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Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government “focused on results for Canadians,” and is not considering a snap election.

On Monday, Carney announced a boost to the GST credit, as part of a suite of new affordability measures, in a grocery-store press conference reminiscent of election-time campaign stops.

Longtime cabinet minister and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland also resigned her seat last month, in order to take on an economic adviser position for the Ukrainian government.

Carney will soon have to call a byelection to replace her in the House of Commons, and other byelections could be coming up amid speculation of other seat vacancies.

Two Conservative MPs crossed the floor to the Liberals in the fall, while another announced he’ll resign this spring, shaking up the party dynamics in the House.

As it currently stands, Carney’s Liberals are just two seats shy of a majority government.“What we’re focused on is solutions for Canadians,” Carney told reporters on Monday in Ottawa, when asked directly whether he’s considering calling a snap election this spring.

More from CTV news.

Speaking of that boost to the GST credit, here’s what we know.Carney announced his government would introduce a temporary 25 per cent increase to the existing GST credit to help lower-income consumers deal with the high cost of groceries across the country.

Branded as the “Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit,” the boost will be temporary, starting this year and lasting for five years.

The federal government will also issue a one-time payment this year worth 50 per cent of the credit.

The government will need to make the change via legislation. Before any changes to the tax code are made, they must first be introduced in a ways and means motion. It must pass through the House before legislation can be brought forward.

A similar motion was passed last spring for the government’s income tax cuts and expansion of the GST rebate for first-time homebuyers.

Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said on Monday the government was aiming to introduce the motion very soon.

iPolitics’ Marco Vigliotti has the rundown.

South Korean submarine maker Hanwha Oceans says it has signed a series of partnership agreements with Canadian companies, including Sault Ste. Marie’s tariff-battered Algoma Steel.Hanwha says it signed a memorandum of understanding with Algoma that pledges $275 million in financial support to stand up a new structural steel beam mill in Canada.

The pact also declares Hanwha’s intention to purchase steel products for both the construction of Canada’s new submarine fleet and the maintenance infrastructure to support it.

Both commitments come on the condition that Hanwha wins Ottawa’s massive, multi-billion-dollar procurement contract to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with up to 12 modern submarines.

Hanwha also signed co-operation agreements on Monday with Telesat, MDA Space, Cohere and PV Labs, all while a South Korean delegation of government and business officials visited Toronto.

More from CP.

In Other Headlines

Internationally

The Israeli military says it has retrieved the body of the last hostage in Gaza, paving the way for the next phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan to get under way.

It had been searching for Master Sgt Ran Gvili since the ceasefire with Hamas began in October.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Gvili’s return “an extraordinary achievement”.

The Israeli military began searching a cemetery for Gvili on Sunday morning. Hamas’s armed wing said it had provided mediators with “all the details and information” about Gvili’s location.

Netanyahu’s office said Israel would reopen Gaza’s key border crossing with Egypt once the operation to find and return Gvili was complete.

The prime minister hailed the return of Gvili’s body, saying: “We promised – and I promised – to bring everyone back. We brought them all back, down to the very last captive,” he said.

The Israeli military said the clarification of existing intelligence over the weekend had enabled the search of the cemetery near Gaza City. A military official said the cemetery “was located in the area of the Yellow Line”, the boundary to territory still controlled by Israeli forces under the ceasefire deal.

The BBC reports.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, US President Donald Trump says his administration is “reviewing everything” after the fatal shooting by immigration agents of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday.

In his comments to the Wall Street Journal, Trump also indicated that he would eventually withdraw agents from the city. But he did not give a timeframe.

Protests continued in Minneapolis and other US cities on Sunday, as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz warned that America was at an “inflection point”.

The facts around the incident – the second fatal shooting by agents of a US citizen in recent weeks – have been hotly contested, setting up a fresh confrontation between state and federal officials.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the agents fired in self-defence after Pretti, who they say had a handgun, resisted their attempts to disarm him.

Eyewitnesses, local officials and the victim’s family have challenged that account, pointing out he had a phone in his hand, not a weapon.

There is no sign of a gun in Pretti’s hand, according to analysis of the available video analyzed by several news outlets.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was directly asked twice whether the agent had done the right thing during the incident. He responded: “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”

He also told the newspaper: “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it.” He added: “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”

More on that here.

In Other International Headlines

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Some sad news from the political world — former Liberal cabinet minister Kirsty Duncan has died at the age of 59 following a years-long battle with cancer.

The Canadian Press has more.