Nov 22 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — When word trickled out from the most recent global climate talks that Canada was standing in the way of a tough deal to phase out fossil fuels, it looked for a moment like Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault was losing his resolve. The deal finally reached at COP27 in Egypt on the weekend didn’t call for […]
Nov 15 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — If hindsight is to be 20/20, we’ve got some serious work to do when it comes to assessing how we handled COVID-19. Looking back into what the government did over the past two-and-a-half years of the pandemic has become de rigueur on Parliament Hill these days. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has floated the idea of […]
Nov 10 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Probably the biggest surprise in last week’s budget update from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was a trajectory towards a balanced budget — and that the minister didn’t make a big deal of it. Don’t expect that sliver of a surplus to last. The fall economic statement projected steadily declining deficits over the next few years […]
Nov 8 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Doug Ford has poked the bear that is organized labour, and the impact on the national economy could be significant. Just take a look at the stage CUPE leaders shared on Monday after the Ontario premier told them he would revoke the bill that caused so much trouble by removing the education workers’ right to […]
Nov 3 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is betting heavily that industrial strategy will save us all. The federal government’s fall fiscal update avoids forecasting a recession outright, but it does foresee some tough times ahead. Most likely, Finance officials say, the Canadian economy will eke out the tiniest bit of growth next year. If things go badly, […]
Oct 28 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — The long-lost plan for how Canada should deal with China and the rest of Asia is in its final stages, and sources say Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has her fingers crossed the strategy will see the light of day within the first half of November. What it will be is a 15- to 20-page […]
Oct 17 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — The subtext of the $340-million Nokia-Trudeau-Ford announcement on Monday morning was far from subtle. Through more than an hour of speeches from six different dignitaries, we are meant to understand that Nokia’s expansion in the Ottawa suburbs is not just trustworthy, environmentally responsible and cutting edge. It’s also not Huawei, not Chinese, and therefore worthy […]
Oct 12 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Chrystia Freeland is already thinking about what comes next, after Russia eventually backs out of Ukraine — and it’s a lot different than the world we knew before the pandemic hammered us, Europe plunged into an energy crisis and the rest of the world started picking sides. She wants Canada and its allies to move […]
Sep 30 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Call it political slow-walking, or over-promising and under-delivering — this was the week it all caught up with us. Sluggish progress on confronting climate change left our infrastructure vulnerable on the Atlantic Coast. Years of hand-wringing on housing affordability has left our economy vulnerable to recession. And incremental progress on long-standing and well-known Indigenous wounds […]
Sep 29 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — A fourth forecaster has projected a little recession for Canada, and this time it’s supposed to start next week. Deloitte Canada joins economists at Bank of Montreal, Desjardins and Royal Bank in seeing two straight quarters of “mild” economic contraction in our near future — perhaps as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 which […]
Sep 15 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — The indignation over this week’s Liberal-NDP affordability package was predictable, and came fast and furious. Some bank economists, some market players, and especially the new inflation-focused leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre, were quick to say Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is “pouring more gas on the fire.” The main accusations? The $4.6-billion package exacerbates […]
Sep 7 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Two major things are happening to Canadians on the cost-of-living front this week. The Bank of Canada is raising its key interest rate by another giant leap of 75 basis points, pushing up borrowing costs and slowing down the economy in a relentless attempt to stifle inflation. And the federal Liberals, holed up in Vancouver […]
Aug 25 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — There’s something odd about the shiny new agreements signed with great fanfare by the federal government and German automakers this week. Volkswagen’s CEO was there in Toronto in real life for the signing with Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, backdropped by none other than German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mercedes-Benz executives hovered. […]
Aug 22 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Reliability is Canada’s new calling card. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is invoking it repeatedly this week in his elbow-rubbing with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and it’s the pitch we hear consistently from anyone seeking investment in Canada’s energy sector. Canada, says Trudeau, is the “reliable supplier of clean energy that a net-zero world requires.” He […]
Aug 18 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Next week, the town of Stephenville, N.L., will be the stage for a mirage. Justin Trudeau will be there, as will German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, ministers from both countries, local mayors and plenty of well-financed corporate types. They’ll be marvelling at the wind power whipping past the deep-sea port, talking about hydrogen replacing natural gas […]