The federal government’s carbon tax came into effect April 1 for four provinces — Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick — that didn’t meet Ottawa’s standard for a sufficient carbon pricing system.
How Billionaires and Big Pharma Battled Canada’s National Drug Plan | The Tyee
Why? Sharon Batt, an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University, looked at the reasons in a report for the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
Batt found powerful players — including insurance and drug companies — profit from the current system. And that they had unleashed a major, expensive lobbying, PR and public campaign to fight a national pharmacare program.
Though seemingly diverse, virtually all the opposition to pharmacare can be traced back to a network of well-funded interests exerting their influence largely in secret. This Big Money Club — made up of pharmaceutical companies, the health insurance industry, and both Canadian and foreign free-market billionaires — are the only players who stand to lose from pharmacare. For the rest of Canadians, pharmacare would be a substantial gain.
With deep pockets and considerable resources, the Big Money Club is employing an expansive strategy to stop the delivery of pharmacare to Canadians.
Cost Estimate of an Increase in the Duration of Employment Insurance (EI) Sickness Benefits
This report estimates the additional cost to be approximately $1.10 billion in 2020. By 2025, this cost is expected to grow to an additional $1.30 billion per year. Increases in the cost of the program translate to an increase in the premium rate paid by employees and employers in Canada. Therefore, the increase in the duration of benefits is expected to raise the employee premium rate by a total of 6-cents from the baseline rate of $1.62 per $100 of insurable earnings. #abpoli #ableg #health
Foundation miscalculation: Why the Muskrat transmission line went so far over budget | CBC News
The so-called desktop study relied on data from, among other things, aerial photos, with practically no “ground truthing,” such as digging test holes at tower sites.
It’s one of several reasons why cost overruns on the link project had reached $650 million by March 2018, with the line now mostly complete.
NB Power emerges as climate-change doomsayer after years of costly storm damage | CBC News
According to that material, NB Power has paid out nearly $100 million to repair damage from 64 storms over the last six years. That’s five times more damage than it repaired in the six years prior to that, even though there were 76 storms.