DND and CAF ‘exempt’ from further spending cuts, says Blair after department was asked to find $900-million a year in savings
Feds looking to find $15.8-billion in savings through ‘Refocus Government Spending’ initiative as pressure mounts for Canada to boost defence spending.
Cannabis industry seeks change as part of profits go up in smoke under outdated tax regime: stakeholders
Switching to a flat-rate tax or a standardized excise stamp would help the industry ‘overnight,’ according to the Cannabis Council of Canada’s Paul McCarthy.
‘Overtaxed and overburdened’: cannabis industry suffocating under regulatory regime as feds take puff past excise relief in budget
Cannabis Council of Canada’s Paul McCarthy says he’s ‘bewildered’ at the feds’ lack of action despite growing calls from industry, experts, and a House committee.
Feds ‘shooting themselves in the foot’ on cannabis excise tax as some producers choose illicit market over bankruptcy
Cannabis marketing CEO Lisa Campbell says she expects more than half of the existing licensed producers and retailers will fold in a year, well before ISED’s strategy table consultations conclude.
Feds puffed past opportunity for cannabis reform in budget
The most recent federal budget has harshed the cannabis industry’s buzz. As The Hill Times’ Stuart Benson reports, stakeholders were holding their breath for some excise tax relief in the new fiscal plan, in a similar vein to what was passed around to their alcohol counterparts. However, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland didn’t abide, and many […]
Tax and regulation combine to crush cannabis innovation and jobs
The illicit market is really the big winner when legal cannabis companies fall by the wayside with no pathway to profitability and no platform to offer innovative cannabis products to consumers.
Governments are nipping the cannabis industry in the bud
VICTORIA, B.C.—In 2015, legalization of cannabis seemed like such a good idea. Then-third-party Liberal leader Justin Trudeau laid out a plan for legalization that appealed to young people across the country, but was responsible enough to not turn off older folks like me. It was a vote-getter for the Liberals. However, as with so many […]
NDP urges Senate to pass justice reform bill, begin countdown to drug-possession record suspension
As the Senate studies Bill C-5, NDP MP Randall Garrison and civil liberties associations say they hope Senators won’t make ‘perfect the enemy of the good’ in addressing the ‘historic injustice’ of drug criminalization.
‘Challenge accepted’: De Adder retweets every Poilievre cartoon he’s ever drawn after receiving threatening email
Political cartoonist Michael de Adder, who works his magic for The Washington Post, The Hill Times, The Toronto Star, and The Halifax Chronicle Herald, tweeted out a particularly nasty email he had received from a supporter of new Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Oct. 3. The person didn’t like his Poilievre as The Omen cartoon. “One way or the […]
Groups return to ‘invaluable’ in-person advocacy on the Hill after years lobbying behind screens
The return of in-person lobby days in Ottawa continued in May, with representatives of organizations glad to be back on Parliament Hill to pursue dialogue with MPs face-to-face for the first time in years. Among those organizations was the Direct Sellers Association of Canada (DSA), a trade association representing companies that market and distribute products […]
