Latest news with #JustinTrudeau
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney, and the return of the progressive conservative
As Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a massive and immediate boost to defence spending earlier this month, he talked about the importance of using those new funds prudently. 'Every taxpayer dollar is precious,' he said in passing, later adding that his government would not be looking for new sources of revenue to pay for the defence buildup. 'We just cut taxes, we're not raising taxes.' It's easy enough to imagine a Conservative prime minister uttering similar sentiments – much easier than, say, envisioning former prime minister Justin Trudeau waxing on about the need to pinch pennies in the federal budget and making a no-new-taxes pledge. That Mr. Carney was going to drag the Liberal Party back to the centre after years of an NDP-lite government under Mr. Trudeau was to be expected. Two months after the election, the extent of that metamorphosis is becoming clearer – and it is remarkable. Part of that change is atmospheric. There are no more breathless lectures from Mr. Trudeau; they have been, mercifully, replaced by Mr. Carney's boardroom staccato. Unlike his predecessor, the current Prime Minister boasts of being 'laser-focused' on economic growth. And Canadians, happily, have no idea what kind of socks Mr. Carney likes to wear. But more than mannerisms have changed. Since April, the Prime Minister has cut personal income taxes, boosted defence spending dramatically, pledged to cut the cost of the federal bureaucracy, tightened immigration rules, eliminated federal barriers to internal trade, created a framework for breaking the stasis on big national projects and signaled that he will dismiss underperforming top bureaucrats. That's an agenda that Brian Mulroney could have endorsed. In fact, it overlaps a good deal with the actual governing record of his Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Carney is a Liberal but, in the early going, he looks to be governing much like a Red Tory – a progressive kind of conservative. Mr. Carney's agenda is one that the Liberals, in their Trudeau-era incarnation, would have most likely loudly denounced. Indeed, some left-leaning Liberals in the current caucus, including former cabinet minister and leadership contender Karina Gould, have already voiced their disquiet on legislation to speed up megaproject approvals. House approves Bill C-5 to fast-track projects, Carney pledges summer consultations with Indigenous leaders That could portend problems not that far down the road for the Liberal coalition that gave Mr. Carney his minority government. The Liberals corralled the progressive vote, with support for the NDP and Greens plummeting from the 2021 campaign. Will those voters stick with the Liberals if Mr. Carney continues his rightward sidestep? And will Mr. Carney stick with his agenda if his progressive supporters bolt? Another (large) caveat is how Mr. Carney's agenda adds up in the fall budget. Broad statements on finding efficiencies in the public service are enough for now. Canadians will see in a couple of months whether the blue-tinged Liberals will actually reduce the bloated head count of civil servants. Similarly, it's encouraging that Michael Sabia, two days before he was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council, mused about the 'pancake' of regulations that were stifling economic growth. But what will he and Mr. Carney do to reduce the height of the pancake stack? Biggest of all, the swirl of mist surrounding Mr. Carney's fiscal plans will be necessarily dissipated once that budget is tabled. How will the defence buildup be paid for? Will the deficit fall or rise from the groaningly high levels that Mr. Trudeau bequeathed to his successor? The answers found in the budget will determine if Mr. Carney has truly broken from the fiscal recklessness of the Trudeau Liberals. Longer term, there is the open question of how aggressively the Carney Liberals will push badly overdue structural reforms of the economy. Broad tax reform, lowering of foreign ownership barriers, radically paring business subsidies and reducing the regulatory burden: all of those changes are needed to reinvigorate Canada's economy. At the moment, Mr. Carney doesn't look to be abandoning the dirigiste propensities of the Trudeau Liberals, who were unable to see that millions of minds in the private sector might do a better job than a government department. In less than four months, Mr. Carney has reinvented and reinvigorated the Liberal brand, delivering a progressive feel to conservative governance. Canadians will find out soon enough if that is a mere marketing exercise.
Bloomberg
12 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Turns on ‘Nice' Carney With Canadian Tech Tax Ultimatum
It had all been going so well. Since Mark Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister, Canada's relationship with the White House appeared to be functional again, on the mend after President Donald Trump's tariffs and overtures about making it the '51st state.'
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What is Canada's digital services tax and why is it infuriating Trump?
U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cut off all trade negotiations with Canada on Friday, citing Ottawa's Digital Services Tax (DST) for the decision. The tax, enacted last June, targets U.S. technology companies that operate in Canada but pay little tax here. Under the new tax regime, the first payments are set to be collected on Monday, June 30. The Financial Post breaks down what you need to know about the DST and why it is infuriating Trump and Americans. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government enacted Canada's Digital Services Tax Act in June 2024, with the rules coming into effect the same month. The federal tax is applicable to large businesses — both foreign and domestic — that meet two specific criteria: a total global revenue of €750 million and up, and over $20 million of profits earned in Canada annually. The legislation levies a three per cent tax on digital services revenue over $20 million, and is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022, meaning Ottawa could stand to gain billions in DST revenue, according to some estimates. Taxable revenue includes those of online marketplaces, digital advertising, social media, and user data — which will primarily affect American Big Tech giants such as Inc., Apple Inc., and Meta Platforms, Inc. Under the DST, companies were required to register with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) by Jan. 31, 2025 and are obligated to file their first DST returns on June 30, 2025. The CRA has said that more than 500 companies have already applied to register for DST purposes, and expects more than 100 companies to pay the tax. If applicable companies fail to register with the agency, they could be fined $20,000 per year. If they fail to file a DST return, Canada could dole out a penalty equal to five per cent of the unpaid tax for the year, plus one per cent of the unpaid tax for the year for each month, not exceeding 12 months, in which the return hasn't been filed. According to the government, the goal of the DST is to ensure that major technology firms are taxed appropriately in the country. The legislation however, has come under fire from business groups on both sides of the border, with critics warning that the rules could further inflame Canada-U.S. ties. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has argued that the tax could increase costs for consumers and risks 'damaging our beneficial and lucrative trade relationship with the U.S.' The U.S. meanwhile, has long denounced Canada's proposed rules, claiming that they unfairly discriminate against American firms. Last August, under the former Biden administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched dispute settlement consultations with Ottawa under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement over the DST. The U.S. has said that American companies are on the hook to pay Ottawa US$2 billion under the DST. 'Only America should be allowed to tax American firms,' Trump said in a February statement. Tech giant Google LLC responded to Canada's digital services tax rules by introducing an additional 2.5 per cent fee for ads shown in Canada starting in October 2024. Called the 'Canada DST Fee,' Google said the surcharges will 'cover part of the costs of complying with DST legislation in Canada.' Other countries have enacted their own digital service taxes. Around half of all European OECD countries have announced, proposed, or implemented a DST, according to the Tax Foundation Europe. The U.S. has met those proposals with threats of retaliatory tariffs. Some countries' DST regimes could be on the chopping block. France's Council of State, which advises the government on the preparation of bills and other matters, recently referred the country's DST to the Constitutional Council for review, marking the first constitutional challenge to the DST since the legislation passed in 2019. For months, executives of U.S. tech giants have pressured American policymakers over Canada's DST. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Canadian business groups have also pressed the Carney government to abandon the DST. And while businesses and industry groups were holding out for a last-minute suspension of the DST, finance minister François-Philippe Champagne reconfirmed last Thursday that Canada is 'going ahead' with the tax. 'The (DST) is in force and it's going to be applied,' he said. Parliament Hill's firm stance on maintaining the DST comes despite a recent Group of Seven (G7) agreement that succeeded in axing the Section 899 'revenge tax' provision from Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that would have taken aim at businesses from countries that the U.S. views as unjustly targeting American firms. Ottawa hasn't ruled out shutting down DST discussions completely. 'Obviously, all of that is something that we're considering as part of broader discussions that you may have,' Champagne said last week, suggesting that the DST could be renegotiated given the ongoing trade talks between Canada and the U.S. Trump ceasing all trade talks with Canada 'effective immediately,' warns he will impose tariff rate Canada's digital services tax called 'needlessly inflammatory' during trade talks with U.S. Should Canada target Big Tech in trade war negotiations with the U.S.? • Email: ylau@
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
CSIS flags extremist Khalistani activists as national security threat
Canada's spy agency is warning that a small but militant group of Sikhs are using the country as a base for promoting, fundraising and planning violence in India in support of an independent homeland in Punjab, a caution some see as a sign of shifting policies toward New Delhi. In its annual report to Parliament in June, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said these homegrown extremists represent only a small group among Sikhs who are otherwise pursuing non-violent advocacy for a state they call Khalistan. The spy agency says the presence of Sikh extremists in Canada 'continues to pose a national security threat to Canada and Canadian interests,' without pointing to any specific examples. It's the first time CSIS has highlighted Khalistani extremists in its annual report since 2018. Canada is attempting to rebuild relations with India, which suffered a major rupture in September, 2023, when then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of a role in the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent advocate for Khalistan. India has denied the allegation. A year after Hardeep Singh Nijjar's death, mysteries remain about how he really lived The rift escalated further last fall when Canada dismissed top Indian diplomats over allegations that government agents had been linked to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens. India expelled Canadian diplomats in response. The CSIS report says India remains one of the country's most persistent foreign interference threats. It adds that India's 'real and perceived' concerns about Khalistani extremism is driving New Delhi's foreign interference activities in Canada. Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which advocates on behalf of this country's nearly one million Sikhs, says his group has reached out to CSIS over concerns about the language in the report. He says despite alarms raised by India, there's no evidence Khalistani extremists pose a threat to Canada, and the report acknowledges there were no attacks in Canada related to Sikh extremism in 2024. 'Are there actors that engage in some sort of extremist activity in Canada? CSIS would indicate that there is a 'small number.' I haven't seen them. I don't know anything about them,' Mr. Singh said. 'The problem is India tries very hard to malign anything related to Khalistan as, by default, terrorism.' Opinion: Canada is letting the memory of the deadliest terrorist attack in our history slip away Andrew Kirsch, a security consultant and former intelligence officer with CSIS, said the spy agency is signalling that the threat from Khalistan extremists is real and should be taken seriously. 'If they're highlighting it, it means it's become a priority item, that the threat is serious and they want to raise awareness about it. Clearly, this stuff is going on, and they want the public to know about it,' he said. These annual reports are important because they offer insight into how the spy agency is spending time and resources, he said. He is skeptical of the suggestion CSIS could be influenced by Indian disinformation. These kinds of threat assessments are based on a wide range of sources, as well as electronic surveillance, such as intercepts and wiretaps, all of which goes through a heavy vetting process internally, he said. 'Unfortunately, we can't tell people what information that threat is based on. But our intelligence service is trained to wade through disinformation. I have a high degree of confidence in their analysis,' Mr. Kirsch said. The CSIS report says politically motivated violent extremism has been an element of the Khalistani movement in Canada since the 1980s. Sikh activists, however, argue India has used these perceived threats to target peaceful advocacy for Khalistan. 'The problem is India sees any activism for Khalistan as extremist, and it has targeted that,' Mr. Singh said. Mr. Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India, was gunned down in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., in June, 2023. Four Indian nationals are facing charges in connection with the killing. Mr. Trudeau said Canada had credible allegations the murder was carried out by agents of India. New Delhi has refused to acknowledge any role in foreign interference or transnational oppression of Sikhs in Canada. Mr. Singh says the CSIS report may signal a shift in policy from Ottawa. He suggested it may be designed to appease New Delhi as Canada seeks to repair relations – something Gurpreet Sahota, editor-in-chief at Channel Punjabi in Surrey, called a 'betrayal.' Multiple Sikh organizations protested Prime Minister Mark Carney's decision to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta earlier this month. Campbell Clark: Carney should know it's way too soon to invite Modi to Canada 'We believe that India pressures Canada to do these sort of things … Did it happen here? I hope not,' Mr. Singh said. CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert told The Globe and Mail that the spy agency has used the term 'Canada-based Khalistani extremism' for some time, and pointed out the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference referenced its findings on Sikh extremism in its final report earlier this year. Ms. Hébert, who added that the 'vast majority' of Khalistan supporters are peaceful, did not directly address a question about whether its reports are politically influenced. The Indian High Commission did not respond to a request for comment. But in social-media posts, it said the bombing of Air India Flight 182, 40 years ago this month by Canada-based Khalistani terrorists, is a reminder the world must show 'zero tolerance' toward extremism.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Canada shows Australia how to solve rental crisis: ‘Clear lessons here'
Canada's dramatic immigration freeze has coincided with a sustained fall in rents, in a move experts say presents an obvious path out of Australia's own rental crisis. Figures from Statistics Canada last week showed population growth slowed to a crawl in the first quarter of 2025. From January 1 to April 1, the population increased by just 20,107 people — statistically flat at 0.0 per cent — to reach 41,548,787, the smallest quarterly growth since border closures at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020. It marked the sixth consecutive quarter of slower population growth, after immigration reductions were first implemented by the Liberal government last year under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his successor Mark Carney. 'Canada admitted 104,256 immigrants in the first quarter of 2025,' Statistics Canada said. 'This was the smallest number admitted in a first quarter in four years and reflects a lower total permanent immigration target for 2025. However, prior to 2022, Canada had never welcomed more than 86,246 immigrants in a first quarter (which occurred in the first quarter of 2016).' Meanwhile, national average rents in May were 3.3 per cent down from a year earlier at $CA2129 ($2381), marking the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year decreases. The monthly report from and Urbanation found asking rents were flat compared with April with a 0.1 per cent month-on-month increase. Rents for purpose-built apartments were two per cent down year-on-year to $CA2117 ($2368), condominium apartments fell 3.6 per cent to $C2192 ($2452), rents for houses and townhomes fell seven per cent to $CA2196 ($2456). Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand said the easing was due in part to a surge in supply with new apartments being completed, a slowdown in population growth and a heightened level of economic uncertainty, The Canadian Press reports. 'The easing in rents this year across most parts of the country is a positive for housing affordability in Canada following a period of extremely strong rent inflation lasting from 2022 to 2024,' Mr Hildebrand said in a statement. Despite the easing, average asking rents in Canada are 5.7 per cent higher than two years ago and 12.6 per cent higher than three years ago, according to the report. It added that over the past five years, average asking rents in Canada have increased by an average of 4.1 per cent annually, outpacing average wage growth of around three per cent. 'We've argued all along that the explosion in population growth — to nearly 1.3 million people within a year at one point — was playing a major role in many economic issues Canadian policymakers have been struggling with,' Robert Kavcic, senior economist at Bank of Montreal, in a note to clients last week, per The Globe and Mail. 'New immigration targets set last fall are clearly now having an impact. The impact is already being seen on the ground, perhaps most vividly in loosening rental markets.' Like Australia, Canada's post-Covid border reopening led to a record surge in migration — from 2021 to 2024, the population grew by an average of 217,000 per quarter, sparking widespread concerns about access to housing and healthcare. Opinion polls in late 2024 found nearly 58 per cent of Canadians felt there was 'too much immigration', with three in four blaming immigration for housing and healthcare pressures. In October, Mr Trudeau announced dramatic cuts to Canada's immigration targets in an effort to 'pause' population growth. The country had previously planned to let 500,000 new permanent residents settle in the country in 2025 and 2026. But those targets were revised down to 395,000 next year and 380,000 for 2026. It set the 2027 target at 365,000. According to the last census in 2021, 23 per cent of Canada's population was foreign-born. Statistics Canada said that as of 2021 most immigrants were from Asia and the Middle East, but an increasing share were coming from Africa. Nearly one in five recent immigrants were born in India. Mr Trudeau said Canada needed to stabilise its population to give 'all levels of government time to catch up, time to make the necessary investments in health care, in housing, [and] in social services to accommodate more people in the future'. 'Even with the reductions starting in 2024, international migration accounted for all of the population growth in the first quarter of 2025,' Statistics Canada said. 'This was because natural increase (births minus deaths) was negative (-5,628), meaning that there were more deaths than births. This is consistent with an ageing population, a decreasing fertility rate and the higher numbers of deaths that typically occur during the winter months. Natural increase has been negative in every first quarter since 2022.' The abrupt shift in Canada's population growth has been driven by a decline in temporary residents. There were nearly 2.96 million temporary residents in Canada as of April 1, accounting for 7.1 per cent of the total population — down from a peak of 7.4 per cent in October. The number of temporary residents has dropped by 61,111 since the start of the year, led by a 53,669 fall in study permit holders. At the end of 2024, there were close to one million international students in Canada. The government in September imposed a cap on international students, aiming to slash the number of study visas issued by 300,000 by the end of 2026. It also restricted work permits for spouses of master's degree students and foreign workers. The number of people holding only a work permit remained at a high level of more than 1.45 million, after a slight fall of 5114 in the first quarter. 'Conversely, the number of asylum claimants, protected persons and related groups in the country increased for the 13th consecutive quarter, reaching a record high of 470,029 (+12,744) on April 1, 2025,' Statistics Canada notes. Mr Carney, who won election in April after vowing to address 'unsustainable' immigration, earlier this month proposed even tougher laws that would restrict some asylum claims and give authorities more power to suspend processing applications en masse. 'There's a lot of applications in the system,' Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab told CBC News. 'We need to act fairly, and treat people appropriately who really do need to claim asylum and who really do need to be protected to stay in Canada. We need to be more efficient in doing that. At the same time, Canadians demand that we have a system that works for everyone.' The Strong Borders Act would bar asylum claims made more than a year after the person first entered Canada. It would apply to anyone, including students and temporary residents, regardless of whether they left the country and returned. The bill would also require people entering Canada illegally from the US under the Safe Third Country Agreement to make an asylum claim within 14 days for it to be considered. MacroBusiness chief economist Leith van Onselen said Canada provided 'clear lessons here for Australia, where policymakers and the media continue to paint the housing crisis as a 'supply issue''. 'The latest State of the Housing Report from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) forecasts that Australia's cumulative housing shortage will worsen by 79,000 dwellings over five years,' van Onselen wrote on Tuesday. But he pointed out NHSAC's population forecasts were based on the Centre for Population's projections, 'which assume permanently high levels of immigration'. 'However, NHSAC's sensitivity analysis showed that if Australia's population grew by just 15 per cent less than forecast over the next five years, then the projected 79,000 housing shortage would turn into a 40,000 surplus,' he wrote. 'NHSAC's sensitivity analysis and Canada's experience are further evidence that cutting immigration is the only realistic solution to the housing shortage and rental crisis.' But Dr Bhanu Bhatia, lecturer in economics and business at Charles Darwin University, said that was a 'dangerous lesson to take'. 'These migration patterns that you see, in the background of that is also skills shortages,' she said. 'So if you try to control the housing [pressures] with this freeze, that then impacts our employment. Look what happened in Covid, how many shortages we saw in terms of labour. 'So I think it's a dangerous lesson. It's not going to solve our problems in the long term and it can also increase our problems in some other sectors and impact economic growth, impact our productivity, which are lagging anyway.' Dr Bhatia said in addition to skilled migration it was important to consider 'family migration and all those sorts of things'. 'If we try to freeze that, that's going to again not have a good impact on our society,' she said. 'So I think the solutions are more internal in terms of trying to build that housing capacity. We need to look at our labour force participation rate, so we're not reliant on overseas migration, how to do skills training. There are a lot of long-term structural issues the government needs to solve, rather than these short-term solutions about freezing migration. 'The migration numbers we have, they are led by a lot of economic and social logic that we shouldn't be tinkering with just to solve a housing problem.' Dr Bhatia said there was 'no denying' that overseas migration had contributed to the housing crisis but it was a 'bit of a distraction'. 'There's so many other factors — natural increases, internal migration. There's very poor planning that's been in place to accommodate [increase in demand],' she said. 'Covid was another big factor, it fuelled demand for single-family homes. Building approvals have not kept pace. It's all been driven by the market, but the government should have had some oversight in terms of how our numbers were growing, how our cities were growing, how we're going to plan for this future. It's just been very dependent on short-term fluctuations … completely profit-led.' Net overseas migration added 340,800 people to Australia's population in 2024 — or 931 new residents per day — according to figures last week from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). That's down from a peak of 555,800 in the 12 months to September 2023, and net overseas migration of 68,000 in the December 2024 quarter — after falling for five consecutive quarters — was about 7000 lower than Treasury's forecast due to fewer arrivals. The Albanese government has sought to rein in international student numbers, which make up the lion's share of Australia's net overseas migration, by increasing the student visa charge and implementing a range of integrity measures.
