Latest news with #Trudeau-era
Ottawa Citizen
2 days ago
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Today's letters: It's time to upgrade the dress code, not just the pay, for Canada's military
Military sometimes scruffy and unkempt Article content Article content With the Mark Carney government announcing its intention to increase defence spending, through not only new equipment but also pay raises and bonuses, perhaps now is the time to drop the Trudeau-era relaxed dress regulations, which allow for both long hair and beards often seen on the troops meeting with the prime minister. Article content Article content Introduced as an attempt to attract new recruits, the relaxed dress regulations have taken what was once a professional-looking, clean-shaven and well groomed military into a force that looks scruffy and unkempt — hardly a look that inspires confidence in a military that is not only tasked with defending the nation but is often the international face of Canada. Article content City council has many challenges, and one recently revealed was the state of its aging infrastructure, from water mains and sewers, to fire equipment to aquatic facilities. A city staff report on the city's Asset Management Plans estimates that over the next 10 years, a $10.8-billion gap is forecasted between projected infrastructure needs and planned funding. These forecasted needs reflect asset renewal, growth, service enhancements and climate change adaptation and mitigation costs. That's a lot of money. Article content Article content More than 40 per cent ($4.8 billion) relate to water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Just over one-third of this will be paid for by debt, the rest through water rate charges. The mayor calls this 'good debt.' (This leads me to question the $331 million of new debt for Lansdowne 2.0, but I digress.) Article content Article content The remaining $6-billion funding gap is for such city assets as arenas, swimming pools, fire stations and equipment, etc. For example, the average age of the city's aquatic facilities is 40 years, and more than one-third of them are listed in poor or very poor condition. The average age for arenas and ice rinks is 45 years, with more than 14 per cent in poor or very poor condition. We have already seen the closure of the Belltown Dome arena due to aging equipment. These issues are not going away. Article content So where is the $6 billion over the next 10 years needed to keep our facilities going? The report is silent about this but obviously the bulk will be from taxes. Council may want to consider imposing a specific, dedicated levy to fund these infrastructure needs. Most people want to see the city's facilities maintained and expect council will make the necessary investment.
Toronto Sun
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Can Carney Liberals fix damage caused by Trudeau Liberals?
It's hard to see how effective Carney's cabinet will be in achieving his goals, given its large contingent of Trudeau-era ministers Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox Prime Minister Mark Carney's mandate letter to his cabinet is largely an attempt to address problems created, ignored or exacerbated by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. 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 In that context, it's hard to see how effective Carney's cabinet will be in achieving his goals, given its large contingent of Trudeau-era ministers who, under Trudeau's leadership, screwed up many of the files Carney now says he wants to fix. In his mandate letter to his newly-appointed cabinet released last week, Carney wrote that he has seven priorities, which are: – Establishing a new economic and security relationship with the U.S. and strengthening collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world; – Building one Canadian economy by removing barriers to interprovincial trade and expanding nation-building projects that will connect and transform the country; – Bringing down costs for Canadians and helping them get ahead; 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. – Making housing more affordable by unleashing the power of public-private co-operation; – Protecting Canadian sovereignty, strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, securing Canada's borders and reinforcing law enforcement; – Attracting the best talent in the world to build our economy while returning overall immigration to sustainable levels; – And spending less on government operations so that Canadians can invest more in people and businesses that will build the strongest economy in the G7. Read More Here's the issue. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Bringing down costs for Canadians and making housing more affordable were problems exacerbated by the Trudeau government's high immigration policies, which Carney says he now wants to address by 'returning our overall immigration rates to sustainable levels.' The Trudeau government dramatically hiked immigration levels despite being warned in advance by its own public servants that that this would increase the cost of housing and put additional stress on public services such as health care. Carney's plan to reduce spending on government operations is a direct repudiation of the Trudeau government's record of increasing the size of the federal civil service at more that twice the rate of Canada's population growth during its almost decade in power. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Carney himself said during the Liberal leadership race that two policies of the Trudeau government – unsustainably high immigrations levels and government spending increasing at a rate of 9% a year – weakened the Canadian economy, even 'before we got to the point of these threats from President (Donald) Trump.' Carney's goal of keeping Canadians safe by strengthening Canada's Armed Forces is intended to address the failure of the Trudeau and Stephen Harper governments to meet Canada's promised NATO target of committing 2% of GDP to national defence. As for Carney's goal of securing Canada's borders and reinforcing law enforcement, both would be massive improvements over the near decade record of the Trudeau government. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Trudeau Liberals had almost a decade to bring down barriers to interprovincial trade, which Carney now wants to address, while 'nation-building projects' were few and far between, fraying national unity and exacerbating tensions between the Alberta and federal governments in particular. As for Carney's goal of making Canada's economy the strongest among members of the G7, after their nearly-decade in power the Trudeau Liberals had the worst record on economic growth of any Canadian government since that of R.B. Bennett during the Great Depression. Real GDP per capita – a widely accepted metric for measuring a nation's prosperity – fell by 1.4% in 2024, following a decline of 1.3% in 2023. It's true the economic uncertainty caused by Trump's tariff war with Canada is having a depressing effect on the Canadian economy, but as Carney himself has said, our economy was already weakened by Trudeau government policies before Trump was elected president. lgoldstein@ Other Sports Ontario Editorial Cartoons Columnists Sunshine Girls
Calgary Herald
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Ivison: Carney's cabinet has too many 'downtown Toronto, urban progressives'
Article content In this week's show, John Ivison is joined by regular guests Eugene Lang and Ian Brodie to take a deep dive into Mark Carney's post-election cabinet shuffle. Article content Article content Brodie, a former chief of staff to prime minister Stephen Harper, said one concern he has is the predominance of 'downtown Toronto, urban progressives' in the new cabinet. Article content 'It's an almost obsessively Toronto-focused cabinet,' he said, noting that excluding the one Liberal elected in Calgary (Corey Hogan) was a 'missed opportunity'. Article content Article content Brodie said that new natural resources minister Tim Hodgson is an improvement on his predecessor (Jonathan Wilkinson). Article content Article content 'But the problem is not that the Natural Resources department has been standing in the way of natural resource development in this country; the problem has been the environmental regulations that come out of the Environment Ministry. The Environment Ministry is huge now and much larger than it was 10 years ago. It has many more levers over the Canadian economy and the people in the Environment Department seem to be quite prepared to use all of them. The fact is that we have basically, to be blunt, the kind of a standard issue, downtown Toronto, social justice activist, kind of do-gooder, NGO type person as minister (Julie Dabrusin). Article content 'There is a long history of 'we have to keep oil and gas in the ground and keep Alberta and Saskatchewan from growing if we're going to save the planet'. If that's the approach of the government, then we're in for a very difficult couple of years.' Article content Article content Lang, a former chief of staff to two Liberal defence ministers, said his first impression is that there are far too many Trudeau-era ministers in this cabinet. Article content Article content 'I count 11 out of 28 – about 40 per cent of this cabinet are former Trudeau-era ministers. There is no reason for that. Mr. Carney owes none of these people anything. And he had an opportunity here to really show change in this cabinet, and he chose not to,' he said. 'It's more than about optics. It's about competence. The last Trudeau government's great failing was its relative lack of competence in governing. I don't know how you improve the competence in your governing when 40 per cent of your ministers are from a government that was less than competent.' Article content Brodie said that, while the cabinet does look like a rearrangement of the chairs of people Carney inherited, there is 'deep experience' on the front bench with ministers like Dominic LeBlanc on the Canada-U.S. trade and security file.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Liberals promise $130B in new spending and no timeline to balance the budget
OTTAWA — A Mark Carney-led government will spend $130 billion on new measures over the next four years, with no timeline to balance the federal budget, according to the costed Liberal platform released on Saturday. 'In times of national crisis, we must remember what we are fighting for: to protect our Canadian way of life,' reads the 67-page platform. 'We must protect our belief in the common good — our belief that we are stronger together. Canada will never be America,' Big-ticket items include $18 billion in new defence spending, including $850 million for military hardware, a $6.8 billion nation-building fund and $5 billion for internal trade corridors. Liberals claim that the upfront spending on economic integration will grow the national economy by up to $200 billion. 'To unite this country (we) will build one economy where Canadians can work wherever they want (and) (w)here goods can move freely from coast to coast to coast,' reads the platform. The four-year plan also includes billions in gender and equity-related spending, including $160 million to make the Trudeau-era Black Entrepreneurship Program permanent, $400 million for a new IVF program and $2.5 billion for new infrastructure in Indigenous communities. The platform maintains previously announced funding for Trudeau-era child, dental and pharmacare programs. New and existing measures will blow a $1.4-trillion hole in the federal budget, with some of this blow being offset by increasing federal penalties and fines for transgressions like money laundering. The platform also prices in a one-time infusion of $20 billion in revenue from retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Carney has said that this revenue will go directly to workers and businesses affected by the tariffs. The Liberal platform gives no timeline for a return to balance but says that the operating budget, which accounts for more than 95 per cent of federal spending, will see a modest surplus of $220 million by the 2028-9 fiscal year. Carney has said he'll bring in a new system of budgeting that separates spending on government programs from investments in capital like roads, bridges and military equipment, but hasn't given specifics on how this will work. A similar system of capital-based budgeting was used briefly in Alberta in the 2010s, under former premier Alison Redford. 'This new approach will not change how Canada's public accounts are built and will maintain generally accepted accounting principles. It will create a more transparent categorization of the expenditure that contributes to capital formation in Canada,' reads the platform. National Post rmohamed@ Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Poll finds Canadians skeptical of Carney's claim to balance budget in three years
OTTAWA – Canadians aren't sold on the Liberal Leader's plan to balance Canada's books. In a new Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 58% responded with skepticism over Mark Carney's plan to balance Canada's operating budget within three years. As stated in a financial backgrounder published on the Carney campaign website, the budget-balancing act will ensure 'responsible financial management while making wise, long-term investments to build for Canada's prosperity and future.' 'At the same time, we will run a small deficit on capital spending that aligns with our fiscal capacity, recognizing that current capital spending is estimated to be approximately one percent of GDP.' Liberals, Tories in virtual dead-heat in GTA: Leger poll Gap narrowing between Liberals, Conservatives: Poll Carney Liberals would continue UNRWA funding Conversely, only 32% of those polled said they were confident in Carney's plan. Ten per cent said they didn't know. Those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan reported feeling most skeptical of Carney's plan, while voters in B.C. (38%) were the most confident. Carney's budget-balancing plan caught criticism from fellow Liberal leadership hopeful and Trudeau-era cabinet minister Karina Gould, who on an episode of TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin last month said the plan wasn't workable. 'I don't think it is something we should be telling Canadians that we are going to, unless there's a lot of cuts that are coming – that's the only way that you would be able to achieve that,' she said. 'Let's be clear and transparent with Canadians. I believe in fiscal responsibility, I believe in working towards balance, but I'm just not going to do that in a way that's going to hurt Canadians.' bpassifiume@ X: @bryanpassifiume
