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For a while, the razor-thin election-night outcome in Terrebonne, a riding just north of Montreal, struck many Canadians as an example of the system working as it should: Liberal Tatiana Auguste was initially declared the winner by just 35 votes; standard validation procedures flipped the riding to the Bloc Québécois by 44 votes; and then a judicial recount, triggered automatically because the outcome was so close — less than 0.1 per cent of the turnout — found Auguste had won by a single vote.

“Aha, see, every vote

does

count!” was a popular sentiment on social media. It was Christmas come early for

the “turnout nerds,” as my colleague Colby Cosh calls

those irritating people who insist you have a “civic duty to vote,” no matter how uninterested or disillusioned or pig-ignorant you might be.

Ironically, in the end, precisely none of the votes cast in Terrebonne might wind up counting. Turns out Elections Canada

put the wrong return postal code on at least some of the mail-in ballots it sent out.

At least one was returned to sender, and it was a vote for the incumbent Bloc MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. That would make the election a tie.

Thursday morning, the Bloc quite understandably

announced it was taking the matter to the judiciary

“Since Elections Canada cannot by themselves ask for the election to be repeated, we have to bring this situation in front of a judge, in a court, in order to do the election all over again,”

Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters outside the House of Commons

I argued recently that while Canada’s hand-counted paper-ballot system routinely looks great

compared to more supposedly technologically advanced alternatives, Elections Canada really isn’t as good at what it does as it should be. Its website crashed while polls were still open on April 28, when some Canadians would have been trying to figure out where to vote. And for the second election in a row at least, voters in some remote districts were denied their ballots because the fly-in poll staffers bugged out early — in some cases six hours before polls were meant to close.

On what principle would we run the election in Terrebonne election over again, but not the election in Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, where voters encountered signs apologizing for polls that shut down at 2:30 p.m.? Certainly not a democratic principle: If all votes are equal, then a vote denied is a vote denied. Rather, we do it on a practical principle: Those votes wouldn’t have changed the outcome, so Elections Canada just apologizes and moves on.

“I deeply regret that some electors in Nunavik were not able to cast their vote,”

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perreault said

, which is a bit like an airline pilot saying he deeply regrets having missed the runway while landing.

It’s only when the outcome in a particular riding is close that anyone seems to really care about these things, which is a sure sign that every vote absolutely does not count, and the agency tasked with making them all count clearly doesn’t make that its Number 1 priority.

I’m open to certain forms of proportional representation, as insufferable as many of its proponents are. I’m open to it in large part because representation-by-population, as currently represented in the House of Commons, is a silly joke. Canada’s federal ridings range in population from 26,665 in Labrador to 134,415 in Kingston and the Islands in Ontario.

The population per riding apportioned to the provinces ranges

from 38,583 in Prince Edward Island to more than 115,000 in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

That’s not unique to Canada, by any means. Labour MP Torcuil Crichton was elected to the British House of Commons by roughly 21,000 registered voters in the riding of Na h-Eileanan an Iar, comprising Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands. Labour MP Tracy Gilbert was elected in Edinburgh North and Leith by roughly 77,000 registered voters. The idea that creating ridings should consider factors other than simply population is as old as parliamentary democracy itself. It seems natural, for example, that the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (or the Outer Hebrides) should each have their own MP. It is nevertheless a crazy distortion of the basic idea of bicameral Westminster parliaments: One house is meant to represent population, another is meant to represent the regions.

The effects of this are not small. The average Conservative candidate elected on April 28 received 33,348 votes; the average Liberal candidate, 30,181 votes; the average Bloc candidate, 25,120 votes; the average NDP candidate, 20,601 votes, that number being pulled down by its win in Nunavut, where just 2,945 votes sent Inuk lawyer Lori Idlout back to Ottawa for a second term. The NDP’s Gord Johns needed more than 10 times that many votes form to win Courtenay—Alberni.

If the territories were one riding instead of three, there would be 341 seats in the House of Commons instead of 343, and there would be one fewer New Democrat. (Liberals took the Yukon and Northwest Territories.) If the northern Saskatchewan ridings of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River and Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake were at the same time combined to form one riding of 122,000 people — which is smaller than dozens of other Canadian ridings — there would be 340 seats in the House of Commons, and one fewer Liberal.

Liberal Buckley Belanger won Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River with 2,301 votes. Conservative Rosemarie Falk needed 28,634 to win Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake. In a tight minority parliament like we have now, the effects are all the more magnified.

Canada is a functional democracy. Foreign interference aside, we do elections pretty well. But the democratic ideals to which we turn in times of crisis, like elections that are too close to call, are something of a fraud.

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Border crossings between Canada and the U.S. are down, particularly so for those going north to south, according to

Statistics Canada

, but with the Victoria Day long weekend ahead, the Canada Border Services Agency is expecting more traffic at its checkpoints.

To facilitate a smoother trip all around, particularly as it relates to entering Canada, the agency has advice for travellers.

What do I need to know about driving into Canada this weekend?

For those returning to or visiting Canada from the U.S., the agency’s first piece of advice is to cross early in the morning when it’s typically less busy, but if that’s not an option, travellers can check

wait times at 28 of the busiest land border crossings online.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Peace Bridge crossing between Fort Erie, Ont., and Buffalo, N.Y., — one of the busiest borders by volume of traffic — has the longest delay at 13 minutes. The vast majority show no delay for travellers.

“If you encounter wait times at the border, it is likely because we are working behind the scenes to conduct examinations, seize drugs, firearms or stolen vehicles or prevent high-risk individuals from entering Canada,” CBSA advised.

The information is also available on the CanBorder app, available for Apple and Android devices.

If it looks like your preferred crossing is backed up this weekend, the agency says to

“consider an alternative port of entry with shorter wait times or less traffic.”

Travellers headed into the U.S. can also

go online

to gauge wait times at the CBP checkpoint at their preferred or alternate crossing. Both current and average wait times are listed.

U.S. reportedly plans to photograph people leaving the country by vehicle at border crossings

Why was there a slowdown at a border crossing in B.C.?

Earlier this month, after it was reported that some B.C. residents returning from the U.S. were met with an additional screening before checking in with Canadian officials. The CBSA told National Post it was

a routine inspection

conducted as part of a national security agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Immigration lawyer Rosanna Berardi told National Post such checkpoints, where “CBP officers may ask about immigration status and refer travellers for secondary inspection if necessary,” are legal under U.S. federal regulations.

The checkpoint was removed at the end of the weekend.

How can I ensure a faster checkpoint stop in Canada?

First and foremost, don’t pull up to the window and then start looking for your travel documents. Have your passport, NEXUS or applicable paperwork ready to go.

Travellers should also “be prepared to declare” any goods they’ve purchased in the U.S. and be ready to pay regular duty and taxes on anything above the

personal exemption limits

, which only apply to visits that extend beyond 24 hours.

“Make sure you know how much you are bringing back in Canadian dollars and have your receipts readily available for the officer,” reminds CBSA.

It also doesn’t hurt to consult the list of

prohibited and restricted goods

, and it should go without saying that items such as firearms, weapons, narcotics and cannabis should not be in the vehicle.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney is not only a Canadian leader, he’s also an author. His second book, The Hinge, was expected to hit shelves this summer. But now it’s unclear. The book is being published by Penguin Random House Canada. On the

book publisher’s website

, the release date is listed as July 1, 2025. However, the publication of the book has reportedly been delayed, per the

Toronto Star

Here’s what to know.

When was Carney’s second book announced?

In October 2024, it was announced that Carney would be writing a second book, entitled The Hinge: Time to Build an Even Better Canada,

The Canadian Press reported

. This was prior to Carney running for political office. The book’s date of publication was set for May 13, 2025 at the time.

Carney himself posted on X about the book, which he said was available for pre-order. He tagged Canadian book publishing company McClelland & Stewart, a division of Penguin Random House Canada.

Excited that my new book, The Hinge, will be published by Signal in May 2025.

It’s all about how we can to build an even better Canada in an increasingly dangerous and divided world.

Pre-order it here: 👇 @McClellandBooks https://t.co/YbcgmuDjVp

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) October 3, 2024

The post also included a link to the Penguin Random House Canada website, which is supposed to show a preview of the book. However, almost all of the information about it has been removed. It is called “untitled” and Carney is not listed as the author. There is no cover image, and the link to pre-order on book seller Indigo’s website says “this page cannot be found.” However, the book appears to be available for pre-order through Amazon Canada and other independent book stores, like

Mabel’s Fables

and

Queen Books

“Information about this exciting publication from Penguin Random House Canada is coming soon,” it says on the Penguin Random House Canada webpage.

What is The Hinge about?

In his post on X, Carney said his book is about building an “even better Canada in an increasingly dangerous and divided world.”

description of the book is provided online

by Quebec retailer Archambault, where The Hinge is set to be sold, although most of the other information, like title and author, has been removed. It says the book “charts an ambitious and urgent path forward for Canada and the world as we collectively face a multitude of existential threats to our long-standing democratic traditions.”

It continues: “We are at a hinge moment in history — reminiscent of what the Allies faced at the end of 1941, when Winston Churchill was in Ottawa meeting with Mackenzie King — an age of uncertainty and rising perils that is reshaping global political, economic, technological, and social orders, and overturning our day-to-day lives. The good news is that, just as Churchill, King, and FDR would eventually swing what Churchill termed the ‘Hinge of Fate’ towards freedom and prosperity, we too have agency to build an even better Canada.”

In the book, it says, Carney will show how Canadians can continue to solve problems and “build things that last,” adding that it can be done “not as a government, but as a people.”

What is the reason for the reported delay?

The release date for Carney’s book was moved from May 15, 2025 to July 1, 2025 online; however, no reason was given by the publisher online. In April, after the initial release date was delayed,

Juno News reported

that the publishers would not explain why.

The Toronto Star reported that a source said the delay was due to Carney not being able to finish “the editing process in the last several months as he campaigned.” The publication also reported that Carney had finished writing the book.

Penguin Random House Canada has not responded to a request from National Post.

How did Carney’s first book, Value(s), do?

Carney’s first book,

Value(s): Building a Better World for All

, was published in Canada in 2021 by McClelland & Stewart. It was a national bestseller, according to Penguin Random House Canada. It was the winner of the 2021 National Business Book Award and it was shortlisted for the 2021 Donner Prize.

The description of the book provided by the publisher explains that it “offers a vision of a more humane society and a practical manifesto for getting there.”

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OTTAWA – The Bloc Québécois says it will ask the Superior Court of Quebec to order a new election in the riding of Terrebonne, Que, “as soon as possible,” following the Liberals’ victory by a single vote.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet announced Thursday that his party would challenge the result “on the basis of a vote that was not taken into account, which constitutes an irregularity” in the electoral process. The challenge is not based on the judicial recount that took place.

“The judge said that we lost by one vote; the vote that would have created a tie appeared in the hand of a citizen. There is therefore a difficult-to-contest irregularity that, according to the law, requires that the election be rerun,” Blanchet told reporters on Parliament hill.

Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste was declared the winner

following a judicial recount on May 10, bringing the number of seats won by the Liberal Party of Canada to 170, two shy of a majority. The incumbent, Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, previously thought she had won the riding by dozens of votes.

However, a Terrebonne voter came forward a few days after the results were confirmed, claiming she had voted for the Bloc Québécois by mail, but that her ballot had never been cast.

This vote would have placed the Liberals and the Bloc in a tie, potentially leading to a byelection to determine the winner.

Emmanuelle Bossé stated in several media interviews that her special ballot was returned to her by Canada Post a few days after the April 28 election.

Elections Canada does not have the authority to order a rerun of the election, but admitted the error raised by Ms. Bossé.

According to Elections Canada, the error was in the last three characters of the postal code of the office’s address, although, it

declared the results final

“To date, only one case has come to our attention where an envelope containing a marked ballot was returned to a voter because of an incorrect address,” said Matthew Mckenna, a spokesperson for Elections Canada.

In an email exchange with National Post, McKenna also said the local office issued 115 special ballots for local voting by mail, and that according to their database, five ballots were received late at the local office and that the return envelope contained an error in the postal code.

“There is no information as to whether the delay was due to the incorrect postal code. We note that voters signed the declaration late in the election period,” McKenna said.

Meanwhile, 85 of these ballots were returned on time and counted, 16 ballots, including Bossé’s, were not returned to the local office and 9 other electors gave up voting by mail and voted in person in the electoral district.

Sinclair-Desgagné told reporters on Thursday that this whole experience has been a “roller coaster” emotionally but that it’s also an “issue that goes beyond the outcome of a single party.”

“I think it’s an issue of trust in our democratic institutions and that it’s important in our case to follow through with these efforts so that in the end, the residents of Terrebonne and the citizens of Terrebonne have a legitimate MP to represent them,” she said.

Sinclair-Desgagné did not say whether she still trusted Elections Canada and Canada Post, because “there is a legal recourse pending.”

Alex Marland, a political science professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S, told National Post that while he’s always “very careful about expressing opinions”, in this case, he “100 per cent think that it should go to the courts.”

“That one woman who has that one ballot is an irregularity that affected the results of the election, and we can say it affected the result of the election because of the closeness of the outcome,” Dr. Marland said.

“So, to me, this is a slam dunk, and it should not be looked at by anybody as a partisan play by the Bloc,” he added.

Blanchet did not ask Prime Minister Mark Carney to keep Auguste out of the House of Commons while the case is ongoing, but said he hopes it will be resolved “as quickly as possible,” with Parliament scheduled to resume on May 26.

According to Marland, Carney and the Liberal Party should support the Bloc in this legal case to “clear the air” and emphasize that an administrative problem influenced the election outcome.

“I think this is an opportunity for him to just realize that we’ve got real issues about elections integrity… A byelection is a way to clear it, but a court case that drags on is not in anybody’s interest,” he said.

Liberal Party spokesperson Matteo Rossi did not comment on the Bloc’s legal challenge or indicate whether the Liberals would support it. Instead, he referred questions to Elections Canada.

Meanwhile, Blanchet said he had “a very high level” of confidence in the Bloc’s case and believes a judge will trigger a byelection.

Although, precedent could work against the separatists.

In a split decision,

the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2012

— more than a year after the 2011 federal election — that Etobicoke Centre Conservative MP Ted Opitz could keep his job, bringing to an end former MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj’s long battle to overturn the election result.

The majority of Canada’s highest court found that minor administrative errors should not be sufficient to allow an election to be overturned.

“The practical realities of election administration are such that imperfections in the conduct of elections are inevitable,” the justices wrote. “Courts cannot demand perfect certainty.”

National Post

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This week, the government of Ontario announced a plan to remove tolls from the provincially owned Highway 407 East, a move it said is expected to save daily commuters

an estimated $7,200

annually.

“To help lower costs and fight gridlock, the government is introducing legislation that would, if passed, permanently remove tolls from the provincially owned section of Highway 407, from Brock Road to Highway 35/115, effective June 1, 2025,” the province said in a press release.

“This is the last stretch of provincially owned tolled highway in Ontario and follows the government’s previous removal of tolls from

Highways 412 and 418

, and its recent legislation banning new road tolls on any public roadway in Ontario,” it added.

Here’s what to know.

What is Highway 407?

Highway 407 is a 151.4-kilometre highway that crosses and encircles the GTA. It starts in Burlington in the west, passing north of Highway 401 around Mississauga, and then running roughly parallel to the 401 across Toronto and to the east, where it terminates at Highway 35/115 north of Newcastle.

Planning studies date as far back

as the 1950s

, but construction began in 1987, and the first section, 36 kilometres between Highways 410 and 404, was opened in 1997. The portion from Brock Road to Highway 35/115 started construction in 2012 and was fully opened in 2019.

How much does it cost now?

The highway is operated by two groups —

the provincial government

from Brock Road to the eastern end, and the

407 ETR Concession Company

(which also handles all billing) to the west from Brock Road.

Currently, a trip from one end of the highway to the other during peak times costs $91.73, or $96.93 for drivers without a transponder. (Transponders cost $29.50 a year, before taxes.)

A trip on the provincial end of the highway alone costs $14.94 with a transponder, and a trip on the privately-owned portion is $76.78. If the government ends its tolls, that would become the cost for the entire length of the highway.

Are the savings projected by the government accurate?

If a driver makes a rush-hour trip twice a day, five days a week, on the provincial portion of the highway, the annual cost is approximately $7,200, which is what the government says drivers would save.

However, a twice-daily trip on the rest of the highway would still amount to almost $40,000 annually.

Can Ontario just buy the rest of the highway?

It could, and it’s something Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talked about in the past. The province sold the western part of the highway to the private sector in 1999.

This week, after his announcement about cutting tolls,

Ford was asked

if he was still considering that idea.

“They’re going to be at capacity in 10 years, and I’d never rule out acquiring it, but we also have to build capacity,” he said, adding it would cost “tens of billions of dollars.”

He added: “We should never have sold the 407.”

How will this change traffic patterns?

Time will tell, but anecdotal evidence suggests that charging people to use roads causes fewer people to use them; the

“congestion charge”

in London, England, is one example.

One would expect a higher number of people living near the toll-free section of the 407 to start using it instead of the 401, and that might have a small spillover effect into the still-tolled portion as well.

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The local public health office in Seattle is warning residents there of a confirmed case of measles in a Canadian resident who spent time in the region two weeks ago.

The notice from

Public Health — Seattle and King County

says the person spent time in King and Snohomish counties between April 30 and May 3 while infectious, and adds that their vaccine status is unknown.  (The Seattle metropolitan area overlaps with three counties — King, Snohomish and Pierce.)

“In addition to traveling through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the person visited multiple public locations in Renton, Bellevue, Seattle, Everett and Woodinville while contagious with measles, but before being diagnosed with measles,” the notice says.

The notice then

lists 16 locations

alongside dates and times, including a winery, two fitness centres and a local hotel as “locations of potential exposure.”

“These times include the estimated period when the individual was at the location and two hours after,” the notice says. “Measles virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after someone infectious with measles leaves the area. Anyone who was at the … locations during the times listed could have been exposed to measles.”

The health authority says the case is not connected to any previous local measles cases. Public Health — Seattle and King County says it has responded to two other measles cases this year among people who traveled through King County but were not Washington state residents, adding there have been five cases of measles in Washington state residents this year.

Measles was declared

eliminated in Canada

in 1998, and in

the United States

two years later. However, falling vaccination rates have caused

outbreaks to occur

in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., with cross-border transmission as well.

Last month, the New York State Department of Health went so far as to issue a travel advisory for those who may be crossing the border, especially anyone travelling to Ontario.

“Measles is only a car ride away!”

says the advisory, published on April 2. “Around 90 per cent of people who are exposed to a person with measles will become infected if they are not vaccinated. Because measles is so contagious, it easily crosses borders.”

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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday that Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault posed an imminent danger to Confederation, one day after Guilbeault’s off-the-cuff comments on pipelines set off a firestorm in Alberta.

“Yes he is, absolutely,” Poilievre said when asked by reporters if Guilbeault was a threat to national unity in his current role as Minister of Canadian Identity and Quebec Lieutenant.

“I just find it astonishing that (Prime Minister Mark) Carney would appoint a man who says that we don’t need any pipelines built,” said Poilievre.

“(Guilbeault) wants

to block road construction

, he’s against nuclear power, he’s against all forms of economic development… for the entire country.”

Guilbeault said on Wednesday that Canada should maximize the use of existing pipelines before building new ones, asserting incorrectly that the recently operational Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) was only at “about 40 per cent capacity.”

TMX has been consistently running between 76 per cent and 86 per cent capacity since it opened in May 2024, according to the latest available data

from Canada’s Energy Regulator

Guilbeault also said that he thought that demand for oil would peak within the next few years, both in Canada and globally.

Poilievre said that Guilbeault’s pipeline comments fit a pattern of “antagon(ism) to… resource producing provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta, who rightly feel like they have been mistreated by (the Liberals).”

Poilievre, who grew up in Calgary, will be running in an upcoming byelection in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot after losing his Ottawa-area seat in last month’s federal election.

Guilbeault was appointed by Carney as Minister of Canadian Identity and Quebec Lieutenant in March, after serving as environment minister for three years under Justin Trudeau.

He stayed in this role after a post-election cabinet shuffle earlier this week.

Guilbeault was easily re-elected in his Montreal-area riding, beating

NDP challenger Nimâ Machouf

by a 33-point margin.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was one of many in her province who were miffed by Guilbeault’s off-script pipeline comments.

“This is just another example of how misleading and destructive this former environment minister was to Alberta’s and Canada’s economy and investment climate,”

wrote Smith on social media

Carney says he’s willing to approve the construction of a new pipeline if a national consensus emerges for one.

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With dedicated groups of Albertans pushing for the western province to secede from Canada, new polling shows that most of those living in the province reject this idea, while just over one-third support some form of independence from Canada.

The Postmedia-Leger poll

also found that 44 per cent of Albertans identify as “primarily Canadian,” while only 21 per cent identify as primarily Albertan. A further 32 per cent say they identify as both equally.

Sixty per cent of those who oppose separation say they identify as primarily Canadian; even among those who wish to see an independent Alberta, 23 per cent say they identify as primarily Canadian, while 45 per cent say they are primarily Albertan.

When it comes to a future scenario involving an independent Alberta, the most popular idea, which received the support of 35 per cent of Albertans, would be an independent western bloc, from Manitoba to the Pacific Ocean. Thirty per cent support just Alberta and Saskatchewan breaking away and forming their own country, while 29 per cent would support Alberta going it alone.

Just 17 per cent of Albertans are interested in joining the United States.

“I don’t really see this as something that’s been really steamrolling and gaining a ton of momentum. I think it’s … probably been festering for a bit,” said Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president, central Canada. “Probably the re-election of the Liberals didn’t help to diminish anything. But I wouldn’t suggest also that it’s actually added a bunch of fuel to the fire.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been a frequent critic of the federal government’s approach to Alberta. When she met with Prime Minister Mark Carney prior to the election, she made a list of nine demands, many of them involving the energy sector, that she said she expected to see met within six months, or there could be an “unprecedented national unity crisis.”

The majority of Albertans (53 per cent) support Smith’s approach on those demands, while 34 per cent disagree. Eighty-three per cent of those who support separation also support Smith’s approach, compared to 34 per cent of those who do not support separation.

“What she’s doing is not completely offside with her voters and the electorate. I mean, her job is to represent Alberta and Albertans, and not necessarily do things that are going to make (Ontario) Premier (Doug) Ford happy,” said Enns.

The polling also sheds light on Albertans’ motivations for believing the province ought to leave Canada.

Among those who believe that Alberta should separate, 54 per cent said it’s because of a combination of economic, political and cultural reasons.

The single largest individual motivation is economic, largely to do with resource management and taxation. Almost one third (30 per cent) of Albertans give economic factors as their primary reason, compared to eight per cent who identify political reasons — such as political underrepresentation — as their main motivation and five per cent who give cultural reasons, such as regional identity or values.

“This isn’t some sort of cultural thing that — somehow Albertans have, maybe, this cowboy culture,” said Enns. “This is about the economy.”

Economic motivations are strongest among 18 to 34 year olds, with 42 per cent listing those issues as their primary motivation for supporting separation.

Carney might have some reasons to feel that the tensions can be tamped down. The polling found that 58 per cent of respondents said the actions of the federal government could influence their support for separation, both for and against, while only 23 per cent said their support is baked in already.

Still, 62 per cent of Albertans say people outside the province don’t understand their grievances. Even among the 29 per cent who think Alberta’s grievances are understood, only six per cent think they’re understood well.

Almost half of all Albertans are still willing to take a wait-and-see approach to Carney, particularly on energy. Forty-four per cent believe that Carney will deliver on his energy promises, which include positioning Canada as an energy superpower. However, just as many don’t believe Carney will deliver. Of those who oppose separation, 60 per cent are confident that Carney will deliver, while 66 per cent who support separation are not confident.

“If we’re talking about economic opportunity and economic growth and economic freedom, those are some things that from a federal government perspective, they have the ability to pull a few levers,” said Enns.

The polling was done via an online survey of 1,000 Alberta adults between May 9 and 12. The results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, education and presence of children in the household in order to ensure a representative sample of the Canadian population. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size yields a margin of error no greater than plus or minus 3.1 per cent.

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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney should “take a page from the Chrétien government’s 1994 program review” and cut tens of thousands of bureaucrat jobs, argued the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) in a new paper published on Thursday.

The economic think tank found that a program review like the one from 30 years ago would result in the elimination of about 64,000 federal government jobs. This would lead to a return to the pre-Justin Trudeau government per capita size of the bureaucracy and a permanent reduction in public spending of nearly $10 billion a year by 2029, MEI experts say.

“The size of the Canadian public service once again requires attention. Despite the government belatedly acknowledging the need to restrain the growth of the federal bureaucracy, more decisive action is required,” said Conrad Eder, the associate Researcher at the MEI that produced the viewpoint.

During the federal election, Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised to cap the size of the federal workforce and to “not cut public service employment.”

“As part of our review of spending we will ensure that the size of the federal public service meets the needs of Canadians,” reads the Liberal platform.

The Liberals also promised to launch a “comprehensive review of government spending” focused on productivity. The review, it was said, would focus on “clear targets by departments and Crown Corporations with an iterative process that deploys best approaches across the public sector.”

For instance, the government wants to amalgamate service delivery, consolidate grants and contributions that serve similar purposes and reduce reliance on external consultants.

Following this review, Ottawa wants to put in place a permanent process to “link spending and outcomes across departments and continuous improvement in spending control.”

“Prime minister Carney’s promises to review federal spending give us cause for optimism, but the lack of details surrounding how it will be conducted brings us caution,” wrote Renaud Brossard, vice president of communications at the MEI, in an email exchange with National Post.

In 2023, then

prime minister Justin Trudeau gave a mandate to his then President of the Treasury Board

Anita Anand to find $15 billion in savings across the government by 2028, and then $4 billion annually after that.

Yet, from 2015 to 2025, the number of federal public servants increased by more than 110,000, a 43 per cent increase according to the MEI. There are 367,772 federal employees, or nine per 1,000 residents, compared to 7.2 when Trudeau took office.

By comparison, the United Kingdom has 7.4 federal employees per 1,000 residents and Germany 6.2 employees per 1,000 residents.

Last year, the MEI noted that federal personnel costs were on track to exceed $70 billion, compared to $40 billion in 2016-2017, the first fiscal year of Trudeau’s first mandate. According to the MEI, this represents one in seven dollars spent by the government.

The MEI maintains that a large portion of this spending is financed by large deficits. In 2024, the federal government posted a deficit of $61.9 billion, far exceeding its promise to keep it below $40.1 billion.

“Given the size of our deficit and the speed at which the bureaucracy has grown over the last decade, a federal spending review needs to be just as ambitious as the one undertaken under the Chrétien government in the 1990s,” Brossard said.

The 1994 program review has become an example of good fiscal practice in Canadian economic circles. When Jean Chrétien was elected prime minister in 1993, Canada was grappling with persistent deficits, an unsustainable national debt and a ballooning public service.

Chrétien then asked his finance minister Paul Martin to put “the house in order”.

The program review evaluated federal programs based on public need and fiscal capacity. The government then restructured programs and eliminated jobs in the public service. In fact, the size of the bureaucracy shrunk by over 42,000 employees, or 17.4 per cent, at the time they were done in 1999.

“Chrétien’s reforms worked because they were targeted and pragmatic,” explained Brossard. “His government proved that it is possible to provide essential services while tackling overspending.”

National Post

atrepanier@postmedia.com

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

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OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada says it will stop paying its executives and employees millions of dollars in controversial “performance pay” bonuses but will compensate by increasing their salaries instead.

The public broadcaster made the announcement

in an unattributed statement

Wednesday alongside a four-page memo summarizing a compensation review report conducted by a human resources consulting firm.

“The Board of Directors, with the advice and concurrence of the President and CEO, has decided to discontinue individual performance pay as part of the overall compensation earned by eligible employees of CBC/Radio-Canada,” read the statement.

“In order to keep overall compensation at the current median level, salaries of those affected will be adjusted to reflect the elimination of individual performance pay.”

The public broadcaster offered the bonuses as performance incentives to executives and over 1,000 non-unionized employees yearly.

CBC/Radio-Canada spokesperson Leon Mar would not say if the salaries of employees who were previously eligible for bonuses would be increased by the exact same amount as the lost performance pay.

In an email to National Post, he only stated that salaries would be “adjusted” to remain in the 50th percentile

of compensation “for employees in our peer group of media, private, and public sector organizations.”

“

CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to set individual and corporate objectives and measure performance,” Marr noted, but did not detail what measures the public broadcaster will use to incentivize employees to hit their performance targets

The public broadcaster has repeatedly come under fire from critics, opposition parties and even the Liberal government for doling out millions of dollars in bonuses to executives all the while laying off staff.

Last year, the CBC paid out $18.4 million in bonuses to 1,194 employees — including $3.3 million to 45 executives — after eliminating hundreds of positions,

The Canadian Press reported

At the time, Conservatives said the bonuses were “beyond insulting and frankly sickening” and that the public broadcaster was at the “height of smugness” for paying them at a time of growing affordability issues.

But a memo summarizing a compensation review by HR consulting firm Mercer and published by CBC/Radio-Canada say that the Crown corporations’ compensation structure has “faced scrutiny”. But overall, it describes “performance pay” as a “widely adopted strategy” and considered “best practice” within government and Crown corporations.

It also said that overall compensation, including bonuses, offered by the public broadcaster are at the “midpoint” of the market.

Thus, removing the performance pay incentives risked dropping overall compensation below market value and putting CBC/Radio-Canada at a hiring disadvantage against other private and public sector organizations (not just in media).

“While CBC/Radio-Canada’s incentive targets are generally conservative relative to market, removing incentives altogether would position CBC/Radio-Canada’s compensation below market,” reads the memo.

“CBC/Radio-Canada should be mindful of not falling below market if it wants to retain and recruit the expertise and talent it needs to deliver on the organization’s national mandate.”

If the Crown corporation eliminated bonuses, Mercer suggested that it find other ways to compensate the lost remuneration and implement other ways to “drive and manage performance.”

The memo also argued that the public broadcaster’s executives are underpaid, but other non-unionized employees’ salaries are aligned with the market. It also says the public broadcasters’ defined benefit pension is a “key tool” for attracting and retaining employees.

“When all elements of compensation are considered, all non-unionized employee groups at CBC/Radio-Canada are currently aligned with market,” Mercer wrote in the memo.

Last fall, incoming CBC President Marie-Philippe Bouchard listed

compensation as one of her first priorities when she assumed the five-year post on Jan. 3.

“I’m going to be working on making sure that we have a system that’s transparent and that people can trust in our administration and management of public funds, especially in the context of compensation,” she told MPs during a Commons committee meeting in November.

“I’m not tone deaf,” she later added.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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Source: National Post (Politics)

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