In the news: Food prices rise, First Nations to meet Feds, B.C. Conservative chaos

By Canadian Press on December 4, 2025.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …

Food prices to rise 4-6% next year: report

Expect food to take up a bigger share of household budgets next year.

The latest Food Price Report produced by several Canadian universities is projecting that an average family of four will pay an estimated $994.63 more for food in 2026 than this year because of issues like trade and climate change.

The increase, making for an estimated total bill of $17,571.79, comes from a projected four to six per cent inflation rate for food next year, according to the report produced by the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University in partnership with several other universities.

The inflation rate is higher than the roughly four per cent seen this year, and would outpace an overall inflation rate that’s expected to decline to the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target.

Ministers to address Assembly of First Nations

A handful of key federal cabinet ministers will address the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Ottawa today, including Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

But Energy Minister Tim Hodgson and Defence Minister David McGuinty — two ministers helping to advance Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major projects agenda — have been taken off the agenda, despite previously being scheduled to appear.

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said Budget 2025 failed First Nations because it did not include more infrastructure funding and educational resources for their communities.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty and Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand are also expected to participate in a question-and-answer session with chiefs.

Rustad may make B.C. Conservatives ‘ungovernable’

A political analyst says John Rustad’s disputed leadership of the B.C. Conservatives appears “unsustainable” after he refused to step down in the face of a caucus mutiny.

University of British Columbia political science lecturer Stewart Prest says he can’t see a way for Rustad to regain control of the Opposition, but he can make it “ungovernable.”

Rustad refused to quit on Wednesday after 20 MLAs representing a majority of the 39-member caucus gave statements to a lawyer calling for him to step aside.

Party president Aisha Estey confirmed the authenticity of the lawyer’s letter on behalf of the unidentified MLAs, but Rustad said there was no mechanism for MLAs to force him out.

Arctic air, coastal flooding, high winds; Atlantic Canada

Icy cold weather is sweeping into parts of Atlantic Canada starting today, while other regions begin to shake off the effects of yesterday’s nor’easter.

Environment Canada has issued a yellow warning for cold in New Brunswick, with temperatures forecast to drop to between -30 and -33 degrees Celsius, into Friday morning.

Meanwhile, most snowfall warnings have been lifted in Nova Scotia, except for a snow squall warning in the Cape Breton Highlands.

Along the province’s southwestern shores, from Digby to Yarmouth, the agency has posted a coastal flooding statement warning of elevated sea levels that may exceed high astronomical tides.

However, wind warnings remain in effect in the St. John’s region of Newfoundland.

Why was giant cedar cut, despite big-tree law?

Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was “incredible,” the largest he’d ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.

The monumental cedar stood in what was one of the few intact or nearly intact old-growth valleys left on the island, says Wright, an advocate who also recorded the sounds of marbled murrelets — a threatened species under federal law — within the same forest.

Wright measured the cedar’s diameter at 2.79 metres, a size that should have ensured protection for the tree, along with a one-hectare buffer under provincial law.

But when he returned to the area south of Gold River in June, Wright says the tree had been felled as part of a logging operation approved by the province.

Kwan ‘deeply’ troubled by sale of vehicles to ICE

Anti-armament advocates say Canadian firms shouldn’t be selling armoured military vehicles to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or any other organizations with sketchy human rights records.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said Wednesday she’s “deeply” and “profoundly” troubled because the ICE agency has been credibly accused of human rights abuses.

“I think Canadians expect our industries and our government to uphold human rights domestically and internationally, and not enable the further militarization of an organization whose conduct already puts vulnerable people at great risk,” she told The Canadian Press.

“This contract raises serious questions about Canada’s role and responsibility when it comes to our technology and products being deployed abroad.”

U.S. government procurement records show ICE recently placed a rush order for a fleet of 20 armoured vehicles made by Brampton, Ont.-based Roshel.