Ottawa business targeted by ‘friendly fraud'
An Ottawa business was targeted by a 'friendly fraud,' when customers knowingly or mistakenly refute legitimate purchases with their credit card company. CTV's Katelyn Wilson reports.
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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Minister confident in process amid concerns about aquaculture development
As the provincial government's public comment period approaches for five proposed aquaculture sites in the Municipality of the District of Argyle, the cabinet minister responsible says he's pleased with the process used to reach this point — despite ongoing concerns from some community members. Kent Smith was responding a day after Fisheries and Aquaculture Department officials heard concerns at public meetings about the multi-year process that led to the creation of the Argyle aquaculture development area. "There's been so much consultation and we have such a robust set of regulations that I'm confident that we're going to land in the right place for the municipality," Smith said in an interview Wednesday. The development area, which includes 53 pre-assessed sites for potential shellfish and plant-based aquaculture, was announced last year. Six sites were put up for bids, with five being awarded to proponents whose applications for licences are now being reviewed before going to a 30-day public comment period. But during one of the meetings Tuesday at a hall in the municipality, some residents said there's been a lack of community input in the selection of the proposed lease sites and they feel that decisions about expanded aquaculture development in the area have already been made. "It's too late, in our view," Chris Thibedeau told officials at the meeting. "I can't see how anything we would say could change the outcome." Department staff walked people through the process to provide feedback, which includes a 30-day window to submit comments via email, letter or online submission form once a lease applicant's proposal is complete and posted on the department website. Comments must relate to one or more of eight factors set out in regulations. They include the optimum use of marine resources; fishery activities in public waters surrounding a proposed operation; public right of navigation; and other users of the waters surrounding a proposed operation. Calls for change People who live within 500 metres of a proposed site are notified by mail when a public comment period is about to open, although some meeting attendees said that buffer doesn't go far enough. "If you're going from the point in the water to the land, that could very well be 500 metres there and so you'd be informing nobody along that shoreline," said Joanne Tulk. Tulk, who has previously worked in the oil and gas industry, was critical of the communication process so far around the development area and said the province is missing an opportunity to get broad community buy-in and help the area's economy. She suggested the 500-metre notification zone for neighbours begin at the shoreline in front of proposed lease sites. "I would love to see this succeed and to do that we have to be informing people properly," she said. "Otherwise, everybody gets upset, people don't understand what's going on and when you don't understand what's going on, then things can get blown out of all proportion, people don't feel heard and then they feel upset." Smith said he'd discuss that suggestion with people in his department. "We don't want people to feel like they're not part of the process or feel like they're being left out, but on the other side of the coin, 500 metres from shore is pretty far out there." Another concern voiced Tuesday was that some of the proposed lease sites fall within the area of the Tusket Islands Wilderness Area. Smith deferred comment on that issue to the province's Environment and Climate Change Department. Officials with that department have yet to respond to a request for information about whether aquaculture around the Tusket Islands is permitted. Meeting participants also took issue with industry members having a hand in suggesting where proposed sites would go before eventually getting to bid on them. But Smith said it only makes sense and is standard practice to enlist industry feedback and ensure that sites are suitable for aquaculture before they are posted for bids to lease. "We don't want people going into an area where we don't have any idea whether or not it's even possible to grow oysters or mussels," he said. 'This has to expand somewhere else' Although department staff said there needs to be a balance to find a way to allow the industry and neighbours to coexist, it was a difficult sell Tuesday. Shellfish aquaculture operations need to be in sheltered areas such as bays and inlets, but some residents said Tuesday they don't want to see them. "I don't want that mess on Salt Bay," said Donna Gaudet. "This has to expand somewhere else." Gaudet said the issue has created a divide among some community members who feel like their concerns are not being addressed. Supporters of the development area, the first of its kind in the province, say it's a way to diversify the local fishery, create jobs and stimulate economic growth for the municipality. Smith said he's satisfied with the level of consultation throughout the process and the public comment period will allow residents to highlight any issues that might have been missed before any leases are awarded. But he noted the initial consultation was several years ago and "a lot of time has passed since then" now that the process has reached consideration of lease applications. He thinks compressing the time in between could help.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Ottawa's electricity use projected to surge, forcing grid expansion
Demand for electricity in Ottawa is projected to soar over the next two decades, especially during the winter, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new infrastructure is being planned to ensure power continues to get to the city's grid. The upgrades and expansions could be paid for, at least in part, by a proposed $6.08 increase to residential users' monthly Hydro Ottawa bills as of January 2026. By 2043, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) estimates electricity use in winter will jump a whopping 166 per cent in Ottawa. Summer demand is also expected to grow, but at a slower rate of 33 per cent. The IESO, which manages Ontario's electricity needs, has spent the past couple of years working with the many players in the industry to update its forecasts for the power Ottawa will need. It released a roadmap this month for how to meet that demand. The main reason why winter electricity use might someday eclipse the demand of summer air conditioning comes down to how buildings are heated, said Kennan Ip, the IESO's senior manager of transmission integration for eastern and northern Ontario. Gas furnaces are expected to be swapped out for electric heat pumps, he explained. The economy and population are also expected to grow, and the City of Ottawa has stated goals to transition away from fossil fuels. The municipality is buying e-buses and expanding its electric light rail system. Residents are plugging in electric vehicles. Hydro Ottawa reports ministry data showing about 17,000 electric vehicles are already registered in the city. As generative artificial intelligence takes off, companies that build power-hungry data centres are also seeking to tie into the grid, said Hydro Ottawa Group CEO Bryce Conrad. Those warehouses filled with IT servers require significant power for cooling. Transmission lines, substations needed The IESO recommends more stations in Ottawa and two more transmission lines in the west of the city in the next few years alone — building blocks to keep up with the anticipated surge in demand. The system is reliable right now, but nimble planning and care is needed to make sure it stays that way, said Ip. "The key is you don't want to overbuild because it will certainly be a negative impact to to our ratepayers," he said. "But at the same time, you don't want to underbuild because you'll end up being that barrier to to growth." Even though the downtown will see great demand for power, it's extremely costly to add underground cables, he explained. Instead, the recommendation is to build out capacity in Kanata, Stittsville and Nepean to shift the load. Hydro Ottawa Group is responsible for its own substations, poles and lines that take high-voltage power from transmission lines and convert it to lower voltage that can be distributed to homes and businesses. The municipally owned utility sees spending a record $1.2 billion over the next five years — double what it's been spending on capital infrastructure. Where it usually builds a substation every five years, it will build one each year, Conrad said. "So a massive, massive upswing in the amount of work that needs to be done, and that's just to keep pace with what we know is coming," said Conrad. In his annual presentation to city council on Wednesday, Conrad underscored the global trend toward electrification and away from fossil fuels. "Make no mistake: This shift is seismic," he told them. Bills could rise $6 per month To help pay for all of this infrastructure, electricity distributors in other cities have applied to increase their rates, and Ottawa is doing the same, Conrad said. The city has an application before the Ontario Energy Board that proposes raising the distribution part of the bill for which Hydro Ottawa is responsible by 17.6 per cent come Jan. 1, 2026, or $6.08 per month on average. That would be followed by an increase of $3.79 in 2027, $3.31 in 2028, $2.76 in 2029 and $2.78 in 2030, according to documents submitted to the board. The cost of generating and transmitting the power makes up the bulk of a hydro bill, while less than a quarter goes to Hydro Ottawa for distributing that electricity. But Conrad says ratepayers can't foot the entire bill for all of this infrastructure. He called on the federal government to contribute, because he sees building capacity on the electricity grid as a nation-building project. "We've got to do in the next 20 years what it's taken us 100 years to do," he said.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Trump's 'revenge tax' on other countries could hit U.S.
Social Sharing A controversial tax being proposed by President Donald Trump's administration that could cost Canadians and Canadian businesses billions is also likely to cost the U.S. government, according to an assessment by a non-partisan U.S. congressional office. It is also likely to cost American companies by prompting investors from countries hit with the tax to move investments out of the U.S, according to the assessment. Dubbed the "revenge tax," Section 899 of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act calls for a new withholding tax to be imposed on investment income paid out by American companies to investors who live in countries the U.S. government considers to have unfair or discriminatory taxes. Canada's digital services tax, which hits companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a tax on revenue from Canadian users, is among the taxes the U.S. considers discriminatory. Top Canadian officials acknowledge privately that they are concerned by the prospect of Trump's new withholding tax and are closely watching what is happening in Washington — as are Canadian investors, companies, investment advisors and tax lawyers. Digital services tax in crosshairs Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he's standing by the tax — which has its first big payment due June 30. "The DST is in force and it's going to be applied," he told reporters on Parliament Hill last week. Two different versions of Section 899 are currently before Congress, but both versions risk hitting Canadians and Canadian companies with a new withholding tax. The version adopted by the House of Representatives would take effect quickly and impose a five per cent withholding tax on things like dividends to Canadians from U.S. companies, adding another five per cent each year to a maximum of 20 per cent. An amendment to that section, currently before the Senate, would delay the tax until 2027 and would top it out at 15 per cent. The Senate has not yet voted on the bill, although it is being pressured by Trump to approve the legislation by July 4, the U.S. national holiday. A study of Section 899 by the U.S. Congress's non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which performs a function similar to Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, predicts that the new tax would initially bring billions into the U.S. Treasury. However, it also predicts those revenues would then start to decline — and that by 2033 or 2034 it would actually lead to a drop in revenue. The version of Section 899 adopted by the House of Representatives is expected to rake in an estimated $116.3 billion US between 2025 and 2034 for the U.S. Treasury, with $12.5 billion US in 2026 rising to $28.7 billion US in 2027 and $31.8 billion US in 2028. However, the analysis projects that revenues would then start to decline. By 2033, the withholding tax is projected to cost the U.S. Treasury $4.8 billion US in lost revenue and, by 2034, $8.1 billion US. The amended version of Section 899 is projected to bring in only $52.2 billion US between 2025 and 2034. But by 2034 it too would cost the U.S. government $2.5 billion US in lost revenue. A source familiar with the JCT's work said its analysis assumes that the U.S. gross national product will remain fixed and foreign laws, like the DST, will not change. What it assumes will change, however, is the behaviour of individuals and companies to avoid the withholding tax. The JCT projects that the reduction in demand for direct and portfolio investment on the part of foreign investors will reduce the value of U.S. assets. In turn, that drop in value will lead to a loss in tax revenue for the U.S. Treasury. David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the JCT's analysis makes a very big assumption — that countries like Canada won't hit back at the U.S. with their own retaliatory taxes. He said the ongoing trade war has shown that Canada is willing to hit back. Should Canada retaliate, Macdonald said the U.S. is more exposed than Canada on the tax front because a lot of American companies operate here. "They make a lot more profits in Canada than Canadian companies make in profits operating in the U.S.," Macdonald said. Macdonald agreed with the JCT's assessment that the withholding tax could prompt an exodus of investment in U.S. securities, predicting that many companies are probably already figuring out ways to hedge their investments. He said this is bad for business and risks damaging the economies of both countries. "Nobody wins a trade war and nobody wins a tax war," said Macdonald.
