The Bill Kelly Show Podcast: 

Abigail chats about the latest travel restrictions/guidance announced by the federal government and the announcement of the fiscal update.

GUEST: Abigail Bimman, Ottawa Correspondent for Global National

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The Liberal government is asking Parliament to approve billions in new spending during a brief four-week sitting in Ottawa, but is facing questions because it has not released a full accounting of how it spent more than $600-billion last year during the peak of Canada’s pandemic response.

More than eight months after the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year, the Liberal government has yet to table the “public accounts” and related documents, which provide a detailed breakdown of how federal funds were spent and include the final official deficit number for the year.

GUEST: Richard Brennan, Former Journalist with The Toronto Star covering both Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill

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Ontario is offering loan guarantees to help not-for-profit long-term care homes acquire development loans.

The government says it’s setting aside $388 million in lending from Infrastructure Ontario, the Crown agency that manages infrastructure loans, for the program.

It says approved borrowing costs not-for-profit homes will also be reduced.

Will this new policy help?

GUEST: Dr. Amit Arya, Co-Founder of Doctors For Justice in Long Term Care and Palliative Care Physician

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Facing a familiar opponent in the Eastern Final, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are preparing for everything the Toronto Argonauts may throw at them.

Over the course of the 2021 campaign, these no-love-lost QEW rivals have seen a lot of each other. Clashing a total of four times during the regular season, with the Argos coming out on top in three of those meetings, both teams know what each other is capable of.

Who has the edge?

GUEST: Luke Tasker, Broadcaster for the Ticats Audio Network and Former wide receiver for the Ticats

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

In a rush to get COVID-19 aid out the door, Premier Doug Ford’s government sent almost $1 billion to thousands of businesses that weren’t eligible for it or were given more than their losses warranted, charges auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

As a result, she said $210 million was spent on grants to small businesses that weren’t eligible for them, and $714 million was paid to cover losses that businesses didn’t actually incur.

ALSO: Ontario using frequent Minister’s Zoning Orders to fast-track development: auditor general

GUEST:  Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Ontario Green Party and MPP for Guelph

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Scientists around the world are racing to learn more about the newly discovered B.1.1.529 coronavirus variant, now known as Omicron, to see how it compares to other variants of concern.

The important questions – like how transmissible it is, how good it is at evading immunity from vaccines or past illness, and whether it causes more severe illness – remain to be answered.

While some scientists say it will be weeks before we get a clear picture of how Omicron will impact the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it expects to have more information on the transmissibility of the variant within days.

GUEST: Dr. Dawn Bowdish, Tenured Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University and Canada Research Chair in Aging & Immunity with the DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research

A new study co-authored by researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University found that political partisanship plays a central role in how people remember events. When more than 300 American citizens were shown identical video footage from the 2017 Women’s March protest, participants who self-identified as supporters of former president Donald Trump reported seeing a greater number of negative events, such as protestors destroying property, even though those events did not occur.

GUEST: Dr. Anne Wilson, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University

How employers can support staff with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

GUEST: Hope Kirk, Head of Consultancy, HR and Health & Safety with Peninsula Canada