The News Rundown

PM Carney unveils multibillion-dollar food strategy meant to lower prices

The Liberal government has announced a national food security strategy aimed at giving Canadians more access to locally produced fruit, vegetables and other fresh items at lower prices.
The plan outlined Thursday is intended to change the way food is bought, sold, transported and distributed in Canada to better support farmers, small independent players and consumers.
The government says the strategy is backed by more than $3 billion in investments over 10 years. It includes $1 billion for infrastructure -- including food terminals and hubs -- to help independent grocers compete with large retailers by making it easier for them to buy from farmers and food processors.
The goal is to land a deal with the province to expand the terminal in Etobicoke — Canada’s biggest wholesale fruit and vegetable market — by the end of the year, the strategy says, with money from a new $1-billion “Food Link Fund” that’s meant to ease food distribution costs and help independent grocers buy supplies through cheaper alternatives to big retailers.
“This terminal, and others like it, will play increasingly important roles in building a stronger and more resilient food system, and a stronger more resilient Canada,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, unveiling the new plan at the Ontario Food Terminal.
Another $1 billion will go to “high potential” agri-food projects over the next decade, the plan says, as the government strives to grow the food processing industry and increase the proportion of domestically made processed food consumed in Canada from 70 per cent to 80 per cent.
The government also wants to boost the amount of fruits and vegetables grown in Canada for Canadian tables, with $750 million devoted over seven years to double the value of agriculture from greenhouse and indoor crops to $1.55 billion by 2032.
Canada is one of the world’s largest exporters of agri-food products and its farmers, ranchers and producers send $100 billion worth of goods abroad every year, Carney said.
“We are an agricultural superpower. Yet for most Canadians, it doesn’t feel like that at the checkout counter. Grocery prices have gone up by nearly 35 per cent since 2019. And today, the average Canadian family spends about $10,000 a year on groceries -- more than $800 a month. There are multiple reasons. One of them is that while Canadian farmers, ranchers and producers are producing enormous amounts of food, we’re relying on other countries to process a lot of it. At the same time, we all know our growing seasons are too short to keep up with year-round demand.”
Carney said Canada relies on other countries for essential foods, meaning it imports nearly 90 per cent of its supply of fresh fruit and nuts and more than 70 per cent of its vegetables.
The government says five large retailers dominate 75 per cent of Canada’s grocery market, along with much of the system for distributing food. The overall aim of the new strategy, government officials said Thursday, is to “inject some competition” into Canada’s food market, with government statistics showing how around 75 per cent of the grocery sector is dominated by five major chains: Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart. Part of the plan is to boost enforcement funding for the federal Competition Bureau by $12.9 million per year to help drive down costs.
It also says independent grocers can’t compete because they often depend on competitors for supply and may also face restrictions on where they can operate.
The strategy says farmers need more places to sell their products and smaller, independent grocers need more places to find product for their stores so they can compete with large retailers.
“Consumers need more affordable choices when they shop, and people in rural, remote and northern communities need better access to fresh produce at reasonable prices. We need to reduce our dependence on other countries by processing more of the food we grow and use new technologies to grow the foods we cannot currently grow at scale year-round.”
With costs rising amid an oil price shock since this year’s U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the Liberal government has faced pressure to address the cost of food, which jumped 3.5 per cent from April 2025 to this past April — higher than overall inflation of 2.8 per cent — according to Statistics Canada. Thursday’s strategy blames rising food costs — up 31 per cent since January 2020 — on global factors like war, tariffs and climate change, alongside domestic issues like limited access to cheaper wholesalers outside urban areas, transportation costs, and ownership concentration for retail groceries.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives blame federal government policies like the industrial carbon price for driving up costs, while the Liberals insist they are taking steps to help people struggling to pay for groceries, gas and other essentials.
Last week, for example, Carney touted the government’s increased GST credit for lower-income families, which was distributed with a one-time top-up of 50 per cent. The benefit payment will be 25 per cent higher for the next five years.
The spring economic update set aside $500 million from the Strategic Response Fund to help businesses address the costs of supply chain disruptions and pledged the creation of a $150-million Food Security Fund under the existing Regional Tariff Response Initiative for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Carney has repeatedly said that a nation that cannot feed, fuel or defend itself “has few options” in a world where old alliances have ruptured.
The Liberal campaign platform from last year’s general election said explicitly that a food security strategy was about facing the challenge posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs to the Canadian economy: “Food security is about more than just ensuring there is enough food on our plates, it’s also about protecting Canada’s economic sovereignty,” it read.
This strategy has the backdrop of renegotiations with the Trump administration around CUSMA, and the worries that we may not be able to secure a free trade deal with the US. With that, the economics of our country would be harmed massively, beyond what the Liberals have said. Spending billions of tax dollars on this strategy may not even address inflation or food prices, and may instead just be more of the so-called "liberal grift machine", as talked about by the Conservatives.
Supplementals:

This week Pierre Poilievre began his campaign for Canadian unity in light of the October referendums in Alberta.
The campaign began with a speech to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 1 in Calgary seeking a “strong Alberta within a united Canada.”
Quickly out of the gate Poilievre took the stance that we have re-iterated on our coverage of the referendum: do not villainize those “trying to cleave the country in two” he said.
He continued, “If you want frustrated Albertans to vote for Canada, the absolute worst thing we can do is dismiss their legitimate grievances and thus signal there’s no hope of fixing them.”
He boiled the concerns down to many of those who want to leave having an issue with the federal government and not other Canadians or Canada itself.
The Conservative leader also reiterated that many of the grievances of Albertans who are frustrated come down to affordability, export of natural resources, firearms rights, law and order, personal freedom, and free enterprise.
For what Poilievre has listed, these are political grievances that were greatly exacerbated by now almost 11 years of Liberal government.
Based on available data it’s not immediately clear whether or not people are primarily upset about these grievances or if there are bigger issues such as senate reform, the provincial/federal balance, and other Constitutional issues.
Poilievre also brought up the point that separatism in Alberta and Quebec was a non issue during the Harper government and that during the Harper majority the Bloc Quebecois were reduced to just 4 seats.
The media for their part gave full coverage to “one of the leaders of the separistm movement”, Jeffrey Rath, where Rath said Poilievre brought “hollow rhetoric” and “platitudes.”
As a result we are continually left with duelling statements from one side and then the other and it’s not clear where the majority Albertans voting to begin the process to leave actually stand.
That is, do they see a systemic problem in how Canada works or has it been mainly a policy issue of the last decade plus?
Media coverage from out east, specifically on CBC and their at issue panelists, felt the speech was narrow, self serving, and not helpful.
Issuing those words was At Issue panelist and journalist Andrew Coyne. In doing so they validated what Poilievre was saying - dismissing grievances without providing a path to fixing them.
Any time the mainstream media speaks, specifically the media from out east, they are just creating more separatists.
In general the pundits looking at the speech called it too partisan, too many jabs at the federal government, and not enough fear stoking of a successful vote in October.
Writing in the Globe and Mail, Robyn Urback said that Poilievre had to take those jabs, he had to echo the legitimate grievances and frustrations, and channel the anger that many in the province feel.
The response from the media, primarily from the east, has all but verified what Poilievre has said.
Poilievre was elected in the wave of the frustration of the covid mandates, he destroyed the idea of carbon pricing, and ended Justin Trudeau’s political career.
He did this by mirroring the public, providing an ear, telling them that he heard them.
This is textbook persuasion and what made Poilievre so successful - pacing and leading.
Pacing and leading is a speaking style where a speaker matches the tone and sentiment of an audience and uses that to lead them in a new direction.
By speaking in Alberta, Poilievre may be the only one who can get close enough to the issue of independence without fully endorsing it allowing those ideas to be heard.
This is something that Poilievre has not been able to do over the last year or so with the media and most Canadians anointing Mark Carney and Doug Ford as the elbows up / captain Canada mascot against Donald Trump.
By campaigning against the separation referendum this fall Poilievre gets to be “Captain Canada” and showcase a vision without invoking Donald Trump in one way or another.
Last year we were told that Canada wasn’t broken and some even suggested it was disloyal or traitorous to suggest so while Donald Trump was attacking Canada but now Poilievre gets to air these grievances of his base and use the messaging that was so derided last year.
In the end Poilievre said, “The answer therefore for Albertans is not to pull away from our friends in other provinces, but to lock arms with them to make Canada affordable, safe, self-reliant, and united here at home.”
If the federal government did this we would see whether it is actually a matter of policy or if Albertans really do feel like it’s time to move on from Canada after almost 121 years.
Supplementals:

New B.C. drivers can now take learner’s licence knowledge test online

One rite of passage that separates adults from children is the ability to get your drivers' license. In BC, that means going to your local ICBC office, taking a computerized knowledge test to get your learner's permit, or L, and then less than a year after that, you take a driver's test to get your N, or new driver license. Then after 2 years or less, you take another test to get your full license.
The BC NDP are making a change to streamline the first part of that process. ICBC will now allow new drivers in B.C. to take the knowledge test required for a learner’s licence online.
This will be for new drivers who want to obtain a learner’s licence for passenger vehicles and motorcycles, not for anyone seeking a commercial driving licence. In a release, the B.C. government says this move will help cut down on wait times for other appointments at ICBC and will save people a trip to an ICBC office.
Attorney General Niki Sharma said of the move: “By offering this test online, we’re giving new drivers more choice and convenience, especially people in rural and remote communities who used to have to commute far distances to take the test. This is part of our work to modernize ICBC services so they’re more convenient, accessible and work better for everyone in British Columbia.”
ICBC has procured Neumo, which delivers 86 per cent of all tests countrywide and is currently serving 23 North American jurisdictions, including B.C.’s in-office test, according to the B.C. government.
ICBC president and CEO Jason McDaniel says the Crown corporation is focused on modernizing and enhancing digital services.
"Bringing the knowledge test online is the first step in transforming driver licensing in B.C. We're also looking ahead to offering online renewals and replacements for B.C. driver's licences and [British Columbia Identification Cards] starting in 2027, as we continue to put our customers at the centre of everything we do."
On average, ICBC conducts about 337,000 knowledge tests across B.C. Allowing for an online option to take the knowledge test is expected to ease wait-times and demand for in-person testing at busy driver’s licensing centres. It also frees up ICBC employees to handle other types of appointments, such as road tests, that require hands-on personnel.
According to the government release, the new online test will be the same as the in-person version, but there are provisions in place to ensure people cannot cheat or get help from someone else. The test must be done on a computer that has a camera and a secure internet connection, not a mobile device.
Security features will track webcam and mouse movements to make sure people complete the test on their own. When someone passes the test, they still must then visit an ICBC office to confirm their identity, take a vision test, and have their photo taken; then they will get their learner’s licence.
With this in mind, it's hard to see how this helps rural people far from an ICBC office, as Sharma says, when you still have to go to one in person to get your L. At the end of the day, this option seems to be put in place purely to save money, at the cost of potentially degrading our road safety by allowing people with the ability and knowhow to cheat on the test. It seems to be a cost saving measure that won't actually help much, but the media hasn’t done anything more than surface level analysis, and we are unlikely to know how much this new policy will help or harm for some time yet.

Firing Line

Canada proposes teen social media ban - with workaround for tech firms

Legislation to ban social media for teenagers in Canada was tabled into the House of Commons this week. Bill C-34 called the Safe Social Media Act will limit the use of social media for those under 16.
The issue though is that no one presently knows how the law will work and it has the potential to create a government run identity verification service.
The legislation will also regulate AI chatbots and curtail “harmful content” on the internet. The latter of which is preserved from the former government’s online harms bill.
That harmful content which includes material bullying a child, content that foments hatred, content that induces a child to harm themselves, displays non-consensual intimate content, or incites violence.
Companies would have 24 hours to remove content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor.
These definitions are vague and broad. The particulars will be addressed by a government struck committee once the legislation is passed.
The Bill was introduced by Culture Minister Marc Miller who said, “[the measures] represent, in my view, the basic expectation that parents and Canadians (have) for keeping their kids safe online. I believe all parties should agree on the importance of these minimum safeguards.”
Miller did say one interesting bit that this is not a full social media ban for kids and there are ways that social media platforms “can be made safe” and not face a ban.
If a company puts in sufficient safe guards it could be limited from being regulated by this legislation.
The new regulator created with this legislation, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada would see its members appointed by cabinet and they would set the rules. They would also decide what platforms are exempt.
This is interesting because the social media ban portion of the legislation hinges on age verification. What this means is that by identifying anyone who is under 16 it also means identifying anyone who is not under 16 as well.
Any age verification system would need to do this, meet necessary privacy safeguards, and successfully mitigate privacy risks.
The Bill also includes provisions from Bill S-209 (from the Senate) that puts in place pornography age verification requirements.
The Bill requires AI chatbots to mitigate risk of communicating harmful content and place age verification requirements if the service can provide pornographic content.
Effectively this is a Bill that promises the kitchen sink under the guise of protecting the children online. Regulation of AI services is something that the conversation is only just beginning on. A ban or ID check on online pornography is a social issue. And a deep running regulatory board that has no mandate prior to the legislation passing is going to raise questions of just what bars need to be set and how partisan the rules will be.
Media conversations with parents and even teens have shown a receptive populace to this type of legislation.
The clincher though is that both iOS and Android have mechanisms in place to set time limits or outright prevent a certain application from being used.
For the case of specific websites, certain websites can be filtered or blocked entirely.
All it takes is for the parent (who is probably paying for the device or at least the internet connection) to take the time to set this up.
This legislation as written will farm the parenting out to the government.
Parents should have trustful relationships with their children. Trustful enough that they can decide when or if someone should be on social media or how long they should use it for.
For those kids who don’t trust their parents they will just use a virtual private network to get around Canada’s internet bans.
If the government age verification service becomes a mandate and people need to prove they are 16+ many people who are not children will end up being impacted by this legislation and just dodging Canadian filtering with VPNs.
The media has always been tech illiterate and still seems to be in this case today as this really should be a conversation about parenting.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“The answer therefore for Albertans is not to pull away from our friends in other provinces, but to lock arms with them to make Canada affordable, safe, self-reliant, and united here at home.” - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Canadian unity.

Word of the Week

foment - to stir up, instigate, or encourage the growth and development of something undesirable or harmful, such as trouble, violence, or rebellion

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Show Data

Episode Title: Apples and Oranges
Teaser: The Liberals spend billions on a secure food strategy, Poilievre positions himself as Captain Unity in Alberta, and BC allows drivers knowledge tests to be taken online. Also, the teenager social media ban will have a lot more consequences for everyone.
Production Code: WC-472-2026-06-13
Recorded Date: June 13, 2026
Release Date: June 14, 2026
Duration: 1:06:42
Edit Notes: First story pauses and splices

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX