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Author: Robert Wood

CALGARY — Canada’s new prime minister, best known as a buttoned-down banker, donned a cowboy hat and toured the stables Friday evening at the Calgary Stampede.

Over an hour-long tour winding through the rodeo grounds, Mark Carney crawled into a tank, snacked at food stations and posed for dozens of selfies, marking his first visit to the Stampede as prime minister.

“We gotta see some chuckwagons, huh,” Carney said as he strolled down the Midway with an entourage of security and cameras, sampling mini doughnuts and pretzels as he made his way to the grandstand stadium for the chuckwagon races.

The Stampede visit is a long-running tradition for sitting prime ministers no matter their political stripe. But it’s not guaranteed: former prime minister Justin Trudeau didn’t appear at last summer’s rodeo, coming as his party struggled in the polls.

One year later, the Liberals’ political fortunes have flipped, with Carney leading the party to a minority government in the recent federal election. The party has two Albertans sitting in the House of Commons despite predictions the party could nab more seats in the true-blue provinces.

Wearing dark-blue jeans, a navy sport coat and cream-coloured cowboy hat, Carney was met with a warm reception on the grounds, shaking hands with surprised Stampede-goers and taking photos with employees behind food stands. He did not wear cowboy boots or a belt buckle, instead wearing brown sneakers and a thin belt.

“What are you doing here?” Carney jokingly said to a group of women on the Midway.

“What are you doing here?” one of them yelled back.

Later, as he walked on the stage before the chuckwagon races at GMC Stadium, Carney was met with a mix of boos and applause from the crowd of approximately 17,000 people.

“They’re saying woo. I heard woo,” the announcer said.

Carney is scheduled to attend a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning and is hosting a party fundraiser in Calgary later in the day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press

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YELLOWKNIFE — Canada’s environment ministers have endorsed stronger air quality standards for fine particulate matter, while acknowledging the struggles caused by wildfires that can blanket the country in smoke advisories.

Provincial, territorial and federal environment ministers met in Yellowknife for the annual meeting of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

In a joint communique released Friday, they say wildfires are one of the major contributors to air pollution, which can adversely affect the health of Canadians.

They say by approving updated Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particulate matter, they are “supporting actions that will continue to improve air quality in Canada.”

The standards measure the amount of a given pollutant in outdoor air, and while they are not legally binding, the ministers call them a key element of managing air quality.

The council’s website lists the updated standards for fine particulate at 23 micrograms per cubic metre in 24 hours by 2030, a decrease from the 2020 standards of 27 micrograms per cubic metre.

The statement says the standards were developed by federal, provincial and territorial governments collaboratively with representatives from industry, environmental, Indigenous groups and health non-governmental organizations.

Northwest Territories Environment Minister Jay Macdonald, who hosted the meeting, told a news conference that the new standards will help all jurisdictions better protect communities from the growing health impacts of poor air quality.

He said climate change is increasing wildfire risk.

“Strong, science-based, national standards help ensure we’re prepared for these challenges and support long-term health and resilience,” he said.

Next year’s council meeting is scheduled to take place in Alberta.

— By Ashley Joannou in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

The Canadian Press

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Cases of a disease affecting oysters have been confirmed in Quebec and Prince Edward Island for the first time.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says dermo was detected in oyster samples from Chaleur Bay in Quebec and Egmont Bay, P.E.I.

It says a different disease affecting oysters, known as MSX, was also confirmed in the Quebec samples, another first in the province.

The agency says dermo and MSX don’t pose risks to human health or food safety but can cause increased oyster mortality and decreased growth rates.

Officials say dermo, also known as perkinsosis, can be transmitted from oyster to oyster or from water contaminated with the parasite.

However, they say with MSX it’s presumed there is an unknown intermediary host, making it harder to determine how it’s spread.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

The Canadian Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed his package of tax breaks and spending cuts into law Friday in front of Fourth of July picnickers after his cajoling produced almost unanimous Republican support in Congress for the domestic priority that could cement his second-term legacy.

Flanked by Republican legislators and members of his Cabinet, Trump signed the multitrillion-dollar legislation at a desk on the White House driveway, then banged down a gavel gifted to him by House Speaker Mike Johnson that was used during the bill’s final passage Thursday.

Against odds that at times seemed improbable, Trump achieved his goal of celebrating a historic — and divisive — legislative victory in time for the nation’s birthday, which also was his self-imposed deadline for Congress to send the legislation to his desk. Fighter jets and stealth bombers streaked through the sky over the annual White House Fourth of July picnic.

“America’s winning, winning, winning like never before,” Trump said, noting last month’s bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, which he said the flyover was meant to honor. “Promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them.”

The White House was hung with red, white and blue bunting for the Independence Day festivities. The U.S. Marine Band played patriotic marches — and, in a typical Trumpian touch, tunes by 1980s pop icons Chaka Khan and Huey Lewis. There were three separate flyovers.

Trump spoke for a relatively brief 22 minutes before signing the bill, but was clearly energized as the legislation’s passage topped a recent winning streak for his administration. That included the Iran campaign and a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulingshe’s fought for.

Vice President JD Vance was traveling in the Dakotas with his family and missed the ceremony. A line on the bill where he would have signed because of his role as president of the Senate was crossed out and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., added his name instead, photographs show. Cotton has the responsibility of stepping in when the vice president isn’t available for his Senate duties.

The budget legislation is the president’s highest-profile win yet. It includes key campaign pledges like no tax on tips or Social Security income. Trump, who spent an unusual amount of time thanking individual Republican lawmakers who shepherded the measure through Congress, contended “our country is going to be a rocket ship, economically,” because of the legislation.

Big cuts to Medicaid and food stamps

Critics assailed the package as a giveaway to the rich that will rob millions more lower-income people of their health insurance, food assistance and financial stability.

“Today, Donald Trump signed into law the worst job-killing bill in American history. It will rip health care from 17 million workers to pay for massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and big corporations, amounting to the country’s largest money grab from the working class to the ultra-rich,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. “Every member of Congress who voted for this devastating bill picked the pockets of working people to hand billionaires a $5 trillion gift.”

The legislation extends Trump’s 2017 multitrillion-dollar tax cuts and cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. It provides for a massive increase in immigration enforcement. Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper projects that nearly 12 million more people will lose health insurance under the law.

The legislation passed the House on a largely party-line vote Thursday, culminating a monthslong push by the GOP to cram most of its legislative priorities into a single budget bill that could be enacted without Senate Democrats being able to block it indefinitely by filibustering.

It passed by a single vote in the Senate, where North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis announced he would not run for reelection after incurring Trump’s wrath in opposing it. Vance had to cast the tie-breaking vote.

In the House, where two Republicans voted against it, one, conservative maverick Tom Massie of Kentucky, has also become a target of Trump’s well-funded political operation.

The legislation amounts to a repudiation of the agendas of the past two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, in rolling back Obama’s Medicaid expansion under his signature health law and Biden’s tax credits for renewable energy.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage.

Democrats vow to make bill a midterm issue

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Friday called the bill “devastating” and said in a statement that Trump’s signature on the legislation “sealed the fate of the Republican Party, cementing them as the party for billionaires and special interests — not working families.”

He predicted Republicans would lose their majority in Congress over it. “This was a full betrayal of the American people,” Martin said.

Trump exulted in his political victory Thursday night in Iowa, where he attended a kickoff of events celebrating the country’s 250th birthday next year.

“I want to thank Republican congressmen and women, because what they did is incredible,” he said. The president complained that Democrats voted against the bill because “they hate Trump — but I hate them, too.”

The package is certain to be a flashpoint in next year’s midterm elections, and Democrats are making ambitious plans for rallies, voter registration drives, attack ads, bus tours and even a multiday vigil, all intended to highlight the most controversial elements.

Upon his return to Washington early Friday, Trump described the package as “very popular,” though polling suggests that public opinion is mixed at best.

For example, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that majorities of U.S. adults support increasing the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on earnings from tips, and about half support work requirements for some adults who receive Medicaid.

But the poll found majorities oppose reducing federal funding for food assistance to low-income families and spending about $45 billion to build and maintain migrant detention centers. About 60% said it was “unacceptable” that the bill is expected to increase the $36 trillion U.S. debt by more than $3 trillion over the next decade.

Darlene Superville And Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press



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A sign that says Rio Tinto.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says the federal government is talking to mining and metals giant Rio Tinto about helping the company with cash flow problems caused by the United States’ global steel and aluminum tariffs.

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A man and a woman in black formal wear pose for a photo at a wedding.

Relatives of Canadians detained by ICE in the U.S. say they’re furious and frustrated by the treatment of their loved ones and the battles they’re having to fight for even the most basic information. 

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Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Friday, June 20, 2025.

OTTAWA — Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson did not commit to scrapping Trudeau-era climate policies that Alberta and Ontario want to see gone but said that the newly adopted major projects bill could pave the way to doing so “over time.”

Speaking in Calgary on Friday, Hodgson said the new legislation — which enables the cabinet to quickly approve projects of national interest by overriding federal laws — will empower the government to act swiftly and any legislative fine-tuning would come later.

“We need to move quickly. What the… One Canadian Economy Act does is allows us to move quickly under this framework,” he told reporters in a press conference.

“It allows us to do all the things we need to do in one centralized place, under one set of timelines, and to take those learnings to go back and deal with the other acts over time.”

Hodgson was indirectly responding to

a letter from the environment ministers of Alberta and Ontario,

made public this week, who requested that the federal government repeal the Impact Assessment Act, clean electricity regulations and emissions cap, among others.

In their letter, Rebecca Schultz and Todd J. McCarthy argued that those climate policies, implemented by the prior Liberal government, would “undermine competitiveness, delay project development, and disproportionately harm specific provinces and territories.”

“Canada is poised to be an economic superpower, but achieving that potential depends on strong, constitutionally grounded provincial authority over resource development and environmental management,” they wrote to Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin.

Dabrusin, who met with her provincial and territorial counterparts in the Northwest Territories this week, said that the environment remains a priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney even as his government is getting ready to fast-track major projects.

“We know it’s very important to Canadians that as we do this, we’re doing it properly and that we’re doing it in a way that actually supports a strong country as a whole that takes into account our nature and the like,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday.

“So, I very much see it at the centre of the work that I’m doing and that we’re doing as a government,” Dabrusin added.

When asked in Calgary if the federal government would be able to attract private investments dollars with the current climate policies in place, Hodgson said Carney was “focused on results” and that the government would “figure out how to get there.”

Hodgson said there is already a lot of interest in building projects of national interest but remained relatively tight-lipped when asked about the possibility of a new pipeline.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been pushing for a pipeline, built in tandem with Pathways Alliance, that would bring crude oil from Alberta to the Port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. So far, B.C. Premier David Eby said that is unlikely to happen.

Hodgson said there has been “lots of discussions with various folks” around that project and that it is “something that’s being worked on actively.”

But he declined to spill more details about the lengths the government would go to to build a new pipeline. “In my previous life, I did a lot of deals. I never did a deal with the press. Those conversations are going on. They’re going to happen in private,” he said.

“When there’s a transaction, we’ll let everybody know, but you should assume that everyone is focused on trying to figure out how to make that happen.”

The major projects bill, known as C-5, was

adopted in the Senate on June 26

and given royal assent the same day, becoming law, after being fast-tracked through the House of Commons.

The rushed passage of the bill raised concerns from environmental groups, who fear the government will bypass environmental safeguards to approve projects, and Indigenous peoples, who said the government did not properly consult with them beforehand.

To alleviate some of those concerns, Carney has pledged to hold summits during the summer with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

But there is more work to do, and more problems may arise in the process.

Hodgson said the federal government will be negotiating with each of the provinces and territories over the next six months to ensure major projects will be subject to one single environmental assessment, not two, in order to speed up the adoption of the process.

The perspective of possibly overriding provincial laws and regulations could prove to be a issue in Quebec and British Columbia, where 42 per cent and 32 per cent of people oppose the idea, according to recent polling from the Angus Reid Institute.

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

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REGINA — Saskatchewan’s justice minister says he wants answers on why the RCMP’s commanding officer in the province was abruptly removed.

A spokesperson for Tim McLeod’s office says the minister has requested Ottawa provide further information and rationale on the decision involving Rhonda Blackmore.

The minister’s office says Blackmore’s dismissal was “surprising and disappointing.”

Blackmore abruptly left the job in early June and was replaced by an interim commanding officer until a new one could be selected.

Media reports have cited an email from Blackmore saying she was removed due to anonymous complaints against her.

The same day she was relieved of her duties, she was hired as a national assistant commissioner of Indigenous and support services for the RCMP.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press

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Prime Minister Mark Carney addresses the crowd during the Canada Day festivities in Ottawa in the nation's capital on July 01, 2025.

OTTAWA — The Carney government is poised to post a massive deficit of more than $92 billion during this fiscal year, a new report from a well-respected financial think tank projects, almost double what was forecast just a few months ago by a non-partisan arm of the government.
 

The report, from the C.D. Howe Institute, also forecasts deficits of more than $77 billion a year over the next four years, also huge increases over what had been expected.

If this fiscal year’s deficit turns out to be as hefty as projected, it would be the second-largest deficit in Canadian history, topped only by the $327.7 billion shortfall from the pandemic year of 2020-21.

Alexandre Laurin, C.D. Howe’s vice-president, said the federal government’s fiscal situation is getting worse. “The picture is definitely not pretty.”

The think tank attributes much of the government’s declining fiscal health to increased spending on defence and other items, the economic effects of the Trump tariffs, cuts to personal income tax and the GST for first-time homebuyers, and the elimination of the digital services tax.
 

Based on the most current and largely optimistic variables, the report says, federal deficits will remain above $71 billion during each of the following three years and in the fiscal year 2028-29 will be greater than three times what the government itself forecast in its most recent federal budget.
 

But more likely, the report says, it will likely be a bit worse than that because the report’s authors say that they’re skeptical that all of the government’s plans to increase revenue through promised higher fines, penalties and savings will actually occur.
 

“It is widely accepted that Canada’s economy is at a critical crossroads,” the C.D. Howe economists write. “So are Canada’s finances – beyond the economic drag of high deficits and rising debt, it is unfair to pass these burdens on to the current young and future generations.”
 

But the most recent federal budget was now well over a year ago. The government took the highly unusual step this year of waiting until the fall to release its annual budget, more than half-way through the fiscal year.
 

The report’s authors – William Robson, Don Drummond and Alexandre Laurin – call on Ottawa to improve its accountability by sharing its revenue and spending figures with taxpayers.
 

The gloomy fiscal forecast bolsters the argument that Canadian government spending at th
e federal, provincial and municipal levels is going from bad to worse.
 

Just four months ago, the Parliamentary Budget Officer projected that the federal deficit would fall to $50.1 billion during this fiscal year, a slight improvement over the $61.9 billion shortfall recorded in 2023-24. The PBO also said at that time that federal deficits would continue to fall in the ensuring years, unless there were new measures to cut revenue or increase spending.
 

The C.D. Howe report criticizes the government’s decision to wait until the fiscal year is more than half over before releasing its budget “Delaying a budget until the fiscal year is more than half over is never good, but Canada’s current high-spending trajectory makes this delay especially bad.”
 

Ottawa is making costly commitments, the report explains, without showing key numbers to the public such as how much more tax it expects to gather, the extent of its new spending and what the increased debt will mean for interest payments.
 

The report also makes policy recommendations to address the “runaway spending, perpetually high deficits and debt and vulnerabilities Canada should avoid at a time of severe economic challenges.” 
 

C.D. Howe suggests that the Liberal government eliminate or forgo some of its costly platform promises, make deeper cuts in its operating spending, substitute some revenue from less harmful taxation such as the GST, and cut federal transfers to provinces and territories.
 

The report also criticizes the government’s plan to separate its operating and capital spending. “The large deficits projected in this update cannot be downplayed or disguised by dividing the budget into two new categories.”
 

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The Law Courts building in Vancouver is home to the B.C. Supreme Court.

A British Columbia man whose Tesla was once found to contain more than $47,000 in cash and two kilograms of cocaine while he himself was carrying a bag containing 15.6 kilograms of fentanyl has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for trafficking.

Jason Thomas Howard Conrad, age 45, pleaded guilty on June 4 to two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. One count was regarding fentanyl, the other cocaine. Justice Andrew Majawa sentenced him on June 17.

Court documents show

that Conrad had been under surveillance since January 2023. Police targeted a home on McLeod Court in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C., and confirmed that it was being used to produce fentanyl.

Conrad was first seen at the home on Jan. 25, 2023, and again in February, when he arrived empty-handed and left with a heavy backpack. Police followed his Tesla to an underground parkade in nearby Coal Harbour, where he met with an unknown male.

In March, Conrad was at the McLeod property again, this time leaving with a heavy reuseable shopping bag. He was arrested, and the bag was found to contain 15.6 kilograms of fentanyl that was 68 to 79 per cent pure. He was also carrying three cellphones.

His Tesla was also searched, and $10,000 cash in $100 bills was found in the centre console. In the trunk was another $37,800 in a shopping bag, and two one-kilogram bricks of cocaine that were 92 to 94 per cent pure. Also found in the Tesla were two more cellphones and a conducted energy weapon described as a jolt stun baton.

Conrad was arrested on March 21, 2023, but was released without charges. A year later, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested again on March 19, 2024, and has remained in custody since then.

In his ruling, Justice Majawa noted that Conrad had “a very challenging upbringing,” adding: “Both his parents suffered from addiction, and by age 11 he and his siblings had been apprehended by the Ministry. I am told that Mr. Conrad did not have a stable home after his apprehension, and it appears that he was separated from at least some of his siblings at this time. Mr. Conrad’s first engagement with the criminal justice system occurred at around age 11 when he was caught breaking into the group home where his sisters were residing.”

Justice Majawa also noted Conrad’s “significant criminal history” of 28 convictions: four counts of breaches, 10 of property offences, four of assaults or offences against a person, five driving offences and five counts for drug offences. The last stretched from 2001 to 2008, and  “related to the trafficking of cocaine from British Columbia to New Brunswick and the purchase of multi kilograms of cocaine as part of a larger trafficking conspiracy,” he said.

The justice noted that, in addition to the record being an aggravating factor in the latest case, so too was the amount and purity of fentanyl.

“The quantity of fentanyl in this case can be fairly described as enormous,” he said. “The 15.6 kilograms of fentanyl was of a high purity and it would almost certainly have destroyed a very large number of lives.”

He added: “The highly pure fentanyl that Mr. Conrad was involved in trafficking would typically be diluted with cutting agents; and considering that the typical user would consume approximately 0.1 grams of fentanyl at a time, the number of doses to be produced from the nearly 16 kilograms of fentanyl that Mr. Conrad was involved in trafficking is nothing short of staggering. The pernicious effects of cocaine that erode the health and safety of Canadian communities should also not be overlooked, and the profit that would arise from the eventual street-level sale of the quantities of cocaine and fentanyl in this case are of a very significant magnitude.”

Conrad was sentenced to 11 years for the possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, and seven years for the possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. The sentences are to be served concurrently. In addition, Conrad received a credit of 683 days for the 455 days spent in pre-sentence custody, at a rate of 1.5 days for each day in custody, to be applied against the 11-year sentence.

Justice Majawa concluded: “Mr. Conrad, I wish you success in your journey towards your rehabilitation.”

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