DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The world’s second Sphere is planned to be built in the capital of the United Arab Emirates after the opening of the first giant dome entertainment complex in Las Vegas.

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism and Sphere Entertainment Co. announced the plan late Tuesday to bring a Sphere to the Middle East.

Under the deal, Abu Dhabi will pay a franchise fee to Sphere Entertainment to build the second location using its designs. Abu Dhabi’s government will pay to build the structure, as well as annual fees to Sphere Entertainment “for creative and artistic content.”

The announcement offered no financing information, nor did it say where the Sphere would be built in the Emirati capital. Abu Dhabi’s government did not immediately respond to questions about the project Wednesday. Sphere declined to comment beyond the initial announcement.

The massive $2.3 billion Las Vegas Sphere opened in 2023 as the gambling capital’s most expensive entertainment venue. A high-resolution LED screen wraps halfway around the 17,500-seat audience. It has hosted concerts and sporting events inside the world’s largest spherical structure standing at 366 feet (111 meters) tall and 516 feet (157 meters) wide.

However, efforts to build a second Sphere abroad have been choppy. London Mayor Sadiq Khan rejected a plan to build one in the city’s east over multiple concerns last year, including light pollution.

Abu Dhabi has been trying to differentiate itself as a travel destination from neighboring Dubai in the UAE, an energy-rich federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.

The UAE is also preparing to open the first casino in the country. While the only one currently under construction is in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, other sheikhdoms in the country are believed to be actively considering having their own.

Sphere is the brainchild of James Dolan, the executive chair of Madison Square Garden and the owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers.

Stock in Sphere closed more than 6% higher Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange to $48.91 a share. That’s a major boost after Benchmark last month downgraded Sphere Entertainment to “sell” over “concerns over the Sphere’s “scalability, high production costs and a potentially underwhelming profitability outlook.”

Meanwhile, some projects in the UAE have failed to be built or been delayed for years after being announced in economic downturns.

Trademark filings show Sphere Entertainment Co. trademark filings made as well in Japan, Oman and Qatar, though there’s no announced plans for similar venues. Companies often protectively trademark their names in other markets without necessarily having business there.

The state of Georgia has reported a record turnout on the first day of early voting in the United States elections, revealing a high level of engagement in the key battleground state.

Hours after polls opened in the southern state on Tuesday, election officials reported that more than 251,000 voters had already cast their ballot in person.

One of several races on the ballot is the high-profile showdown for the White House: Vice President Kamala Harris — the Democratic presidential candidate — is set to face off against her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s voter tally in Georgia blew away the state’s previous record for the first day of in-person early voting, set in 2020. That year saw 133,000 residents show up to vote.

“As of 4pm [ET] we have crossed the quarter million mark with 251,899 votes cast. Spectacular turnout. We are running out of adjectives for this,” Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State, posted on X.

Historically, large turnouts for early voting have favoured Democrats, although both parties have been urging voters to go to the polls early in states where it is allowed.

US presidential elections are ultimately determined through a weighted voting system called the Electoral College.

Each state has a certain number of Electoral College votes to award, and most grant those votes in a winner-takes-all system: Whichever candidate wins the state — no matter how small the margin — receives all the Electoral College votes.

Georgia, with its 16 Electoral College votes, is one of seven tightly-fought “swing states”, which could lean either Democrat or Republican this election cycle. Other battleground states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.

Close races in those states could determine who becomes the next president.

Eyes on Georgia

Tuesday’s tally has been interpreted as a sign of voter enthusiasm, particularly as the presidential race enters its final stretch. Election day — the final opportunity to cast a ballot — is set for November 5.

Both Harris’s and Trump’s campaigns have set their sights on winning Georgia. Trump rallied in its capital, Atlanta, on Tuesday, and Harris is set to hold her own event in the city on Saturday.

In 2020, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1992, a victory largely attributed to a huge uptick in Black voting. Black residents account for about one-third of Georgia’s population.

But with a margin of victory of just 11,779, the state also became a key lever in Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s victory.

In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump infamously pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find” more votes, and he actively spread misinformation that the ballot tally was marred by election fraud.

The Republican leader was subsequently indicted on state racketeering charges in relation to his alleged efforts to overturn the vote.

The pending case, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, will not go to trial before the 2024 election. Nevertheless, recent polls show Harris and Trump remain locked in a neck-and-neck race in the state.

Some Democrats fear that an apparent softening in Black voters’ support for Harris could help tip the race.

While Black residents overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, a recent poll from The New York Times and Siena College showed Harris polling at lower levels than Biden did in 2020.

In turn, Trump’s campaign has increasingly sought to appeal to Black voters, whom critics say Democrats have taken for granted.

Trump’s claim that migrants are taking “Black jobs” has become a mainstay of his stump speech.

Harris has also made a concerted effort to appeal more to Black men. Earlier this week, she released a policy plan that would include giving forgivable business loans to Black entrepreneurs, more support for studying diseases that disproportionately affect African-American men and legalising marijuana on the federal level.

“Black men have long felt that too often their voice in our political process has gone unheard and that there is so much untapped ambition and leadership within the Black male community,” the Harris campaign said upon releasing the proposal.

Court ruling

Meanwhile, questions about the validity of Georgia’s election proceedings, fuelled by Trump’s false claims of fraud, have continued to hang over the state’s vote.

On Monday, Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney ruled that local election board members could not refuse to certify election results in any situation.

That came in response to a local election board member’s request that the court rule that the certification is discretionary.

The request stoked concerns that some election board members — particularly those who have cast doubt on the 2020 results — would refuse to certify results in their counties.

Such a refusal would have wide-ranging implications in an election that could come down to just a handful of votes.

McBurney also blocked a new Georgia State Election Board rule that would have required districts to hand-count ballots.

Election experts have warned the approach is actually less accurate than machine counting and could create long waits for a final tally. That, in turn, could help to fuel doubt and conspiracy theories about the election results.

Two senior transit executives at Metrolinx appear to be the casualties of a major shakeup at the provincial transit agency, Global News has learned, as the Crown corporation struggles with the delayed delivery of multiple light rail vehicle projects.

On Tuesday, Metrolinx told employees about changes that mean the agency’s chief planner and the chief operating officer of rapid transit had both left the company, as the planning department undergoes a complete overhaul.

The changes come in the wake of several Global News stories outlining the construction and financial challenges plaguing the Eglinton Crosstown, Finch West and Hurontario LRTs which have left all three projects without a completion date.

Metrolinx said its “mandate and the complexity” of the work it handles is changing, citing that as a reason for the internal shakeup.

The LRT delays have led to persistent calls for top-to-bottom transformation at Metrolinx, including the firing of its CEO Phil Verster, who remains in the position.

The changes, however, appear to relate to the province’s transit construction woes: one of the executives who left the agency was directly involved in the delivery of transit projects, while another dealt with public-private partnerships, also known as P3 projects.

A now-deleted description of the chief planning officer’s role said they had “overseen the construction and completion of countless instrumental infrastructural pieces” and “partnered with Infrastructure Ontario on the procurement of P3 projects.”

The chief operating officer of rapid transit, who is also no longer with the agency, was “responsible for bringing into service the upcoming Light Rail Transit, and Subways Systems.”

Metrolinx said it would not comment on the employment of individual employment changes.

Multiple sources also confirmed the planning department — which had hundreds of staff — had been split and moved into various other areas of the organization.

The planning department’s responsibilities included design, business cases and land use decisions. Local and regional integration for the massive transit agency was also part of its role.

“Metrolinx’s mandate and the complexity of our work has increased significantly over the past several years. As a result, there is a need for the organization to evolve and adapt to deliver on North America’s largest transit expansion,” a Metrolinx spokesperson told Global News.

“This requires that the right combinations of people, competencies, processes, and structures are in place. It’s not unusual for organizations to make strategic changes to its management structure from time to time to better align with more complex scopes of work and project priorities. Metrolinx is no different.”

The provincial transit agency has been struggling for some time with several delayed light rail projects.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Finch West project, both in Toronto, have been plagued with legal challenges from their builders who allege the role of the TTC has made it harder for them to complete their construction work.

On both projects, Metrolinx has withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in final payments from the construction consortiums until it is satisfied the routes are finished.

Meanwhile, in Mississauga, the Hurontario LRT appears also to be facing construction and financing issues, with the warning it could have its credit rating downgraded.

None of the three lines — due to open originally in 2020, 2023 and 2024 — have concrete opening dates.

Opposition critics at Queen’s Park said the latest changes to Metrolinx show the Ford government’s transit agenda is stalling and mired in delays.

“Under Ford’s watch, Ontario’s transit planning has gone off the rails,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a statement.

“The province’s transit planning agency no longer having a chief transit planner could mean even more delays for vital transit projects. While a shake-up at Metrolinx is long overdue, things can’t get much better while Ford’s million dollar man Phil Verster remains CEO.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Metrolinx’s CEO had to be the one to go.

“The premier needs to call for the resignation of Phil Verster at Metrolinx and we need to fix what’s happening at Metrolinx right now,” he told Global News, in response to delays with the Hurontario LRT.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Ford government cannot deliver LRTs on time or on budget and they’re holding no one accountable for it.”

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office intervened in 2019 to keep Han Dong off a House of Commons committee probing Canada’s relations with China, according to testimony from Trudeau’s most senior staff.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed security-cleared Liberal officials during the 2019 election about “irregularities” related to Dong’s nomination as the party’s candidate in Don Valley North.

Those irregularities included CSIS intelligence suggesting Chinese diplomatic officials leaned on international students to support Dong’s nomination, as well as the busing of people to the nomination meeting coerced into supporting the now-independent MP.

Documents previously published by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s foreign interference inquiry suggest that CSIS was aware of those “irregularities,” first reported by Global News in 2023 and had briefed senior Liberal officials about the issue in 2019.

Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus on March 22, 2023, and now sits as an independent. He has denied any wrongdoing and is suing Global News’ parent company over its foreign interference coverage.

“I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because … I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” Dong told the foreign interference inquiry earlier this year.

Dong’s campaign manager, Ted Lojko, testified that he didn’t know anything about the busload of students.

While Dong was allowed to remain sitting as a Liberal MP for years, the intelligence was of sufficient concern that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) nixed Dong’s candidacy to sit on the special committee on the Canada-People’s Republic of China relationship, according to Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff, Brian Clow.

“After the (2019) election, the Clerk briefed the Prime Minister, (Chief of Staff Katie) Telford, and (Jeremy) Broadhurst about the intelligence” related to Dong, documents released by the commission Tuesday read.

“However, there was very little information available.… At that point the level of Mr. Dong’s engagement with the (People’s Republic of China) was unclear.… Mr. Clow stated that, around December 2019, the Whip’s Office put Mr. Dong’s name forward for membership on the China-Canada Committee. Because of the concerns that officials had raised, PMO intervened and Mr. Dong was not appointed.”

The committee was established to examine “all aspects” of the Canada-China relationship, but has focused much of its time examining Beijing’s alleged interference in Canadian affairs and human rights violations by the communist government.

Trudeau had previously told the commission that the 2019 briefings did not have “sufficient or sufficiently credible information” to remove Dong as a Liberal MP, or as a candidate in the 2021 general election when he retained his GTA seat for the Liberals.

According to documents published by the inquiry on Tuesday, the PMO decided that Dong would not be “promoted” to cabinet or a parliamentary secretary role after the 2019 election. Dong previously told the commission that meeting with diplomats — including from other countries — was part of his job as an MP.

PMO officials also testified that they expected the intelligence agency to provide “updates” on any new information related to Dong’s relationships with PRC officials.

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“Ms. Telford testified there were back-and-forth discussions with intelligence services at the time, including about the fact that it was not uncommon to have buses of supporters in nomination meetings,” one document reads.

“Ms. Telford and the Clerk sought to understand what were the concerns and the intelligence that they were based on.”

The evidence gets at an issue that has been repeatedly raised during the months-long probe into foreign interference in Canada – differences of opinion between intelligence agencies, who know intelligence-gathering but are not necessarily well-versed in politics, and political veterans who are not necessarily experts in intelligence.

Those debates between intelligence agencies and politicos are particularly pronounced in what has been called the “grey area” between normal, if aggressive, diplomatic behaviour versus interference operations.

It’s not unusual for foreign countries to collect information about influential political figures in Canada, for instance – and Canadian diplomats do the same thing in countries where they’re posted.

But the line between collecting information to inform policy and collecting information for leverage or blackmail is not always easy to spot.

“Ms. Telford explained that they often see debates play out between departments (such as Global Affairs Canada and CSIS) and other parts of the government about the difference between diplomatic activity and (foreign interference),” one document read.

“She gave the example of when they are presented with information in a security assessment that an individual is ‘vulnerable’ to a country or High Commission. The individual being vulnerable does not mean they have erred.… This is different from when they are told that an individual is covertly doing something inappropriate with a foreign official.”

As for Dong’s future with the federal Liberals, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told the commission Tuesday afternoon that he will wait for Hogue’s final report before making a recommendation to Trudeau.

Trudeau himself is scheduled to testify at the commission Wednesday, with Hogue’s final report expected by the end of the year.

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The company building the Hurontario LRT, also known as the Hazel McCallion line, appears to have hit major financial hurdles leading to new warnings that the project is at risk of a credit downgrade if it can’t meet upcoming construction targets.

Mobilinx Hurontario — the construction consortium building the 18-km line — was awarded a $4.6 billion contract in 2019 to design, build, finance and operate the line for 30 years.

While the line was initially promised to be delivered in “Fall 2024,” according to Infrastructure Ontario, the LRT no longer has an official opening date as a result of what appears to be construction and financing issues related to the project.

Mobilinx has faced legal challenges in both Toronto and Brampton over the alleged failure to return equipment, pay rental fees and square up a $2.7-million bill with another subcontractor.

Meanwhile, a new report from S&P Global Ratings pointed to “newly reported delays” in construction that could jeopardize Mobilinx’s ability to pay off its creditors — forcing provincial transit agency Metrolinx to consider a “global settlement.”

“We are aware of the recent S&P Report and are in regular communication with Mobilinx on the project,” a spokesperson for Metrolinx said in a statement.

“When construction nears completion and we move into the testing and commissioning phase, we will be in a better position to provide a specific opening date.”

Mobilinx did not respond to a request for comment from Global News in time for publication.

Despite construction delays through the pandemic, Metrolinx said Mobilinx and its contractors have made “significant progress” in completing the 19-stop Hurontario LRT, which is set to run the length of Mississauga.

Mobilinx installed two push boxes — a large, concrete box used to create tunnels under existing rail and road infrastructure — at the Port Credit GO station and under the Queen Elizabeth Way, while construction of the elevation portion of the LRT, over Highway 403, is also underway.

“Track work has finished at 30 of 55 intersections along the corridor, with six out of 18 stops having now been constructed,” Metrolinx told Global News. “Preparations are also underway for the delivery of the Light Rail Vehicles at our Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility.”

At the same time Metrolinx says tangible progress is being made on the route, a newly-published credit agency report shows a growing number of issues are plaguing the line, including on an already-installed portion of the track.

“The main reasons for the newly reported delays are special track procurement and track tolerance issues in certain areas of the project’s alignment,” said S&P Global Ratings in an Oct. 2 report.

In some cases, S&P said, Mobilinx discovered track tolerance issues on portions of the LRT that have already been installed but are now “out of compliance with specifications.”

In another instance, in order to accommodate the LRT wheels, Mobilinx had to “make specific design changes” which meant the consortium was forced to “reprocure special tracks” for the project.

“The project believes the root cause has been addressed and is determining a path forward,” S&P said.

The delays, however, also appear to have created a financing problem for the consortium, largely because its timeline for completion is now an open question.

“Since the project is incurring concurrent delays on multiple other fronts, the implications and treatments of such delays are still under discussion,” S&P said.

In 2019, with the construction contract in hand, Mobilinx went to private lenders to secure hundreds of millions in loans, including: $262 million in secured bonds and $487 million in credit facility.

S&P Global Ratings now warns that Mobilinx is at risk of a credit rating downgrade because its “cushion” to repay lenders is quickly running out.

“The CreditWatch placement reflects that we could lower the rating if Mobilinx reports further delays such that we view the senior lenders’ long-stop date is at risk or if it does not receive interim schedule relief and an extension to the longstop date in the next few months,” S&P said.

The credit problems are a concern for one local Mississauga councillor, representing a city that has long advocated to have its own rapid transit route.

“It’s certainly not something you want to see,” Coun. Joe Horneck told Global News. “It’s certainly not a welcome headline and I hope it won’t delay implementation.”

As construction of the Hurontario LRT progressed, the builders also found themselves in court thrashing out multiple financial disputes with subcontractors.

In late 2023, Barricade Traffic & Services filed a lawsuit in Toronto claiming it was owed more than $300,000 for rental equipment that was “not returned or made available for pickup” by Mobilinx.

The company claims that the consortium refused to return traffic control equipment once the retail period had ended and continued to use the equipment “without payment.”

“The plaintiff states that Mobilinx’s refusal to return the outstanding traffic control equipment has, and continues to cause ongoing damage to the plaintiff in terms of lost opportunities in the marketplace,” the company stated in its claim.

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Neither Barricade Traffic nor Mobilinx returned requests for comment.

In another lawsuit, filed in Brampton last year, Vaughan Paving claimed it was contracted by Mobilinx to pour concrete for inlaid rail along the LRT.

“The plaintiff delivered the materials and services requested with the sum of $2,749,126,84, including H.S.T., remaining unpaid and owing.”

It’s unclear whether the cases have been resolved.

While Metrolinx has not publicly drawn attention to the construction or financing issues facing the Hurontario LRT, the latest issues mean it is now the third light rail project under construction in Ontario facing potential serious completion problems.

The years-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Finch West LRT, both in Toronto, have been mired in delays, leading to lawsuits between the construction consortiums and Metrolinx and erasing any certainty over when the lines will be in service for transit riders.

“We have obviously read in the media the challenges with the Crosstown LRT in Toronto and other LRT projects,” Horneck said. “I hope that that’s not what we’re talking about here.”

In each instance, Metrolinx has been able to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in final payments from the consortiums — the only leverage the provincial transit agency routinely exerts over large construction firms.

While it’s unclear how much of the $4.6 billion Metrolinx has been able to withhold from Mobilinx, the two entities are now attempting to work out a financial deal that will allow the consortium to pay off its debts.

“We understand that the project is aiming to resolve the pending claims through a global settlement with (contracting authority, Metrolinx),” the S&P report states.

“Although the timeline on the final resolution remains unknown, whether the project can achieve intermediate progress with interim schedule relief in the next few months will be critical to the project’s rating,” S&P added.

Also unknown are the future expansion plans for the Hurontario LRT in Mississauga and Brampton that were abruptly by Premier Doug Ford in late January.

The changes were to take the line north into Brampton and to revive a loop around downtown Mississauga axed during the Ford government’s first term.

“I’m going to spend a couple of billion dollars more to make sure that we do the loop,” Ford said at the time.

Horneck said the city was expecting an update from Metrolinx this fall, but has yet to receive concrete information on the extensions.

“We’re still waiting for what the numbers are going to be like, what the dates of delivery would be like to extend the line we’re already constructing,” Horneck said.

Metrolinx said the province has designated the expansion as a priority transit project and is currently working on planning and funding work but it has not committed to expanding the scope of the Mobilinx contract.

“A construction team will be determined through the planning and procurement process,” Metrolinx said in a statement.

Neither the completion date for the expansion nor its cost have been made public by the Ford government.

A job listing at a Toronto-area Burger King has prompted observers and experts to wonder whether the temporary foreign workers program is being used to avoid paying higher salaries to Canadians.

On Sept. 25, a Burger King in Mississauga, Ont., posted an opening for a restaurant manager position on the federal government’s online job bank.

The post drew criticism from some social media users, who noted that underneath the posting, a banner reads, “This employer has applied for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to hire a foreign worker to fill labour or skills shortages on a temporary basis.”

This means that the employer, unable to hire a domestic worker for the post, has requested permission from the federal government to open the position up to foreign workers.

A spokesperson for Burger King told Global News that the posting “is directly related to one or more open management positions in the Mississauga area that have not been filled for several months after advertising across employment platforms and not receiving any qualified candidates.”

The job comes with an annual salary offer of $48,000, which works out to be just under $25 an hour, with hours listed as “Day, Evening, Night, Weekend, Early Morning, Morning.”

Global News asked Burger King whether they considered raising the advertised salary to attract more people for the role before applying for a LMIA.

“The wage at which the job was posted is a competitive range amongst quick service restaurants in the Mississauga area, which is based on competitive data and the Franchisee’s experience in hiring in this market,” the spokesperson said in response.

There’s nothing illegal about what Burger King is doing, and no rules are being broken.

It comes amid growing scrutiny on the Temporary Foreign Worker program and growing concerns about whether access to less expensive labour through the program can hurt the potential for wage growth in communities.

Matthew Green, the labour critic of the federal NDP, told Global News, “This case is yet another example of decades of abuse that highlights how the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is being exploited by industries to source cheap labour, suppressing wages for Canadian workers. Employers are using the TFW program not as a short-term solution, but as a way to avoid offering higher wages that would attract and retain local workers.”

Global News also reached out to the Conservatives with questions.

In response, the Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office sent a quote from a press conference he did in August, saying: “I challenge Canadian business to hire Canadian workers first and I challenge the government to end the chaos in the temporary foreign worker program, bring the numbers down, and allow Canadians to get good solid paying jobs that will give them enough money to buy an affordable home and food in safe neighborhoods.”

Employment and Social Development Canada did not comment on this specific case due to privacy concerns, but added that it had a strict criteria for assessing LMIA applications.

“Employers seeking to hire temporary foreign workers must always demonstrate that they cannot find Canadians or permanent residents to meet their labour needs. This is a last resort program for employers. There are also national minimum advertising standards for employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers,” a spokesperson for ESDC told Global News.

The agency said employers must report on their efforts to recruit or interview Canadian citizens and permanent residents. They added that an LMIA application is no guarantee that a positive LMIA will be granted.

“As part of the LMIA approval process, the federal government requires proof that Franchisees have advertised for at least four weeks to show that efforts have been made to fill the position locally. In this case, they have far exceeded that requirement. The role continues to be available and open to all applicants,” Burger King said in its statement to Global News.

The posting on the job bank indicates that the Burger King salary is slightly higher than the median wage for similar positions across Canada, which is around $22 an hour.

According to the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN), the living wage for the Greater Toronto Area is $25.05 per hour.

Manan Gupta, a registered Canadian immigration consultant based in Brampton, Ont., said the practice of employers listing jobs and seeking foreign workers isn’t a surprise.

“Some employers advertise [jobs] for the bare minimum period so they can qualify to apply for an LMIA,” Gupta said.

He added, “It has become a tool to exploit both Canadian and foreign workers. Unfortunately, this abuse is not going away.”

Gupta said what he describes as misuse of the system is bigger than just one employer or one sector. He pointed to a nexus between “greedy employers” and “shady immigration consultants.”

Christopher Worswick, an economist at Carleton University, said economists have been concerned that the temporary foreign workers program gives employers permission to rely on cheap labour.

“In the absence of a temporary foreign worker program, normally the firm would have to decide to reapply or re-advertise at a higher wage, or maybe do something else, like hire a different type of worker, invest in new technology, capital equipment,” he said.

“The existence of a temporary foreign worker program sort of short-circuits that process.”

He said the reliance on foreign workers can also lead to abuse of those immigrant workers who have little choice but to accept low-paying jobs with little power to negotiate with employers who their visas depend on.

“It’s not like you can walk across the street and work for a similar restaurant in a similar role at a higher wage. The tying of the worker to the job is especially problematic,” he said.

Worswick said the reliance of employers on the program not only slows wage growth but can actually lower wages.

“You’d actually expect lower wages in general for jobs where this was an option. Employers could advertise at a slightly lower wage, knowing that that raises the probability of failure in their search within Canada because they’re advertising a lower wage than they might otherwise,” he said.

Worswick said economists use the term “market-clearing wage rate” for such instances.

“If you’re consistently advertising at a wage at which there’s vacancies, then that suggests that that wage isn’t the market-clearing wage. You’ve set the wage too low in your advertising. You should raise that up until you get someone qualified applying,” he said.

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Max Roy, vice president of Restaurants Canada, said the hospitality sector needs foreign workers.

“Temporary foreign workers represent about 3 per cent of our workforce for the industry across Canada. But it’s a very important 3 per cent. Two-thirds of the temporary foreign workers are actually cooks. And without cooks, you just don’t have a restaurant,” he said.

In August, the federal government announced it was introducing restrictions to the TWF program.

The government said it will refuse applications for low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher. The Greater Toronto Area, of which Mississauga is a part, has an unemployment rate of 7.9 per cent.

A low-wage job is defined as one that pays below the median hourly wage in the province where the job is located.

For employers, there will be a cap of 10 per cent of employees coming from the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program and a reduction of maximum duration of employment from two years to one, according to the Employment and Social Development Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the program has helped the economy recover in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with inflation slowing down and employment levels up compared to before, the country no longer needs as many temporary foreign workers.

“We need Canadian businesses to invest in training and technology and not increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labour,” he said.

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”

The Burger King job posting was posted a day before the changes went into effect.

Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC, said this was one of the reasons productivity in Canada was lagging.

“We simply have too many workers working in low-paying industries. And if companies have an unlimited supply of very cheap labor, they will not invest in capital, they will not improve the productivity. And that’s one of the reasons why productivity in Canada is lagging behind,” Tal said.

Worswick said the TFW program needs to be done away with entirely.

Instead, he said the government should issue open work permits to foreign workers.

“It would be much better if we went back to a world where we admit medium to high-skilled immigrants in large numbers and then let them work where they want. Don’t tell them they’re tied to one employer, which is what we typically do in the temporary foreign worker program.”

Matthew Green of the NDP proposed something similar.

“Workers should arrive with landed status, preventing exploitation and ensuring fair treatment. Temporary workers in Canada should be regularized, granting them the rights they deserve, which would stop employers from using the TFW program to suppress wages,” he said.

Restaurants Canada recommends implementing a “matching and training program.”

“If you’re going to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers, fine. But please help us find those individuals within Canada that don’t have a job and would be willing to work and learn on onsite,” Max Roy of Restaurants Canada said.

Tal said that while restaurants may feel the pinch in the short term, this move could improve productivity in the long run.

“You have to innovate. You have to think about different menus. You have to think about different ways of attracting people while employing less people or paying them a bit more.”

Beijing begins manoeuvres in areas to north, south and east of island, days after President Lai’s first National Day speech.

China’s military has started a new round of war games with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, just days after the self-ruled democratic island marked its National Day.

The exercises, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, were taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan island” Captain Li Xi, the spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, said on Monday.

He added that the drills were “focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas” and would also involve an “assault on maritime and ground targets”.

The drills were a “legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity”, he added, giving no date for their conclusion.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence expressed its strong condemnation of China’s “irrational and provocative act” and said it had “dispatched appropriate forces to respond accordingly to protect freedom and democracy, and defend the sovereignty” of Taiwan.

In recent years, China has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own. The latest drills come just days after the island’s President William Lai Ching-te gave his first National Day address, promising he would resist any “annexation or encroachment” and that Beijing had no right to represent the island’s 23 million people.

“It was widely anticipated that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] would conduct military exercises following Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific programme, told Al Jazeera. “The drills have the effect of demonstrating to the domestic audience that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has the resolve to defend Chinese territory. They are also intended to warn Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing’s red lines.”

Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and said the drills were a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.

It has condemned Lai, who was elected in January and took office in May, as a “separatist” and previously staged military exercises, Joint Sword-2024A, three days after his inauguration.

Lev Nachman, a professor of political science at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, said China’s actions were no surprise.

“While military threats are no small matter, we all knew the PRC [People’s Republic of China] would respond to Lai’s Double Ten Day speech with military threats of some sort,” Nachman wrote on X. “There is no need to panic or overreact. We all saw this coming. It will pass quickly.”

In his speech on October 10, Lai had also appeared to reach out to Beijing, expressing hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges”, and urging Beijing to use its influence to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

China’s state-run Global Times, in an analysis of the speech published on Sunday, quoted analysts describing Lai’s speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane”.

Beijing has sought to erase Taiwan from the international stage, blocking it from global forums and poaching its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.

With reporting from Erin Hale in Taipei

The hopes of an anxious Liberal caucus were first raised at the end of the summer of 2022 in the resort town of St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick.

Liberals had gathered that August for the first in-person retreat after the pandemic to confront a series of polls that found them trailing the leaderless Conservatives by a few points.

In September of that year, the Conservatives would find their leader, Pierre Poilievre. Now, two years later, the anxiety of 2022 has turned to the panic of 2024 with multiple polls showing the Liberals 20 points behind and facing an absolute rout if an election were held this fall.

Many Liberal MPs who once thought they might survive on their own popularity are now facing the reality that they will lose their jobs because of the unpopularity of the same leader who helped them win back in 2015.

Liberal MPs were told at that 2022 caucus that there was a plan to turn things around. They were told the same thing when they met last month in Nanaimo, B.C., for this year’s summer caucus retreat. Indeed, applause could be heard from the closed-door meeting in the room at the conference centre in downtown Nanaimo when Trudeau’s director of strategic communications, Max Valiquette, presented his marketing plan for the months ahead.

Now many of those MPs complain that nothing was done after the St. Andrews meetings. And nothing has been done since Nanaimo.

The complainers say there has been no promised communications campaign, no change in policies, and no change in the way the PM and his senior aides interact with caucus.

Conservative campaigner Cole Hogan, a principal at gt&co, tracks the amount of money each party spends on Facebook advertising, figures which Facebook itself discloses about all political parties. For the week ending Oct. 5, the Conservatives spent $114,569 on Facebook ads compared to $3,086 by the Liberals and $1,240 by the NDP.

Hogan has documented week after week of this kind of lopsided ad spending ever since that Nanaimo meeting and before it. The data reinforces the views of complaining Liberals that nothing has been done.

And while Liberal MPs were promised some sort of marketing campaign to boost their fortunes, the Conservatives produced slick TV ads that aired on legacy television networks. The Liberal response? Trudeau did a podcast with one of his own backbenchers and made an appearance on a U.S. late-night TV show.

The contrast has some of Trudeau’s MPs shaking their heads.

At least one of the common complaints of many MPs who spoke to Global News this weekend was addressed Sunday when the party finally named a national campaign director, a position that had been vacant for more than a month after Jeremy Broadhurst resigned from the job.

The new campaign director is Andrew Bevan, who will be leaving his post as the chief of staff to Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and deputy prime minister.

Bevan is a Liberal ‘old hand,’ a soft-spoken Brit, quick with a smile and a laugh who has been working in and around federal and Ontario Liberal parties for ages.

“Good at reading people, wise in understanding how to help them trust him. And a very nice guy,” Robin Sears, the former principal secretary to NDP leader Ed Broadbent, wrote at Bevan’s LinkedIn page as an endorsement when Bevan joined Freeland’s office.

“Andrew Bevan knows how to win,” David Herle posted on his social accounts. Herle has run several political and federal campaigns for the Liberals.

That said, Bevan has also ended up as the top staffer in some famous Liberal lost causes. He ran Stephane Dion’s office when Dion was trying — and failing — to sell his Green Shift to Canadians in the 2008 election. He was Kathleen Wynne’s top advisor at Queen’s Park as the Liberal reign in Ontario came crashing down in 2018. Now he may be facing the steepest hill he’s ever had to climb: getting a long-in-the-tooth Trudeau government re-elected in 2025.

It will be no surprise to him that many of the incumbent Liberals he will be trying help re-elect think the job would be easier with a new leader.

Those who want a leadership change tend to be ‘blue’ Liberals, the kind who might have supported Paul Martin or John Manley in ancient leadership races. Some believe someone like François-Philippe Champagne, who represents Jean Chrétien’s old Shawinigan riding and serves as Trudeau’s minister for  innovation, science and industry, would immediately improve the Liberals’ fortunes if he were leader.

It’s not just leaders that need to change, say some of the complainers, it’s time also to abandon some cherished policies including the carbon tax.

“It’s out the door anyway when Poilievre wins,” one MP said.

Indeed, several progressive-minded politicians across the country have already decided that it is impossible to campaign and win on a federal carbon price.

New Democrat premiers Wab Kinew in Manitoba and David Eby in B.C. have called on the feds to scrap the carbon tax.

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck is campaigning in the provincial election underway in her province against a carbon tax. And federal NDP Jagmeet Singh, too, is now wavering on the principle of pricing carbon.

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In New Brunswick Liberal leader Susan Holt has also called on Ottawa to cancel any hikes in the carbon tax.

Now, there are members of Trudeau’s own caucus — largely MPs from English-speaking Canada — who think it’s time to do what Polievre’s Conservatives have been constantly calling for and “Axe the Tax.”

Global News spoke this weekend with many members of the Liberal caucus. Those who had something substantial to say about a mushrooming caucus revolt — either pro or con — preferred not to be quoted by name.

Indeed, one of those MPs seeking a leadership change said part of the problem is that there is almost no one seeking a revolt who will say so when the TV cameras are pointed at them.

Someone, this MP said, needs to either hold a press conference or organize a sustained “storm the microphone” campaign at the next Liberal caucus meeting which, given the ‘break week’ ahead, is not likely to occur until Oct. 23.

It’s unclear how widespread any caucus leadership revolt is.

The Toronto Star first reported Friday that a movement was underway to get rebels to commit in writing to seek a new leader. Other news organizations, including Global News, have confirmed the existence of such a document.

But how many have signed? It might be 20. It might be 30. There are, though, more than 150 Liberal MPs. Those who seek a leadership change say there would need to be at least 50 demanding change to force some action.

News of this ‘revolt’ broke publicly on Friday, as Trudeau and his closest aides were in the midst of a 13-hour flight from Laos to a refuelling stop in Honolulu on an RCAF aircraft with no internet connectivity.

Trade Minister Mary Ng, who was travelling with Trudeau, told reporters during that refuelling stop that she did not learn of this revolt until she fired up her phone as the flight was landing in Hawaii. (Indeed, all the reporters on the plane learned of it the same way.)

And yet, back in Ottawa, Trudeau loyalists had already begun the hunt for the rebels.

Global News has learned that while Trudeau was in the air, PMO aides were already phoning around to Liberal MPs trying to find those they suspected of signing the document demanding change. Those PMO aides would almost certainly have started with members of the Atlantic caucus.

Last Wednesday, while Trudeau was out of the country, the chair of the Atlantic caucus, Nova Scotia’s Kody Blois, startled the weekly national caucus meeting by declaring that Atlantic MPs had just come from a “a difficult but frank discussion about the future of the party” and then he simply walked out of the closed-door national caucus meeting.

“It was quite unbelievable,” one non-Atlantic Canadian MP said.

MPs who spoke to Global News said Trudeau is now on the verge of losing the support of the Ontario and Quebec caucuses.

As MPs from those two provinces knock on doors soliciting support, they say that they get positive reviews about the work the government has done (spurred on by Jagmeet Singh’s NDP) on national pharmacare and national dental care but any support Liberals might earn on those policies evaporates when it comes to the leader.

“He’s not just unpopular,” one Liberal said.

“He is strongly disliked.”

David Akin is the chief political correspondent for Global News.

Trade Minister Mary Ng says she is “disappointed” by media reports of an internal revolt against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau within the Liberal caucus, reiterating her confidence in Trudeau’s leadership.

Some Liberal MPs are mounting an effort to oust Justin Trudeau, Global News has learned. Sources say the MPs are unhappy with his leadership of the party.

Some members of the Liberal caucus have been approaching their colleagues to sign a document asking Trudeau to resign. Nobody is allowed to take pictures of this document or reproduce copies of it, according to sources who spoke to Global News.

Mary Ng, who was on her way back from Laos with Trudeau where they were both attending a multilateral summit, spoke to reporters as their plane stopped to refuel in Hawaii.

“I would say that I’m disappointed because Canadians expect us to be focusing on Canadians,” Ng told reporters in Honolulu.

“I’m a Liberal MP and I have full confidence in Justin Trudeau as my leader,” she said.

When asked if Trudeau had enough caucus support to continue as Prime Minister, Ng said, “I would say, yes.”

Ng said there have been “robust conversations” in caucus, adding that having a “range of perspectives from caucus is very healthy and very good.”

One MP told The Canadian Press the number of MPs involved is not insignificant and that unlike previous rumours of a revolt, this one is real.

That MP is not among those involved in the revolt, the Canadian Press reported.

The revolt reportedly took shape while Trudeau has been away to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Laos.

Several other Liberals contacted by The Canadian Press Friday say they have not been approached to join the bid to remove Trudeau, and suggested the effort was being kept away from cabinet ministers who are perceived to be solidly behind the prime minister.

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The Liberals survived two confidence votes put forward by the Conservatives since Parliament returned in mid-September, but the Bloc has given them until the end of October to meet demands to expand the old age security pension and protect supply management in international trade talks.

Trudeau has maintained his hold on the Liberal party even as his government’s slide in the polls became a free fall and his Liberal party lost two strongholds in Toronto and Montreal byelections.

The noise grew loudest in late June after the loss of the Toronto-St. Paul’s seat to the Conservatives, but an attempt to push him out then did not garner broader support from more than one or two MPs.

It quietened somewhat over the summer, only to come roaring back in September after the NDP pulled out of the supply and confidence deal, national campaign director Jeremy Broadhurst quit and the party lost a second critical byelection in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun riding to the Bloc Québécois.

 

–with files from Canadian Press

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.

Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was “unremarkable.”

She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter.

Harris’ campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July.

Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3 1/2 years, said the vice president has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years.

Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.”

Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms.

As Harris’ office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump’s health and mental acuity and his failure to provide information about health status and medical history.

Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden’s health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, Trump’s own health has drawn more attention.

Last November, Trump marked Biden’s birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health.

The letter posted on Trump’s social media platform contained no details to support its claims — measures like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test.