Sean O’Shea of ​​Global Learn more about politics More videos &copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Source link

American President Joe Biden on Friday, he officially apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “stain on American history” during his first presidential visit to Indian country. “It’s a sin for our soul,” Biden said, his voice full of anger and emotion. “Frankly, there is no excuse why this apology took 50 years to come up with.” It was a moment of both contrition and frustration as the president sought to acknowledge one of the “most horrific chapters” in the nation’s history. Biden spoke about the abuse and deaths of Native children resulting from federal government policies, noting that “while darkness may hide many things, it erases nothing” and that great nations “must know the right , the bad, the truth about who we are. .” “I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we have done,” Biden said. The government’s removal of children from their Native American communities and sending them to boarding schools “will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history.” For too long, all of this has happened with virtually no public attention, without it being written in our history books, or taught in our schools. » Story continues below advertisement Democrats hope Biden’s visit to Gila River Indian Community lands on the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area will also provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout efforts in a key state of the battlefield. The moment gave Biden a fuller chance to highlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that has historically favored Democrats, in a state he won by just 10,000 votes in 2020. 2:06 Truth and reconciliation: has the federal government kept its promises? The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to be just as close, and both campaigns are doing everything they can to improve turnout among base supporters. “The race is now about turnout,” said Mike O’Neil, a nonpartisan pollster based in Arizona. “The trend lines have been remarkably stable. The question is which candidate will be able to engage their voters in a race that seems destined to be decided by narrow margins.” Story continues below advertisement Biden has been used sparingly on the campaign trail by Harris and other Democrats since ending his re-election campaign in July. Receive national news daily Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day. But analysts say Biden could help Harris in her appeal to Native American voters — a group that lags behind others in turnout. In 2020, there was an increase in voter turnout on some Arizona tribal lands as Biden defeated Trump and became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.Biden, whose presidency is nearing its end, promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country. Learn more about the world More videos For decades, federal boarding schools were used to assimilate children into white society, according to the White House. Not everyone considered the apology sufficient. “An apology is a good start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence,” said Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project and the Sacred Defense Fund. At least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. government’s abusive boarding school system over a 150-year period that ended in 1969, according to an Interior Department investigation that called for an apology from the U.S. government. At least 18,000 children, some as young as 4 years old, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools seeking to assimilate them. Story continues below advertisement “President Biden deserves credit for finally bringing attention to this and other issues impacting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I think it will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope that momentum continues.” Canada has a similar history of subjugating indigenous peoples and forcing their children to attend boarding schools to be assimilated. The federal government issued a formal apology in 2010. Pope Francis issued a historic apology in 2022 for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” residential school policy, saying the forced assimilation of indigenous people into Christian society destroyed their cultures, separated them from marginalized families and generations. Current trend GoFundMe for woman found dead in hanging Walmart oven as donations climb to $194,000 Ontario mother killed in front of her children in Ottawa park ruled femicide by police 5:23 Reflection on one year after Pope Francis’ visit to Canada and apology to the Indigenous community Democrats have stepped up their outreach to Native American communities. Story continues below advertisement Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, met this month with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada. And Clinton, who served as Harris’ surrogate, met last week in North Carolina with the chairman of the Lumbee tribe. The Democratic National Committee recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is in a competitive race with Republican Kari Lake for the open Arizona Senate seat, visited all 22 federally recognized Arizona tribes. Harris recently kicked off a campaign rally in Chandler, near where the Gila River reservation is located, by shouting out the tribal leader. Walz is scheduled to travel to the Navajo Nation in Arizona on Saturday. The White House says Biden and Harris have built strong experience working with Native Americans over the past four years. The president designated the sacred Avi Kwa Ame, a desert mountain in Nevada, and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, the ancestral footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, as…

If Canadians could vote American electiona majority would choose to send Kamala Harris at the White House. In a new poll from polling firm Leger, 64 percent of Canadian respondents said that if they could vote, they would support Vice President Harris, while 21 percent would support former President Donald Trump. Fifteen percent were unsure what they would do. Those intending to vote Conservative in the upcoming Canadian election were divided on where their hypothetical vote would go. Forty-five percent would support Trump while 42 percent said they would vote for Harris. Canadians aged 55 and older, Quebecers and women were more likely to support Harris.