Regina police are asking for public assistance in an investigation into an overnight shooting that left a woman injured.

Officers with the Regina Police Service (RPS) were dispatched to the 1400 block of Rae Street following a reported shooting at around 1:26 a.m. on Sept. 30.

Police arrived in the area and discovered a 29-year-old woman had been shot according to a news release.

The woman was taken to hospital and underwent surgery for injuries that appeared to be non-life threatening. RPS noted that she is currently in stable condition.

Police are asking residents in the area with video surveillance on their properties to check for overnight activity.

Anyone who can assist in the investigation is asked to contact RPS at 306-777-6500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Tents are popping up in vacant lots as Regina’s houseless prepare for colder weather.

The City of Regina is assessing whether there is need for more shelter beds according to Mayor Sandra Masters.

“They [The City] are looking at potential facilities that may be able to put whatever excess there is,” she said.

“In the meantime the rule is if you need space to stay overnight, social services will find you space to stay overnight so nobody needs to sleep outdoors.”

The city had hoped that at rapid housing facility would be ready for this winter but construction of the units are tied up at a prefabrication plant.

Organizations that work with those living on the streets are mobilizing for the winter, such as The Comeback Society.

“If we think about this as a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, we also need to consider why these people might be homeless, said Alicia Morrow, founder of the Comeback Society.

“This is the direct result of residential schools and the colonial impacts that Canada has had on our people.”

The Comeback Society, which provides free meals every Sunday near the downtown library, has teamed up with The Everyday Kitchen to gather warm winter clothing.

“We have a bin provided,” Morrow explained. “The team here is great and they know that you guys will be coming so just come drop it off.”

The Everyday Kitchen often provides bagels for their Sunday meal program and will donate 10 per cent from this Friday’s sales to the cause, according to co-owner Mark Shmelinski.

“It’s hard to miss the need in our city on any given day so yeah, we see it. We’re surrounded by it,” he said.

The City of Regina estimates that its rapid housing facility will be ready for April, 2023.

However, it will just be another part of the solution to a problem that will continue to take support from multiple organizations in the city.

A traffic collision between a vehicle and a cyclist left one person dead in east Regina.

At 5:12 p.m. on Sept. 29, members of the Regina Police Service (RPS) responded to a traffic incident at the intersection of Heseltine Road and Heseltine Gate.

A 38-year-old woman who was cycling was critically injured after colliding with a vehicle and was taken to hospital. The woman was pronounced dead later that night, RPS said.

No criminal or Traffic Safety Act charges have been laid in connection to the collision according to RPS.

Anyone was has information to assist police in the ongoing investigation is asked to contact RPS at 306-777-6500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPPS).

Canada is headed for a recession in early 2023, according to one economist.

I dont think that were in a recession just yet, but I do think that one is on the horizon, David Doyle, the head of economics at Macquarie Group, told BNN Bloomberg. Our baseline is that Canada will enter a recession in the first quarter of 2023.

Macquarie Group, an Australia-based global financial services provider, estimates Canada will face an approximately three per cent contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) and a five per cent rise in its unemployment rate during the predicted recession.

We actually think it will be pretty severe in Canada, Doyle said. I think the die has been cast on this front. Because inflation has become so elevated, and unemployment was allowed to fall so low, I think a recession is almost inevitable at this point.

According to new data from Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy grew by a modest 0.1 per cent in July. Their estimates, however, show economic growth stagnating in August, when the annual inflation rate reached 7.0 per cent, down from a high of 8.1 per cent in June.

I think what youre seeing is that the economy is stalling after having that significant boost from reopening earlier this year, Doyle explained. I think its appropriate to think that theres further slowing ahead, even after what looks to have been a very soft third quarter.

Canadas cooling housing market will play a significant role in that slowing, Doyle added. The latest Statistics Canada figures show output from real estate agents and brokers dropping 3.4 per cent in July, down for the fifth consecutive month. Doyle expects the trend to continue.

Typically, you see housing start to weaken as you head into a recession, Doyle said. Were certainly seeing ample signs of that.

Aimed at fighting inflation, the Bank of Canada raised interest rates to 3.25 per cent on Sept. 7, which has contributed to the cooling housing market. The increase followed a full percentage point hike in July, which was the largest single rate increase in Canada since August 1998. The Bank of Canada began hiking interest rates in March, after they fell to 0.25 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economists widely predict the next interest rate hike will come on Oct. 26. Doyle thinks it could be the last.

But it will likely be potentially six, nine, 12 months before we start to see the Bank cutting rates again, Doyle said. Thats because theyll want to be certain that they brought inflation under control.

Doyle believes there is a silver lining to the predicted recession.

Often when you see a recession, it proves to be enough to bring inflation back down, he said.

A new campaign is aiming to finally clear away a financial barrier to therapy — a tax on counselling therapists and psychotherapists’ services, which experts say is unfair.

While other mental health professionals can offer their patients an exemption from the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST), counselling therapists and psychotherapists currently aren’t able to, something the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association has been lobbying for years to change.

Now, a new campaign they’ve launched this month aims to finally close that gap.

“Counselling therapists and psychotherapists across the country have shared that adding GST or HST to psychotherapy services has limited access,” Lindsey Thomson, director of public affairs for the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, said at a press conference last week to launch the new campaign, Tax Free Therapy.

“This unfair tax should not be a barrier to affording mental health care.”

The campaign’s dedicated website explains that counselling therapists and psychotherapists are the only mental health professionals required to charge GST/HST, and prompts Canadians to sign a parliamentary petition and send a letter to their MP along with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Thomson, who is herself a registered psychotherapist who has been working with clients over the past six years, said the need for these services is huge.

“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, psychotherapy was already the most requested, but the least met, health-care need of Canadians,” she said.

The unequal taxing of these services “has to change,” in order to help meet the need of Canadians, she said.

“Social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists have already been exempt from charging this tax for providing the same psychotherapy service,” she added.

‘BUREAUCRATIC SEMANTICS’ BARRING MENTAL HEALTH ACCESS

If other mental health professionals such as social workers and psychologists can offer their services without having to charge GST/HST, why aren’t the services of psychotherapists/counselling therapists treated the same?

It comes down to a simple confusion over what the titles of counselling therapists/psychotherapists mean, the petition explains.

A profession is eligible to be GST/HST exempt nationally if it is regulated as a health profession “by at least five provinces or territories,” the petition states.

Counselling therapy/psychotherapy meets this criteria, with Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island all including a therapy profession that is regulated as health care.

However, the name of the profession ranges from province to province, with Quebec and Ontario both referring to psychotherapists and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island specifying counselling therapists as the job.

“A tax exemption was refused because the provinces regulated the profession under different titles,” the petition states.

But there is functionally no difference between these jobs, experts say — counselling therapist and psychotherapist are essentially two words for the same thing, and the title is merely a matter of regional preference.

“Counselling therapy and psychotherapy are the same profession as demonstrated by a shared scope of practice, comparable qualification requirements, aligned codes of ethics, and recognition under the Canada Free Trade Agreement,” the petition clarifies.

“This is a bureaucratic game of semantics that is causing barriers to further accessing services during a time of extreme need for Canadians,” Thomson added.

The Canadian Revenue Agency’s website confirms that psychotherapists have to charge their patients GST/HST, while other health-care practitioners who are already eligible for tax exemption do not have to charge that tax for psychotherapy services.

“Currently, there is no provision in the (Excise Tax Act) that specifically exempts from the GST/HST supplies of psychotherapy services or services rendered by a psychotherapist, even if the psychotherapist is licensed and renders the service in a province that regulates the profession of psychotherapy,” the website states. “Therefore, a psychotherapist is required to collect GST/HST on his or her supplies of services, if he or she is a GST/HST registrant.”

Although the GST/HST amount may be small for a single visit, the added monetary burden of having to pay taxes for every therapy visit can make accessing this help daunting for some Canadians.

According to the Tax Free Therapy campaign’s website, one in four Canadians aged 18 or older showed symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder in spring of 2021, and 5.3 million Canadians said they needed help for their mental health in 2017.

“Of these, 2.3 (million) reported that their needs were only partially met or actually fully unmet,” Thomson said. “In the wake of the pandemic, it’s widely known that many Canadians have struggled with their mental health, whether its the isolation of lockdowns or quarantine, losing a job, not having adequate child care, or the loss of a loved one, (so) the estimated number of 5.3 million has surely skyrocketed.”

In December 2021, a bill was tabled to amend the Excise Tax Act and make psychotherapy services tax free — Bill C-218 — but a budgetary bill also must be tabled to make the change, something noted in the petition.

The goal of the petition and the campaign as a whole is to force Parliament to respond and get the bill passed. Since the launch, the petition has garnered more than 6,000 signatures, with more than 600 letters sent to MPs, according to a press release.

Making psychotherapist/counselling therapists services exempt from GST/HST would cost around $3 million in 2022-23 in terms of the reduction in GST revenue, and around $76 million over the next five years, according to an official estimation of Bill C-218 by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

However, this is pennies compared to the overall GST/HST revenue yearly, which was $37.4 billion in 2019-20, according to data from Statistics Canada.

And the toll that mental illness has on Canadians is an economic one as well. The Mental Health Commission of Canada estimates that the economic cost of those living with untreated mental health struggles is more than $50 billion annually.

Experts say that increasing access to mental health services by eliminating this tax will result in saving far more money than would be taken out of the GST revenue.

And considering the pandemic’s measurable impact on the mental health of Canadians, this is something that matters now more than ever, Thomson says.

“The government can demonstrate its commitment to supporting the mental health of Canadians by eliminating the tax on counselling therapy services.” 

There are moments in history that appear as critical to the world as they are terrifying.

Just this century: the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the U.S. shock-and-awe″ war on Saddam Husseins Iraq two years later; the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 killed millions and upended life; and most recently the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, bringing ruinous war back to Europe.

Friday seemed one of those watershed moments as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to illegally annex a large swath of eastern and southern Ukraine, like it did with Crimea in 2014.

Coming seven months into the conflict and with near daily nuclear threats by backs-to-the wall Kremlin leaders, Putin chilllingly vowed to protect the newly annexed regions by all available means. Almost immediately, Ukraines president countered by applying to join the NATO military alliance, setting Russia up to face off against the West.

Any thought that this kind of harrowing brinkmanship had ended with the 1980s when the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and then U.S. President Ronald Reagan eased the Cold War and the specter of nuclear Armageddon, is now gone.

Even with the horror of Japans Hiroshima and Nagasaki burned on humanitys collective consciousness, the world finds itself once again contemplating the possible use of nuclear weapons.

After a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield, Putin has made it painfully clear that any attack on the newly annexed regions would be construed as an attack on Russia. He would use any means available in his vast arsenal -- the nod to nuclear weapons was barely veiled -- and wasnt bluffing, he said.

Were in an escalation phase, and Russia now is faced with a series of more extreme choices than before, said Nigel Gould-Davies, the former U.K. ambassador to Belarus.

Gould-Davies, who is senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russias attempts to win the war by more moderate means have failed, and Putin is now having to increase the range and severity of the measures Russia is taking, including annexation and nuclear threats.

Even as Moscow annexed the four Ukrainian regions in a move that will not be recognized by an overwhelming majority of the world, tens of thousands of Russian men called up to fight in the war were fleeing Russia.

Former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov on Friday linked Russias reversals in the war with the annexation push. It looks like an attempt to respond somehow, and it looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world, he said.

Driving Putin are years of perceived humiliation at the hands of the West after the demise of the Soviet Union. And the fact that previous bloodshed and atrocities committed against Chechnya and Syria escaped severe international intervention seemed to give him the conviction that he had carte blanche to rebuild an Imperial Russia.

Thats not the case now.

Billions of dollars in United States and European military aid are helping highly motivated Ukrainian forces liberate territory in the war amid clear signals from Washington that `catastrophic consequences will follow any use by Moscow of non-conventional weapons.

On a day like Friday, Sept. 30, as Russias war in Ukraine enters a flammable, even more dangerous phase, the question remains; Is a wider war looming with devastating results for the world, perhaps not seen since 1939-1945?

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to illegally annex more occupied Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of his war. Ukraines president countered with a surprise application to join the NATO military alliance.

Putins land-grab and President Volodymyr Zelenskyys signing of what he said is an accelerated NATO membership application sent the two leaders speeding faster on a collision course that is cranking up fears of a full-blown conflict between Russia and the West.

Putin vowed to protect newly annexed regions of Ukraine by all available means, a renewed nuclear-backed threat he made at a Kremlin signing ceremony where he also railed furiously against the West, accusing the United States and its allies of seeking Russias destruction.

Zelenskyy then held his own signing ceremony in Kyiv, releasing video of him putting pen to papers he said were a formal NATO membership request.

Putin has repeatedly made clear that any prospect of Ukraine joining the military alliance is one of his red lines and cited it as a justification for his invasion, now in its eighth month, in Europes biggest land war since World War II.

In his speech, Putin urged Ukraine to sit down for peace talks but insisted he wont discuss handing back occupied regions. Zelenskyy said thered be no negotiations with Putin.

We are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but … with another president of Russia, the Ukrainian leader said.

At his signing ceremony in the Kremlins ornate St. Georges Hall, Putin accused the West of fueling the hostilities to turn Russia into a colony and a crowd of soulless slaves. The hardening of his position, in the conflict that has killed and wounded tens of thousands of people, further raised tensions already at levels unseen since the Cold War.

Global leaders, including those from the Group of Seven leading economies, responded with an avalanche of condemnation. The U.S. and the U.K. announced more sanctions.

U.S. President Joe Biden said of Putins annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions: Make no mistake: These actions have no legitimacy.

America and its allies are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats, Biden added, noting that the Russian leader cant seize his neighbors territory and get away with it.

The European Union said its 27 member states will never recognize the illegal referendums that Russia organized as a pretext for this further violation of Ukraines independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Friday that would have condemned the referendums, declared that they have no validity and urged all countries not to recognize the annexation. China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstained on the vote in the 15-member council.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War.

The war is at a pivotal moment, he said, and Putins decision to annex more territory -- Russia now claims sovereignty over 15% of Ukraine -- marks the most serious escalation since the start of the war. Stoltenberg was noncommittal on Zelenskyys fast-track NATO application, saying alliance leaders support Ukraines right to choose its own path, to decide what kind of security arrangements it wants to be part of.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russias Security Council, said Zelenskyys move toward the military alliance amounts to begging NATO to accelerate the start of World War III.

Zelenskyy vowed to keep fighting, defying Putins warnings that Kyiv shouldnt try to recapture what it has lost.

The entire territory of our country will be liberated from this enemy, he said. Russia already knows this. It feels our power.

The immediate ramifications of the accelerated NATO application werent clear, since approval requires members unanimous support. The supply of Western weapons to Ukraine has, however, already put it closer to the alliances orbit.

De facto, we have already proven compatibility with alliance standards, Zelenskyy said. We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other.

The Kremlin ceremony came three days after the completion in the occupied regions of Moscow-orchestrated referendums on joining Russia that Kyiv and the West dismissed as a blatant land grab held at gunpoint and based on lies. In his fiery speech, Putin insisted Ukraine treat the votes with respect.

As the ceremony concluded, the Moscow-installed leaders of the occupied regions gathered around Putin, linked hands and chanted Russia! Russia! with the audience.

Putin cut an angry figure as he accused the United States and its allies of seeking to destroy Russia. He said the West acted as a parasite and used its financial and technological strength to rob the entire world.

He portrayed Russia as pursuing a historical mission to reclaim its post-Soviet great power status and counter Western domination he said is collapsing.

History has called us to a battlefield to fight for our people, for the grand historic Russia, for future generations, he said.

Moscow has backed eastern Ukraines separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions since they declared independence in 2014, weeks after Russias annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula. Russia captured the southern Kherson region and part of neighboring Zaporizhzhia soon after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament will meet next week to rubber-stamp the annexation treaties, sending them to Putin for final approval.

The orchestrated process went into a celebratory phase Friday night, with thousands gathered in Red Square for a concert and rally that Putin joined. Many waved Russian flags as entertainers from Russia and occupied parts of Ukraine performed patriotic songs. Russian media reported employees of state-run companies and institutions were told to attend, and students were allowed to skip classes.

Putins land grab and a partial troop mobilization were attempts to avoid more battlefield defeats that could threaten his 22-year rule. By formalizing Russias gains, he seemingly hopes to scare Ukraine and its Western backers by threatening to escalate the conflict unless they back down -- which they show no signs of doing.

Russia controls most of the Luhansk and Kherson regions, about 60% of the Donetsk region and a large chunk of the Zaporizhzhia region, where it seized Europes largest nuclear power plant.

But the Kremlin is on the verge of another stinging military loss, with reports of the imminent Ukrainian encirclement of the eastern city of Lyman. Retaking it could open the path for Ukraine to push deep into Luhansk, one of the annexed regions.

It looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of a virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world, former Kremlin speechwriter-turned-analyst Abbas Gallyamov said, adding that the Kremlin cannot offer anything сomforting to the Russians.

Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones in Moscows heaviest barrage in weeks, with one strike in the Zaporizhzhia regions capital killing 30 and wounding 88.

In the Zaporizhzhia attack, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down on people waiting in cars to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across front lines, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office.

Russian-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces, but gave no evidence.

The strike left deep craters and sent shrapnel tearing into the humanitarian convoy, killing passengers. Nearby buildings were demolished. Bodies were later covered with trash bags, blankets and, for one victim, a blood-soaked towel.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has deprived Moscow of battlefield mastery. Its hold on the Luhansk region appears increasingly shaky, as Ukrainian forces make inroads with the pincer assault on Lyman, a key node for Russian military operations in the Donbas and a sought-after prize. The Russian-backed separatist leader of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian forces have half-encircled Lyman. Ukraine maintains a large foothold in the neighboring Donetsk region.

Russian strikes were also reported in the city of Dnipro. Regional Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said at least three people were killed and five were wounded.

Ukraines air force said the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa were targeted with Iranian-supplied suicide drones that Russia has increasingly deployed.

A 13-year-old boy is facing multiple weapons charges after police allegedly discovered a sawed-off rifle during a search of a Regina apartment.

In a news release, the Regina Police Service (RPS) said it received a report on Tuesday from an individual who said they had received photos from an acquaintance showing a gun.

Officers found the sender of the photos near an apartment in the 3800 block of Retallack Street, police said. He was arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant.

Following further investigation, police received permission to search an apartment nearby. During the search, RPS said officers discovered a sawed-off .22 calibre rifle. A boy was arrested at the apartment and charged.

He cannot be named in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The 13-year-old boy was charged with possession of a firearm knowing its possession is unauthorized, store firearm contrary to regulations, possession of a weapon for purpose dangerous to public peace, possession of a firearm contrary to prohibition, obstruct peace officer and fail to comply with conditions of a release order.

The accused made his first appearance in Youth Court on Wednesday morning.