Tag Archives: Budget 2026

A fantasy pipeline to Sarnia

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Doug Ford and Danielle Smith held a joint press conference yesterday to announce a proposal for a northern pipeline route from Alberta to Sarnia, entirely through Canadian territory. Currently Alberta oil transits to Sarnia through the US because it’s a much shorter and flatter route, and that network is working just fine. Yes, a northern route might be more secure from American threats, but I will reiterate—a Canadian route is much longer, and over much rougher terrain, and is unlikely to find private sector proponents because they have no desire to strand the current pipeline network’s assets.

This sounds an awful lot to me like wishful thinking. There’s no timeline, there’s no price tag, there’s no agreement with Manitoba to go through that province—it’s a line on a map that rests on the wishful thinking that the oil market is going to keep growing in perpetuity. Ford keeps talking about how great it would be if the pipeline could go all the way to the Irving refinery in New Brunswick, but that’s never going to happen because Irving has no interest in paying a premium for Alberta oil when they can get imports for cheaper. (On a similar note, hopes to ship oil or LNG out of the Port of Churchill is also fantasy, because it’s only open for three months out of the year, and if they think that they need icebreakers the rest of the year, well, that’s one hell of a government subsidy).

Meanwhile, Smith going on about how the plan is to build this out now and decarbonise later is also ridiculous. There is a supply glut in the global oil market already (and prices will fall precipitously once the Strait of Hormuz issue is resolved, which it will be). Alberta increasing production to fill all of these pipelines is not going to bring plenty of more dollars, because adding supply to a supply glut further lowers the prices they get. That’s the reason why so much investment dried up after the price crash in 2014. It’s not coming back. This is just fantasy.

Danielle And Doug Ford Are Making A Beautiful Pipeline Togetheryoutu.be/BbOvIjvbMMw

— Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T19:40:58.929Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-07-06T13:08:02.411Z

My Latest:

  • My column on the justice committee hearings being largely a clown show because we don’t have serious bunch of MPs who asked questions of the new SCC justice.
  • My weekend column points out that the extreme weather on Canada Day in Ottawa should have been a wake-up call for Carney, but he refuses to listen.

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QP: Call it “Soliloquy Period”

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For the final QP of the spring sitting, the PM was once again absent—back from France, but off again to Vancouver to watch a World Cup match. Priorities. Pierre Poilievre was present for the first time this week, and he led off in French, to read a soliloquy about our woeful economic situation, and demanded the prime minister defend it. Steven MacKinnon got up to pat himself on the back for delivering 21 pieces of legislation and the supposed biggest criminal justice reform ever. (Really?) Poilievre launched into the old tactic of the question being for the prime minister and that he wasn’t answering, and after being cautioned by the Speaker, Poilievre asked when the recession would end. François-Philippe Champagne go up to say that he was surprised that Poilievre didn’t thank the PM for the success at the G7. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, framing intact, and MacKinnon repeated his same response as before. Poilievre declare that they plan to spend the summer fighting the “Liberal recession” and he launched into a his demand that the prime minister standup to defend it. Champagne got back up and patted himself on the back for increased investment, and recited a couple of slogans along the way. Poilievre accused this of being a “hallucination” and railed about the shrinking economy, and again demanded the PM stand up. Patty Hajdu took this as an insult to people in the skilled trades (erm, really?). Poilievre launched into another soliloquy about the supposed “recession” we are not actually in. Tim Hodgson listed the conservative premiers who are interested in working with the government. 

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she accused the prime minister of betraying the environment and Quebec culture, undoing a generation of struggle. MacKinnon got up to praise their “generational investment” and that the government is investing hundreds of millions in culture, and got a swipe about high-speed rail in there as well. Normandin called out the constant concessions to Trump, and the lack of respect shown to Parliament. Miller was incredulous that the Bloc were talking about betrayal when they want to destroy the country. Mario Simard took over, and repeated the same points. Joël Lightbound listed things that the Bloc were voting against.

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QP: Dismissing legitimate concerns about abusing their majority

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The PM was on his way back from France, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent. That left it up to Andrew Lawton to lead off, bafflingly, and he dutifully recited the latest round of “recession” talking points that the party has put up. Steven MacKinnon responded with the assertion of just how proud Canadians are of the prime minister and the accomplishments at the G7 meeting. Lawton continued to rail about people using food banks, and tied in some mention of “surveillance pricing,” to which François-Philippe Champagne retorted that while the Conservatives are busy making videos, the prime minister was signing deals. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French, and he decried that companies have stopped investing in Canada, and that everything has ground to a halt. Champagne disputed this characterisation, and insisted things were going great, Paul-Hus tried again, and Champagne accused him of running down the economy, while the government was proud of the economy. Michael Guglielmin took over and read the script about so-called “inflationary spending.” Patty Hajdu accused them of voting against supports for families that need them. Guglielmin trotted out the in-flight catering talking points, and Tim Hodgson responded by listed countries who are investing in Canada.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she raised the Liberals abusing their majority to ram through bills that were contentious or offensive. Champagne said he was happy to talk about Bill C-30 and that the Bloc should want to help build the Quebec economy. Normandin (correctly) pointed out the abuse of Parliament, and Joel Lightbound patted himself on the back for the fact that there are more Quebec Liberals than Bloc MPs, and accused them of taking orders from the PQ. Claude DeBellefeuille also called out the abuse of Parliament, including retroactive deadlines, for C-22, and MacKinnon said that Quebeckers are also concerned about crime and that these were tools law enforcement asked for (which is not something you should give them).

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QP: Ministers not proving their ability to know their files

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The PM was still at the G7 in France, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent, and for some reason, Branden Leslie led off with a shouted recitation of the “recession” script, and François-Philippe Champagne suggested that the Conservatives were not happy but he bought good news about the highest level of foreign direct investment and the second-fastest growth in the G7. Leslie cited people turning to GoFundMe pages to afford to live, and Champagne assured him that Canadians don’t want another clip, they want action, and he listed measures the government has taken. Gabriel Hardy took forward in French, read a weeks-ago talking point about the prime minister talking about the level of affordability before reading today’s clip-bait about GoFundMe pages. Champagne accused the Conservatives of hypocrisy for their voting against programmes to help people. Hardy suggested that people want the government to stop what’s not working, and that government spending was driving the country into recession. Lightbound suggested the number of people in Hardy’s riding getting that GST credit would disagree. Shannon Stubbs picked up the metaphorical baton to angrily read the day’s script, including the GoFundMe mention, and this time Tim Hodgson listed programmes that are getting underway. Stubbs railed about the prime minister’s in-flight catering and meandered into the “inflationary spending” talking point. Steven MacKinnon got up to wonder what the Conservatives are for if they vote against all measures to help people.

Yves Perron led for the Bloc, and complained about the programming motion on Bill C-22 and time allocation on Bill C-30. MacKinnon took a swipe at the Bloc for opposing the high-speed rail project and all of good things it would bring. Perron kept up his complaints about these “gag orders” that prevent MPs from doing their jobs, and to keep civil society from realising the abuse in those laws. MacKinnon said they would not apologise for working on the priorities of Canadians, like high-speed rail. (Erm, lawful access is not this, guys). Claude DeBellefeuille took her own crack at complaining about the motion on Bill C-22, and Lightbound said he wouldn’t apologise for taking action on things like transit…which again, is not lawful access.

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QP: More grousing about in-flight catering

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As the final sitting week of the spring sitting began, the PM was yet again absent, this time off in Evian, France, for the G7 meeting. Pierre Poilievre was also absent, leaving it up to Rhonda Kirkland to lead off, bafflingly, and she read the tired script about the country supposedly being in recession (we’re not), and the prime minister’s in-flight catering. Steven MacKinnon rose to point out that the Conservatives merely vote against any assistance for Canadians while Mark Carney brings back trade deals. Kirkland recited the scripted line that these were just “illusions,” and MacKinnon says that success looks like Canada creating twice as many jobs per capital than the U.S., high-speed rail, and the MOU with Alberta. John Brassard took over to sanctimoniously to cite the CFIB’s press release this morning on small businesses feeling uncertain, before moving onto the “recession”talking points. Tim Hodgson dismissed this, and listed project that are being built. Brassard tied again, demanding the government scrap their policies over the past six years, and Hodgson said the Conservatives are trying to fight the election from six years ago, and cited Danielle Smith’s optimism (not that it’s worth anything). Luc Berthold took over in French to cite the same reports and talking points, to which Joël Lightbound pointed out that the Conservatives voted against any measure to help Canadians. Berthold tried again, citing more newspaper stories, and Lightbound pointed to the tens of thousands of people in Berthold’s riding benefitting from government programmes.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she listed the ways in which Carney capitulated to the Americans and abandoned Europe to do it. MacKinnon said that there is another European phenomenon which they should sign onto, being high-speed rail. Normandin listed more sins of Carney’s in betraying Europe, and MacKinnon continued to praise high-speed rail. Martin Champoux took over to give the same condemnation of “abandoning” the EU, particularly around streaming levies and the digital services tax. Lightbound got back up to point out that the Bloc hasn’t spoken about culture with the budget.

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A long-term food strategy

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Yesterday, before jetting off to the G7 in France, prime minister Mark Carney was in Toronto to unveil the details of his national food security strategy. The initial announcement was a couple of months ago, when he announced the rebranding and expansion of the existing GST credit, and the details for this new strategy could bear fruit (groan!) in the long-term, but I worry that he is raising expectations that these measures will lower food prices immediately. They won’t. Building up new food production infrastructure via greenhouses and vertical farms will take time and a lot of dollars to get off the ground, as will creating new domestic processing capabilities, which we may not even have the necessary labour for. Same thing with bolstering the rules around competition in order to attract new entrants into a marketplace dominated by oligopolies—you can’t unwind that in a day, and certainly not without just inviting in more American companies, which would go against the notion of trying to ensure food sovereignty.

Again—these kinds of investments and commitments to increasing domestic production and processing are good, and overdue. But in the vein of you can lead a horse to water, corporate Canada is not all that keen on investing in things, including productivity measures, because they are too accustomed to relying on trade with the US (which they keep pinning all of their hopes on normalising once more, as though there will be no lasting damage from the country descending into outright fascism), and their whole modus operandi is about getting monopolistic power and becoming a rent-seeker rather than investing in productivity or innovation. And yes, Canadian food prices are very high, and only part of that has to do with the fact that we’re a cold-weather country that needs to import a lot of what we eat. This is a strategy built for the long-term, and that’s great, but I know that by September, Pierre Poilievre will stand up in Question Period every day and declare that this new strategy hasn’t reduced food prices, so therefore we must burn everything down for the sake of tax cuts and going harder on trickle-down economics (and the government will respond by patting themselves on the back). They’re going to have to do the hard work of pushing this and then actually defending, and I have doubts that they are capable of doing just that.

Jennifer Robson has additional thoughts on the announcement.

My Latest:

My Xtra column points out how much Mark Carney patted himself on the back for doing the absolute bare minimum at this year’s Pride flag raising.

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QP: Changing up tactics in service of a stunt

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The PM was absent, in Toronto for an announcement before jetting off to Paris, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent. Melissa Lantsman led off, and she raised the death of a Toronto police officer earlier in the day, and asked for a government response. Gary Anandasangaree gave some words of condolence for his death. Lantsman asked which security agencies were engaged on this, as the officer was investigating the shooting of the US consulate in Toronto, and Anandasangaree listed some of the agencies, including the RCMP, involved and that this was a collaborative process. Jasraj Hallan took over, and he once again accused the prime minister of “stuffing his face” on in-flight catering and the costs associated with it, and Steven MacKinnon called for Hallan to up his game. Hallan accused the prime minister of not caring that Canadians are losing sleep because of food insecurity, and MacKinnon reminded him that we are in the midst of a trade war. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French to again complain about the costs of the prime minister’s in-flight catering. MacKinnon dismissed this given how much trade and investment the prime minister brings home when he travels. Paul-Hus kept railing about the costs, and François-Philippe Champagne rose to add his voice go the condolences for the fallen officer, before repeating the assurances of the prime minister’s trade prowess.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she said that with Trump looking to give up the New NAFTA altogether, so they sacrificed Quebec culture for nothing. MacKinnon got up to take a swipe at the Bloc, ignoring the question. Normandin suggested that the strategy of weakness was not working, and this time Marc Miller rose, and touted how much the government is investing in culture, including their cultural export programme. Martin Champoux took over to ask the same again, and Miller pointed out that the filmmaker Champoux mentioned is funded by the National Film Board.

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QP: Cherry-picking the Bank of Canada governor

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The PM was in town, but conveniently occupied on a Zoom meeting with the other premiers, while Pierre Poilievre was present, and in French, he led off by mentioning that his MP Bernard Généroux had a cardiac incident in the morning and is in hospital in stable condition, and offered the government a chance to offer their best wishes, to which Steven MacKinnon took the opportunity to do. Poilievre then got back to news, and he launched immediately into the “recession” talking points, cherry-picked statements that the Governor of the Bank of Canada and outright ignored that he said we weren’t in a recession, while also citing a United Way report. François-Philippe Champagne read the OECD growth projections, and that Canada was the second-highest. Poilievre asked his same question in English, and Champagne repeated his same response in English. Poilievre pointed out again that the Governor of the Bank said the economy was “weak” nine times, and demanded the government overturn their policies. Tim Hodgson pointed out Macklem’s statement about our economic resilience, and pointed to projects that got approved. Poilievre read about anxiety Canadians were having per the United Way report, while complaining that the PM was not answering, while Mélanie Joly insisted that the PM is a “serious person” who is working with the premiers, before mentioning the latest job numbers and our growing trade surplus. Poilievre kept insisting that we were in a recession, and demanded the government eliminate the industrial carbon price, the fuel standard, and capital gains taxes that are reinvested in Canada. David McGuinty said that Poilievre has no plan, he cherry-picks data, and then he cherry-picked his own data.

Poilievre says that MP Bernard Généroux had a cardiac event at caucus this morning and is now in stable condition in hospital. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-06-10T18:35:37.500Z

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and panned the government backing off on streaming levies, and worried about what else was being demanded. MacKinnon got up to gloat that the Bloc had a bad day when the mayors of Quebec’s biggest cities denounced their opposition to the high-speed rail project. Normandin led capitulations that are benefiting American companies, to which MacKinnon went on a paean about building things. Martin Champoux lamented that the biggest victim of these capitulations is Quebec culture, and accused the PM of being the “gravedigger” of their culture. Marc Miller shrugged this off as the Bloc in their fourth decade of doing nothing in Parliament, and that they are spitting on the support the government is giving to the sector.

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Expecting an online harms disaster

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The federal government will be tabling their online harms legislation today, and it looks like it’s going to include some form of ban on social media for youth under the age of sixteen, which is going to be little more than an invitation to create mass online surveillance, because everyone will need to verify their ages and identities in order to access social media or adjacent sites. Meanwhile, that will do very little to actually deal with the harms, and it’s likely going to be unconstitutional in the first place.

here’s me from earlier on power & politics talking digital safety act (tldr: age appropriate design codes + duty to act responsibly > age bans)

— Supriya Dwivedi (@supriya.bsky.social) 2026-06-10T00:48:36.353Z

As we anticipate a social media ban to be proposed by the Canadian government tomorrow, it's worth noting in the Charter of Rights: "everyone" includes young people and "media of communication" includes social media.

— David TS Fraser (@privacylawyer.ca) 2026-06-09T21:59:05.964Z

This being said, the Liberals are already going past Helen Lovejoy and going directly to “children are dying,” which makes me suspect that they are going to try and use their majority to ram this through, in spite of what are likely to be massive problems with it, and the fact that the problems that they are having with their lawful access bill are likely to be magnified. Any kind of online age verification is bad news no matter how it’s dressed up, and this is going to be no different in the end. I do not have confidence that they will be able to pull this off without a lot of hand-waving and “just trust me,” and “surely these companies can figure out a way to do it” when that way is more mass surveillance and siphoning even more data.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-06-09T19:08:01.734Z

My Latest:

For National Magazine, I recap what Chief Justice Richard Wagner had to say during his annual press conference, particularly on defending judicial independence.

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QP: Poilievre makes common cause with the PQ leader

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The PM was present today, fresh from the Pride flag raising on the Hill, and Pierre Poilievre was present as well. He led off in French, worrying that in the midst of the “worst recession in the G7,” he lamented that the government planned to spent $90 billion on the high-speed rail that would “destroy farms in Quebec.” Mark Carney listed the jobs that this was expected to create. Poilievre dismissed these as “jobs for Liberal friends,” and again lamented the projected cost of the project. Carney praised that this would be the biggest infrastructure project in the country’s history, and we need to build. Poilievre switched to English to worry about the rise in bankruptcies and worried the government’s spreading was making it worse. Carney praised the number for jobs created in the past month. Poilievre countered with even more cherry-picked dismal numbers, and Carney dismissed this as Poilievre not believing in Canada. Poilievre insisted it was his patriotic duty to fight for the people who are suffering, and that he would make no lessons on patriotism from a guy who stashes his funds in a tax haven. The Speaker noted that there wasn’t a question, and so they moved onto the next one, and Poilievre cited delinquency rates, and blamed the PM for driving the country into recession, to which Carney insisted they are growing a stronger and more independent economy.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she accused the government of abandoning Quebec culture in the face of tech giants and Donald Trump, in exchange for absolute nothing. Carney responded that the question is why the Bloc keeps voting against investments in Quebec culture. Normandin listed the cancellation of policies and the abandonment of the flight against climate change, and that he is deregulating things like pesticides, all for the benefit of American corporations. Carney shrugged this off by listing things the Bloc voted against. Martin Champoux also accused Carney of abandoning Quebec culture for bargaining chips, and Carney said it was sad that the Bloc didn’t read the previous budget and the investments for culture therein.

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