Gord Johns

The federal government announced a new registry to track plastic production to set the tone as negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty kick off on April 23 in Ottawa.

Federal New Democrats spent on Wednesday seeking guidance from Albertans, who the party said are on the front lines of Canada's housing crisis, to help them form policies around addressing the needs of lower-income households.

The mountains of trash from foreign countries seen piling up around homes and temples in Myanmar are renewing calls for Canada and other wealthy countries to deal with their own plastic garbage at home, instead of exporting waste — and the problem — to the developing world.

A Vancouver Island community is sounding the alarm about the lack of federal and provincial regulations targetting boat-dismantling operations that may leak pollutants like asbestos and heavy metals into Canadian waters.

Dominic Barton, the former global managing director of McKinsey & Company, says he had no involvement in federal contracts awarded to the firm in recent years.

The grieving moms who headed to Ottawa Wednesday to urge federal MPs to support a bill designed to tackle the deadly toxic drug crisis found their pleas fell on deaf ears.

In the year since new rules to slow global exports of plastic waste took effect, Canada's shipments rose by more than 13 per cent, and most of it is going to the United States with no knowledge of where it ultimately ends up.

Environmental groups want the Canadian government to call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, joining countries like Chile and the EU Parliament.

Despite releasing its wild salmon policy 15 years ago, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has made little headway in stabilizing the decline of wild salmon, much less restoring at-risk populations, a parliamentary committee concluded this week.

The group Savestartups.ca counts 21 businesses, most of them cafes, bars and restaurants in B.C. and Ontario, that have found themselves unable to access the government’s wage and rent subsidies because they opened after the pandemic was declared.

Community advocates assisting folks who are homeless are overjoyed a cold weather shelter has been established in the city of Parksville on Vancouver Island.

Ken Hardie, who represents the British Columbia riding of Fleetwood-Port Kells, raised several questions during a parliamentary committee meeting about the assessments studied by the department to arrive at its conclusion that open-net pen fish farms pose little risk to wild salmon.

“When will the Liberals work with the provinces to help addicts obtain treatment? ... I am not talking about just some nice words buried in this throne speech," said Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge Conservative MP Marc Dalton.

Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan announced Wednesday that the Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program will open for applications from Aug. 24 to Sept. 21.

NDP, CFIB say the program is a good first step, but have raised concerns about the program’s viability, including the fact that it relies on landlords to participate.