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Student unions in Ottawa are applauding the new federal budget, saying funding increases for grants, extension of the interest-free period for loans and changes to the repayment assistance program will make post-secondary education more accessible.
The Trudeau Liberals pledged $4.1 billion to help ease the financial burden of post-education in Monday’s sprawling financial blueprint, quickly winning plaudits from student groups who have long argued for more federal funding.
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Tim Gulliver, incoming president of the University of Ottawa’s Student Union, says the plan addresses requests that many student organizations have been making for years, calling it “a pretty historic investment” in education.
Pandemic rise of virtual care and telemedicine could bring with it climate benefits, researchers say.
Tears for family members, relief for airlines as Australia-New Zealand travel routes increase significantly.
Read more: Follow all the details and analysis of the federal budget announcement; Canadian new housing starts for March easily beat analyst expectations.
Motorists are stopped at a police checkpoint in Ottawa on Monday as new COVID-19 restrictions came into effect that limit travel into the province of Ontario. (Patrick Doyle/Reuters)
Some provinces begin to expand AstraZeneca vaccine eligibility
Manitoba on Monday followed on the heels of Ontario and Alberta by announcing that anyone aged 40 and up is now eligible to receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine.
iPolitics By Kady O Malley. Published on Apr 20, 2021 6:31am Border control was among the topics of the auditor general s report on pandemic preparedness. (Martin Regg Cohn/Toronto Star)
Amid another round of surging COVID-19 cases across the country,
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS members will take a closer look at the initial efforts by the federal government to respond to the first wave of outbreaks last year, courtesy of a briefing session with
Auditor General Karen Hogan on the findings of her report on “pandemic preparedness, surveillance and border controls,” which was tabled last month.
The committee will also hear from the heads of the two agencies that were the focus of the audit:
With
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland poised to deliver her inaugural budget speech on Monday afternoon, the Star’s Heather Scoffield has a sneak peek of what to expect: an across-the-board extension of “all the main pandemic-support programs until the coming fall,” as well as “a completely new benefit that subsidizes employers for hiring more people, or increasing the hours their employees work.”
In putting together what was once expected to be the first
post-pandemic budget, Freeland “has devoted much of her attention to plotting a long-term recovery strategy for the country, with child-care funding, inclusivity, and environmentally sustainable growth at the centre,” Scoffield notes.