Unlike the mythological bird of the same name, the federal government’s Phoenix payroll system is not going to rise from the ashes. 

Driving the news: The feds are reportedly going full speed ahead with their plans to ditch Phoenix, the public service payroll system that has done nothing but cause headaches since its launch in 2016. As of last year, 30% of federal employees reported errors in their pay.

 To curb rising auto theft in the province, the Ontario government is taking a page out of our parents’ playbook and threatening to take away driving privileges: A new law will introduce driver's licence suspensions of at least 10 years for some convicted car thieves. 

Since Schitt’s Creek went off the air, CBC has been in a flop era that it’s desperate to end.

What happened: CBC/Radio-Canada has brought in a panel of Canadian media experts to help advise on policy changes that will aim to modernize the national broadcaster — at a time when one-third of surveyed Canadians say they want to see it lose funding entirely

Both countries have been putting limits on the other’s technology, mostly through import and export restrictions that dictate what U.S. tech companies can send to or accept from China (and vice versa). But it’s also starting to play out on the software front, like a U.S. bill to potentially ban TikTok, or China forcing Apple to pull WhatsApp, Threads, and Signal from the App Store.

Despite glaring labour shortages in sectors like healthcare, education, and skilled trades, Canada has long favoured business students when granting international student visas. 

Driving the news: A new CBC report details the severity of the mismatch, a problem that the country’s immigration agency has known about since 2018 and was flagged to the feds a year before a cap on student study permits was introduced. This has left large volumes of students coming to Canada to pursue programs with poor labour market outcomes. 

The feds are hoping hefty fines will teach some “bad actor” employers a lesson.

Driving the news: New government data shows Ottawa handed out record-high penalties to nearly 200 Canadian businesses last year for breaking the rules of temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs, including wage theft and workplace abuse, per The Globe and Mail.

The federal government is hoping some new laws can turn foreign interference into a foreign concept.

What happened: The feds proposed a set of laws and measures to counteract the growing threat of foreign interference from hostile states like China and Russia.

Ontario is hoping the promise of less time sitting in the classroom will convince more students to swap their notebooks for hard hats. 

What happened: The Ontario government is launching a fast-track program in the fall designed to get more high school students into the trades, offering Grade 11 and 12 students the option of spending 80% of their would-be class time in apprenticeships.

Many of us feel like we work too many hours, though almost none of us are told this by the federal government — unless you’re an international student, that is.

What happened: Starting in September, international post-secondary students will be able to work no more than 24 hours a week off-campus. 

 On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Tyler Meredith to talk about how the federal government puts its budgets together. Before becoming a partner at Meredith Boessenkool Policy Advisors, Tyler was one of the driving forces behind no fewer than six federal budgets and served as the top economic advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and two finance ministers.