OTTAWA — A Liberal MP said he was threatened with unspecified “consequences” if he votes against the government’s proposed $250 cheques, an affordability measure that continues to face an uncertain path through the House of Commons. Hamilton MP Chad Collins said earlier this week that he would vote against the government’s cash rebates because they leave out seniors and people with disabilities. As proposed, the Liberals’ measure would go to anyone who worked in 2023 and made less than $150,000. The government is also putting forward a two-month GST holiday that would remove the tax from all groceries, as well as children’s clothes and toys, beer and wine, and restaurant meals. Collins said it doesn’t make sense to send out cheques but leave out some people who really need the help. “It’s incomprehensible as to how we create an affordability package that leaves out some of our most vulnerable in our society,” he said. Collins said he first notified Liberal leadership he would vote against the measure this past weekend. He was told there would be consequences, but it was unclear what those would be. “Coming from the city of Hamilton, where politics can be a bit of a blood sport, for someone to say that there will be consequences, that really doesn’t make the top 10 or probably even the top 20 worst things I’ve heard over the years,” Collins said. On Wednesday, several of Collins’s Liberal colleagues said they also have concerns the cheques will not go to seniors, but those MPs said they would still vote for the measure as it stands. New Brunswick MP Jenica Atwin said she would support the current measure when it comes to a vote, even though she believes it is too restrictive. “There’s extremely vulnerable groups that are feeling very left out of this, so hopefully we’ll have those discussions and see what happens,” she said ahead of the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday. Newfoundland MP Ken McDonald said he would like to see the cheques expanded to include seniors who receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement, but would support it as is because he doesn’t want to cut off help for Canadians. Collins said the threat of punishment for speaking out against government legislation runs counter to what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been saying in the House of Commons. Trudeau has accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of “muzzling” his MPs, refusing to let them speak to the media, and preventing them from advocating for their constituents. Collins said while the prime minister was attacking Poilievre, he was also silencing his own MPs. “Those comments couldn’t be more opposite or more in contrast to what the prime minister bragged about last week in the House of Commons,” he said. “It says a lot about where our government is at right now and it says a lot about some of the shackles that have been put around MPs.” Not all Liberal caucus members agreed Wednesday that qualifications to receive the government cheques should be expanded. St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle said the benefit should be “targeted,” and said the Liberals have already enacted measures to help seniors, such as Ottawa’s dental coverage program, which prioritized older Canadians. “This is about (seniors’) kids,” he told reporters. Nevertheless, the Liberals continue to face pushback from opposition parties, who succeeded Wednesday in punting the fate of the cheques — which were planned to land in Canadians’ bank accounts next April — down the line. Following growing demands to expand eligibility to more vulnerable groups, the Trudeau government opted to split the proposed GST holiday and the cheques into separate pieces of legislation. The Liberals tabled one bill Wednesday dedicated to the two-month GST cut, creating an opening to temporarily pause a that has put almost all parliamentary business on ice. The Conservatives initiated the stalemate in late September in an effort to force the Liberals to release more documents tied to a scandal-plagued and now-shuttered green technology funding agency. The lower chamber has been preoccupied with the matter for weeks, preventing new legislation from being debated and passed. The New Democrats had refused to help the Liberals pause the filibuster because they wanted to see the $250 cheque extended to others including seniors, people with disabilities and those newly entering the workforce. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters Wednesday that he opposes the rebate as is. He wants the measure opened up to more Canadians and the income limit of $150,000 to receive the benefit lowered. Now that the rebates have been separated from the GST vacation, which the NDP supports, the Liberals and New Democrats are expected to initiate a process to pause the parliamentary standoff Wednesday night. That pause, which would last for a single day before plunging the Commons back into paralysis, would allow for the GST bill to be debated — and potentially passed — on Thursday evening. The Liberals have proposed that the GST break would be in place from mid-December until Feb. 15, 2025. That still leaves the future of the $250 cheques unclear, with the Liberals buying themselves more time to decide which demands — if any — they will consider. Poilievre has thus far remained mum on his vision for the cash rebates, but on Wednesday slammed the GST holiday as a “tiny, two-month tax trick.”
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#youtube Kids is getting a redesign to make it look more like #youtubeKentucky will aim to improve upon its best start in seven seasons when it hosts Western Kentucky on Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky., in the final game of the BBN Invitational. The Wildcats (5-0) are ranked No. 8 in the latest Associated Press poll and are setting impressive offensive milestones even for a program as tradition-rich as Kentucky, which includes eight national championships. The Wildcats have scored 97 or more points in their first four home games for the first time in program history and eclipsed the 100-point mark in three of those games. Their lone trip out of state was a solid 77-72 victory over Duke in a matchup of top-10 teams in Atlanta. Kentucky has also made at least 10 three-pointers in each of its first five games of a season for the first time ever. "I think Kentucky attracts good people," Kentucky coach Mark Pope said after the Wildcats' 108-59 win over Jackson State on Friday. "It's the one place in all college basketball where you represent just a fanbase in a different, unique way." Otega Oweh and Koby Brea have led the Wildcats' early scoring outburst. Oweh, who is averaging 16.2 points per game, had 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting against Jackson State. "He gets us off to unbelievable starts every night," Pope told reporters after that game. "He's probably been our most consistent guy in games." Brea, who scored 22 points against Jackson State and is averaging 16.0 points per game, is leading the nation in 3-point accuracy at 74.1 percent. As a team, the Wildcats are shooting 42.3 percent from beyond the arc. And the few times they miss, Amari Williams has been doing the dirty work on the glass, averaging 10.8 boards in addition to 9.6 points per game. Kentucky faces a different challenge than it's had to contend with so far in the Hilltoppers (3-2), who have won three in a row after losing their first two games to Wichita State and Grand Canyon. Their up-tempo play hasn't exactly resulted in great offensive output, but in the Hilltoppers' 79-62 win over Jackson State on Wednesday, they shot 45.2 percent from 3-point range (14 for 31). "I was happy to see a lot of different guys contribute tonight and, hopefully, get their feet under them a little bit and get some confidence," said Western Kentucky coach Hank Plona, who is in his first season as head coach. "Obviously, Tuesday will be quite a test and challenge for us and we'll need them to be at their absolute best." Western Kentucky has an experienced group, which returned mostly intact from last season. The team is led by Conference USA first-team selection Don McHenry, who is leading the team with 17.2 points and 2.2 steals per game. McHenry is one of four Hilltoppers with scoring averages in double figures. Julius Thedford (11.4 points per game) and Babacar Faye (15.0) are each shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point range. Western Kentucky also figures to challenge the Wildcats on the boards as it enters the game ranked in the top 25 in defensive rebounding (30.4 per game). Faye leads the Hilltoppers in that department, averaging 7.8 rebounds per game and figures to battle Williams inside. "We're not the biggest team in the world, but our depth and our quickness are our strengths," Plona said. --Field Level Media