Major projects: How Bill C-5 works and why it alarms its critics
People rally against Bill C-5 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang JDT flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: pubinfo.section: cms.site.custom.site_domain : thestar.com sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false firstAuthor.avatar :
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Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
EDITORIAL: The financial risks of ‘nation-building'
Prime Minister Mark Carney attends the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS Now that Prime Minister Mark Carney's legislation to fast-track 'nation-building' projects has been approved, the concern is whether taxpayer money spent building them will be respected. 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 Nation-building projects are what governments used to call capital spending and we already know that Carney is planning to finance federal projects with more public debt. In his election platform alone, Carney identified $130 billion in new spending over four years with total deficit spending of $224.8 billion, 71% higher than what the Trudeau government said it would spend. The Carney government will also be green-lighting selected capital projects submitted by the provinces involving both public and private sector spending. The problem is we all know what happens when governments fast track public spending while ignoring the rules aimed at giving taxpayers good value for money. It ends in financial disasters such as the ArriveCAN app, developed during the pandemic, that was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up at almost $60 million, according to Auditor General Karen Hogan. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. She warned that the failure of public servants to follow contracting rules that led to the ArriveCAN mess is widespread across the government, based on her investigations of other contracts. The history of military purchases by the defence department alone is replete with financial fiascoes. In her recent report, Hogan estimated the cost of replacing Canada's aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets with 88 new F-35s, increased by almost 50% between 2022 and 2024 from $19 billion to $27.7 billion. She said it happened because the government relied on outdated data and failed to develop contingency plans for managing financial risks associated with the project. Going forward, spending on the military is poised to skyrocket given Carney's commitment to meet Canada's NATO target of spending 2% of annual GDP on defence by March 31, 2026, rising to 5% by 2035 at an added estimated cost of $150 billion annually. Meanwhile, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux said he can't assess whether Carney's claim he will balance the operating budget in three years is credible because the government hasn't provided definitions of what it means by operational versus capital spending. Unless the government cleans up its act, we're facing years of billion-dollar boondoggles that we'll only learn about years after the fact. NHL Columnists Columnists Toronto Raptors Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Sun
4 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: What happened to Mark Carney's art of the deal?
Since becoming prime minister, his strategy for dealing with Donald Trump has been mostly one of appeasement rather than confrontation Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox Prime Minister Mark Carney holds a closing press conference following the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected because he said he was the best leader to deal with Donald Trump in a tariff war. 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 Now would be a good time for him to prove it. When he was running for the Liberal leadership, Carney's approach to dealing with the U.S. President was all 'elbows up' rhetoric. In January, he said Trump's threat of imposing an illegal 25% tariff on Canadian imports was 'a blatant violation of our trade agreements, and will demand the most serious trade response in our history … 'Dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs by Canada should be a given and they should be aimed where their impacts in the United States will be felt the hardest.' But as prime minister, Carney's strategy for dealing with Trump has been mostly one of appeasement rather than confrontation. The question, given Trump suspending all trade and security negotiations with Canada on Friday because of U.S. anger over Canada's digital services tax, which has been widely criticized by business groups in Canada and the U.S., is whether Carney's strategy is working. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. (The digital services tax was passed a year ago by the Justin Trudeau government and is poised to extract billions of dollars in tax revenue from a number of U.S. tech giants operating in Canada, starting Monday.) Read More In March, Carey abandoned 'dollar for dollar' tariffs, saying it was unrealistic given that the U.S. economy is ten times the size of Canada's. While Carney has imposed selective tariffs on U.S. goods in response to Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods, in April he removed some Canadian counter-tariffs on automakers as long as they maintained production and investment levels in Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He also announced the suspension of counter-tariffs for six months on goods imported from the U.S. used in Canadian manufacturing, processing and food and beverage packaging, as well as on goods used to support public health, health care, public safety and national security. In June, the Carney government introduced the 'Strong Borders Act' to 'keep our borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of illegal fentanyl, and crack down on money laundering' in deference to Trump's demands about border security. Also in June, Carney announced Canada would meet its long-neglected NATO target of spending 2% of annual GDP on defence by March 31, 2026, another Trump demand. RECOMMENDED VIDEO This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Last week, Carney said Canada would comply with Trump's demand to increase spending on defence to 5% of GDP by 2035, carrying a $150-billion a year price tag. The Carney government didn't respond to Trump's decision earlier this month to double U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50%. He called them 'unlawful, unjustified and illogical' and said Canada was preparing a response but would hold off imposing counter-tariffs pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations between Canada and the U.S. (Since then, the federal government has announced tariff-rate quotas on steel mill products imported into Canada but the Canadian steel industry has called them insufficient.) On June 16, following a meeting with Trump at the G7, Carney announced Canada and the U.S. had agreed to a 30-day deadline to reach a deal on trade and security. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While Trump suggested a deal was possible, the announcement of the deadline – subsequently set at July 21 – came only from Carney. As the Prime Minister's Office described it: 'Prime Minister Carney and President Trump discussed immediate trade pressures and priorities for each country's workers and businesses, and shared updates on key issues raised in negotiations on a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S. 'To that end, the leaders agreed to pursue negotiations toward a deal within the coming 30 days.' RECOMMENDED VIDEO But within a week, Carney was downplaying that announcement, saying there was no assurance a deal would be reached by July 21. And on Friday, Trump suspended all negotiations because of the digital services tax. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It may be that there is no effective strategy – either confrontation or appeasement – to deal with Trump given the size of the U.S. economy compared to ours and the fact Trump thinks nothing of breaking existing trade agreements while demanding new ones and changes his positions on issues within days of making them. His negotiating style is to make enormous demands, then delay their implementation to see how much he can get, with the threat he will cause economic chaos if negotiations fail. That said, Carney told Canadians he could handle Trump. So far, the jury is out. lgoldstein@ Columnists NHL Sunshine Girls Toronto Raptors Toronto Raptors
Winnipeg Free Press
14 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Getting business onside — Carney's next job
Opinion Canada Day marks just over 100 days of Mark, as in Carney. Since being sworn in as prime minister on St. Patrick's Day, our new prime minister has enjoyed no small 'luck of the Irish' after winning an election he wasn't supposed to. Napoleon once said he would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good. So far, Carney has been both lucky and good: lucky to have Donald Trump in the White House, and pretty good at winning elections and being prime minister. He may have been green going into the job as PM and party leader, but Carney is proving no novice in the role. He single-handedly powered his party and government into an unprecedented fourth term in office. Since then, he has embarked upon a rapid-fire series of actions and changes to achieve his goal to 'build the strongest economy in the G7,' with internal trade barriers to come down; major energy and infrastructure projects to be built faster; defence spending to rise higher and sooner than anticipated. The Canadian Press files Prime Minister Mark Carney's next job is to convince Canadian businesses that they have to step up their game. Carney clearly does not lack for ambition. 'We will need to think big and act bigger. We will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven't seen in generations,' he said in his victory speech. But what if this big ambition isn't matched by business, big or small? What if the public doesn't share his vision that Canada is at a 'hinge moment of history,' as he put it? The prime minister is inheriting a country more risk-averse and complacent than it should be. A country more righteous than realistic about its place in the world — 'the world needs more Canada,' we intone. A country too comfortable in its entitlements and expectations, real or imagined. That risk aversion carries over to the business community. A 2023 survey by the Conference Board of Canada found that when it came to innovation, more than half of Canadian entrepreneurs stopped doing more because they feared failing. That was 10 points higher than for businesses in the U.S. and across 16 other developed countries. Part of this is a weaker industrial and research ecosystem that successfully carries innovation to market, but there's no denying a CEO mindset alongside. That mindset won't be easy to dislodge. It has been fed for more than a quarter-century by easy access to the largest market in the world, our next-door neighbour. It has been nourished of late by low-cost labour and high immigration. And it has been enticed into a rent-seeking, subsidy-demanding, high-consumption, low-value manufacturing economy by companies and governments hooked on handouts. The result: Canadian businesses have become less competitive and more risk-averse when it comes to investing in the innovation, technology and people needed to build more wealth. Consider the results: Canada's economy today is actually smaller than it was in 2019, adjusted for inflation and immigration. We've fallen from the sixth most productive advanced economy in the world in 1970 to the 18th most productive today. Average annual labour productivity growth was less than half of what it was in the U.S. in the 20-year period from 2001 to 2021. We've deindustrialized, with manufacturing contributing less than half of what it did to the economy in 2000. Capital investment spending levels are lower than they were a decade ago. The business innovation rate in 2022 was 36 per cent in Canada, far below the 50 per cent rate in America and the 45 per cent rate for other advanced industrial economies in the world. Unless these trends are changed, the OECD predicts Canada will enjoy the worst performance of advanced member countries over the next four decades, as measured by real GDP per capita. That means lower living standards for Canadians and less economic wealth generated to invest in health care and education. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. Blaming the government is easy and fashionable. But these are structural problems not easily fixed, owing to years of tepid investment and innovation decisions by business themselves. Government policies may have contributed, but it's the CEOs and the boards of directors, or the entrepreneurs and innovators, who made the calls. 'Sell the beach, not the flight' is the classic travel-industry business model. For too long, our politicians have practiced the political equivalent to voters. Big goals and grand pronouncements were set without telling people the journey might be long and hard. 'Inconvenient truths,' as in climate change, were traded for 'reassuring fibs' so everyone could have 'their nice things.' Applying this same mentality to this time of economic emergency would simply invite more failure. The PM may be moving at the speed of need now with his checklist of initiatives, but 'thinking and acting big' requires an overdue mind-shift by Canada's business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs. Carney needs to confront complacency with candour. He told voters what he planned to do; now he must tell businesses what they need to do. His 'hinge moment' hinges on it. David McLaughlin is a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government.
