Transport committee to debate whether to study B.C. Ferries' Chinese ship contract
B.C. Ferries announced last month that it hired China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards to build four new ships after a five-year procurement process that did not include a Canadian bid.
Federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland sent her B.C. counterpart a letter on June 20 saying she is "dismayed" by the deal and expects B.C. Ferries to mitigate potential security risks.
She also asked the B.C. government to confirm that no federal funding will be diverted to purchase the ferries.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank contributed $1 billion to the deal and said in a June 26 statement that the new ferries "wouldn't likely be purchased" without this financing.
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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
LaSalle College fined $30M for over-enrolling students in English-language programs
Social Sharing Montreal's LaSalle College says it's facing an existential threat after it was handed down back-to-back fines totalling almost $30 million from the Quebec government for enrolling too many students in its English-language programs. The private college received a letter from the Ministry of Higher Education at the end of June saying it owed $21,113,864 for enrolling 1,066 students over its quota for the 2024-25 academic year. That amount is summed to the $8.7 million fine it was handed down last year for the same infraction. "The first question that came to my mind is which organization or family business can afford to pay such a fine," said the college's president and CEO, Claude Marchand. Leading up to the introduction of the quotas in 2023, he said he had pleaded with the government to no avail to give colleges a grace period, as it had done for businesses adjusting to Law 14, also known as Bill 96, Quebec's law to protect the French language. LaSalle College received its first quota in late February 2023 which was to be enforced in the fall of that same year. But by that point, the college's enrolment process for international students was well underway. "So, we were already doomed when we got that number," said Marchand. That year, it surpassed the quota by 716 students. LaSalle College ran into the same issue the following year. Meeting the quota would have meant breaking the college's contracts with some students who had enrolled before the quotas were ever introduced and cutting short their academic careers at the school, which LaSalle wasn't willing to do, said Marchand. "Now we're fully compliant in fall 2025, but it took us those two years to be fully compliant," said Marchand. "We're not challenging the law per se. We are challenging the penalty that is the outcome of the law." Colleges faced reduced fines at first to help them adjust, says government The fine per student enrolled over the quota increased from last year. A spokesperson for Pascale Déry, Quebec's minister of higher education, says the reduced fine rate in the first year was the transitory measure. "Despite close support and several warnings, it is important to point out that LaSalle is the only subsidized private college to continue to defy the Charter of the French Language and to not respect the law," said the minister's office in a statement. In a post to X, Jean-François Roberge, the minister responsible for the French language, said Quebec's move to cap enrolment into programs taught in English was "brave, but necessary." For his part, Marchand says that negotiating and getting any indication of flexibility from Déry has been complicated. LaSalle was the only college, private or otherwise, to be fined by the government for contravening the quota in 2024 as can be seen in Quebec's budgetary and financial regimes for that year. Other colleges were able to negotiate their quotas like the public Cégep Marie-Victorin which was initially allotted 232 spots in its Attestation of College Studies (AEC in French) programs for the fall 2023. That number rose to 332, according to a government document from October that year, released through an access to information request. LaSalle is contesting both fines in a civil suit at Quebec's Superior Court, claiming, among other things, that the government's quotas were unreasonable to begin with. That's partially because, as the suit says, the quotas are inferior to the number of international students enrolling into an English program the college is allowed to accept — a number the government itself sets. The government says its fines are meant to recover the amount of overpaid subsidies. But the government doesn't subsidize international students at LaSalle, the suit goes on to explain, and the particular quota the school didn't meet is at the AEC level where there are a lot of international students. Marchand calls the fines a "clawback" saying the government is also fining it twice for the same student over the last two years. "We don't have more students in those [English-taught] programs than in 2019 which is the ultimate spirit of the law. We're fully compliant for next semester and we have a public mission to serve all [our] 5,000 students and we want to keep going."
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
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Tariffs could cost Ford $1.5 billion To say that there's a lot of uncertainty in the automotive industry right now would be a huge understatement. President Donald Trump's auto tariffs, introduced in April, have caused panic among automakers large and small as they try to navigate an increasingly complex parts and production environment. The dust hasn't settled on the tariff uncertainty, but one thing is for sure: Tariffs hurt automakers, including Ford. The company has about 17% of its North American production in Mexico and Canada, and Ford's management said that the result of tariffs will be an adverse adjusted impact of $1.5 billion on its earnings this year. Management also said that "due to tariff-related uncertainty," it was pulling its full-year earnings and revenue guidance. While Ford may not be as exposed to tariff impacts as some automakers, it's clear that the company could feel the pinch nonetheless. And with tariff negotiations still ongoing, it's unclear how much they might continue to impact Ford over the next few years. Car buyers are getting jittery about the economy There's some evidence that prospective car buyers have turned their noses up at shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a new vehicle. While there was an initial rush of buying cars when tariffs were announced, consumer surveys are already showing that buyers are holding off on big purchases as they grow cautious about the economy. Ford knows this, and it's why the company launched an employee pricing incentive just a few months ago. Most recently, it introduced a new incentive program for the summer called "0-0-0," in which customers can buy a new Ford for $0 down, pay 0% interest for 48 months, and make no payments for the first 90 days. The hope is that the new incentive will get buyers off the sidelines and spur sales. But even if it helps in the short term, many buyers may wait until all of the tariff uncertainty is over before they feel comfortable committing to an expensive new vehicle. And while most economists have backed away from some of their most dire warnings after tariffs were first announced, some still put the odds of a recession over the next year at 40%. Ford's stock is unlikely to outpace the market Ford's shares have tumbled 17% over the past 10 years, while the S&P 500 has soared more than 200%. That's not a great track record for an investment and while Ford could always come up with some new product or service that causes its shares to soar, it's pretty unlikely. Most large automakers are making slow changes to their businesses, and this sluggish pace of innovation typically doesn't lead to impressive stock price jumps. 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Before you buy stock in Ford Motor Company, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Ford Motor Company wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,010,880!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to180%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
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