The Canadian government is doubling the pollution price rebate rural top-up rate, and implementing a three-year pause to the federal carbon price on deliveries of heating oil in all jurisdictions where the federal fuel charge is in effect, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
The Climate Action Incentive Payment rural top-up rate will be increasing from 10 to 20 per cent of the baseline amount, starting in April 2024. It’s a move Trudeau said is to recognize the higher energy costs rural residents are facing.
“If you live in a rural community, you don’t have the same options that people who live in cities do. We get that. So, this is more money in your pocket to recognize those realities, even as we continue to fight climate change,” Trudeau said.
The temporary pause on the fuel charge on heating oil for homes and small businesses will begin in 14 days, and will apply in all jurisdictions where the federal fuel charge is in effect. The Liberals estimate that this break— slated to be in effect until March 31, 2027—will save an average household that uses heating oil $250 at the current rate.
However, the prime minister acknowledged that with this break, the revenues the government collects will “go down slightly,” and as a result the rebate cheques “will be slightly lower.”
In addition, part of what the Prime Minister’s Office is billing as a “new energy affordability package,” the federal government is also rolling out plans to make it easier for Canadians to switch to an electric heat pump to heat their homes, starting first in Atlantic Canada.
This pilot project will see an upfront payment of $250 for low-to-medium-income households that heat their homes with oil. It also includes plans to enhance a program that provides Canadian households funding to help make the transition from heating oil to more efficient and environmentally-friendly electric heat pumps.
Trudeau said the Liberals are increasing the maximum amount of funding towards the purchase and installation of a heat pump from $10,000 to $15,000. They will be doing this by adding up to $5,000 in “grant funding to match provincial and territorial contributions,” which, according to a PMO release, would mean most households will be able to get their pump for free.
“To be blunt, the price signal on heating oil is not resulting in enough people being able to switch to electric heat pumps, despite people wanting to move to these cleaner home heating options,” Trudeau said. “As a government that is focused on evidence and data and outcomes, and that is listening to Canadians, we heard you.”
PM BACKED BY ATLANTIC MPS
The prime minister made the major announcement backed by his Atlantic caucus, among which there has been divisions over the Liberal carbon pricing plan, given the proportion of Atlantic Canadians who live outside urban areas.
Amid the current cost-of-living crunch, the Liberals have been facing pressure— specifically from Atlantic and rural MPs, as well as regional and opposition politicians—to ease off on its carbon pricing policies.
Introducing the prime minister, Atlantic caucus chair and Kings-Hants, N.S. MP Kody Blois—whose riding Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is holding an “Axe the Tax” rally Thursday night—called it a meaningful announcement for his constituents.
“Today’s adjustments and programming are welcomed as a better way to ensure that our programs are meeting the needs of all Canadians,” Blois said, thanking his Atlantic colleagues for their “steadfast” advocacy.
“But it is important to remember why we have instituted a national price on pollution across the country. It is one of the most effective ways to be able to fight climate change and reduce emissions.”
In an interview with CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Thursday, Poilievre was asked what brought him to Blois’ riding.
“Local residents are furious at their Liberal MP because he’s voted to quadruple the carbon tax… it’s incredible. Quadruple the carbon tax when people can’t afford to eat,” Poilievre said.
Quickly firing off a response to the prime minister’s climb-down, Poilievre accused Trudeau of flip-flopping on his climate plans.
“After plummeting in the polls, a flailing, desperate Trudeau is now flipping and flopping on the carbon tax as I am holding a gigantic axe the tax rally in a Liberal-held Atlantic riding,” Poilievre posted.
‘POLITICALLY ON THE ROPES’
Asked Thursday if this move is in response to Poilievre’s focus on the carbon tax, the prime minister said no. He was also adamant that the federal government will be achieving its environmental targets “even better” now.
“This is an important moment where we’re adjusting policies so that they have the right outcome,” the prime minister said.
Reacting to the news, NDP MPs called the move “long-overdue,” but are pushing for reprieve for families across the country struggling to make ends meet.
“For months, the NDP has been urging the Liberals to drop the GST on home heating fuel to give hardworking Canadians a break on their bills,” said NDP environment critic Laurel Collins and NDP natural resources critic Charlie Angus in a joint statement.
“At the same time, the climate crisis has taken a turn … People expect the government to take action to tackle this crisis.”
CTV News’ official pollster Nik Nanos said Trudeau’s break on the carbon tax is “indicative of a government that’s politically on the ropes.”
“Right now the Conservatives have a massive advantage. They’re in majority territory. The Liberals are poised to lose seats. If an election were held today, they could lose upwards of 13 seats in Atlantic Canada, which is usually bedrock support. So, this is about the Liberals trying to salvage the political situation,” Nanos said.
He said Canadians shouldn’t be surprised if they see further chipping away at the policy as the next campaign nears, in an effort to shore up more support, something climate change advocates are worried about.
“This is about dollars and cents, it’s not necessarily about climate change,” Nanos said. “It’s about paying the bills right now.”
VICTORIA – A new case of chronic wasting disease, an incurable illness that has the potential to decimate deer populations, has been identified in British Columbia.
The B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship says the discovery of the infection in a white-tailed deer hunted in the Kootenay region last month brings the total number of confirmed cases in the province to three, after two cases were confirmed in February.
It says testing by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency lab confirmed the latest infection on Wednesday.
The ministry says the new case occurred within two kilometres of one of the earlier infections in a white-tailed deer near Cranbrook.
Wasting disease affects deer, elk, moose and caribou. It attacks their central nervous system and causes cell death in the brain.
The ministry says there is no treatment or vaccine and the disease is always fatal.
The ministry says there is no direct evidence the disease can be transmitted to humans, but Health Canada recommends people do not eat meat from an infected animal, since cooking is not able to destroy the abnormal protein that causes the illness.
In July, the B.C. government introduced mandatory testing for the disease in deer, elk and moose killed in certain zones in the Kootenay region.
The first two cases identified in B.C. were a male mule deer killed by a hunter and a female white-tailed deer killed in a road accident.
Other steps included removing urban deer from Cranbrook and Kimberley.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
MONTREAL – Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, but said the move will not jeopardize the manufacturer’s planned electric vehicle battery plant in Quebec — though hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the parent company could be lost.
Amid a sputtering global market for EVs, the Sweden-based outfit and several subsidiaries filed for a court-supervised reorganization of its debt and assets under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.
However, Northvolt said its Canadian subsidiary is financed separately and “will continue to operate as usual outside of the Chapter 11 process.”
The Northvolt plant, dubbed Northvolt Six and slated for construction about 25 kilometres east of Montreal, amounts to a $7-billion undertaking that aims to churn out battery cells and cathode active material for electric vehicles.
“I see no reason today to think that we won’t do it as planned,” said Paolo Cerruti, Northvolt co-founder and CEO of Northvolt North America, which oversees the project, in an interview.
“Activity on the site is daily and very intense, and there are trucks every day and around 150 people working.”
Nonetheless, concerns around Northvolt’s financial solvency have raised questions about a project to which Quebec and Ottawa have pledged $2.4 billion in funding.
“This was not the desired scenario, no one is hiding it, we would have liked it to proceed differently,” said Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette at a news conference Thursday.
The province granted Northvolt a $240-million secured loan to help buy the land for the plant in Quebec’s Montérégie region.
The government also invested $270 million in parent company Northvolt AB.
“If there’s an amount at risk, it’s this one,” Fréchette said. She noted that “we’ll have an idea of the future of this amount” only when the restructuring process wraps up.
The province has no intention of investing more money in Northvolt, the minister added.
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s pension fund manager, has also poured $200 million into the Swedish company.
In September, Northvolt announced it would shrink its operations in Europe and lay off 1,600 employees in Sweden, or about one-fifth of its workforce.
The company recently sold its site in Borlänge, Sweden, where it was poised to build a factory for cathode materials — metal oxides that comprise a key component of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars.
Last month, Cerruti suggested the company may have been overly ambitious, but said it had no intention of asking the provincial or federal governments for more money for its planned battery plant in southwest Quebec.
“Northvolt Six is an essential component of the company’s future and we remain fully committed to seeing it through,” he said in a statement Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index gained more than 350 points Thursday in a broad rally led by energy and technology stocks, while U.S. markets also rose, led by a one-per-cent gain on the Dow.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 354.22 points at 25,390.68.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 461.88 points at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 index was up 31.60 points at 5,948.71, while the Nasdaq composite was up 6.28 points at 18,972.42.
The Nasdaq lagged an otherwise decent day for Wall St., rising just 0.03 per cent as it was dragged down by Google parent Alphabet and some of its tech giant peers.
The tech company’s stock fell 4.6 per cent after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break it up by forcing a sale of the Chrome web browser.
Amazon shares traded down 2.2 per cent while Meta and Apple both moved lower as well.
After a substantial run for major tech stocks this year, that kind of news “shakes people a bit,” said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J. Zechner Associates.
Meanwhile, semiconductor giant Nvidia saw its stock tick up modestly by 0.5 per cent after it reported earnings Wednesday evening.
The company yet again beat expectations for profit and revenue, and gave a better revenue forecast for the current quarter than expected.
But expectations for Nvidia have been so high amid the optimism over artificial intelligence that even beating forecasts wasn’t enough to send its stock flying the way it has in previous quarters, said Zechner.
Nvidia essentially caps earnings season in the U.S., with companies largely beating expectations, said Zechner — though those expectations weren’t exactly lofty for companies outside the tech and AI sphere, he added.
The Dow led major U.S. markets as the post-election hopes for economic growth continued to fuel a broadening of market strength, said Zechner.
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, said Zechner, and there’s no guarantee he will do what he’s promised.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, but for now the markets seem to be assuming that whatever comes of this, the U.S. will continue to lead global growth,” he said.
However, some of Trump’s promises — chief among them widespread tariffs on imports — have sparked bets that inflation may rear its head again.
The market has pared back its expectations for interest rate cuts as a result, said Zechner.
“Nobody’s talking about a half-point cut, that’s for sure,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.63 cents US compared with 71.46 cents US on Wednesday.
The January crude oil contract was up US$1.35 at US$70.10 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$3.48 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$23.20 at US$2,674.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was down three cents at US$4.13 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
