The News Rundown
- The Liberal government's major projects legislation passed in the House of Commons on Friday evening as MPs wrapped up the spring parliamentary sitting.
- Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, essentially gives cabinet the ability to pick certain projects to speed through the regulatory process, with an eye to projects that can deliver an economic boost to Canada, help strengthen the country's autonomy and resilience, "advance the interests of Indigenous peoples" and contribute to "clean growth."
- The legislation was a priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney who promised to "build big, build bold" during the spring election campaign.
- Once a project is deemed in the national interest, the legislation would allow the government to skirt certain laws — such as the Impact Assessment Act — in order to get construction underway.
- The legislation passed fairly quickly, having only been introduced earlier this month. The Conservatives supported the bill as a whole, while the NDP and Bloc Québécois backed a part of the bill that removes internal trade barriers.
- The government hasn't said what exactly would be fast-tracked under this legislation — and there are no specific projects mentioned in the bill itself — but Carney has signalled support for new energy "corridors" in the east and west, which could include pipelines and electricity grids, new and expanded port facilities, mines and other resource-related initiatives.
- Even though his party supported the bill, Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said Friday evening that the Liberals "shouldn't be giving themselves a gold star or a pat on the back." He said the legislation only allows the government to get around barriers it has imposed itself.
- "We'll see what happens now. We want to see whether or not Mark Carney and the rest of the Liberal government — who have spent years fighting against the energy sector — if they can actually get results," he told reporters outside the House of Commons.
- Supplementals:
- The G7 summit in Kananaskis Alberta came and went and with that dignitaries from more countries than 7 focused on security, defence, and economics.
- The G7 summit is a time for the group of 7 countries nominally including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US to calibrate messaging and policy on a myriad of issues.
- The most controversial guest this time was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi drawing questions with his invite due to Canada’s emerging Khalistani problem.
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was also invited given the ongoing war in Ukraine.
- But the most important meetings of the G7 happen on the sidelines.
- US President Donald Trump arrived in Canada via Calgary and left about 24 hours later. But with that came a discussion between Mark Carney and Donald Trump on Canada’s trade situation.
- The two after their meeting committed to reaching a trade deal within 30 days.
- Trump had said that his primary focus of this G7 was trade with Canada.
- Trump said that Carney and his people had come up with a “different concept” than tariffs and that some people like it and the goal was to get to the bottom of what a deal about that would look like.
- The tone was positive, Trump said, "I think Mark has a more complex idea but it's still very good.”
- Carney described the talks he had with Trump as “fantastic.”
- After Trump departed, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed behind enabling more discussions to take place.
- Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the US, met with Bessent and others after Trump and Carney’s meeting with the agreement continuing to work on the discussion of removing tariffs because there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to convince Trump to remove tariffs.
- 3 days after everyone went home the government also set a 30 day timeline for new retaliatory tariffs on the United States.
- The plan would be to add more tariffs on steel and aluminum if no trade deal happens.
- This sets a hard 30 day deadline for getting a deal done.
- The Steel Industry Association and their union’s national director said that the measures announced would not go far enough and that the plan “falls short of what the industry needs at this most challenging time.”
- The Aluminum Association of Canada said otherwise though and that the measures announced “strike the right balance.”
- As of June 30th the federal government will limit their procurement to using steel and aluminum from Canada and “reliable trading partners.”
- We don’t know what countries are part of the reliable trading partners.
- But if they include countries with subpar human rights, poor quality control, or include countries that have tried to rip Canada off, we need to ask what is the point.
- When the US increased their tariffs in early June the Canadian Steel Producers Association which includes a number of companies called for immediate tariffs so that Canada would not be edged out of the US market.
- This is the entirety of Canada’s play, the goal is to of course protect our industry at home but also to make sure that we have a reliable customer to export our product to.
- The harsh reality though is that if we can’t export and the US will make that more difficult we either need to find new export partners that are reachable by making industry more efficient or as much as it pains many Canadians, become closer to the US.
- That doesn’t necessarily mean becoming the 51st state which was not mentioned at the G7 but it could mean a tighter integration of economies, shared production plans, and a closer if not unified economy.
- The goal since the idea of tariffs first appeared has been to fight back publicly through the election campaign but this new government in Ottawa has been open to trying the path of de-escalation.
- While statehood won’t happen and entire economic integration with the US is unlikely this week shows that there is a finite window to get a real deal done.
- The success or failure of this deal will reflect heavily on the Carney government but the media will paint any failure as the fault of the US President.
- The news reporting and tone that came out of the G7 was hopeful. The reality though is that a 30 day clock started ticking on the need to reach a deal with the US.
- That final part wasn’t told outright by anyone in the media and all Canadians need to be aware as our economy lies in the balance.
- Supplementals:
- A seemingly innocuous headline about a major BC real estate construction developer forced to make layoffs could actually be a troubling sign of what's to come for Canada's housing market, as government ambitions and regulations push up against the reality of supply and demand.
- Wesgroup Properties LP said this week that it had to lay off 12 per cent of its workforce across all departments in the face of what CEO Beau Jarvis called “a cost of delivery crisis.” This round of layoffs comes six weeks after the marketing firm Rennie Group reduced its head office by 31 employees — a quarter of its staff.
- Wendy McNeil, CEO of the Homebuilders Association of Vancouver actually praised Jarvis for 'voicing concerns' about how the industry is 'suffering'
- No numbers were included in Jarvis’ announcement, but Wesgroup’s LinkedIn profile indicates the firm employs between 201 and 500 people. Jarvis, in a LinkedIn post, called the layoffs “an absolute last resort.” He said: “We exhausted every possible avenue to avoid this outcome, including creating efficiencies in our systems and processes, engaging in aggressive cost-reduction measures. This was all in hopes of preserving as many jobs as possible. But despite these efforts, the economic realities left us no choice. We are delivering housing at a cost that people cannot afford to purchase."
- That's the issue at the end of the day, the housing being built is too expensive to build from simultaneous overregulation and underregulation.
- Over the past 12 months, the Urban Development Institute has recorded just 3,400 presales in projects representing 10,700 units in the Lower Mainland. That’s just 35 per cent in a business where developers aim for 80 per cent pre sales within 18 months of launching a project.
- Statistics Canada’s latest unemployment report, which showed that B.C. created 13,000 jobs in May, masks what is actually happening. B.C.’s unemployment rate remained stable at 6.4 per cent in May. However, the numbers showed some 1,100 job losses in the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sector from April to May. Year over year, Statistics Canada counted 2,100 fewer jobs in that category.
- The condo market has slowed to a “grinding halt,” according to a November report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Urban Land Institute.
- “In markets like Toronto and Vancouver, a significant market slowdown is underway as it becomes too costly for many developers to proceed with condo developments,” said the Nov. 7 report.
- “Developers are also facing challenges on the revenue side as investors, who make up a large portion of new condo buyers in many markets, pull back.”
- Doubling the pace of homebuilding in Canada will only bring affordability back to levels seen right before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new government report that lowers expectations for the impact of construction on housing costs.
- The country must boost building to as much as 480,000 housing units a year by 2035 just to bring affordability back to where it was in 2019, the report from the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said Thursday. The current rate of homebuilding is about 250,000 units, the agency said.
- Earlier estimates from the national housing agency called for a similar boost in home construction and targeted 2030 as the year it could be achieved. That previous forecast suggested that a rapid boost in housing supply would bring affordability back to 2004 levels.
- Supplementals:
Firing Line
- Just over a week ago Israel began their attempt to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program. That resulted in counter strikes to this day on Israel.
- It is estimated that over 6,600 Canadians are unable to return home.
- Reports from those on the ground suggest that Canadians feel they have been abandoned by their government.
- Passenger flights are canceled, some may try to leave by boat to Cyprus, heading northward into Syria and Lebanon is dangerous, heading south to Egypt is also dangerous through the lawless Sinai, which leaves a trip into Jordan by ground.
- Those looking to leave Iran have been told to go to Armenia or Turkey.
- Armenia is questionable since the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
- Poland, Greece, and the United States have organized their own evacuations for their citizens which have been bus charters to Jordan and Egypt. The US has used cruise ships and Greece has setup an evacuation point in the Sinai region.
- The National Post’s Adam Zivo is presently in Israel on assignment and he has been interviewing Canadians in the country.
- There are also a group of politically connected Canadians in the country on a trip organized for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
- Michelle Ferreri and Rick Perkins, two former Conservative MPs, were in Eliat, a small town at the southernmost tip of Israel, where they were waiting to cross the border into Jordan.
- Michelle Ferreri said that the Canadian embassy has mainly sent automated emails containing superficial information on security and evacuation routes.
- The emails also said the embassy could be contacted between 8:30am and 4:30pm despite an emergency during one of the most historical wars going on.
- Another Canadian in Israel, Karen Restoule, a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, had made it to Jordan when Zivo spoke over the phone. She said that she had originally been offered a speedy evacuation to Egypt through an American friend, but it fell through after the Canadian government failed to help her get an expedited Egyptian visa.
- Outside of government officials Zivo spoke to two Canadian hockey players stuck in Tel Aviv. An Iranian missile landed less than 200m away from their apartment damaging their building.
- Panagiotis Mavridis, a Greek-Canadian dual citizen, said, “The Canadian government’s not really being clear with us on the embassy side of things. So we don’t know when we’re getting out of here.” He could not get ahold of the Canadian government but the Greek embassy returned his call within hours and was able to give instructions in great detail.
- Global Affairs Canada did not respond to the National Post by Friday in time to be incorporated in the article.
- Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand as late as Thursday was telling people to go through Jordan, Armenia, and Turkey and said that flights will be available “right away.”
- Judging by Anand’s public statements she has been in discussion with the Azerbaijani foreign minister but not the Israeli one.
- Her statements are also calling on “all parties to show maximum restraint.”
- Intelligence suggests that Iran is close to a nuclear weapon though this is a line that has been heard before.
- Israel has also severely weakened Iran’s proxies both in terms of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
- Most other middle eastern countries are at the very least normalizing relations with Israel.
- Israel likely has the ability to finish most of the Iranian nuclear program but they need bunker buster bombs from the Americans to finish the job.
- Iran is a black mark. It’s a country that while once progressive became an islamic theocracy and if they acquired a nuclear weapon it would completely change the calculus of the middle east from being manageable to one that is inherently more unstable.
- Canada’s government instead should be condemning Iran with all force available and doing more to get citizens out of Israel and Iran.
- Mainstream media reporting from the likes of CBC showcasing that there are issues getting out of these countries but they don’t highlight that the information given has been token at best and official have only been reachable during business hours.
- While war is bad, generally, our government’s foreign affairs team has been dropping the ball while hardly anyone has noticed.
- Supplementals:
Quote of the Week
“We exhausted every possible avenue to avoid this outcome, including creating efficiencies in our systems and processes, engaging in aggressive cost-reduction measures. This was all in hopes of preserving as many jobs as possible. But despite these efforts, the economic realities left us no choice. We are delivering housing at a cost that people cannot afford to purchase." - Wesgroup CEO Beau Jarvis on the developer’s recent layoffs
Word of the Week
Naivety - lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment
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Show Data
- Episode Title: All In or All Out
- Teaser: The Liberals’ fast track project bill passes with Conservative support, Carney and Trump want a trade deal within 30 days, and another Vancouver housing developer faces layoffs. Also, Canada’s evacuation response in the Middle East faces more criticism.
- Production Code: WC-422-2025-06-21
- Recorded Date: June 21, 2025
- Release Date: June 22, 2025
- Duration: 1:04:39
- Edit Notes: None
Podcast Summary Notes
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