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Canada’s premiers united in their criticism of federal housing policy, carbon tax changes

Published

11 months ago

November 7, 2023

Canada’s premiers lashed out at the federal government Monday, saying Ottawa is treading on thin ice by signing bilateral housing deals directly with municipalities while leaving provinces out of the mix.

The premiers also faulted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not having convened an in-person first ministers’ meeting in five years.

At a time when the country is facing a series of crises — a housing crunch, a stressed health-care system and big changes in climate policy — the country’s premiers need face-time with Trudeau, they said.

In the 2015 federal election, Trudeau campaigned on restoring “collaborative federal leadership,” something he said was missing during former prime minister Stephen Harper’s time in office.

Some premiers said today he hasn’t lived up to that promise.

Under intense political pressure to get more homes built to ease an acute shortage, Housing Minister Sean Fraser has been signing deals with cities like Calgary, Hamilton, Halifax and London and Vaughan, Ont. under the Housing Accelerator Fund, which gives money to municipalities that commit to reducing red tape.

In exchange for commitments to increase housing density, Fraser has agreed to cut cheques for municipalities. The issue for the premiers is these deals have been made without provincial involvement — except in Quebec, where the province brokered a $900-million deal with Ottawa on behalf of all its cities and towns.

Every Quebec municipality will have access to funds, while others across the country will have to meet Ottawa’s terms to get money through a bilateral deal, said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The other premiers are now intent on getting what Quebec got — and they are threatening to enact legislation to stop Ottawa from going around provincial leaders when brokering such funding arrangements.

“We need fairness, we need equity and we’re not seeing that with the current model,” Smith said. “If defending our jurisdiction by passing legislation similar to Quebec assists us in getting fair treatment, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Left to right: Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Quebec Minister Responsible for Canadian Relations and the Canadian Francophonie Jean-Francois Roberge attend a meeting of Canada’s premiers in Halifax on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Kelly Clark/Canadian Press)

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said the “lack of collaboration” on housing has “created duplicate processes” and it “risks pitting provinces and territories against each other.”

“If people continue to be excluded, it’s really hard to talk about unity,” added P.E.I. Premier Dennis King. “We’re working at breakneck speed and we need to all be pulling at the same end of the rope here.”

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) estimates the country needs to build 3.5 million more housing units by 2030 to meet explosive demand as the country’s population expands, thanks in part to record immigration.

To solve this problem, the federal government needs to work hand-in-hand with the provinces, Houston and King said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the federal Liberal government has been “surprising” premiers by popping up in municipalities unannounced and splashing cash around “when it’s not their jurisdiction.” He said Ottawa needs to put an end to the practice.

“Housing is a massive issue, not just in Ontario but right across the country,” Ford said.

Premiers form united front against carbon tax on home heating fuels

Featured VideoCanada’s premiers say a decision by Ottawa to exempt home heating oil from the carbon tax for a three-year period is unfair to those using other types of fuel. It comes as a motion by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to expand the tax break to all forms of heating was defeated in Ottawa.

“All premiers would agree with this — you can’t have the federal government going into a certain town or city and dumping funding and not even discussing it with the province. That’s unacceptable. We call it jurisdictional creep. Obviously, they don’t want to work collaboratively when they do that.”

The final communique of the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax demands that Ottawa ensure “predictable and flexible federal funding flows exclusively through provinces and territories.”

Speaking to reporters before question period, Fraser said he will press ahead with a housing plan that’s working.

“We have seen real progress as a result of the change in approach that we have adopted,” he said. “I would hate to take a tool off the table in the middle of a crisis, particularly one that’s proving its utility with the success we’ve had in cities across the country.

“My next move is getting more homes built in every corner of the country.”

Premiers demand carbon tax reprieve

In addition to their criticism of how Ottawa doles out housing funds, the premiers raised concerns about the carbon tax.

Trudeau announced last month that home heating oil would be exempt from the carbon tax for a three-year period while the federal government ramps up a program to subsidize the purchase of heat pumps, which generally run on electricity.

While the carbon tax exemption is national in scope, Atlantic Canadians will disproportionately benefit from the program because residents there are more likely to use oil to heat their homes.

That has prompted claims that the pause is unfair because other energy consumers are left paying the carbon tax.

Some premiers said the carbon tax is punitive because it imposes costs on people even when their provinces are working to reduce emissions in other ways.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said carbon pricing is not a ‘silver bullet’ to end climate change. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)

“The carbon tax is not the silver bullet when it comes to climate change,” said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. He said the province has a low-carbon electricity grid and it’s doing more to make it cleaner and greener.

The carbon tax exemption should be extended to people in his province, he said.

“During this inflationary period, people are suffering. In light of that, we do think there should be similar considerations given to the people of Manitoba to get us through this period of economic pain,” Kinew said.

“The carbon tax is not effective. They should just get rid of it,” Houston added. “There are much more efficient ways to protect the planet.”

B.C. Premier David Eby said the carbon tax has worked well in his province — B.C. has had its own carbon tax in place for years — but he said he supports “fair treatment for all Canadians” on the issue.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, a long-time opponent of the carbon levy, reiterated his plan to instruct the provincially owned SaskEnergy to stop collecting the carbon tax on power until there’s a nationwide reprieve.

“The Canadian government needs to extend fairness to all Canadian families,” he said.

Trudeau has said there will be no more carve-outs to the carbon tax.

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Tampa Bay Lightning select Victor Hedman as captain, succeeding Steven Stamkos

Published

6 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.

Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.

“Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”

The 33-year-old from Sweden was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.

Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.

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Toronto FC Jason Hernandez looks to clean up salary cap and open up the future

Published

6 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – While Toronto FC is looking to improve its position on the pitch, general manager Jason Hernandez is trying to do the same off it.

That has been easier said than done this season.

Sending winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to CF Montreal for up to $1.3 million (all dollar figures in U.S. funds) in general allocation money before the secondary transfer window closed in early August helped set the stage for future moves.

But there have been plenty of obstacles, which Hernandez has been working to clear.

“We feel a lot more confident going into this upcoming off-season that we did the one prior,” said Hernandez. “There’s a level of what I would say booby-traps that were uncovered when I first got the (GM) role at the end of last summer.”

The club is paying off departed forwards Adam Diomande and Ayo Akinola as well as a $500,000 payment due in 2024 to Belgium’s Anderlecht for Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence. That payment was part of the transfer fee for Lawrence, who joined TFC from Anderlecht in May 2021 and was traded to Minnesota United in March 2022.

Diomande was waived while Akinola’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.

“That comes to an end in ’25, which is nice,” said Hernandez. “We had to suffer from a salary cap perspective this season. But those things coming off, the Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty money coming in, we’re going to be in a position to make some good additions, which is positive.”

While MLS clubs are allowed one contract buyout per year, Toronto had already used its on former captain Michel Bradley, who retired after last season. Bradley had previously restructured his contract, deferring money.

TFC’s only other move during the summer transfer window was the signing of free-agent defender Henry Wingo. Hernandez said the club knew going into the window that it was likely limited to the one acquisition “unless other business happened”

“We knew we had this bucket of money and we knew we were going to go get Henry,” said Hernandez.

While the sale of the highly touted Marshall-Rutty opened up other possibilities, it came on the eve of the transfer window closing. And the team did not like what it saw in the free-agent market.

“A lot of the opportunities we were presented in the free agency space felt more like a short-term, Band-Aid decision versus what actually the club probably needs.”

Hernandez was not willing to take in players who came with a “club-friendly” salary cap charge in 2024 and a much bigger number in 2025.

Instead, Toronto promoted forward Charlie Sharp and wingback Nate Edwards to the first team from TFC 2 ahead of last Friday’s roster freeze.

MLS teams are operating on a salary budget of $5.47 million this season, which covers up to 20 players on the senior roster (clubs can elect to spread that number across 18 players). But the league has several mechanisms that allow those funds to go further, including using allocation money (both general and targeted) to buy down salaries.

Designated players only count $683,750 — the maximum salary charge — against the cap no matter their actual pay. Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne is actually earning $15.4 million with fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi collecting $6.295 million and Canadian Richie Laryea $1.208 million.

Hernandez says Laryea’s contract can — and “very likely” will — be restructured so as to remove the designated player status.

There are benefits in going with just two designated players rather than three.

Teams that elect to go with two DPs can sign up to four players as part of the league’s “U22 Initiative.” The pluses of that structure include a reduced salary cap charge for the young players and up to an extra $2 million in general allocation money.

Hernandez says the club is currently pondering whether that is the way to go.

Captain Jonathan Osorio who is earning $836,370 this season, restructured his deal to allow the team to sign Laryea as a DP. In doing so, Osorio had his option year guaranteed so his contact runs through 2026.

Hernandez and coach John Herdman will have decisions to make come the end of the year.

The contracts of goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ($94,200), defenders Kevin Long ($277,500), Shane O’Neill ($413,000) and Kobe Franklin ($100,520), midfielder Alonso Coello ($94,050) and Brandon Servania ($602,710), and forward Prince Owusu ($807,500) — all on the club’s senior roster — expire at the end of 2024 with club options to follow.

While there is more work to do, Hernandez believes TFC is on the right road.

Toronto, which finished last in the league at 4-20-10 in 2023, went into Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus in a playoff position at eighth in the East at 11-15-3.

“By every metric, we are miles ahead of where we were at this point last year,” said Hernandez.

“That’s a low bar, so that’s not saying much,” he added.

But he believes TFC is “quite competitive” when it has all its players at its disposal.

“To get results in this final stretch, we’re going to need our prominent players to really show up and have big performances, and be supported by the rest of the cast.”

After Columbus, TFC plays at Colorado and Chicago and hosts the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami. The club also travels to Vancouver for the Canadian Championship final.

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Canada’s Hughes may be what International team has been missing at Presidents Cup

Published

6 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

Mackenzie Hughes might just be what the International team needs as this year’s Presidents Cup.

Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., is one of three Canadians on the squad competing in the match-play event at Royal Montreal Golf Club next week.

His putting skills, cool demeanour under pressure, pre-existing connections with teammates and clubhouse leadership could help the team — made up of non-American players outside Europe — end a nine-tournament losing skid to the United States at the biennial event.

“I’ve had this one circled on the calendar for a few years now,” said Hughes on joining fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners as captain’s picks on the 12-player International team. “I pretty much knew that when it was announced the tournament would be in Canada and that Mike Weir was going to be the captain, you pretty much knew where that was going to go.

“To get that call from (Weir) is really special because he’s the guy that I looked up to, we all looked up to, as Canadian golfers.”

Pendrith and Conners are returning to the team after a disappointing 17 1/2 to 12 1/2 loss to the United States at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. in 2022.

Hughes was ranked 14th on the International team standings in 2022 and could have easily been included on that squad after Australia’s Cameron Smith and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann were ruled ineligible after jumping ship to the rival LIV Golf circuit.

However, captain Trevor Immelman of South Africa instead chose the lower ranked Christiaan Bezuidenhout (16th) of South Africa, Pendrith (18th), South Korea’s Kim Si-woo (20th) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (25th).

“I certainly wanted to be on that team but also I understood the picks,” said Hughes, who lives in Charlotte and plays at Quail Hollow regularly. “I think that like a lot of guys that don’t get picked you more so look back on your own play and I wish I had made that selection easier for them.

“I didn’t do myself any favours in the six weeks leading up to it and that’s a hard pill to swallow.”

It may have been a costly oversight on Immelman’s part, as finishing holes was an issue for the International team in 2022 and Hughes is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. This season he’s third in shots gained around the green and fifth in shots gained from putting.

“It doesn’t mean that just because I was there it would have turned the tide, but I’d like to think maybe I could have helped,” said Hughes. “That’s why you play the matches. You have to get out there and do it.”

This year Hughes made it easier for Weir, the Canadian golf legend from Brights Grove, Ont., to choose him. Hughes is 51st in the FedEx Cup Fall standings and has made the cut seven tournaments in a row, including a tie for fourth at last week’s Procore Championship.

“Mac played very solidly all year. Really like his short game, an all-around short game,” said Weir on Sept. 3 after announcing his captain’s picks. “He’s one of the elite and best short game guys on the PGA Tour

“I also love Mac’s grit. So that was the reason I picked him.”

Hughes’s intangible qualities go beyond grit.

He, Pendrith and Conners will arrive at Royal Montreal as a unit within the International squad, having become close friends while playing on Kent State University’s men’s golf team before turning pro. They’re also part of a group of Canadians, including Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., that regularly practice together before PGA Tour events.

“To have those guys with me is really icing on the cake, it’s very special,” said Hughes. “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often: to play this kind of team competition, which is already hard to do, but to play with some of your best friends, it almost seems scripted.”

An 11-year professional, Hughes has also been a member of the PGA Tour’s player advisory council the past two years and has been an outspoken advocate for making professional golf more accessible to fans.

Although Weir relied heavily on analytics to make his captain’s selections, Hughes’s character came up again and again when asked why he was named to the team.

“I just have a gut feeling with Mac that he has what it takes in these big moments,” said Weir. “They’re big pressure moments, and I have a feeling he’s going to do great in those moments.”

DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., continues his chase for a spot in the Europe-based DP World Tour’s playoffs. The top 50 players on the Race to Dubai standings make the DP World Tour Championship and Cockerill moved eight spots up to 39th in the rankings after tying for ninth at last week’s Irish Open. He’ll be back at it on Thursday at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.

KORN FERRY TOUR — Myles Creighton of Digby, N.S., is ranked 38th on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. He leads the Canadian contingent into this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He’ll be joined at Ohio State University Golf Club — Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio by Edmonton’s Wil Bateman (53rd), Etienne Papineau (65th) of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Sudarshan Yellamaraju (99th) of Mississauga, Ont.

CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary’s Stephen Ames is the lone Canadian at this week’s Pure Insurance Championship. He’s No. 2 on the senior circuit’s points list. The event will start Friday and be played at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Monterey, Calif.

LPGA TOUR — There are four Canadians in this week’s Kroger City Championship. Savannah Grewal (97th in the Race to CME Globe Rankings) of Mississauga, Ont., Hamilton’s Alena Sharp (115th), and Maude-Aimee Leblanc (142nd) of Sherbrooke, Que., will all tee it up at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio.

EPSON TOUR — Vancouver’s Leah John is the low Canadian heading into the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. She’s 54th in the second-tier tour’s points list. She’ll be joined by Maddie Szeryk (118th) of London, Ont., and Brigitte Thibault (119th) of Rosemere, Que., at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Ark.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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