The City of Vancouver won the right to host the 2010 Olympic games; the announcement was met with widespread jubilation. The estimated cost to taxpayers ranges between $2 billion and $6 billion, depending on which projects are included in the total. Olympics organizers have claimed that the games will create over 250,000 new jobs; a study conducted by an economist at the University of British Columbia estimated that BC would gain 1,400 full time jobs lasting seven years.
A report by Campaign 2000 found that the number of children living under the poverty line in Canada has increased by 21%, to one in six, since 1989. One in three children in Toronto lived in poverty in 2001; the number had increased by 21,800 between 1995 and 2001, a period of economic growth. The city of Toronto is set to spend $10 million on an outdoor concert designed to allay fears that the city is unsafe due to the recent SARS crisis. In less than four years, Canada dropped from its number one spot in the United Nations Human Development Index to number eight, just behind the United States. In Quebec, Jean Charest's Liberals are promising budget freezes and cuts in every area but health care and education. Quebec's vaunted universal, $5 per day child care program is rumoured to be among those programs facing substantial cuts.
Health Canada announced that it will sell dried marijuana for $5 per gram to medical patients. The Bush Administration criticized plans to set up a safe injection site for heroin addicts in Vancouver as "immoral". Federal cabinet officials hinted that they would block US cattle imports if the Americans did not drop their ban on Canadian beef. Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham warned politicians not to gratuitously insult the US. Florida Governor Jeb Bush reassured Canadians that relations have not been damaged irreparably by Canada's nominal opposition to the US invasion of Iraq.
The Air Canada pilots' union agreed to a 15% pay cut and the firing of 317 pilots. Air Canada is seeking to cut $1.1 billion in labour costs. The Irving Shipyard in Saint John will be closed due to "fierce" international competition. The plant currently has 400 employees, though the plant employed as many as 4,000 workers at a time. The Art Gallery of Ontario cut 29 staff positions, blaming a 25% drop in admission revenue due to Toronto's SARS scare.
The Canadian Heritage Department announced hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding cuts for Canadian magazines. Hardest hit will be large magazines like MacLean's and Chatelaine. The five largest publishers currently receive over $28 million in federal funding annually. The Correctional Service of Canada is considering a safe-tattooing program for federal inmates aimed at reducing the spread of HIV in prisons.
The Dominion is a monthly paper published by an incipient network of independent journalists in Canada. It aims to provide accurate, critical coverage that is accountable to its readers and the subjects it tackles. Taking its name from Canada's official status as both a colony and a colonial force, the Dominion examines politics, culture and daily life with a view to understanding the exercise of power.