Your World Tonight - Building affordable housing, Parliament returns, Students reflect on international student cap, and more

Episode Date: September 14, 2025

One of Mark Carney's election promises was to building affordable housing in Canada - and lots of it. Today, the Prime Minister outlined how this government will tackle this gargantuan task - announcing the creation of a new agency that will guide the process.Also: Parliament returns from its summer break on Monday - with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre back in the house after a byelection win. And the opposition is pledging to hold the government to account. We take a look ahead at what to expect.And: It is the second school year since a cap was placed on study permits for international students. With another fall semester underway, students at Canadian colleges and universities are noticing changes to campus life.Plus: A vigil for a toddler killed in a crash at an Ontario daycare, The teacher bringing music to young people in Gaza, The seaweed industry in B.C., and more.

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Please play responsibly. Charitable gaming, community good. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Stephanie Scandaris, and this is your world tonight. By building smart, building Canadian, building now, we are building Canada strong. Thank you very much. Prime Minister Mark Carney is touting his plan to solve Canada's housing crisis, launching a new government agency that he says will make good on the liberal promise to double housing construction.

Also on the podcast, Pierre Pahliav rallies the Conservative Caucus on the eve of Parliament returning. Plus, we can eat them, animals can eat them, it can be turned into fertilizer. The end uses are really limitless. Curly and slimy and with a whole lot of potential. Seweed is being put to use, but in B.C., there are concerns about that, too. Building affordable housing, and lots of it, was one of the main promises of Mark Carney's election campaign. Today in Nipion, Ontario, the Prime Minister outlined how this government will tackle this gargantuan task, and he announced the creation of a new agency that will go.

guide the process. Stephanie Cram has the details. So we're in a housing crisis and it's going to take all hands on deck to get us out of it. Prime Minister Mark Carney announcing the launch of Build Canada homes. $13 billion is initially allocated to the new federal agency that he says will supercharge the rate of affordable home building in Canada. Young Canadians are doing everything right. They're studying hard, finding a job, saving up. Yet for too many of them, rent is unaffordable and home ownership feels entirely out of reach. The new agency will effectively act

as a developer, attracting private capital and offering incentives to builders. And Ottawa will offer up federal lands to cut development costs. The government has identified six sites across the country in Dartmouth, Longoi, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.

Carney is promising a focus on cost-efficient methods of construction such as factory built in modular homes. And the Materials used sourced from Canada. The government's new by Canadian policy will strengthen domestic supply chains, create high-paying careers across the country, and ensure that new housing drives new orders for Canadian steel, lumber, mass timber, and aluminum.

Carney says factory-built homes can also reduce costs as well as emissions by 20%. It's a big ambitious remit. That's Carolyn Weitzman, adjunct professor and senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto School of Cities. The fact that the initial 13 billion budget is going to be focused on non-market housing and using a definition of affordability that makes sense. She's encouraged to hear that the investment is focusing on moderate and median income households. In addition to supporting the middle class, the government is committing $1 billion for transitional housing.

Minister of Women, Rishi Veldes, says the focus is aimed at curbing the effects of homelessness. A home means families have the stability to put food on the table. And for too many women, especially those escaping violence, a home can mean the difference between living and fear or building a future for their family. The government says the six sites identified have the potential of adding more than 45,000 new homes. Stephanie Cram, CBC News, Edmonton. Tackling Canada's housing crisis is only one part of Carney's vast to-do list. Others, will require deep legislative changes. That work begins tomorrow.

Parliament returns from its summer break, and the opposition is pledging to hold the government to account. J.P. Tasker has that story from Ottawa. Well, it is a beautiful, beautiful morning. MPs are back on Parliament Hill, ready to spar with their political opponents, and this time, Conservative leader Pierre Pauliev is among them. I took a more scenic route through eastern Alberta.

Fresh off a by-election win, Pollyev is the official opposition leader again. And he's rallying caucus with a pledge to put Prime Minister Mark Carney's feet to the fire. He promised that after 10 years of liberal government driving up costs and crime and chaos, that he would be different. And yet, sadly, everything is worse. With a reclaimed seat, Pahliav is also tuning up his priorities. The axe attack slogan is gone. We want to bring down costs, lock criminals up, pump the brakes on immigration. get shovels in the ground and paychecks in pockets.

He has an uncanny ability to kind of know what public opinion is and sort of connect the dots. Polster David Colletto says Carney faces a very different dynamic with Pollyov back after his short time in the political wilderness. Crime and immigration will be front and center as the two leaders face off in the house for the first time this week. Pierre Pollyov, more than any opposition leader probably before him, at least in my lifetime, is so good at setting the agenda.

As for the government's agenda, Carney is promising to turbocharge affordable home construction with a new federal agency. And it's why we're here. We are laser-focused on making life more affordable for Canadians. And Carney's hopeful Pollyev won't stand in the way. The Prime Minister has already turned things around with some groups that had grievances with the last liberal government. He hopes he can do it again with the conservatives. And if we can do it with all the provinces, with unions, with the private sector, with the innovators, with Canadians, surely the opposition parties can cooperate with us. In this minority parliament, the government needs cooperation to get anything passed.

A bail reform bill is coming soon, and then there's the fall budget. Cuts are likely as the economy falters and revenue dips. The books are likely to be deep in the red, warns government House leader Stephen McKinnon. We're going to have to take a hard look at spending, so a substantial deficit means hard choices. The economy continues to struggle and the U.S. trade will. War is still raging. As hope for a quick deal fades, the Prime Minister is propping up hard-hit industries instead, and that's going to be expensive. J.P. Tasker, CBC News, Ottawa. In Richmond Hill, Ontario, a public memorial was held today for a toddler killed after a driver crashed an SUV into a daycare. For the family, the gathering was both a tribute and a call

for justice. Philip Lyshenock reports. Family and friends weep as balloons released at the funeral of Liam Riazetti disappear into the blue sky. Leon was beautiful, baby. He was everything to our family. On Wednesday, a car smashed through the front window of First Roots Early Education Academy. Six children and three adults were injured. One and a half-year-old Liam was killed. At his funeral Sunday, his aunt Mina Riazetti called for a thorough investigation, and new safety legislation for daycares. Leaum's law, that daycares are safe, safe for everyone.

The daycare was located in a busy commercial plaza with a sidewalk separating the parking lot from a wall of glass. Friends and families say politicians must act and not just offer thoughts and prayers. Stop just saying nice words and acting that you care. Just show us something. Stop it. make some rules, regulation.

Ontario's education minister, Paul Calandra, says the government is looking at legislative changes, parking rules around child care facilities. David West is the mayor of Richmond Hill. This legislation that Minister Calandria is proposing is also looking at doing a safety assessment. And I think that's welcome news and a definitive action to make that happen.

But Krista O'Connor, who runs a child care center in Waterloo, Ontario, says any new rule needs to be coordinated with what other levels of government require. The process of meeting all the requirements with the Ministry of Education, the fire codes, public health, building codes, and every level of government, they don't all work together. Family friends Saida Pormusa says the government also needs to make sure the rules are enforced. Not only we have the laws, but also we have proper investigations because sometimes there are rules in place.

but no one is actually following them. Police arrested a man in his 70s at the scene. He's facing one count of dangerous operation causing death and two counts of causing bodily harm. Philip Lyshanock, CBC News, Toronto. Manitoba, RCMP, say an investigation is underway into a float plane crash that killed four people. It happened south of St. Teresa Point First Nation,

about 600 kilometers north of Winnipeg. Two men and two women were pronounced dead at the scene. The plane's pilot was seriously hurt, but is expected to survive. Still ahead, it's a new school year, and the second, with a cap on international students at Canadian colleges and universities. We went on campus to find out how that's being felt. That story's coming up on your world tonight. U.S. authorities are sharing new details about the man accused of killing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot while he was speaking to university students in Utah.

As Katie Simpson tells us, investigators are still trying to determine a motive. There's so much more that we're learning. Utah Governor Spencer Cox appeared on several U.S. political talk shows, painting a picture of the suspect in Charlie Kirk's murder, offering up new information about time. Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of assassinating the right-wing activist. According to family and people that were interviewing, he does come from a conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family.

The governor described Robinson as, quote, a very normal and very smart young man, claiming he was radicalized sometime after dropping out of Utah State University. Clearly, there was a lot of gaming going on, friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep. Authorities are getting help from the suspect's roommate, who Cox says had no prior knowledge of Robinson's alleged actions. The governor says the pair were in a romantic relationship, and the roommate is undergoing a male-to-female gender transition, though investigators do not know

that's a factor in the motive. That's what we're trying to figure out right now. Again, it's, I mean, it's easy to draw conclusions from that. And so, you know, we've got the shell casings, other forensic evidence that is coming in and trying to piece all of those things together. Charlie Kirk was a deeply conservative leader within the MAGA movement and at times

used his enormous platform to advocate against transgender rights. And dare I say, a throbbing middle finger to God is the transgender thing happening in America right now. Kirk's murder has deepened America's political divisions with plenty of finger pointing on both sides. There are people actually celebrating his murder online, and that tells you everything you need to know about that side. House Speaker Mike Johnson confirms he's considering additional security for lawmakers.

The White House has requested nearly $60 million for new measures, including added protection for the U.S. Supreme Court. Exactly what he wanted in perfect. Mourners continue to lay flowers and light candles outside of Kirk's Phoenix office, where there's a mix of sadness and anger in the crowd. This is so devastating. Like, my heart bleeds. I think that his death is a tragic extreme of cancel culture.

Authorities are expected to reveal more about their investigation when they charge the suspect in this case on Tuesday. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Benjamin Netanyahu insists. The alliance between Israel and the U.S. is unshakable as he hosts, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. It's as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western world that we just touched. That strength put to the test once again after Israel's attacks on Hamas leaders in Qatar last week. Qatar is a U.S. ally and home to the largest American air base. in the Middle East. The strike carried out without formally notifying the White House,

angered President Donald Trump, and even further strained Israel's relations with its regional neighbors. Their leaders are meeting in Doha tomorrow, and they are warning the attack and Israel's actions in Gaza threaten efforts to normalize ties with Arab nations. Meanwhile, in Gaza City, as the sound of explosions bellows off the ruins of fallen buildings, another sound is drifting upwards from the nearby displacement camps, a melody. Yasmine Hassan has the story of a teacher who is helping young people cope with the realities of war through music. Ahmed Abu Amshah sits among a class of half a dozen students, tuning their guitars, beating their drums, and fiddling with their violins. But this classroom isn't in a school.

It's in a tent in Gaza City. White tarps held up by wood beams shelter the children sitting in a circle. Abu Amcha says he wants to give the kids some relief from the war, if only for a brief moment. I try my best to spread joy Allah for the kids. Healing them and heal myself. We never stop.

And we try our best to make heaven inside hell. Like we're trying our best to spread joy. Enjoy and love for the kids. Inside the hell. In recent weeks, Israel has ramped up attacks on Gaza City in anticipation of a ground offensive. Residents of the city have been told to move south by Israel's military. But many, including Abu Amshah, say leaving is just not an option.

I have a place to go. I spend three weeks to search for a new place in. In the south, I didn't find. Until now, I don't know if we go to the south, it's going to be disaster because there's no places for people and no places safe in Gaza. Habla Amcha says he's been displaced almost a dozen times already, always with his instruments in toe. He says these past two years have changed everything for it.

Before this war, I have a lot of things, but this war make me write a new sentences of my life because it changed my life completely. It's making me knowing what's the meaning of home. Abu Amshah student, Ahmed Dawood, studied music before the war, but his school was bombed. in the fighting. Today, he's playing the tabla, a type of hand drum. We are a people who deserve life like other people. We are a people who deserve to live in peace.

As the sun sets, the music from Abu Amshah's classroom starts to die down. In sounds of the busy displacement camp fill the air, as reality sets in once again. If we're going to stay like this, we're not going to survive. We will all die. Please think about us. Yismine Hassan, CBC News, Aro. Romania says a Russian drone breached its airspace during an attack on neighboring Ukraine.

The country's defense ministry says fighter jets were tracking the drone and almost shot it down before it returned to Ukrainian airspace. Romania is now the second NATO country to report an incursion like this. Earlier this week, Poland said it shot down at least three Russian drones that had violated its airspace with help from NATO allies. Russia has not yet commented on the latest incident. Africa's biggest hydroelectric project has launched in Ethiopia and it's promising an energy revolution for the country

where almost half the population still goes without electricity. But as Megan Williams reports, downstream nations like Egypt are calling the new dam an existential threat. It's now Africa's largest dam, a massive wall of concrete stretching some two kilometers across the Blue Nile. For Ethiopians, the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian dam, or GERD, means bidding goodbye to the polluting use of wood, charcoal, and kerosene for cooking and lights, and ushering in electrical light and humming factories. The project has been 14 years in the making and also promises to transform the conflict-strained country into an energy exporter to its neighbors, Kenya, Tanzania and beyond.

Ethiopians are jubilant. This dam is a history-changing piece of infrastructure. Says senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Moses Crispus O'Kello. In Ethiopia, it's hailed as progress. But for downstream Egypt, it poses peril. With 110 million people relying almost entirely upon the Nile, Cairo sees the dam as a threat to farming, jobs, and national security. President Abdel Fattah al-Sizi has called it an existential threat. Citing a 1959 treaty that gave Egypt and Sudan nearly all, of the river's flow, leaving Ethiopia and other upstream nations with nothing, even though

their highlands provide most of the water. Sudan, too, worries droughts could reduce water levels and compromise its own dams. But Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiyah Ahmad has pledged to do no harm to its downstream neighbors. I want to make it abundantly clear that we have no intention to harm these countries. What we are essentially doing is to meet our electricity demands from one of the greenest source of energy. We cannot afford to continue keeping more than 65 million of our people in the dark. After years of mediation by the African Union, Russia and the U.S., the dispute remains unresolved. Despite all the investment Egypt to frustrate Ethiopia and prevent Ethiopia from building the dam. What the Egyptians need to do now is try to repair their relationship

with Ethiopia and begin to look at the Nile and the dam as a regional development project. Says Africa water expert and professor at Weber State University in Utah, John Makumabakou. For now, though, the Grand Renaissance Dam is a symbol of sovereignty and progress for Ethiopia alone. not least because Ethiopians themselves paid for it. When Egypt's opposition stalled international financing, Ethiopia crowdfunded, selling bonds to its citizens and diaspora, and kept construction going. A lot of Africans are saying Ethiopia has accomplished something

that most African countries have never been able to do, and that is to undertake a massive construction project without assistance from international. institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, or the European Union. Not only a point of national pride for Ethiopia, he says, but a completion that all of Africa should celebrate. Megan Williams, CBC News, Rome. Ontario Liberal Party leader Bonnie Cromby is stepping down, announcing her resignation in a statement just hours after narrowly surviving a leadership review. She says she'll stay on as leader of the Ontario Liberals until a new leader is chosen.

Cromby has led the party since December 2023. Well, with another fall semester underway, students at Canadian colleges and universities are noticing changes to campus life. It's the second school year since a cap was placed on study permits for international students. Deanna Suminac Johnson reports on the effects of that cap and how it's being felt. I still feel like I meet a good amount of international students. University of Toronto political science student, Emmanuel Pasternak, is getting to see real-life repercussions of a political decision. The cap on the number of international students allowed in Canada. Pastor Nack is also involved in student government where he hears the concerns of

other students. I definitely feel that the pressure's kind of mounting, and I do feel that some programs could be at risk of just being cut in the next couple years or not cut, at least just having to struggle a little bit more to access the same amount of resources. It's the start of the second academic year affected by limits on study permits brought in by the federal government in early 2024 to, among other things, reduced competition for housing. Even at the University of Toronto, the richest institution in Canada, which was down by only 300 international students last academic year, students say they're noticing subtle changes. So I work with a lot of the incubators and accelerators here at University of Toronto, and we can already see there's been

some cuts that are happening to the work study programs. One student from India, who wanted her name withheld, said the campus community has been welcoming, but she noticed a shift in general society. There have been changes in mindset and the way people look at people from India, I would say. There's a lot of just people don't want us here. International students at other institutions like Daniela Yomolere at University of Regina are feeling the impact of the caps even more keenly. We did have a tuition increase this semester and we also have a change to payments plan. Part of the problem, Canadian institutions this year got fewer international students than they were allowed under the limit, as revealed by statistics on study permits.

International students are not feeling welcome by Canada like they once felt very welcome. Peter Halpin, executive director of the Council of Atlantic Universities, says the impacts are felt in both short and long term. We need international students. They are our future citizens, our business leaders, our health care professionals, our community leaders. While there's nothing in the books yet, leaders like him are hopeful for conversation with the federal government to settle on a number of international students acceptable to all. Deanna Suminac Johnson, CBC News, Toronto.

Long-time Canadian journalist Beverly Thompson has died following a cancer battle. Thompson's journalism career began at a small radio station in New Market, Ontario, and spanned more than three decades. Most recently, she was a CTV news channel, anchor. Thompson was known for her in-depth interviews with celebrities and newsmakers from Celine Dion to Donald Trump. She was active in breast cancer fundraising and awareness following her own diagnosis in 2002. Beverly Thompson was 61 years old. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News.

And if you want to make sure you 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. A new industry is eyeing British Columbia's 25,000 kilometers of coastline. Not for its beauty, but for its seaweed. It can be used not just for food products, but also cosmetics, pharmaceuticals. even construction materials, plenty of possibilities, but some environmental groups are raising concerns.

Lindsay Duncombe reports on the promises and the pitfalls. Yeah, that's a nice one. Researchers from North Island College pull bull kelp onto a floating dock. It's greeny brown and has a thick round bulb with strands of curly, slimy leaves. Alison Byrne measures the length. 10 meters, 54 centimeters to the top of the bulb. The work is happening at what used to be an industrial salmon farm. It was closed in 2021.

So the college and the We Become First Nation turned it into a seaweed research farm. One of their goals, to understand the economic possibilities of a new industry. They're a sea vegetable, so they're a sustainable food source. We can eat them, animals can eat them. It can be turned into fertilizer. The end uses are really limitless. Seweed can also be used for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, even construction. Acoustic panels are actually one of the easiest construction materials to bring to market.

Annie DeHan runs Seacork Studio from a small lab in Vancouver. She figured out a way to use seaweed to make panels, used to block noise in restaurants and office buildings. There's a patent pending and a wait list. to buy them. The goal for us isn't to make just a product, is to make a product that's good for the planet, and that's good for humans, and that's useful to us. For all of the possibilities, there is some concern

that moving to a more industrial seaweed harvest could do more harm than good. A recent report from the David Suzuki Foundation warns an expanded industry could have negative effects on the ocean, and no one expects British Columbia to have as big an industry as Asia. The scale of it is massive,

And it would take, it would like having almost every square mile of our marine territory growing kelp in it. Chris Roberts is the elected chief counselor of the Wewikam First Nation. He says the nation is only planting native species. Roberts sees potential. It produces a product that we're proud to stand behind, that it's responsible, socially, environmentally, and it's employing our people. And of course, it has to make money. Much of this research is currently funded by governments.

The hope is that investors will see potential, too, to scale up sustainably. Lindsay Duncombe, CBC News, north of Campbell River. There's no simple explanation. A famous Canadian song by a legendary Canadian band for a beloved Canadian hero. That's an acoustic version of the tragically hip-tune courage released earlier this year in collaboration with the Terry Fox Foundation. Today marks 45 years since Fox set out on his marathon of hope to raise money for cancer research.

Terry Fox was 18 in 1977 when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma just above his knee and his leg was amputated. He started his run by dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic in April 1980. After five months and 5,373 kilometers, he was forced to stop. The cancer has spread. I know I've got it cancer in my lungs. All I can say is there's any way I can get up there again and finish it, I will. After his 1981 death, his legacy sparked the annual Terry Fox run,

with thousands of Canadians and folks around the world. old, lacing up their running shoes every year, raising more than $850 million. Terry Fox Foundation CEO Michael Mata says the mission continues. You know, unfortunately, we're all touched by cancer, and this year, about 250,000 Canadians are going to be diagnosed with cancer. So everyone has a personal story. Everyone has a personal reason for being here. Tragically, hip band members have one.

and say they're inspired by the resilience they've seen from loved ones impacted by cancer, especially late singer Gord Downey, to continue the work Terry Fox started 45 years ago. We'll leave you with more of the original courage on your world tonight. I'm Stephanie Skanderas. Thank you for listening. Quickly, All of the unknown With something more familiar

Quickly, something familiar To read my word For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.