Opinion: PM Carney wants Canada to be an energy superpower - here's how he can prove it
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Prime Minister Mark Carney says he wants Canada to become an energy superpower. That's the right goal, and now that he's in charge, it's time to back up his lofty words with real action – here's how he can prove it.
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Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one of the most significant opportunities for Canada to grow its economy and create good, mortgage-paying jobs for Canadians. Several projects are awaiting final approval: Phase 2 of the LNG Canada project, Ksi Lisims LNG, and Woodfibre are just some examples. Getting these projects approved and built quickly would show authentic leadership.
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Pipelines are key to moving natural gas and oil safely across Canada, but the Liberal Party's 2025 election platform doesn't even mention them. Canada has some of the world's largest natural gas and oil reserves. Without this enabling infrastructure, our reserves are just another wasted Canadian opportunity, and our aspiration of becoming an energy superpower is just another political platitude.
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Prime Minister Carney has said he supports the energy sector. Still, he remains frustratingly unclear about whether he considers pipelines one of his 'nation-building projects'. Carney said he is looking for an international consensus on pipelines. Minister Guilbeault recently threw cold water on the idea of any new projects. Getting consensus from the provinces will be hard if he cannot even find it within his cabinet. This is the kind of uncertainty that makes investors nervous. The prime minister must give a clear message: Canada supports responsible natural gas and oil development.
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Scrap the cap
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The proposed cap on Canada's natural gas and oil industry must be scrapped immediately. Third-party experts, including Canada's parliamentary budget officer, have provided overwhelming evidence that this policy will limit production in the industry. Only the federal government – and activists – continue to declare the opposite. They're wrong, and keeping this cap will send a damaging signal to investors who are already hesitant about investing in Canada.
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Carney has promised to get major projects approved in under two years. But C-69, the 'no more pipelines' bill, has made getting energy projects approved nearly impossible. Ten years to a no is not a process – it's paralysis.
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Global News
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B.C. Premier David Eby leaves on a trade mission to Asia
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The Province
an hour ago
- The Province
This Day in History, 2025: After 138 years in downtown Vancouver, The Bay closes
Current building was built in four stages between 1913 and 1950 The Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. There has been a Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver since Jan., 17, 1887, when the city was less than a year old. But it will end June 1, when the landmark Bay store at Granville and Georgia will close. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The masses flooded into the store for The Bay's bankruptcy sale in recent weeks, either to hunt for bargains or just to take a look around at the last days of a Canadian institution. 'It's sad, honestly,' said shopper Niels Billou. 'It's an iconic part of Canadian history, part of the founding of this country. Everybody who grew up in Canada has gone and bought something from the Bay, whether it's socks or bed sheets or the blankets.' Sharon Best remembered getting her picture taken with Santa at The Bay when she was a child. 'It's such a shame,' she said. 'It's the last of the department stores, but it's also the oldest of the department stores.' 'The High Street is dying,' said Sarah Bromfield. 'Retail is kind of dying and the internet taking over.' Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Bromfield picked up a bust of a female mannequin at the sale for $100. She had a lot to choose from: there were hundreds of mannequins left all over the store, with or without faces, heads, arms or legs. Male mannequins at the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver. Someone has arranged them so they resemble the workers in the famed 1932 photo Lunch Atop a Skyscraper at the RCA building in Rockefeller Center in New York. A quartet of male mannequins were doing handstands on the sixth floor, near a quintet of mannequins arranged like the famous photo of construction workers having lunch on a steel beam high above the streets of New York in 1932. The sixth floor was officially closed when a reporter visited Wednesday, which made it a bit eerie. The floorplates are 75,000 sq. ft., and the virtually empty space made the large building seem even more vast. The sixth floor holds one of the building's coolest features: an arched steel and glass skylight that was constructed for a restaurant in the 1920s. The skylight is above a wooden floor where tables could be removed for dancing. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The chandeliers for the skylight resemble antlers, a play on The Bay's coat of arms, which features a pair of elks flanking a crest with a red cross, four beavers and a fox on top. The sixth floor skylight at the Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia The company motto at the bottom is 'Pro Pelle Cutem,' which translates as 'a pelt for a skin' which points to the company's fur trading roots in 1670. Alas, a trio of white moose mannequins were already sold Wednesday and awaiting pickup. There didn't seem to be any Bay blankets left, either. In fact, most of the store's stock was already sold this week — only three floors and the basement were still open. But the clothes that were left were doing a brisk business, and the jewelry department was positively rockin'. Moose mannequins at the Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia The current Bay store was developed in four stages, in 1913-14, 1925-26, 1926, and 1949-50. The distinctive cream terra cotta on the exterior was used in several Bay stores, including Winnipeg and Victoria, and became identified with the company. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The first Vancouver Hudson's Bay was a small wooden building at 150 Cordova St. in Gastown. The company moved to a four-storey red brick building at 698 Granville in 1893. The Seymour and Georgia side was the first part of the current building constructed. The address is now 674 Granville. View of the staircase at the Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. This shows the view looking down from the sixth floor. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia The current building is about 648,000 square feet, and has six storeys above ground, two basement levels and an attic. The main floor is 21 feet (6.4 metres) high, the second floor is 16 feet, 3 inches (5 metres) high, and the remaining floors and basement are 15 feet, 2 inches (4.6 metres). In 1946, the downtown Vancouver store employed 1,300 people in 95 departments. In recent times about 500 people were working in the store. The store sits on prime real estate, and in 2022 The Bay announced a plan to build a 12-storey glass office tower atop the current six-storey store, which would have more than doubled the building size to 1.4 million square feet. The facade of the building would have been saved in the new development, but most of the interior would have been demolished and rebuilt in the project. The glass skylight on the sixth floor was to have been taken apart and reconstructed in the new structure. But demand for office space has slumped, and the 2022 plan seems to be dead. jmackie@ Female mannequins at the Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. Four mannequins doing handstands at the Hudson's Bay store at 674 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia A dog made of cardboard slices at The Bay in Vancouver. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia A sign at the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver, May 28, 2025. Photo by John Mackie / Postmedia The most expensive item at the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver on May 28, 2025 appeared to be a $7,000 wooden sleigh. 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an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Carney's hocus-pocus plan to increase debt and balance the budget
Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives for a press conference on Parliament Hill following the Cabinet Policy Forum, in Ottawa on May 21, 2025. Photo by DAVE CHAN / GETTY IMAGES Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise that his government will 'spend less and invest more' is the same sort of fiscal flimflammery as Justin Trudeau's claim in 2014 that as prime minister he would grow the economy and 'the budget will balance itself.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The budget never balanced itself under Trudeau, even before the pandemic hit in 2020. His 2015 election pledge of three years of 'modest deficits' in 2016, 2017 and 2018 followed by a balanced budget in 2019, turned out to be a myth. As for Carney's pledge to 'spend less and invest more' respected University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, writing in The Hub, noted that 'Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed Carney's proposal as 'cooking the books' and history justifies the skepticism.' Carney dismissed that criticism by suggesting he has more experience than Tombe as an economist and economic manager. Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies for the Fraser Institute, called Carney's pledge 'creative accounting' because 'Mr. Carney's math doesn't add up.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In fact, Carney is planning to spend more and borrow more than the Trudeau government. This while abandoning the 'fiscal guardrails' that former federal finance minister Chrystia Freeland said were important to maintain the integrity of federal finances, at least prior to her resigning when she said the Trudeau government had abandoned them. Freeland is now minister of transport and internal trade in Carney's cabinet, so perhaps she's changed her mind. So how is Carney going to make good on his promise to balance the budget in three years while spending more and increasing the debt? This apparent economic miracle will only be achievable because Carney is making a new distinction in government spending. He's separating the operating expenses of the federal government — the cost of daily operations, plus cash transfers to the provinces and benefit programs such as Old Age Security, $10-a-day daycare and dental care — from capital spending on infrastructure. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Carney, who criticized Trudeau for driving up the operating costs of the government by an average of 9% annually, says he will reduce those increases to less than 2%. He will then invest more money, financed by more public debt, in fast-tracked, nation-building infrastructure projects such as housing construction, making Canada a clean energy superpower and other initiatives designed to bolster our economy and make it less reliant on the U.S. The problem with redefining debt is that it's still debt for the people who have to pay it back with interest — taxpayers. As Tombe, put it, 'Carney's financial sleight of hand will not actually balance the budget.' Carney's election campaign platform outlined $130 billion in new spending over four years with total deficit spending of $224.8 billion. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That's 71% higher than the $131.4 billion in deficit spending the Trudeau government predicted during the same period in its fall economic statement last December, although had Trudeau decided to run again his election promises would have increased his projected deficits. Read More To be sure, if will be a positive step if Carney can significantly reduce the operating costs of the government, a major component of which is the cost of the federal public service. But it will also be interesting to see how he will achieve this, given that his intention, aside from making use of Artificial Intelligence, is to cap the size of the public service at its current level of approximately 357,965 people. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That's an increase of more than 100,000 civil servants — almost 40% — compared to when Trudeau took office in 2015. Carney's promises also depend, according to his campaign platform, on achieving $28 billion in savings from 'increased government productivity', $3.75 billion from 'increasing fines and penalties' and $20 billion from revenue generated by Canada's counter-tariffs in its trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. Some economists agree with Carney that redefining public debt into operating and capital spending components will make it more transparent, but others warn the temptation will be to redefine operational expenses as capital investments, in order to meet Carney's promise of a balanced operating budget in three years. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. What the Carney government intends to classify as operational expenses versus capital investments won't be known until the Liberals unveil their budget in the fall. That said, capital spending to fund infrastructure in tough economic times to boost the economy is hardly a new concept. Done competently, it can work as planned, in the same way a homeowner taking out a mortgage to buy a home can increase the family's equity, provided he or she can meet the mortgage payments. The key word is competently. One of many examples of previous capital investments by governments in concert with the private sector turning into financial disasters are Light Rail Transit projects in cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, funded by the federal, provincial and municipal governments. Meanwhile, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux reported last year that the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments have earmarked up to $52.5 billion — 60% paid by the feds, 40% by the provinces — for 13 projects intended to create an electric vehicle and EV battery industry in Canada. That's $6.3 billion or 14% more than the $46.1 billion the industry plans to invest in these projects, with many companies now cutting back or delaying production due to slow EV sales. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA Ontario Columnists Sunshine Girls
