BlackBerry says progress made in lowering costs as it reports slimmer Q2 loss

BANFF, ALTA. – Some Canadian CEOs say the hundreds of billions of dollars the United States is offering in subsidies for the energy transition is causing a worrisome brain drain of some of this country’s top talent.

Ken Seitz, the CEO of Saskatoon-based Nutrien Inc., was one of the Canadian executives who expressed the concern Thursday at the Global Business Forum, a conference of business, policy and academic leaders held annually in Banff, Alta.

“You can just see the brainpower heading south,” Seitz said, adding the tax credits and subsidies offered through President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act are drawing investment dollars south of the border when it comes to things like renewable energy and carbon capture and storage.

“You can see the ecosystem that’s evolving (in the U.S.) around some of these clean technologies, and the very real incentives that are there for all of that to happen.”

Seitz’s concerns were echoed by Darlene Gates, CEO of Canadian oilsands company MEG Energy Corp., who also spoke in Banff on Thursday.

Gates said Canada’s existing combination of regulation and incentives for decarbonization is not spurring the same amount of investment in this country as the Inflation Reduction Act has south of the border.

The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, was signed into law in 2022 and offers about US$375 billion in new and extended tax credits for everything from renewable electricity generation to hydrogen production to sustainable jet fuel usage to help the U.S. clean energy industry get off the ground.

Since its inception, the IRA has been held up as the gold standard in the global race for clean energy investment, with many Canadian companies saying the U.S. incentives are so attractive that it’s impossible to compete.

“It’s not that we need to have the same tools, but the outcome needs to be the same as what the IRA is driving. And we’re not getting to the same outcome in Canada as the IRA is producing,” she said.

“If we’re not careful, those investments go to the U.S. Our people, our talent, goes to the U.S. and we become uncompetitive.”

Nutrien, which is the world’s largest fertilizer producer, already employs carbon capture and storage technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its nitrogen production process in Louisiana. Seitz said the company is “enjoying the benefits” of the tax credit the U.S. offers for captured carbon.

For Gates’ part, MEG is part of the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canadian oilsands companies that has proposed what would be one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage networks, but that has not yet made a final decision to go ahead with the project.

Pathways continues to state that it is working with federal and provincial governments to determine a level of fiscal and regulatory support that will enable it to give its project a green light.

While Canada has its own federal tax credit for companies seeking to build carbon capture and storage facilities, it does not provide financial incentives for the actual capturing of carbon like the U.S. does. Instead, Canada has an industrial carbon pricing system that is meant to discourage high levels of emissions.

A report from TD Economics last year said the two country’s systems, while different, amount to a similar level of support for the clean energy transition. But Canadian business leaders have complained that the U.S.’s “carrot” approach makes that country more attractive than Canada’s “stick” approach.

But even as the IRA continues to draw investment south of the border, its future is not certain. A recent report from J.P. Morgan Investment Bank estimated that the IRA combined with the U.S. incentives to produce semiconductors in that country have stimulated close to US$500 billion in announced private investments.

But the report said a Donald Trump victory in the U.S. presidential vote in November could pose a risk to IRA spending.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – Accusations of homophobia and partisan jabs took centre stage in the House of Commons on Thursday as MPs debated another Conservative motion aimed at toppling the government, after their first attempt failed.

The fall sitting of Parliament has been off to a heated start and hostilities continued to run high Thursday, forcing House Speaker Greg Fergus to play referee in question period and beyond.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis defended himself against accusations of homophobia over a comment he made on Wednesday about the prime minister engaging in a bathtub with other leaders.

The comment, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s response, derailed question period for a time after Trudeau accused the Tories of bullying and casual homophobia, and said he would “call them out on their crap.”

On Thursday, NDP MP Heather McPherson called on the Speaker to uphold decorum in the House of Commons, calling Genuis’s remark homophobic and disgusting.

“It had nothing to do with sex, I wasn’t thinking about sex at all,” Genuis said, as members around him shouted.

The tensions in Parliament come as the Conservatives make back-to-back bids to try and bring down the minority government.

The majority of MPs voted on Wednesday against the first non-confidence motion that was put forward by the Conservative leader.

If that motion had passed, it would have defeated the government and very likely triggered an immediate election campaign.

The Conservatives are now accusing the NDP and Bloc Québécois of propping up a government they have repeatedly criticized.

However, the NDP and Bloc are rejecting the Conservatives’ framing of events, saying that the non-confidence vote essentially asks them to support Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over Trudeau.

The second non-confidence motion brought forward by Poilievre on Thursday states that the House of Commons has lost confidence in the Liberal government and “offers Canadians the option to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.”

That’s the list of slogans the Tories have been using for months.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said Thursday the confidence vote was about “whether the leader of the Opposition should be trusted.”

The series of confidence votes comes after the NDP ended the supply-and-confidence deal that had kept the government stable since early 2022.

The Bloc Québécois has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to pass two private member’s bills related to supply management and old age security if they want to avoid an election before Christmas.

MPs will vote on the latest Tory motion on Oct. 1 and on another confidence motion related to the Liberals’ capital gains tax changes on Oct. 2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

British Columbians could find out who wins the provincial election on Oct. 19 in about the same time it took to start counting ballots in previous votes.

Andrew Watson, a spokesman for Elections BC, says new electronic vote tabulators mean officials hope to have the first results within 15 minutes of polls closing at 8 p.m., half of all votes counted within about 30 minutes, and for the count to be “substantially complete” within an hour.

Watson says in previous general elections — where votes have been counted manually — they didn’t start the tallies until about 45 minutes after polls closed.

This will be B.C.’s first general election using electronic tabulators after the system was tested in byelections in 2022 and 2023.

“The reason behind them is to provide better service to voters and to make the voting process more accessible,” Watson said Thursday.

Voters will still mark their choice of candidate on a paper ballot that will then be fed into the electronic counter, while networked laptops will be used to look up people’s names and cross them off the voters list.

Watson said the change from a paper voters list means people casting ballots won’t have to stand at specific voting stations based on their names, and the process is expected to take an average of five minutes.

He said the electronic tabulator means voters will know right away if their ballot can’t be read, something that wasn’t possible under a manual system.

“So we’re hopeful that that will reduce the rate of rejected ballots in the election, which is already low, but anything we can do to bring that number lower is, I think, beneficial for accessibility,” Watson said.

One voting location in each riding will also offer various accessible voting methods for the first time, where residents will be able to listen to an audio recording of the candidates and make their selection using either large paddles or by blowing into or sucking on a straw.

The province’s chief electoral officer recommended modernizing the voting system in 2018 and politicians passed the required legislation a year later. Watson said the snap 2020 election, held about a year earlier than expected, didn’t leave enough time to implement the changes.

Watson said Elections BC has heard from a “small minority” of voters concerned about the use of the technology.

He said voters are still making their choice on a paper ballot, which is considered “the gold standard in election administration because it gives you a complete paper trail for audits, recounts, whatever is necessary.”

“We still have scrutineers, party and candidate representatives observing every step of the process, and there’s an extensive testing process in place to make sure that tabulators are tested before and after they’re used,” he said.

“And again, parties and candidate representatives observe that whole process, and it’s all done transparently in a voting place.”

Elections BC says the tabulators are never connected to the internet, preventing hacking.

Watson said in close races, recounts will be done by hand.

The province’s three main party leaders were campaigning across B.C. Thursday with NDP Leader David Eby in Chilliwack promising to double apprenticeships for skilled trades and in Nanaimo for a health-care announcement, Conservative Leader John Rustad in Prince George talking power generation, and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau holding an announcement about mental health.

Eby — who was stung by a wasp during the news conference in Chilliwack — said his government would spend $150 million over three years to double the number of trade apprentice seats from the current 26,000 to more than 50,000.

The additional apprenticeships would include training to become a bricklayer, industrial electrician, machinist, plumber and others.

At a town hall in Nanaimo, Eby promised a new patient tower for the local hospital.

The Conservatives issued a statement promising increased local power generation in the northwest to bring down costs and increase energy security.

They say wood waste would be used to generate power locally, and natural gas could provide a stable and cost-effective energy supply.

At a news conference in Creston, B.C., Furstenau promised every B.C. resident would get six visits per year with a mental health professional under the provincial medical services plan.

The party estimates the cost at about $100 million a year. Furstenau said paying for proactive mental-health care would save money in the long run and take pressure off the acute-care system by helping prevent people from having a crisis.

The party’s mental health platform also includes promises to regulate psychotherapy, adding a specific mental health option for 911 calls alongside police, ambulance or fire, and creating a mental health advocate.

Meanwhile, a health-care advocacy group wants to know where B.C. politicians stand on six key issues ahead of the election that it says will decide the future of public health in the province.

The BC Health Coalition wants improved care for seniors, universal access to essential medicine, better access to primary care, reduced surgery wait times, and sustainable working conditions for health-care workers.

It also wants pledges to protect funding for public health care, asking candidates to phase out contracts to profit-driven corporate providers that it says are draining funds from public services.

Ayendri Riddell, the coalition’s director of policy and campaigns, said in a statement Thursday that British Columbians need to know if parties will commit to solutions “beyond the political slogans” in campaigning for the Oct. 19 election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.