Investment

Alberta NDP announce plan to drive jobs, investment

Published

2 years ago

December 15, 2022

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley. Jim Wells/Postmedia

An expedited regulatory process, consultations with First Nations communities and an expansion of several tax incentives highlight the NDP’s plan to attract jobs and investment to Alberta should they form government next year.

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley announced the NDP’s Competitiveness, Jobs and Investment Strategy for Alberta in Calgary on Wednesday, with revoking Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta sovereignty act being a priority.

“First, we will repeal Danielle Smith’s and the UCP’s job-killing sovereignty act. This act is only creating instability and uncertainty in our economy at a pivotal time. We simply cannot afford this,” said Notley. “Second, we will maintain the most competitive general tax rate in the country while establishing and re-establishing and enhancing tax incentives focused on new growth and new jobs.”

Those tax incentives include reinstating the Alberta Investor Tax Credit and the Interactive Digital Media Tax. Notley said her government will also create a “future tax credit” aimed at luring large capital projects to Alberta in “emerging industrial sectors.”

“Alberta’s future tax credit is estimated to cost $250 million annually, which will leverage a projected $10 billion in incremental investments in emerging sectors and will create an estimated 20,000 jobs,” said Notley.

Notley is also planning to expand the Alberta Petrochemical Incentive Program by 30 per cent and consult with Indigenous communities on how to grow the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation. The fifth part of the plan would see a sped-up regulatory process for proponents who have a good record when it comes to protecting workers, paying taxes and following environmental compliance, among other criteria.

“We believe this program will help us get good projects that will create jobs and get them off the ground faster, while also providing new incentives to keep workers safe. Pay off the millions and millions in unpaid taxes owed to municipalities,” said Notley.

The presentation of the plan comes a day before Notley is scheduled to present a keynote speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Thursday afternoon.

Calls for Smith to apologize for comments on sovereignty, Indian Act

Notley also called for Smith to apologize for comments she made in the legislature this week comparing the way Alberta is treated by Ottawa to the treatment First Nations communities endured under the Federal Indian Act.

“The way I have described it to the chiefs I have spoken with is that they have fought a battle over the last number of years to get sovereignty respected and to extract themselves from the paternalistic Indian Act. We get treated the exact same way by Ottawa,” Smith said in the legislature on Tuesday.

Notley called the comments “ridiculous.”

“To suggest that Albertans have been subjected to a genocide at the hands of the federal government is not only ridiculous, but it is deeply diminishing to the real-life experiences of Indigenous people across our country,” said Notley. “Danielle Smith must immediately stand and apologize for the insensitivity and the outrageousness of those comments.”

Smith said in the legislature Wednesday she did not intend to compare First Nations’ fight against oppression to the relationship between the province and Ottawa. She apologized if that is how her statements were received.

“My intention was to demonstrate that the process that our First Nations have gone through to develop sovereignty over their own affairs and extract themselves from the Indian Act is the process that we are following in going through and asserting our rights under the Constitution,” said Smith.

dshort@postmedia.com

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Investment

Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”

Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.

Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.

Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.

In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.

The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.

Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.

The stock is now showing a 16.1% gain for the year after rising the past two days.

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Investment

S&P/TSX composite up more than 100 points, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published

3 weeks ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.

The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

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Economy

S&P/TSX up more than 200 points, U.S. markets also higher

Published

4 weeks ago

October 11, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.

The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

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