The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/14 at 05:00 EST

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/14 at 05:00 EST

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Claude Fague. The two month tax holiday on federal and provincial taxes ends on Saturday.

But while some businesses say they don't love the tax break, others want it extended. Phillip Lee Shanick has more. So I had to go in manually just turn off all the taxes. Toronto gift shop owner Trin Ngo put in extra hours prepping for the tax break just before Christmas. Ngo says it didn't help her sales due to the short time frame and limited number of

products exempt from the tax. So is she looking forward to reversing her work this weekend? No, but at least it's a quiet time so that's fine. Statistics Canada data on the impact of the tax holiday won't be out for a while, but Dan Kelly of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says it wasn't worth the bother. So it didn't move the dial very much with respect to sales but did add a lot in terms of administrative complexity. But Kelly Higginson of Restaurants Canada disagreed. So really the GST holiday is doing what it was supposed to do.

She credits the tax holiday for pushing hiring to pre-pandemic highs and she says with the threat of U.S. tariffs it should be permanent. Phil Deschanoc, CBC News, Toronto. Donald Trump's finger pointing over Fentanyl has put Canada on the defensive even though the facts don't support his claims. New data from Canada's Border Services Agency actually shows a spike in drugs and guns coming here from the US. JP Tasker takes us through it.

The amount of drugs seized has doubled since 2022, spiking from roughly 4,000 kilograms to 8,000 in 2024. Cannabis, hashish, heroin, cocaine, and crack, it's all up. And there's a lot more than the 5,000 grams of drugs the Americans nabbed on their side of the 49th parallel last year. We live next door to the largest weapons market in the world. Christian Luprecht is a professor at the Royal Military College

and an expert on border security. He says Mexican drug cartels moved some of their production to the US during the pandemic. Now it's easier than ever to smuggle illicit goods over the border into Canada. It's worked really well for transnational organized crime. And it's not just drugs. CBSA pulled in 839 firearms at the border last year, a 30% increase over the year before. The CBSA says it hasn't lost focus on Canadian priorities. It just got a $1.3 billion cash infusion to take on the flow of fentanyl.

But it promises some of that money will be set aside to rein in the flood of American drugs and guns. JP Tasker, CBC News, Ottawa. Trump has repeated his threat to impose sweeping taxes on imports from other countries, saying that America's allies are often worse than its enemies on trade. He singled out the European Union, citing the value-added tax it charges on all goods, as well as restrictions on U.S. agricultural products. We think the European Union is wonderful. We all love Europe, the

countries in Europe, but European Union has been absolutely brutal on trade. Canada has been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada is going to have to start paying up. In response to the threat today, the EU called potential tariffs a step in the wrong direction, adding it would react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers. To South Korea, where officials are confirming at least six people were killed and 25 others injured following a fire that ignited at a resort construction site today. The site is located in the port city of Busan. Reports also say about 100 people were evacuated.

There are fears the death toll could climb much higher. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirms an overnight Russian drone attack damaged the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The explosion, which ignited a fire, hit the new safe confinement, which protects the remains of a reactor at the plant north of Kiev. According to reports, fire safety personnel and vehicles responded within minutes and no casualties were reported, with radiation levels inside and outside remaining normal and stable.

And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Claude Fague.