Meat producers warn internal trade bill could cause blowback with trade partners
Lauren Martin — senior director of public affairs for the council, which represents the federally licensed meat industry — said the bill could lead the federal government to recognize provincial rules for inspecting meat processing facilities as equal to federal standards.
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Toronto Sun
28 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
EDITORIAL: Scrap Justin Trudeau's economy-killing laws
Ozzy Osbourne, who led Black Sabbath to become the godfather of heavy metal, dies at 76 Livvy Dunne reveals reason why her Olympic dreams ended in 2018 CBC hands out record-breaking raises to offset loss of executive bonuses EDITORIAL: Scrap Justin Trudeau's economy-killing laws Photo by File Photos / AFP via Getty Images Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to forge ahead with 'nation-building' projects will fail unless his government cancels or amends a wave of economy-killing legislation passed by his Liberal predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Long before U.S. President Donald Trump launched his tariff war against us, the previous Trudeau government was passing legislation that cut our own economic throats by undermining Canada's energy sector. Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account or Sign in without password View more offers Article content For Carney to make good on his election promise to make Canada 'the world's leading energy superpower, in both clean and conventional energy,' he needs to take steps to build long-term investor certainty and market confidence in our energy sector. Article content tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or EDITORIAL: Scrap Justin Trudeau's economy-killing laws Back to video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content Ontario's Doug Ford, Alberta's Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan's Scott Moe issued a joint memo of understanding on Tuesday on what they say needs to be done, at the meeting between Carney and the premiers in Ontario's cottage country. Read More Best possible deal with U.S. more important than Aug. 1 deadline: Carney Ontario, B.C., territories announce agreements to boost internal trade As they described it: 'Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan agree on the need for the federal government to address underlying conditions that have harmed the energy industry in Canada, including significantly amending or repealing the Impact Assessment Act, as well as repealing the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, clean electricity regulations, the oil and gas sector greenhouse gas emissions cap, and all other federal initiatives that discriminately impact the energy sector, as well as other economic sectors, such as mining and manufacturing.' Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Indeed, without these changes, nation-building infrastructure projects such as new oil and gas pipelines to get Canada's vast oil and natural gas resources to tidewater and from there to global markets — instead of selling them at huge discounts to the Americans — will never become a reality. Ditto new railway lines to create made-in-Canada supply chains for our vast mineral resources — such as those in Ontario's Ring of Fire — to establish new markets for growth, and achieve 'Canadian energy security in the face of trade uncertainty with the United States.' Given that Trudeau justified these initiatives in the name of fighting climate change, the Carney government also needs to reassess the effectiveness of the more than $200 billion his predecessor earmarked for fighting climate change through 149 government programs, while having, according to environment commission Jerry DeMarco, the worst record of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of any G7 country. RECOMMENDED VIDEO tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content Share this article in your social network Read Next
Vancouver Sun
10 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
The great ‘supply' solution to Canada's housing crisis flounders — further
The unspoken maxim within Canadian political circles, I'm told, is that elected officials just can't win when it comes to either public health care or housing affordability. No matter what politicians do, voters will continue to complain about poor access to medical care or feel aggravated about super-expensive housing prices. That's often why, when it comes to the massive files of health and housing, elected officials go out of their way to at least look like they're doing something. And to look like they're being bold. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney has become the latest Canadian politician to boast that he's going to fix things. He's going to make sure 500,000 new homes get built every year. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In his May election victory speech, Carney pledged to 'build, baby, build.' It's time, he said, 'to build twice as many homes every year.' With big government subsidies, he envisions establishing an 'entirely new housing industry.' Sounds good. But there are many reasons this isn't going to happen. New Zealand offers a striking, disturbing sign of the times. A signature policy of former prime minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour government in 2018 was to build 100,000 affordable housing units in a decade — with taxpayers funding the way. Alas, the island country had completed just 2,389 units by last year. Renaud Brossard of the Montreal Economic Institute think-tank says: 'If you look at government programs that have been done throughout the world, (the New Zealand example) is probably the closest thing to what Mark Carney is pitching.' You can understand politicians' need for creating the optics of dynamism. But the idea of suddenly cranking up construction to 500,000 new homes a year, through a program Carney calls Build Canada Homes, has always been a dream. The target took shape with a 2023 report by CMHC, when it publicly asked: How much housing would we need to restore affordability? The CMHC estimated that, given rapid population growth through international migration, Canada would need 3.5 million homes by 2030 or about 500,000 a year. The trouble is 'this analysis has always been theoretical,' says Steve Pomeroy, a housing industry professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. 'Despite the report's own caveats that such a goal was highly unrealistic and could lead to financial instability, this number quickly morphed into official policy. It's now cited as fact in government platforms and speeches, treated as an unquestionable goal.' There are many reasons it's not about to occur, Pomeroy said, at least not to anywhere near the extent vowed by Carney. They include the availability of construction workers, strains on municipal infrastructure and, most importantly, a cyclical downturn in the housing industry. The potential profits just aren't there right now. Nevertheless, even though Housing Minister Gregor Robertson won't acknowledge it outright, Pomeroy says the federal government's dogged plan continues to be to 'flood the market with so much housing that prices and rents will fall to pre-pandemic levels.' It's the same goal of the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government, including of the provincial housing minister appointed this week, Christine Boyle, a former Vancouver councillor who has aggressively championed the erection of more residential highrises. Even if the 'flood-the-market' ambition were possible, Pomeroy said, it would lead to 'massive oversupply.' One key reason is Ottawa last year moderately lowered its levels for migration, which is this country's only source of population growth and which has been a huge contributor to demand. In light of such impediments, consider recent comments by Mark Goodman, a major Vancouver commercial real estate broker, and one of the most outspoken advocates of supply, supply, supply. This month Goodman vigorously defended those in the development industry who are assembling properties and getting areas, especially along the Broadway corridor, upzoned for apartments towers. 'Getting a project approved and into the hands of a builder who can see it through construction should be seen as a positive,' he wrote in this month's Goodman Report. 'Instead of condemning those who participate and seek fair compensation for their efforts, we should focus on the main goal: getting more homes approved, built and into the hands of tenants and homeowners.' Goodman argued it's wrong to view the 'thousands of units that have been approved but not yet built as evidence' of speculation. Bringing a dose of reality, perhaps inadvertently, to Carney's commitment to annually build 500,000 new homes for the next five years, Goodman argued that 'these owners aren't holding land in some evil inflationary plot. They're stalled because there is no way, in this market, to finance those projects: they just don't pencil.' Furthermore, professor Patrick Condon of the University of B.C.'s landscape architecture school, says the mad rush of Canadian cities to upzone property to encourage frantic housing activity is doing the opposite of reducing prices. While the intention seems to make sense on paper, Condon said, it doesn't work to any great extent. Upzoning mostly just encourages land speculation. As a result of the City of Vancouver, for instance, frequently upzoning properties with the goal 'to increase supply and thereby restore affordability,' Condon said, 'land values have ballooned by over 600 per cent (since the 1970s). Today, the typical Vancouver parcel is often assessed at ten times the value of the modest structure that sits upon it. A staggering mismatch.' Meanwhile, with prices slowly going down, many of the highrises being approved aren't actually getting underway. Developers are nervous. In the Toronto and Hamilton regions, Urbanation, a real estate consultancy, says 21 big housing developments, amounting to more than 4,400 condo units, have been cancelled since last year, which is the worst rate since 2018. Many were to be marketed to investors, foreign and domestic. Across Metro Vancouver, according to the Urban Development Institute, the number of unsold condos is set to soar to 3,500 by the end of next year. 'In high-cost cities like Toronto and Vancouver, condo prices are falling as amateur investors disappear from the market. Much of the recent price and rent boom was driven by unrealistic expectations of fast returns, bolstered by rapid immigration and speculation,' said Pomeroy. 'We're already seeing signs of what happens when supply overshoots demand.' dtodd@
Winnipeg Free Press
12 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Russian lawmakers pass a bill punishing online searches for information deemed to be ‘extremist'
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed 'extremist,' the latest move by government authorities in their relentless crackdown on dissent. The bill passed by the lower house, the State Duma, moves to its all-but-certain endorsement in the upper house and then goes to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law. The legislation punishes what it describes as 'deliberately searching for and accessing extremist materials' online. First-time offenders face a fine of up to the equivalent of $64. The official definition of extremist activity is extremely broad and includes opposition groups like the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the 'international LGBT movement.' It's not clear how authorities will track down violators. Some observers have suggested the information would likely come from internet providers or social media platforms, and police also could randomly check the search history of cellphones or computers. The new legislation also contained a ban on advertising of virtual private network services, but stopped short of banning their use. It did list the use of a VPN as an 'aggravating circumstance' in case of other violations of the law. The Russian authorities have ramped their multipronged crackdown on dissent after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, online censorship and prosecutions for social media posts and comments have soared. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as 'foreign agents' or outlawed as 'undesirable.' Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges. The new legislation has sparked broad public criticism. Liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin, who sought to challenge Putin in last year's presidential election but was denied a spot on the ballot, told reporters outside the State Duma that he opposed the new legislation. Nadezhdin's aide, Dmitry Kisiev, who picketed the parliament building with a poster likening the legislation to the world of George Orwell's dystopian '1984,' was quickly rounded up by police, who also detained several reporters covering the protest. Even some pro-Kremlin figures have criticized the bill, arguing it would make it impossible for them to track down and deflect comments by Kremlin critics. Yekaterina Mizulina, whose group Safe Internet League has frequently reported dissenters to authorities, has strongly condemned the new bill, arguing it would make it impossible for her group to monitor 'extremist communities' on the web.
