In the news today: Canada sending official to emergency meeting on Haiti crisis

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…

Canada to attend emergency meeting on Haiti

Canada is sending an official to attend an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday, following an invite from Caribbean leaders who want to discuss escalating gang violence in Haiti.

A spokesperson for the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, will attend the meeting.

Caricom, the 15-nation Caribbean bloc, said in a statement late Friday that “the situation on the ground remains dire” in Haiti. The Caribbean leaders have also invited the United States, France, the United Nations and Brazil to the meeting.

Families lose faith after loved ones escape Gaza

Canadian families with loved ones in the Gaza Strip are increasingly saying they’ve lost faith in the federal government’s ability to get them across the secure border to Egypt.

Ottawa launched a reunification program in January to offer people in Gaza with extended family in Canada a temporary visa, but warned there was no guarantee Canada could secure their exit.

Now families say they’ve paid the way for their loved one’s to cross the border and have finished the screening process, but still haven’t heard back about their visas.

Toronto-based immigration lawyer Debbie Rachlis says she represents at least 50 Palestinians in Egypt who managed to escape without Canada’s help and are waiting for Canadian visas as part of the program, and she’s aware of roughly 100 similar cases being handled by other lawyers.

Here’s what else we’re watching …

Snow dump leaves more than 100,000 Quebecers without power

More than 120,000 Quebecers found themselves without power on Sunday after snow and strong winds buffeted parts of the province.

Environment Canada issued snowfall warnings for scores of communities over the weekend, with some expected to receive up to 45 centimetres of snow through Monday.

By Sunday afternoon, Quebec City and the Charlevoix region received as much as 35 centimetres of the snow, which could be “heavy and wet and at times mixed with rain,” threatening to bring down branches and trees, the department said.

Insolvencies to stay elevated in 2024: experts

Experts say business insolvencies will likely remain elevated throughout 2024 as the economy plays catch-up after historically low insolvency levels during the pandemic.

Dina Kovacevic is the editor of Insolvency Insider, a digital media company focused on the insolvency and restructuring industry in Canada.

She says government support and patient lenders kept business insolvency levels low for several years, longer than industry watchers had expected.

Kovacevic says insolvencies definitely picked up in 2023, nearing and then surpassing 2019 levels.

School snack programs say they’re in dire need

Half of a tangerine instead of a whole one, half of a hard-boiled egg or an apple cut six ways — student nutrition programs across Ontario are finding ways to stretch increasingly insufficient dollars.

The province needs to double funding for such initiatives, and even that may not meet the rising demand those programs are seeing, student nutrition programs and advocates told the government ahead of the spring budget.

The Ontario chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food is asking the province to double its current investment in student nutrition programs, from a total of $32.3 million to $64.4 million in 2024.

‘Clean slate’ for B.C. wine after vintage wipeout

Vineyards at the heart of British Columbia’s wine industry are reeling after two years of climate-related crop losses, including a cold snap in January that appears to have almost completely wiped out this year’s vintage.

The industry needs support as it recovers, but Vancouver-based sommelier Van Doren Chan says it’s also an opportunity to reshape winemaking in the province.

Chan says all signs suggest only a limited selection of B-C wines will hit retail shelves in the coming years as vineyards undertake significant replanting efforts.

She says she expects wineries will scale back to focus on direct sales and fulfilling orders for their wine club members as they wait for the new vines to mature.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press