The federal government paid Stellantis more than $220 million to help upgrade its plants in Ontario before the automaker revealed plans to move some production to the U.S., recent records show.
It’s more than double the amount the federal government disclosed when asked in October about its Stellantis spending, after the multinational announced that it will scrap plans to build the Jeep Compass at its Brampton plant and assemble it in Belvidere, Ill., instead.
Canada needs to be prepared for the risk the United States may announce its withdrawal from the trilateral USMCA trade deal as a negotiating tactic, according to a legal expert who is testifying on the agreement at public hearings in Washington this week.
Barry Appleton, a Toronto lawyer who is co-director of the Center for International Law at New York Law School, is speaking before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Wednesday as part of a scheduled review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“The mere suggestion of USMCA termination serves as an exceedingly potent, almost extortionary, bargaining chip,” Mr. Appleton said.
The head of Algoma Steel says the federal government and Government of Ontario knew the company’s business plan included a re-tooling of its Sault Ste. Marie plant that would result in layoffs before they agreed to half a billion dollars in loan assistance to help the company weather the storm of U.S. tariffs.
… Garcia explained to host Vassy Kapelos that cutting jobs at Algoma Steel was “always the future of this company.” Only 1,600 employees are required to operate electric furnaces that can produce 3.2 million tonnes of steel, compared to 3,000 employees operating blast furnaces that produce two million tonnes, he noted.
However, transformation timelines have sped up as a result of unprecedented tariffs imposed by the United States, which have effectively closed off the American market to Canadian steel.
For the ninth consecutive month, fewer passengers at Canadian airports are heading to the United States amid the trade war.
New data from Statistics Canada shows total Canadian air passenger traffic in October was up by 4.5 per cent to five million travellers from the same time last year, but the number of people on U.S.-bound trips is down 8.9 per cent to 1.2 million travellers.
A new Canadian Army equipment program that could be worth almost $500 million is designed to select only U.S.-provided equipment, despite claims by Prime Minister Mark Carney the military will be reducing purchases of American systems.
The Joint Fires Modernization program will cost between $250 million and $499 million and see the acquisition of hardware and software to enable the Canadian Army to digitally share data and targeting information between its various units and coalition forces.
Reeling from high tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, Algoma Steel confirmed Monday it has issued layoff notices to about 1,000 workers.
The company, based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., employs about 2,700 people. With its major buyers in the United States, the company was hit hard by the 50 per cent tariffs imposed last summer by Trump.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s a high-flying tale of carrots, sticks and political flip-flops.
American leaders have been urging Canada to boost its military spending and NATO contributions since the alliance’s founding, back in 1949. Some, like former U.S. president Barack Obama, have been polite about it, encouraging Ottawa that “the world needs more Canada,” while others, especially U.S. President Donald Trump, have been more blunt, referring to Canadians as “freeloaders” who are “delinquent” on military contributions.
Manufacturing has plunged to its lowest share of employment in Ontario — below 10 per cent — since that data was first collected in 1976, a report by the Financial Accountability Office has found.
The fiscal watchdog warned the province continues to face economic uncertainty as workers in the automotive, machinery and metal products sectors grapple with 20,600 fewer jobs compared to two years ago.
In 2005, jobs in manufacturing accounted for 17 per cent of employment in Ontario.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney appears in no rush to resume trade talks with the US.
He dismissed a question over the weekend about when he last spoke to US President Donald Trump, responding: “Who cares? It’s a detail. I’ll speak to him again when it matters.”
Carney added that, in his view, there is no “burning issue” to raise with his US counterpart.
The prime minister has faced criticism for his apparent lack of urgency, which raises the question about whether Canada is shifting its approach to trade talks with the US.
The competition focused on each fighter jet’s capabilities in defending the North American continent and the likelihood of success in various missions against modern military forces.
The F-35 got a score of 95 per cent on military capabilities, with a total of 57.1 points out of 60.
By contrast, the Gripen-E finished with a score of 33 per cent, netting 19.8 points out of 60, according to the Department of National Defence (DND) ranking obtained by Radio-Canada.
Elbow People hardest hit.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday his recent reply to a question about the state of trade talks with the U.S. — “Who cares?” — amounted to “a poor choice of words.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hammered the prime minister over his comment during question period in the House of Commons Tuesday.
“Before the election he promised ‘elbows up.’ After, it was, ‘Who cares?’ Before the election, he said the tariffs were an ‘existential crisis.’ Now he says they’re not a burning issue,” Poilievre said.
He says stupid crap for the Elbow People who consider this sort of thing a mighty victory.
OTTAWA—For the senior brass at the Royal Canadian Air Force, there is no question whatsoever that they want the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning as the replacement for their aging fleet of CF-18 Hornet fighter planes.
They have wanted the F-35, and only the F-35, since this fifth-generation stealth strike fighter was first on the drawing board in 1997.
In 2010, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government announced a sole-source deal to purchase 65 F-35s for the Air Force at a cost of $9-billion for the aircraft, and a total program cost of $16-billion. However, as the F-35 experienced technical teething trouble, and the costs soared, Harper pushed the reset button on the entire controversial procurement.
Not sure Elbows Up TDS is the best mindset when evaluating fighter jets.
President Donald Trump has yet to follow through on his threat to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian imports, four weeks after he halted “all trade negotiations” over an anti-tariff ad the province of Ontario ran during the Major League Baseball World Series.
“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 25, after announcing two days earlier that he was terminating trade talks over the the ”egregious” ad.
The hardest hit areas have proven to be concentrated in Ontario and parts of New Brunswick, reflecting their reliance on automotive manufacturing, steel, aluminum, and lumber
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When U.S. President Donald Trump first threatened tariffs on Canadian goods, the forecasts were grim.
GDP was expected to decline three per cent in seven months, job losses in the auto sector would top 100,000, inflation would tick up over 3 per cent and Canada would be mired in a recession.
HALIFAX – The tariffs imposed on Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump have clearly caused economic pain for Canada, but a U.S. senator from Maine says he’s more worried about how Canadians are reacting on a personal level.
“Like any neighbours, there’s always going to be issues back and forth, and we’ve been fighting about softwood lumber for as long as I could remember,” Angus King told an international security conference in Halifax on Saturday.
“But the deeper problem is the cultural break; the idea that Canadians don’t think of Americans as their friends and neighbours, but as adversaries.”
