Your World Tonight - Affordable housing plans, ice storm cleanup, and more

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Liberal leader Mark Carney revealed his party’s housing plan, promising a program modelled on the home-building boom that followed the Second World War. It’s being stacked up against Conservative and NDP ideas to tackle Canada’s housing crisis.And: An ice storm in Ontario and Quebec leaves hundreds of thousands without power. Roads are blocked. Trees are down. The clean up could take weeks, as the powerful storm moves to Atlantic Canada.Also: It was supposed to be a few days in space that turned into a 9-month stay on the International Space Station. Astronauts from NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 have been back on Earth for a couple weeks now and are now sharing their extraordinary experience — and taking some of the responsibility for the problems that kept them up there for so long.Plus: The Liberal party stands by a candidate who suggested Canadians should turn a Conservative counterpart over to the Chinese consulate and collect a reward, new HIV prevention drug, earthquake search and recovery and more.

When Eric and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents in 1989, most people assumed they did it for the money. But over the course of their trials, the Menendez brothers told a very different story. Now, after spending most of their lives behind bars, new developments in the case could lead to the brothers getting out. This week on Crime Story, I speak with Robert Rand, the journalist who's covered this story longer than anyone else. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast.

Deeply offensive. This is a terrible lapse of judgment by Mr. Cheng. He has apologized for those comments. The liberal blueprint for the day was to talk about a big election promise, billions for housing. But comments from liberal candidate Paul Chang led to some revisions. Chang suggested people turn in a conservative candidate to the Chinese embassy for a reward. Hong Kong had targeted him for his pro-democracy views. Mark Carney says Chang has apologized and has his full support. The apology was not accepted by conservatives and other party leaders who insist Chang has to go.

Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Monday, March 31st coming up on 6pm Eastern Time. Also on the podcast. Pandemonium. It looked like a tornado actually went through. When we first saw it was like wow. During night you can't see the full scope. So when it actually became daytime the scope was insane.

A massive ice storm whacks parts of Ontario and Quebec, knocking out power, felling trees and leaving a mess that will take weeks to clean up. The national housing crisis is an important issue in this federal election and today we heard more big promises on the subject. Liberal leader Mark Carney unveiled his plan modeled on a second world war building initiative. The other parties also have housing strategies. Alexander Silberman takes us through the plans and how policy experts say they stack up. We can solve the housing crisis now. Liberal leader Mark Carney

making another housing announcement in one of Canada's most expensive regions to buy a home. We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes and we are going to build our way out of it. The Liberal Party is back in the greater Toronto area today making a campaign stop at a trades college. Carney pledging to double the pace of construction to nearly half a million homes a year and to create a new federal organization called Build Canada Homes that would act as a developer of affordable housing. We're gonna unleash the power of public-private cooperation at a scale not seen in generations. The Liberal plan also includes $25 billion in financing for prefabricated home builders,

loans and capital for affordable housing developers, and a promise to eliminate the GST for first-time buyers for homes at or under $1 million. My purpose in politics is to restore Canada's promise. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev recently announcing a similar tax break on new homes but his GST cut would be for all buyers not just first time and homes up to 1.3 million. Anything is hard work gets you a great life and a beautiful, affordable home. On the NDP campaign, housing policy announcements are also a top focus. Leader Jagmeet Singh is promising to develop available Crown land, to build more than 100,000

rent-controlled homes by 2035. He's also pledging to create government-issued low-interest mortgages. This would make a huge difference in people's lives. They'd be able to have affordable loans so they can actually buy their first home. Steve Pomeroy is a housing policy researcher at McMaster University. He says proposals like a tax cut on new homes would impact a small number of Canadians, but incentivizing the construction of rentals could help improve overall affordability.

Government stepping in in a more direct world does actually make good policy sense. Whether that appeals to most voters, do they really care? I'm not sure. Carolyn Weitzman is a housing researcher with the University of Toronto. She supports the federal government building housing,

but says policy changes are also needed. Just changing the name of a department or saying that you're gonna have a new department is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The attention housing is getting this election a clear sign the issue is top of mind for Canadians and a priority for the leaders. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Ottawa. The Liberal Party is standing by a candidate who suggested Canadians should turn a conservative counterpart over to the Chinese consulate and collect a reward. The person who made it, Paul Chang, has now apologized.

The Liberal leader calls it a teachable moment. Critics say keeping Chang as a candidate sends a different message. Catherine Cullen reports. The comments were deeply offensive. This is a terrible lapse of judgment by Mr. Chang. Liberal leader Mark Carney is not defending what his candidate Paul Chang said, but he is defending the candidate himself. He's made those apologies, he's made them directly to the individual concerned, he's made them directly to me, he has my confidence.

The individual Chang offered an apology to is Joe Tay, a conservative candidate in Toronto. Tay runs Hong Konger Station, posting videos online critical of the Hong Kong government. He lives in Canada, and in December, he became one of six people outside China who had a bounty put on their head by the Hong Kong police. A month later, Chang held a news conference with Chinese language media where he said of Tay,

To everyone here, you can claim the one million dollar bounty if you bring him to Toronto's Chinese consulate. Chang now says his comments were deplorable and a lapse of judgement. But his apology isn't enough for some. More than a dozen Hong Kong or Canadian organizations say Chang needs to be removed from the ballot. His insincere apology does not wipe out the serious consequence of this open threat. Activist Gloria Fung says Carney's reaction downplays the situation. He would also send a very wrong message to hostile foreign states that they could continue

with their high-yield, low-cost transnational repression and foreign interference in Canada without any consequence. Carney notes Chiang's history, almost three decades as a police officer, calling him a person of integrity. I view this as a teachable moment. It underscores the respect with which we treat human rights in this country. Well, it is a teachable moment. It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada.

Conservative leader Pierre Poliev says Chang must be disqualified, arguing Tay's life could have been at stake. I have never in my life seen a Prime Minister unwilling to protect a Canadian citizen against a foreign government that wants to take his life through a bounty. Tay says no apology is sufficient. In Markham, Ontario, where Chang is running, people we spoke to were divided on whether he should still be the Liberal candidate. He shouldn't be saying that. And I think I agree with the movement that he should be taken off the ticket.

You know, people are worried about jobs and tariffs and a lot of other major issues and we're worried about comments our MP made a few months ago I think it's way overblown. The Liberals are standing by their candidate but today they did not stand with him. Despite the fact Carney was in the Toronto area and flanked by several Liberal candidates, Chiang was nowhere to be seen. Catherine Cullen, CBC News, Ottawa. flanked by several Liberal candidates, Chang was nowhere to be seen. Catherine Cullen, CBC News, Ottawa. Today I'm announcing the Canada First National Energy Corridor to break our dependence on

the Americans and stand up for ourselves in a position of strength. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev announcing his party's plan to build more pipelines, transmission lines and rail infrastructure. Speaking in St. John New Brunswick, Pauliev said the corridor would start by fast-tracking building permits. The permits would be pre-authorized after consultations and environmental research. We would find the path that is safe for our citizens and for nature. Second, we would consult with First Nations as is our duty under the Constitution of Canada.

Liberals have a similar proposal for a $5 billion trade diversification corridor. It also pledges to accelerate infrastructure projects such as highways, airports and railways to help Canada become less reliant on trade with the United States. That plan does not mention pipelines. They are the kind of ideas many working in the Canadian industry want to hear right now. The threat of US tariffs is having a chilling effect on Canadian business, and people in Alberta's oil and gas sector are hoping the next federal government can protect their interests and their jobs. Julia Wong is in Fort McMurray talking to industry leaders about what they're looking

for. So here we have one of the pumps that our clients dropped off. Corey coffee gestures at a 13 and a half litre engine that's waiting to be fixed. It's all in a day's work at Goat Mechanical Services, his heavy equipment repair company in Fort McMurray, where 98% of business is connected to the energy sector. Coffee says he's been through industry booms and busts before, but the trade war with the U.S. has left him feeling uneasy. Plans to expand and hire more staff are paused indefinitely.

You know, I've been in McMurray my whole life and I've seen the ups and downs, but this feels different. A lot of uncertainty with respect to the tariffs and respect to elections now being called. This is an election oil country is watching closely. As Canada talks of pivoting away from the U.S., Coffee wants party leaders to know the stakes are high. I want to hear how they want to unite Canada.

So how do we fit into this national unity? What are their plans for increasing the access of our resources to the West Coast and the East Coast? Alberta sends almost all of its crude oil south of the border. The province says it sends more than 4 million barrels a day to the United States. Have you ever worked on site before? Fort McMurray and the oil sands are intertwined. At this job fair, the federal party's plans for Canadian energy are key. Trevor Bowe is the president of Inner City Diesel, an environmental dewatering and tailings management company.

The emissions reduction policies that we look to hear from all the major parties, the second probably being carbon pricing, their strategy for that. And then thirdly, as we talk to the tariffs and our economic development and future trade relations with the world wide. Job seekers are quick to say, what's top of mind for them this election?

Well, the tariffs and stuff that we keep hearing about, that's scary, especially with the oil and gas. I'd like to see more pipeline come around. You're not sure what's going to come next. People here want more Canadian support and certainty. Diana D'Souza is the CEO of the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce. I really think I would hope from this election or nationally that our population would understand it's a bit of a turning point in Canada's history and maybe it's part to prosperity and understand the importance of oil and gas to our economy and to our prosperity and protecting our sovereignty.

Sovereignty that many see as tied to energy independence. Making a ballot box question here, who's best suited to handle this reckoning for Canadian oil and gas? Julia Wong, CBC News, Fort McMurray, Alberta. Coming up on the podcast, more rescues and more fear for the worst in Thailand and Myanmar following last week's earthquake and space talk, what an extended stay on the space station was like for the astronauts. A good chunk of Ontario is still without power tonight. An ice storm over the weekend toppled trees, trapped residents, closed schools and led

to a series of states of emergency. Lisa Shing reports on the slow recovery and where the storm is heading next. Trees encased in ice on top of roofs and cars, branches blocking sidewalks and streets. The same scenes all around Peterborough, Ontario, including at Andrew Bouton's house, where a tree in his yard came down. It shook the house when it hit the house and slid off the roof. I knew it was sitting on the car before I even walked outside. Bouton is one of hundreds of thousands of people without

electricity after a weekend ice storm broke trees in half damaging power lines. We've practically not had light for two days going. Nkechi Ogwadi says the power at her house is still out while she waits at a warming center. My kids can't eat warm food and hot food at all so we've been feasting on just bread and butter. The freezing rain created hazardous driving conditions in central and eastern Ontario and prompted many school boards to close for the day. Some places saw up to 25 millimeters of ice buildup causing several cities, including Peterborough, to declare a state of emergency. Further north, Lynn Hebert also heard it. Snap, crackle, pop. Oh, banging, banging, banging everywhere.

More than 800,000 customers in Ontario and Quebec were without power at some point. Make that more than a million if you include those in U.S. states like Michigan. Hydro One spokesperson, Tiziana Bachega-Rosa says the weather was a challenge for workers. I would just continue to occur because the weather wasn't stopping. What is unusual is the duration of the freezing rain. Environment Canada meteorologist Gina Ressler says while freezing rain is expected this time of year, it lasted longer than usual. Normally freezing rain is very transitory, but we had a quasi-stationary front that was located across southern Ontario through the weekend, and so we had freezing rain continuing

along this front for almost two days. Now the cleanups start and is expected to take weeks if not months says Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal. I've been traveling around the community the last couple days and to see the amount of tree branches and limbs that are on our roadways it's going to take a significant period of time. The storm has since moved east through Quebec and onto the maritimes and Environment Canada says it will arrive in western and central Newfoundland this evening bringing snow ice pallets and freezing rain Lisa Sheng CBC News Toronto. As HIV rates in Canada increase and prevention programs around the world are cut Quebec has become the first province to publicly cover the costs of a new HIV prevention drug. It is an injectable treatment that could replace the need for daily pills. Alison Northcott reports.

You take it once a day at the exact same time. Every day Tim Legman takes a pill, lowering his risk of contracting HIV. So I decided to go on PrEP because I wanted to take the necessary precautions so that I can reduce infection rates. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP is part of the daily routine for a growing number of Canadians who are HIV negative but at risk of exposure to the virus. Most people take it in pill form but Lagman, a sexual health educator and podcaster who lives in Scarborough, is hopeful about a new, longer-lasting injectable option given every two months. That would be a lot easier for me, my peace of mind and my schedule.

Sold under the name Apertude, the medication was approved by Health Canada last year. Quebec is the first province to publicly cover part of its costs. And this is the first treatment by injection for prevention for HIV. So it is very, very special. Dr. Réjean Thomas has been at the forefront of the fight against HIV and AIDS for decades at his Montreal clinic, L'Actuelle. So this is the medication here? Yeah.

Thomas' clinic now offers injectable PrEP. He says it could be a game changer for some patients. It's very important because I think it's the future in the fight against AIDS. The number of new HIV infections in Canada increased by 35% between 2022 and 2023, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Experts say there are multiple reasons for that, including a lack of access to prevention. Dr. Darrell Tan, a clinician scientist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto says Quebec's injectable prep coverage is a step forward.

Not everyone has the ability for all kinds of personal, circumstantial, structural reasons to you know adhere to a daily pill-taking regimen. Ken Monteith works with a coalition of AIDS groups in Montreal. He's HIV positive and says treatment and prevention people can access and afford is crucial. We want to make sure that people have all the choices possible so that we're adapting their treatment to their lifestyle and not the other way around. Advocates want injectable and oral PrEP to be free across the country. Right now that's only the case for some people in some provinces. For others, even with insurance, they still have to pay free across the country. Right now that's only the case for some people in

some provinces. For others, even with insurance, they still have to pay part of the cost. Experts say the more options there are for HIV prevention, the better it is for people at risk and for the work to end the epidemic. Alison Northcott, CBC News, Montreal. French political leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzlement, a verdict that bars her from running for public office for five years. That includes the 2027 presidential election in which she is the current frontrunner. Le Pen slammed the judge's verdict as a political decision. She says it's a violation of democracy and the rule of law.

Le Pen also said she will appeal the ruling. The 56-year-old is known for her anti-immigrant and nationalist views. She ran three previous presidential campaigns, none of them successful. Le Pen was found guilty of using millions of euros in European Parliament funds to pay her own party staff. A desperate search for survivors is underway in Southeast Asia after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar Friday. More than 2,000 people are confirmed dead, a number that is expected to climb, and it's

happening in a country already reeling from civil war. Our South Asia correspondent Salima Shivji reports. The emotion is too much for Sandar Ong to bear as she mourns her son crushed in Friday's earthquake while he was praying at the local mosque in Mandalay, right near the epicenter. I'm so sad it's Eid and he was looking forward to it, she cries. But he's gone. Prayers to mark Eid the end of the holy month of Ramadan were held outside two mosques in central Myanmar. The structure is damaged by the devastating tremor.

Also outside, patients languish on gurneys and wait for treatment. Hospitals are overwhelmed with many severely damaged, the World Health Organization says. The devastation is beyond comprehension. The smell of dead bodies permeating the air. Buildings flattened and thousands sleeping outside, terrified of more aftershocks. Myanmar has announced a national week of mourning, but it will be weeks before the damage is fully known,

in a country that's already grappling with a humanitarian crisis in the midst of a civil war. This is not the first emergency for me in my Trevor Clark is an emergency advisor for UNICEF in the East Asia and Pacific region. They've faced a devastating violent conflict previous natural disasters so this is just another major emergency that children have had to endure over and over again. It's a brutal assault on children. In Bangkok, more than a thousand kilometres from the epicentre, cranes and excavators continue their work to find more than 70 people still trapped under the mangled debris

of a collapsed building that was under construction. Families of the missing wait anxiously in tent shelters still hoping for a miracle even as bodies are carried out the rescue operation is ongoing but the crucial rescue window of 72 hours after an earthquake which gives you a higher chance of finding survivors is now closed emergency crews are straining to hear any signs of life, however weak. That dwindling hope isn't changing Mae Zin's resolve. A Burmese national working in Thailand, she's here every day desperate for any information about her younger brother, who is working on the 24th floor of the collapsed building. Every time a body is found, she says, we rush to check if it's my baby brother. We need to know.

Even if it's terrible news of loss in the worst earthquake this region has seen in a century. Salima Shivji, CBC News, Bangkok. This is your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. It was supposed to be a few days in space. It turned into a nine-month stay on the

International Space Station. Astronauts from NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 have been back on Earth for a couple of weeks and are now sharing their extraordinary experience and taking some of the responsibility for the problems that kept them up there for so long. Science reporter Anand Ram has more. Since we've been back almost two weeks now, actually went out and ran three miles yesterday, so I will give myself a little pat on the back. A light jog, considering what astronauts Sunita Sunny Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore went

through was more of a marathon. This is a curvy road. You never know where it's going to go. We prepare for this. Let's put some fire in this rocket. But last June, these two astronauts couldn't have expected the trajectory their mission would take. They were the first crewed voyage aboard Boeing's new Starliner spaceship.

And for a while, it all seemed fine. Yeah, we are thrilled as well. I'm not sure we could have gotten a better welcome. Then came malfunctions to their ride home. And days became weeks, then a decision to take no chances. Starliner will return uncrewed. Weeks became months. "...just wanted to say happy Thanksgiving to all our friends..." "...station as we get ready for the Christmas holidays." The world waited, even prayed for a safe return. These well-wishers in Williams Ancestral Village in India.

But up in that laboratory orbiting 400 kilometers above Earth, the media attention, the politics, never made it. At the end of that arm is Sonny Williams. The pair instead working on necessary repairs and experiments. Their colleague Nick Haig described how they spent those days. They are highly skilled, very technically competent. They were more than just gap tillers on the station. They were productive pushing the station mission forward.

For Wilmore, there are lessons to be learned in what went wrong and that includes for himself. But I'll start and point the finger and I'll blame me. I could ask some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide. Responsibility with Boeing? Yes. Responsibility with NASA? Yes. We all are responsible. We all own this." Williams says diversions from the plan also show a resilience and doesn't want that message to be lost. Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams, Williams,

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to resume life on Earth and plan to meet with Boeing to go over what went wrong. Still, they're confident the team sport of human spaceflight thrives not because it is easy. To get people understanding that it is hard, it is difficult, and what we do up there is really awesome. And I think we had a little bit of that that came with the interest in this mission. And for what it's worth, when asked today,

Butch and Sunny say they would get on Starliner again. Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, relations between Canada and the U.S. are at their lowest point in, well, let's say since 1776 or maybe 1812. Tariffs, trade wars, talk of making Canada the 51st state, elbows up. But two tiny communities right on the border want to strike a different tone. Canadians! Good to see everybody out. That's about 150 people from International Falls, Minnesota and Fort Francis, Ontario, meeting this weekend in the freezing cold on the bridge that

connects both countries, holding Canadian and US flags, signs that read, Friends Forever and Stay Strong. Mary Waters organized the event. She was born in the US, but has lived, worked and made friends on both sides. These two communities, we're out on the edge of each other's country in the middle of nowhere. So we are really tight. But I felt home on that ridge where we all stood. I belong both places. Waters called the event Hands Across the Border. She posted the idea on social media a week ago and says people just showed up. Water says they all wanted to provide an antidote to all the negativity. It was about extending goodwill. So at the end, after everybody on both sides had shaken hands,

shook hands and hugged, we joined hands and spanned the bridge from one country to the other and saying, we are family. We knew the tune but not everybody knew the words but it didn't matter. Water says she hopes that just maybe the example of two small border towns can set an example or in her words that the love she felt on that bridge can ripple out. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for March 31st. I'm Susan Bonner.

Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.