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Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Canada News.Net
Canada's Alberta premier says separation referendum possible in 2026
OTTAWA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Monday she would hold a referendum on provincial separation next year if citizens gather the required signatures on a petition, local media reported. Smith, in a livestream address, said she wants a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada but the voices of those unhappy with Confederation are not fringe extremists and must be listened to, according to The Canadian Press. Her speech came a week after Smith's United Conservative government introduced legislation that, if passed, will sharply reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum. Smith said the federal Liberal policies and laws have not only taken an unfair share of Alberta's wealth but in doing so have also undermined the oil and gas industry that drives its economy, reported The Canadian Press. She will negotiate an end to some of these federal policies while also hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans while some of those ideas may also find their way into referendum questions, said the report.
Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Trump's proposed film tariffs to cause significant production disruption
OTTAWA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Canadian Media Producers Association on Monday warned of significant disruption to the media production sector due to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on international media productions. While specific details are far from clear at this point, the proposed actions outlined in Trump's announcement will cause significant disruption and economic hardship to the media production sectors on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, said the association in a statement. The announcement and the uncertainty it has caused underscore the incredible importance of ensuring that Canada has a strong, independent domestic media industry, said the statement. The association said they will make this case at the upcoming regulator's hearings later this month. Trump on Sunday declared a 100 percent tariff on all movies produced outside the United States. However, the White House said on Monday that no final decisions have been made.
Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Canada News.Net
Coalition's problems far greater than a terrible campaign
The crushing defeat of the Coalition on Saturday stemmed from its inability to let go of hateful, racist and divisive policies, of which Australia has had enough, writes DrVictoria Fielding. AS THE MEDIA rake over the ruins of what has been calledthe worstLiberal election campaign ever, and the Liberals and Nationalsbusy themselvesrepudiating each others efforts but never their own, they are all missing the point. The problem was not the Coalitions campaign. Blaming the campaign is akin to criticising the colour of the lipstick on the pig. The lipstick is not the problem. The problem is the stinking, toxic, rancid pig-character of the Liberal and National Parties. Contrastingly, where Labors historic victory was contributed to by a successful joint effort between the masterclass campaigning in telling a consistent story premised on Labors policy strengths and a united labour movement campaign defensively warning of the risk of outgoing Opposition LeaderPeter Dutton, there was more to the victory than a strong strategy. Indeed, I would argue that Labor won more than an election on Saturday. Labor vanquished a way of doing politics. Labor victory proves public rejected malicious media falsehoods Saturdays electoral mauling of the Coalition was a resounding rejection of media lies and distortions. All this is not to say that the Liberal campaign was not hopeless, because it was. As Iwrote during the campaign, all the way back to former PMJohn Howard, the Liberals have relied on fear campaigning in elections, winning only when they turn voters against Labor. I was reminded of this tired old strategy when I arrived to volunteer for Labor and was met by a row of hastily designed Liberal posters threatening voters that LABOR WILL TAX YOUR SUPER. It did not shock me that the Liberals would use a misleading fear campaign to attack Labor that is business as usual. But it was surprising that the Liberals had not innovated with a new disinformation-based fear campaign against Labor in 2025, so much so that they had to recycle a 2019 one. AsLaura Tingle arguedin her searing post-election analysis, the Liberals and their News Corp cheer squad focused during this election campaign as per usual on their grievance politics, their fear campaigning and their culture warring, including anti-immigration sentiment, attempting to fuel irritation with welcomes to country, suggested the Government had plans to re-prosecute the Voice, spoke about a woke school curriculum and raged about the hate media. Tingle points out that Dutton believed he just needed to run another No campaign, fueling division, hatred and confusion, and he would sail to victory. Lets not delude ourselves, though. Dutton was likely to sail to victory invoking grievance politics, attacking Labor, Greens and Teals, using fear-mongering, and creating division and polarisation. Polls swelled Duttons confidence over the past year. He had every reason to come into 2025 feeling certain he could rinse and repeat the No campaign. With his News Corp backers campaigning for him, Dutton went about exploiting cost of living anxiety, stoking racial grievance and division to undermine social unity, and simplistically claiming he could fix everything with a magic wand. Dutton was already moving himself into Kirribilli House. But thenTrump IIhappened and that changed everything. Even Australians usually disengaged from politics could not ignore the first 100 days of the horrifying Trump circus. The devastating social, economic, democratic and moral consequences of the Trump victory were born from the same political way of doing things the Coalition has relied on for 20 years. Peter Dutton's Trumpist playbook proves he is all talk The Opposition Leader'selection campaign claims have shown voters the Liberals havenothing new to offer them. This fact has been impossible for Australians to unsee. Suddenly Australians are awake you could even say they are woke to the scary country-altering consequences of electing pigs into power. The problem Trump created for the Coalition is more than a lipstick dilemma. It was also more than just Dutton himself personally being a wannabe-strongman like Trump. Australians have long memories in politics. Over the last 20 years, they have got to know the vibe of the Coalition very well. They could sense that Trump is king-pig at the end of slippery pigsty-slope inhabited by hard-right populists like Howard, likeAbbott,Morrison, Dutton and most of his Liberal National colleagues, particularly since the moderates lost to Teals, or to Liberal factional warring. When Dutton worked out that his Trump-like politics might be problematic, he made a concerted effort to put away the MAGA hats. This attempt at pivoting was the reason the Coalitions campaign looked like such a mess. Asking Dutton and his colleagues to hide their MAGA is like asking the Labor Party not to defendMedicare. Dutton tried backflipping from policies, tried to stop talking about nuclear, worked to present a different face. But ultimately, in the final two weeks, this shapeshifting became too hard and Dutton gave in to his base instincts. He dived back into the culture-warring like a pig in mud with his attacks on welcome to country ceremonies and his preference deal with One Nation. All this did was remind Australians how Trump-like he is. The point is, the Coalitions attacking, their fear-mongering, their divisive, polarising, hate-fueled way of doing politics is not a campaign strategy. It is not a decision, it is not a pathway the Coalition chooses. This nasty politicking is their very essence. The Coalition cannot change the way they do politics because they know no other way; a pig is a pig. It cannot suddenly grow wings. Australia looked to their better selves on Saturday in delivering a powerful, historic victory to Labor. In doing so, they have discarded 20 years of toxic, nasty, abusive politics. The most gratifying part of this victory is that it feels so rare in our global political landscape that bad moral behaviour is met with negative political consequences. First Canada and now Australia give me hope that this equation is finally, and maybe permanently, being corrected. Australians are asking for a government that solves problems instead of creating them, that brings people together rather than dividing them and that looks to the future rather than always wanting to go back to the past. I am proud of Australia for slaughtering the pig. Labors challenge is now to make the most of the pig-free parliament and deliver a better future for everyone. DrVictoria Fieldingis an Independent Australia columnist. You can follow her on Threads@drvicfieldingor Bluesky@ Related Articles Dutton's student capping policy a chaotic plan Dutton's guide to the cost of looking good Duttons Gaza gaffe prompts Paterson policy pickle This Week in IA: The Coalition's horrific economic management Coalition's misogyny fuelling domestic violence
Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Alberta Court Case Will Drive Off Investment, Add Uncertainty to Power Market, Pembina Institute Warns
The Alberta government is adding more uncertainty to the province's electricity market and driving away investment in a modernized system by launching a constitutional challenge to Ottawa's Clean Electricity Regulations, the Pembina Institute warned in a statement last week. When the former Trudeau government published the final regulations late last year, the revised version postponed the deadline to fully decarbonize Canada's power grids from 2035 to 2050, scaled back the power sector's mid-century emissions reduction target from 342 to 181 million tonnes, offered provinces greater flexibility to run back-up gas plants, and earmarked more than C$60 billion in financial support to expand the clean electricity system. But at a news conference last Thursday announcing the court action, Premier Danielle Smith still maintained the regulations will harm the affordability and reliability of Alberta's electricity grid, which is currently powered largely by natural gas. Smith, who invoked her controversial Sovereignty Act for the first time in 2023 against an earlier draft of the regulations, said Ottawa's goals are too far-fetched and a breach of provincial jurisdiction, The Canadian Press reports. "This is about protecting the lives and livelihoods of Albertans," Smith said, saying the regulations would increase electricity costs by more than 30%. "We will not accept the reckless and dangerous policies-policies that will harm our economy, stifle our energy industry, jeopardize the reliability of our electricity grid, and raise electricity prices for Albertans." But in a statement Thursday, the Pembina Institute's senior electricity analyst Jason Wang said Smith's objections "are based on unpublished analysis from the Alberta Electric System Operator and are unchanged from the concerns that Alberta repeatedly raised in 2023 and 2024 during engagement with the Government of Canada." Although the final version of the Clean Electricity Regulations addressed the province's specific issues with the draft rules, "Alberta continues to cite these same concerns, as if no such collaboration between it and the federal government ever took place." Wang added that the court action puts Alberta out of step with an accelerating shift away from fossil-fuelled electricity. "At a time when other governments across this country and across the world are attracting investment in low-cost, secure, clean power, and modernizing their electricity grids to be fit for the needs of the next century, Alberta is introducing yet more uncertainty to its electricity market," he said. "This will further undermine investment confidence at the worst possible time." On Thursday, Smith maintained the deep concessions in the final regulations mean little, CP writes, because Ottawa is still overstepping. "It violates the Constitution, and we're going to argue that vigorously in court," she said. Abandoning the regulations was one of the nine demands Smith laid out for the next federal government in advance of last Monday's election. Speaking just three days after the vote, Smith said she'd received no indication that the new government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney will take action on the file. "It depends very much on whether we have pragmatic Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as our prime minister, or whether we have environmental extremist, keep it in the ground, phase out fossil fuels... Mark Carney as prime minister," she said. "I don't know the answer to that yet." Carney's office did not respond to a request for comment. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters that Smith seems more concerned about fighting with Ottawa than striking a deal beneficial for both levels of government. "Three days in with no minister in place, no one to fight against, she launches this lawsuit," Nenshi said, referring to how Carney has yet to appoint a new cabinet. "If she sat down with the prime minister and made a deal, we would have proper regulations that would bring certainty for investment to Alberta within the next month. Instead, she's going to take years." Nenshi agreed the federal regulations would be punishing for Alberta, but said Smith's insistence on taking Ottawa to court rather than negotiating will only make that punishment worse. "We heard (Carney) talk about Canada as a clean and conventional energy superpower," Nenshi said. "So rather than insulting him and saying, 'You're lying,' why not give him an opportunity to prove that he wasn't lying?" On Monday, Smith said she would convene and chair a "sovereignty panel" to consider "how the province can protect itself from perceived economic incursions from the federal Liberal government," CBC reports. The most popular proposals will be put to a referendum in 2026. "The world looks at us like we've lost our minds," she said. "We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us, while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch." While Smith blamed that state of affairs on "unbearable" attacks by the federal government, the historical record tells a rather different story. In a report issued in March, the Pembina Institute's Jason Wang said Alberta is right to focus on the affordability and reliability of its power grid, but is "swimming against the tide by focusing on gas to run its grid long into the future." That strategy "erodes its attractiveness as an investment destination-given that we know demand for low-cost, clean power is going to keep growing as new power-hungry industries, like data centres, look for places to set up business." In his statement Thursday, Wang said the Alberta government has spent the last two years stifling the province's renewable energy sector "under repeated layers of regulatory and policy uncertainty," while failing to fully draw on "the range of tools at its disposal to build a grid fit for the future-such as renewables, interties, transmission, and demand-side measures; exactly the technologies that the CER guides investment towards." Rather than presenting "any alternate plan for its future electricity system," he added, "the province is claiming that a continuation of the status quo gas-fired power is the only solution to reliability and affordability. In the meantime, Alberta's communities are missing out on billions of dollars of investment and tax revenues that clean electricity projects would bring." This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025. Source: The Energy Mix
Canada News.Net
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Canada News.Net
B.C. Falls Far Short of 2030 Climate Target
British Columbia is falling far short of meeting its 2030 climate targets, the province admitted last week, in a report that cited new industrial megaprojects as one of several factors that could push emissions farther off course. The report, an annual inventory that is required under the provincial Climate Change Accountability Act, says B.C. will reduce its climate pollution by only 20% from 2007 levels this decade, not the 40% it set out to achieve, based on programs and policies in the province's CleanBC Roadmap that have actually been implemented. So far, the accountability report shows the province's net emissions falling by just 2.2% between 2007 and 2022. Its gross emissions, including land use changes in sectors like forestry, increased slightly over that time. Its legislated emission reduction targets stand at 16% from 2007 levels by 2025 and 40% by 2030. The report shows climate pollution falling by half per unit of economic activity, and by 29% per capita, from 1990 to 2022. "The purpose of the report is to be absolutely clear on these points that we are not on track to meet our near-term 2030 goals," Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix told media in Victoria. "It's huge. We're not even coming close," said B.C. Green Interim Leader Jeremy Valeriote. "If we missed our targets by this much on education, or health care, or any other aspect of public life, people would be outraged. "It's a major failure and we all need to figure out how to fix it." The report says this is the first time the province has measured the gap between its climate plans and its actual performance. "In previous years' Climate Change Accountability Reports, the projection to 2030 relied on a scenario where all CleanBC Roadmap policies and programs were fully implemented. This approach was useful for assessing the potential of B.C.'s climate plan when it was in earlier stages of development," it states. "However, as CleanBC advances, it is time to consider policy implementation within the analysis. This year, the projection relies on scenarios that consider the current policy landscape." Clearing the gap between implemented and defined policies would shift the province's 2030 emissions reduction from 20 to 21%, the report indicates. Climate initiatives still under development "include policy that supports the Roadmap commitment to implement a cap on natural gas utilities; the announced B.C. backstop to the federal oil and gas emissions cap; and reducing light duty vehicle kilometres travelled through mode shifting," the report says. "The omission of these policies in the modelling follows best practices in climate reporting but does not mean they will not be implemented." But those delays contributed to sharp differences between the province's 2030 targets and its 2022 performance. Transportation emissions were up 18%, compared to a targeted reduction of 27 to 32%. Emissions in "buildings and communities" were down 5%, compared to a target of 59 to 64%. Oil and gas emissions dropped 11%, compared to a target of 33 to 38%. Other industries fell by 11%, as well, compared to a target of 38 to 43%. The report calls for future gains through biofuel blending and zero-emission vehicle deployment in transportation, and heat pump installations and more stringent efficiency standards in buildings. In oil and gas, it foresees "modest emission reductions" through methane controls and upstream electrification, "offsetting forecast production and emissions growth in the upstream natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sectors." But it warns that those plans "are not without uncertainty," given a number of "unaccounted for risks may affect B.C.'s ability to more significantly reduce emissions." That list includes future policy changes or delays, development of "new large industrial projects", external factors like lower gas prices or higher electric vehicle costs, and "extra-jurisdictional policy changes" that could delay the "broader market transformations" to a clean economy. The report projects climate-related capital investments almost doubling this year, from $826.3 million $1.547 billion. But operational investment in climate mitigation and adaptation, transit projects, and various tax measures falls from $1.3 billion to just over $1 billion. University of British Columbia political scientist Kathryn Harrison told Business In Vancouver the province was surprisingly candid about missing its climate targets. "There's no way to fix climate change other than to decarbonize our economy. And that's proving to be harder than many of us assumed," she said. "This doesn't mean we can't do these things, but it means it's hard." But outside analysts also raised issues with the transparency of the province's annual reporting. Ecojustice has been "calling on the B.C. government for the past four or five years of reporting to deliver more detail in these reports so we can understand the progress they anticipate making," staff lawyer Matt Hulse told The Tyee. Harrison added that B.C.'s past modelling has only included liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects for which final investment decisions have been confirmed. The second phase of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat would add another 2.3 megatonnes of emissions, or about 5% of the provincial total. Thomas Green, senior climate policy advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation, said the focus on actual program delivery makes this year's report more realistic than past editions. But it still raises questions about how the province will close its emissions gap. Source: The Energy Mix
