DEVELOPING | Budget 2023 prioritizes pocketbook help and clean economy, deficit projected at $40.1B

Dozens of crashes have been reported in Waterloo region as a major winter storm sweeps through southern Ontario.
Waterloo regional police said 67 collisions were reported between 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Six of those involved injuries, while seven were reported as hit and runs.
Guelph police, meanwhile, were called to 10 collisions on Wednesday. They said most resulted in only minor damage and no injuries were reported.
In nearby Norfolk County, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Const. Ed Sanchuk said officers responded to three crashes Wednesday morning. Thankfully, no injuries were reported in any of those collisions, Sanchuk said.
“[The] bad news is people are driving way too fast, like it’s summer,” Sanchuk said in a video posted to social media, adding police have received reports of drivers passing multiple vehicles at a time and speeding past snow plows.
“This is a dangerous game that you do not want to play. The last thing you need is to get tangled up with a snow plow,” Sanchuk said.
A traffic map of Waterloo region at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday lights up red and orange amid slowdowns on local roads due to deteriorating conditions. (Google Maps)
Environment Canada warns heavy snow will reduce visibility and make travel difficult Wednesday.
“Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions. Prepare for quickly changing and deteriorating travel conditions. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow,” Environment Canada said.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government plans to launch a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office, amid ongoing scrutiny of allegations that Beijing interfered in recent federal elections.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.