By Canadian Press

The Monday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

May 8, 2017 | 2:45 PM

Highlights from the news file for Monday, May 8

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MAN AND YOUNG GIRL MISSING IN QUEBEC FLOODS: More than 1,500 soldiers hit the ground Monday to help Quebecers deal with “historic” flooding that has caused widespread damage and evacuations, and sparked a desperate search for a man and a toddler whose vehicle swerved off a waterlogged road into a surging river. The heavy current pulled the car toward the Sainte-Anne River in eastern Quebec and its occupants fell into the water when the vehicle flipped, said provincial police Sgt. Claude Doiron. A woman who was in the car was able to save herself. Heavy rains and melting snowpack across Quebec have so far flooded 2,426 residences in the province, forcing the evacuation of 1,520 people in almost 150 municipalities. National Defence said about 800 additional troops were deployed in the province on Sunday, joining more than 400 Canadian Forces members already assisting with the flood effort. Some 1,650 soldiers in all were expected to be helping in the flood effort by the end of the day Monday. The troops, along with aircraft and a dozen boats, were aiding communities across Quebec, several of which were under states of emergency, including Montreal and its northern suburbs.

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FEDS SHIP TROOPS, SANDBAGS TO FLOOD ZONES: Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is defending the federal response to flood relief efforts in Ontario and Quebec, saying the Liberals sent troops and resources immediately after hearing provincial pleas for help. Goodale said the federal government agreed to send military personnel to Quebec “within 30 seconds” of that province asking for help Friday and is now moving 250,000 sandbags into flooded communities around Ottawa after complaints about running out arose on Sunday night. Goodale said the federal government couldn’t send in help on its own — local and provincial officials had to ask first. That process of responding to a natural disaster will go under review when Goodale meets his provincial and territorial counterparts at the end of the month. Goodale said one jurisdiction or government cannot alone be responsible for responding to a natural disaster. Goodale said every level of government is pulling together to keep people safe in what he describes as a very serious situation.

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HOMEOWNERS COULD BE ON HOOK FOR FLOOD COSTS: The majority of Canadian homeowners aren’t insured for flooding and could be left footing at least part of the bill after heavy rains in several areas across the country, experts say. Craig Stewart, vice-president of federal affairs for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, estimates that only 10 to 15 per cent of Canadians have so-called “overland flood insurance,” which is offered as an add-on to insurance policies. Stewart says that’s because it’s a fairly new product that wasn’t available prior to 2013, when severe flooding hit Toronto and Alberta. Heavy rains left several communities in Quebec and Ontario struggling with rising floodwaters over the weekend, while parts of New Brunswick and British Columbia also faced flooding. Insurers started working on the overland flood insurance add-on after the 2013 incidents, but it took time to roll the policies out. Stewart says the product has been available since late 2015. Stewart says most homeowners grappling with flood damage will be left relying on government assistance, which typically covers less than insurance.

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CAISSE WON’T SUPPORT BOMBARDIER CHAIRMAN: Quebec’s largest pension fund says it won’t support the re-election of Bombardier executive chairman Pierre Beaudoin, dealing a fresh blow against the company just ahead of its annual meeting Thursday. In a letter posted on its website Monday, the Caisse de depot said it has also voted against Bombardier’s plan to award Beaudoin and its top five executives compensation hikes of nearly 50 per cent. The vote is non-binding. After public protests, Bombardier said it was postponing the compensation plan by a year until 2020. The Caisse said the move to delay the payments was welcome, but it’s concerned that the decision to increase executive compensation was made in the first place. While the Caisse said it supports CEO Alain Bellemare’s turnaround plan for Bombardier, it believes the original compensation proposal reflects a “lapse of governance” at the board level. The Caisse said the board should be chaired by a fully independent director rather than a member of the family that controls shareholder voting.

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KILL SUPER HORNET PURCHASE, SENATE COMMITTEE SAYS: The Senate defence committee has urged the Liberal government to cancel its decision to buy 18 Super Hornet fighter jets without a competition. The committee said the cost of buying the fighter jets will outweigh any potential benefits, and that the government should launch an immediate competition to replace Canada’s CF-18s. The assessment and recommendation are contained in a report released Monday, in which senators called on the government to double defence spending to two per cent of GDP over the next decade. “This is the only way to effectively protect Canadians, meet our commitments to NATO and NORAD, and to our own national defence,” said Conservative senator and committee chairman Daniel Lang. “Increasing spending to two per cent will allow Canada to stop freeloading on our southern neighbour when it comes to our own security.” The committee’s report included a long shopping list of items the government should buy, and comes as the Liberals prepare to release their new defence policy.

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WHITE HOUSE SAYS THERE’S NO TRADE WAR WITH CANADA: The White House is downplaying talk of a U.S. trade war with Canada, with President Donald Trump’s spokesman brushing off the notion when asked about it Monday. ”No,” Sean Spicer said when asked whether he sees a north-south trade war escalating. He said regular trade remedy procedures are simply doing their job. The U.S. has slapped tariffs as high as 24 per cent on Canadian lumber, as part of its long-standing view that Canadian logging companies get unfair subsidies. The Canadian government is now considering retaliation in two areas: one is a possible ban on exports of U.S. coal from B.C., and government sources say the other is a study of potential duties against products from Oregon. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said over the weekend that he won’t be pressured into making a lumber deal. The president’s spokesman said Monday that the U.S. is merely following its legal, legitimate trade-dispute practices. Domestic law allows U.S. lumber producers to seek an investigation and punitive duties if they feel unfairly undercut; the U.S. government agrees with them that Canadian rivals’ low-fee access to public land comprises a subsidy.

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NEW FEDERAL LAB TO MAXIMIZE WIRELESS SPECTRUM: The federal government says a new research lab that aims to get the most of out the country’s finite wireless spectrum will eventually help Canadians avoid more dropped calls, spotty reception and hefty smartphone bills. Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains says the suburban Ottawa laboratory will use new technologies like big data analytics and artificial intelligence as it searches for ways to make more efficient use of the economically critical wireless spectrum. Bains says spectrum management is crucial because wireless data traffic is expected to increase 1,000 times by 2020, which will apply significant pressure on the country’s infrastructure. He says the radio waves are a public resource that underpin all modern communications — everything from TV and radio broadcasting to phone service and wireless data. Bains says one of the goals is to locate unused radio waves in real time and put that surplus capacity to work.

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FEDS LOOKING TO SOFTEN PASSPORT POLICY FOR DISABLED APPLICANTS: The federal government says it’s reviewing a policy that forbids staff in Canada’s passport offices from helping disabled applicants fill out their forms. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it’s looking into revising the policy, which bars staff from filling out applications on someone else’s behalf for fear of potential forgery cases. The policy applies nationwide, and IRCC currently says Canadians requiring help with their documents should have a friend or family member complete the paperwork. In the past five weeks, two Canadians with disabilities filed formal complaints against the policy after being denied help at Service Canada offices in Ontario. Both say the current approach is inadequate and presents a troubling accessibility barrier for people wishing to be able to complete passport documents with independence and confidence. IRCC did not offer any indications as to when potential revisions might take effect.

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PRIDE TORONTO MOVES CLOSER TO SECURING FUNDING: Canada’s largest Pride parade is one step closer to securing municipal funding that has been threatened by a decision to ban uniformed police officers from the annual event. Pride Toronto has sparked controversy ever since a decision early this year to ban police floats from the colourful summer parade. On Monday, a committee at Toronto City Hall recommended upholding a $260,000 annual grant to the event after a petition from Olivia Nuamah, the executive director of Pride Toronto. A final ruling on the fate of the grant will come in a few weeks at the city’s monthly council meeting. Toronto Mayor John Tory has expressed his support for the funding, saying both Pride Toronto and Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders have told him cutting the grant would not help resolve the controversy around the parade. In a statement released Sunday evening, Pride Toronto reiterated that police officers were welcome at the parade so long as they appeared as civilians rather than in an official capacity.

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UBER TO SET UP DRIVERLESS-CAR LAB IN TORONTO: Uber has hailed a prominent artificial-intelligence academic to lead a driverless-car project in Toronto — the ride-hailing company’s first such research hub outside the United States, its CEO announced Monday. In a blog post, Travis Kalanick said he was proud to have Raquel Urtasun, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, on board. He described her as “one of the world’s leading researchers” in the fields of machine perception and artificial intelligence. Urtasun was not immediately available for comment, but in an interview with Wired, she acknowledged her hire as a high-profile woman by a company looking to change an image some have attacked as misogynist. Urtasun is expected to take eight students with her and Uber said it hoped to attract others from the region’s “impressive” talent pool.

The Canadian Press