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Globe and Mail
41 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
How Trump could make Canada better
As obnoxious as he is, Donald Trump may actually be doing Canada some good. His demands are forcing this country to rethink bad ideas, question sacred cows and brace itself for the challenges of the future. Just this week, the U.S. President gave Prime Minister Mark Carney an excuse to jettison a wrong-headed tax on foreign tech giants. Because just about all of those giants are American, Washington has opposed it from the start, under Joe Biden's administration as well as Mr. Trump's. The heaps of money that were to flow to Ottawa from the tax would have come from the pockets of the millions of Canadians who use Amazon, Apple, Google or other digital providers. Higher taxes inevitably mean higher rates for consumers. Mr. Trump refused to continue trade talks with Canada until Ottawa got rid of the tax, which was about to take effect. Mr. Carney duly killed it. A capitulation? No, a sensible concession. Good policy, to boot. I can think of at least three other ways that Mr. Trump's Blame Canada campaign is forcing us to reconsider the way we do things. Start with national defence. Mr. Trump has said for years that Canada and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are freeloading off the United States, relying on Washington to keep the Western alliance well armed while scrimping on armaments themselves. To up defence spending, Canada must cut deeper, tax harder and borrow more – all at once It's not your grandfather's war any more, and defence procurement must evolve Canada was one of the worst of the laggards, its rate of spending near the bottom of the pack. By outsourcing our defence to our mighty next-door neighbour, we saved countless billions – money that was freed up for other needs such as hospitals, roads, parks and schools. The generous health care and other social programs that Canadians cherish were in effect underwritten by the U.S. That had to change some time. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine showed how vital it is to keep NATO strong, united and well armed. Now the alliance itself is calling for all members to increase their defence spending dramatically over the next decade. 'For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden,' NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at last month's summit. That is changing, he said, and Mr. Trump 'made this change possible.' That may have been an attempt to feed the ego of the egomaniac in the White House, but it was not wrong. Or consider interprovincial trade. The absurd barriers to the flow of goods, services and labour across Canada have been an issue for decades. Everyone agreed they were absurd. Editorial writers turned blue in the face pointing out their absurdity. Premiers and prime ministers huddled every few years to talk about doing something. Next to nothing actually happened. Try getting one of Quebec's many excellent craft beers in Ontario. Now, at last, we are seeing some progress. The punishing, nonsensical tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump have put a fire under the provinces and the feds. If we cannot have free trade with the United States, we should at least be able to trade freely with each other. Internal free trade by Canada Day? It'll take longer than that Even Canada's system of supply management is getting a second look. Under this Soviet-style scheme, marketing boards, rather than the free market, govern the output of eggs, milk, cheese and poultry. Authorities set minimum prices and impose production quotas. High tariffs on imports of these basic commodities ensure that the cozy little set-up survives. The result for ordinary consumers is far higher prices than they might otherwise pay for simple things such as a brick of cheddar or a carton of yogurt. Mr. Trump attacked the system in his first term and is at it again. He is not alone. Canada's other trading partners complain bitterly about it, too. But the agriculture lobby is so strong, especially in Quebec, that no government has dared to dismantle it. Whether Mr. Carney's will remains to be seen. The recent Throne Speech reaffirmed support for supply management and new legislation attempts to prevent Ottawa from sacrificing it in trade talks. But the system is probably the biggest remaining irritant for Mr. Trump, and Mr. Carney might be forced to make concessions to strike a tariff deal with him. Good. Should we all be giving Mr. Trump a great big cheer, then? Of course not. He is bad for his country, for us and for the world in ways too many to count. He is a bully and blowhard. He has insulted our leaders and threatened our sovereignty. On many issues, pushing back against his demands is the way to go. But some of what he says about the way we do things is right. We do hide under American skirts for our defence. We do coddle our farm producers and hobble foreign competitors. If Canada is to survive the Trumpian onslaught, it must do more than simply put its elbows up and stand strong. It must become more efficient, more productive, more innovative. It must change.
CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Toronto still struggling to track snow plows with GPS, auditor finds
Social Sharing The city's plan to use GPS and field checks to track the work of snow-clearing contractors is still ineffective, Toronto's auditor general found in a new report. The key finding is part of a follow-up review of the city's snow-clearing service, which has been plagued with questions about effectiveness and efficiency, especially after it inked a controversial deal in 2021. Those questions grew louder after Torontonians filed tens of thousands of complaints to 311 in the wake of back-to-back-to-back storms that paralyzed streets this winter. Mayor Olivia Chow, who called last winter's storm response a "failure," is looking forward to reviewing the auditor's latest report, her office said in an emailed statement. "Ultimately, Torontonians expect snow to be cleared — we are going to get it fixed so this doesn't happen again," said Zeus Eden, Chow's press secretary. Auditor Tara Anderson first looked at snow clearing with a damning probe of the service in 2023, which showed the contractors struggled to get equipment on time and hire enough staff. In this follow-up, she found city staff still haven't implemented nine recommendations her office made, despite officials claiming all 30 had been completed. The GPS matter is especially key, her report notes, because it's the primary way the city tracks what work is getting done during a storm and whether it should be applying penalties to the contractors for not getting their plows out on time. "Ongoing GPS dashboard reliability issues hinder the Division's ability to monitor contractor performance," Anderson said in one document. Further, she said, "significant effort is spent manually comparing expected routes with GPS information, which is labour-intensive and time consuming." The auditor's review also shows, for the first time, how much money the city has sought from contractors stemming from performance issues. Anderson found staff are using an "inefficient, unsustainable, and unreliable method" to penalize the companies for non-compliance. Councillors voted in March for a full review of how the city handles its winter operations, which Chow's office said should be released this month. Councillors will first get a chance to ask the auditor questions about this report next Friday. CBC Toronto sent several questions to the transportation services division but did not receive answers by publication time. This story will be updated. New details about how city monitors contractors Some 70 per cent of snow-clearing in Toronto is handled by private companies. In 2021, the city inked a deal that saw two companies and their joint venture win the rights to handle almost all of that work, the only exceptions being the Willowdale area and the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. Three years in, Anderson found there are still issues with tracking the contractors' performance via GPS. Specifically, her new report states the "GPS dashboard used to monitor route completion is still not effective," noting it also suffers from "reliability issues." Multiple city councillors voiced frustration during the March meeting, recounting times where they were told by staff that streets had been plowed when they could see with their own eyes that wasn't the case. In response, transportation staff noted field audits — when staff go out to check on conditions — also take place. However, Anderson's report shows how little ground is covered by those audits and recommended the city use longer street segments to figure out where things are going wrong. The city's field audits, Anderson found, range in length from 60 metres to 1.36 kilometres. In total, she found the city was reviewing just two per cent of the contract area per storm. Worse, about half of those audits were missing "one or more" pieces of information. Penalties far lower than staff had suggested The auditor has previously flagged major changes to how the city penalizes companies, and this report has some final dollar figures. In 2023-2024, the city charged $43,000 in liquidated damages, Anderson found (liquidated damages are an amount of money, agreed to by both sides during a contract negotiation, to be paid out by one of the parties if a provision of that contract is breached). It also charged $381,000 in disincentives. In 2024-2025 (as of January) the city charged $63,000 in liquidated damages and $195,000 in disincentives.
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Where Will XRP (Ripple) Be in 5 Years?
Key Points Ripple and the SEC have agreed to settle, ending years of legal uncertainty for XRP and its investors. XRP's market cap is now rivaling top credit services stocks, but its payment volume still lags far behind. The cryptocurrency could earn its massive market value over time, but it looks overpriced right now. Cryptocurrencies are often unpredictable. XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is a prime example of this quality. An ominous lawsuit started weighing on the cryptocurrency in December 2020. The suit started to wind down in the first half of 2024, and the Ripple Labs organization launched an XRP-based stablecoin. You'd think the cryptocurrency would soar on the news, but it took a steep dive instead. Then the 2024 elections came along. A more crypto-friendly White House signaled the end of XRP's legal issues, and the cryptocurrency suddenly made up for lost time. Here in early July, 2025, XRP's 5-year returns finally match the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) standard: Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » XRP Price data by YCharts But that's ancient history already. You always have to look forward in the fast-moving cryptocurrency market. Where will XRP go in the next five years -- and is it a good buy right now? Let's have a look. Ripple and SEC are settling their differences The big catalyst every XRP owner was waiting for? Well, that one is playing out right now. Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have agreed to a settlement and withdrawn their appeals, effectively ending the four-year courtroom drama. There are a few more Ts to cross and Is to dot, as Judge Analisa Torres rejected the first settlement draft. The filing, which would end the case and impose a $50 million fine on Ripple Labs, was "procedurally improper." So the lawyers are going back to the drawing board to hammer out a technically complete filing. But it seems like a foregone conclusion that the lawsuit is ending with much lower monetary damages and fewer operating restrictions than the SEC had requested earlier. And this outcome appears to be priced into XRP's chart, with the big jump falling shortly after November's election process. If XRP were a stock... XRP is one of the largest cryptocurrencies at this point, sporting a total market value of $133 billion on July 2. If XRP were a stock, representing the value of the related RippleNet international payments platform, it would be one of the 5 most valuable credit services on Wall Street. The hypothetical XRP market cap would still be far behind sector leaders Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA), whose market caps stand at $685 billion and $509 billion, respectively. But XRP would be a significant force in the credit services industry -- and I don't think that's entirely fair in 2025. Ripple vs. Visa: Spoiler, it's not a fair fight (yet) There are fewer than 23,000 active accounts in the RippleNet transaction ledger. The platform processes about one million payments per day. The Ripple systems have moved "over $1 trillion" between different counterparties, but that's not on a daily or even annual basis. That's the total value processed since the first Ripple transaction was made in 2012. By contrast, Visa's total payment volume was $3.9 trillion in the most recently reported quarter. Visa's transaction volume was 818 million payments per day. Mastercard's business metrics are about half of Visa's, but still many times richer than Ripple's relatively tiny operations. I'm holding, not hoarding, my XRP coins in 2025 Yes, I believe that RippleNet and XRP will earn their stripes over time. However, the cryptocurrency shouldn't be worth about a quarter of Mastercard's market cap, based on vanishingly small transaction volumes and revenue streams. This bullish drama could very well play out over the next five years, finally making a serious Visa rival out of XRP. It's just too early to give XRP that big of a market cap. I'm happy to hold my own XRP coins for the long haul, but this isn't the best time to back up the digital truck and load up on this cryptocurrency. The SEC lawsuit's closure has already been priced into XRP, and I think the big November jump was an overreaction. You might still want to pick up a couple of XRP coins just to get exposure to this cryptocurrency with real-world business prospects. Just keep those purchases slow and small these days. A lower price or a sudden explosion in RippleNet transactions could signal a real buying opportunity over the next few years. Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now? Before you buy stock in XRP, 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 XRP 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 $692,914!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $963,866!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to179%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 June 30, 2025
