Unpublished Newswire

OTTAWA — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne released a letter on Monday that he says he wrote in September, vowing not to participate in any decisions about the government-backed organization behind the proposed high-speed rail link from Toronto to Quebec City. The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney, was dated less than two months before a federal budget that provided the organization with hundreds of millions of dollars. Champagne writes that he is “proactively applying a conflict of interest filter” about at least two subjects: a bio-tech company that...

With the Carney government’s RTO mandates looming overhead, an Eastern Ontario Mayor is calling on the feds to install regional offices to minimize commute times for public servants. Casselman Mayor Genevieve Lajoie is warning the feds that the new in-office mandates will ‘hurt communities like ours’. She has brought her proposal to the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, and they are making a concerted push for regional representation in the community. Lajoie joins Kristy Cameron on today’s Ottawa Now.