Thursday, October 3, 2024

News roundup, 3 Oct 2024

- The House of Commons has passed a motion from the Bloc Quebecois that calls on the government to "take the necessary steps" to pass Bill C-319 and ensure it is signed into law. The Conservatives, NDP, and Greens all voted in favour of the motion, as did five Liberal MPs. The actual bill, a private member's bill introduced by the Bloc, would boost benefits for seniors aged 65 to 74; since it involves expenditures it cannot actually be passed without the support of the government. The bill is controversial, with some warning that it is a fiscal disaster waiting to happen.

- Manitoba premier Wab Kinew has apologized to the legal community for his comments related to the expulsion of Mark Wasyliw from the NDP caucus. The affair doesn't seem to have harmed the premier's popularity, though.

- Community health services in much of Manitoba could face significant disruptions as CUPE and MGEU threaten to go on strike effective October 8. MGEU head Kyle Ross believes a strike is likely based on the offers from Shared Health.

- As more disasters like Hurricane Helene take their toll, we can expect to see a lot of migration as people leave the most vulnerable areas. And once it starts, it will tend to feed on itself. Not everyone is equally mobile, though, and it's likely that those who don't leave early will be unable to sell their properties. Meanwhile the tax base in the affected areas will collapse, making it harder to cover costs associated with climate change even as those costs keep increasing.

- The US military is testing robot dogs with rifles. They say the robots will only be used against drones. And of course the US military would never lie about something like that, right?

- A Pickering man seems not to have realized that modern cars keep a record of when you overrev them and that manufacturers may not honour the warranty when you do that. You'd think he'd know better, being a student of auto mechanics...

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