Prime minister Mark Carney is set to sign an agreement with Doug Ford about “reducing the regulatory burden” for major projects in the province, again with the “one project, one review” line (which I have reservations about as I mentioned yesterday). Ford is keen to use this to develop the “Ring of Fire” region, in spite of the fact that a) there are much more accessible critical mineral projects that could be more easily developed, and b) they have yet to get most of the First Nations in the region to agree, mostly because they are looking for revenue-sharing agreements because they have been burned by proponents who promised them all kinds of things for previous developments and didn’t live up to their agreements. Funny that.
As Andrew Leach points out, this pattern of bespoke deals with provinces is going to wind up being a bigger problem than it winds up solving because there won’t be consistent rules across the country, and inconsistent rules and malleable agreements mean regulatory uncertainty, particularly because they are likely to change further as governments change on either level of government. Letting Alberta undermine federal standards as part of the MOU was a prime example of just that (not that Alberta plans to live up to their end of the agreement).
Meanwhile, here’s a callout about the things the oil and gas industry likes to promise before reneging because it will cost them too much money, such as with the methane regulations that were announced yesterday. Funny that.
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia has attacked Zaporizhzhia, injuring at least 26 people. Ukraine reports that they control over 90 percent of Kupiansk, which Russia claimed to have conquered weeks ago. President Zelenskyy says that any territorial concessions would need to be put to a referendum (which would fail).
Good reads:
- In his year-end interviews, Carney says that it’s clear Trump wants the relationship with Canada to be one of “dependence,” which he says is unacceptable.
- More revelations from the French-language interviews here, and him telling Rosemary Barton that those floor-crossers approached him, not the other way.
- The US Trade Representative has given his list of things Trump want us to capitulate on next, and I have to question Carney will just bend the knee yet again.
- Anita Anand joined G7 foreign ministers in condemning the conviction of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
- Environment Canada says there’s no way we can reach our 2030 emissions targets, in spite of a legal obligation to do so.
- Statistics Canada reports that the Canadian population shrank in the last quarter thanks to the cap on foreign students and temporary foreign workers.
- The National Post has a long-form interview with Chief of Defence Staff General Jennie Caignan.
- The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is calling for a path to permanent residency for Ukrainians already in the country on visas that are running out.
- Oh, look—an organized effort to try and insist that Michael Ma is a Chinese plant, including by a former Conservative candidate. (Totally not racist, either).
- Quebec Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez is stepping down after the allegations around corruption around the party have spiralled. (More here).
- Doug Ford is throwing his weight behind a bid for Toronto to host a new defence investment bank (to the annoyance of the City of Ottawa).
- Alberta’s justice minister is the latest to face a recall petition—23 in total now.
- The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled that the Oath of Allegiance for lawyers is unconstitutional. (I am rolling my eyes so hard at this).
- David Eby is pitching more infrastructure projects to the Major Projects Office under the rubric that they are necessary for enhancing trade.
- Paul Wells muses about what it says about Carney that he’s ignoring a report on public sector productivity in favour of importing tech bros and finance guys.
- My column takes apart the complaints that cobbling together a majority parliament through floor-crossings is somehow “illegitimate,” when our system begs to differ.
Odds and ends:
For Xtra, I wrote about Jamil Jivani as one of the “shady bitches” of 2025.
My Loonie Politics Quick Take discusses the dysfunction in Parliament, the NDP’s offer, and how floor-crossings change the math.
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Yes, but Carney doesn’t intend to spend the next 18 months trying to get all of the provinces onto the same page, not to mention how futile that effort would be for the western provinces anyway.
Look how long it took for Trudeau to get provincial agreement even on things everyone said they wanted, like school lunches and day care and dental care.
Eby and Smith and Moe have made their beds here.
If another province that wants the same deal as Ontario, I would expect Carney would be glad to sign them up.
In most cases, they have the Supreme Court of Canada on their side. There shouldn’t be any need for special deals for provinces.
Also, dental care is entirely a federal programme (mistakenly, IMO).