1)(Update) PM Mark Carney expected to call federal election on Sunday

Courtesy Barrie30.com and  Canadian Press

By Nick Murray, March 20, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to launch a federal election campaign on Sunday and send Canadians to the polls as soon as April 28.

While sources would not confirm the date of the vote, federal campaigns must run at least 37 days.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in January and it is supposed to return on March 24.

But Carney is expected to ask Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament the day before, on March 23. He was in Edmonton Thursday where he spent part of his morning skating with the Edmonton Oilers, wearing a team jersey with his name stitched on the back.

Under Canada’s fixed elections date law, this election — Canada’s 45th — can take place no later than Oct. 20 but can be called earlier.

A Liberal party source, whom The Canadian Press is not naming because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the party’s election plans, said ministerial offices were emptying out on Thursday and that MPs are heading back home to get ready for the campaign.

The source said that local campaigns across the country are getting their offices ready and setting up phones. In some cases, the source said, campaigns started looking for office space weeks ago.

On the Liberal Party of Canada website there are dozens of events listed for everything from training door knockers to setting up sign crews, and some campaign office openings.

The Conservative Party has not responded to inquiries about their election plans.

Poilievre has had multiple news conferences this week with election-friendly promises to hasten the development of Canada’s resources, including critical minerals.

On Thursday, the NDP earned a noteworthy endorsement from the United Steelworkers — which also backed Jagmeet Singh’s party in the previous two campaigns — as the U.S. continues to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports.

The party said it’s working on setting up local offices and will launch its campaign Sunday in Montreal.

Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May confirmed her party’s campaign will also kick off in Montreal on Sunday in the riding of Outremont, where fellow co-leader Jonathan Pedneault will be running.

The election comes at an opportune time for Carney’s Liberals, who — for the first time since 2022 — have surpassed the Conservatives in several polls. The Liberals’ polling resurgence is being driven in large part by Canadians’ anxieties about the Trump administration in the U.S.

The parties have been busy nominating candidates and organizing leaders’ tours; to date, the Liberals have nominated only about half of a full slate of candidates. The Conservatives, NDP and Green Party each have nominated candidates in more than 200 of the 343 ridings.

Carney appeared to be playing candidate catch up snagging some bigger names to run for the Liberals in recent days including former Canadian television journalist Evan Solomon and Carlos Leitão, a former Liberal finance minister in Quebec.

The Conservatives have a sizable war chest for the election after a banner fundraising year, having raised almost $41.8 million in 2024.

The Liberals raised about $15.2 million and the NDP took in close to $6.3 million in donations over 2024 — though the Liberals are likely to see a sizable influx of cash in the wake of their leadership race, which saw Carney alone raise more than $4.5 million in less than two months.

Carney was elected as Liberal leader to succeed Trudeau on March 9 and was sworn in as prime minister along with his new cabinet on March 14.

He made his first trip abroad this week, visiting France and the U.K. to send a statement about Canada’s trade and security alliances, before making a stop in Iqaluit to assert Canada’s sovereignty in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats.

Consumers could find ‘meaningful savings’ as carbon price ends: Desjardins

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Craig Lord, March 19, 2025.

Canadians can expect to feel the absence of the consumer carbon price at the pumps immediately but it may take longer to notice a difference in the price of other goods, a new report released Wednesday suggests.

The analysis by Desjardins Economics comes less than a week after Prime Minister Mark Carney and his new Liberal cabinet ordered that the consumer levy be set to zero on April 1.

The carbon price came with a quarterly rebate to offset the cost of inflation; the final rebate will come in April.

The report suggests that move will push overall inflation down over the next year as a result of Ottawa’s decision to kill the consumer price on carbon pollution.

That could give the Bank of Canada a bit of breathing room on lowering interest rates and supporting the Canadian economy through the trade war with the United States.

A large part of that is because of gas prices.

Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist at Desjardins, said the change means motorists in provinces using federal carbon pricing should notice a drop of almost 18 cents in the price of a litre of gasoline, or about $9 less to fill a 50 L tank.

If the planned hike in the carbon price had gone through, gas prices would have gone up another three cents, instead of down.

“In those jurisdictions, it is going to be very visible and meaningful savings for Canadian households,” said Bartlett.

Desjardins’ analysis also predicts the price of natural gas will fall 12.8 per cent between March and April.

The federal consumer carbon price is active in all provinces and territories but British Columbia, Quebec and Northwest Territories, which had equivalent systems of their own. B.C. announced plans to kill its provincial consumer carbon price in the wake of Carney’s announcement.

The consumer levy is charged on the purchase of more than two dozen input fuels including gasoline, natural gas, propane and coal. The amount of the charge is based on the greenhouse gas emissions of each when burned, sitting at $85 per tonne currently.

Desjardins forecasts that Canadians will see inflation cool more gradually at the grocery store as lower transportation costs tied to the end of consumer price on pollution filter down to the cost of food.

RSM economist Tu Nguyen said just as the consumer carbon price took time to ramp up, it may take a while for Canadians to see the impact of its absence in the prices they pay.

Gasoline prices, for example, depend not only on government tax policy but on prices set globally, which are also affected by shifting levels of demand and interruptions to production.

“Those factors are likely to have a bigger impact overall on gas prices than the carbon tax,” Nguyen said.

The Desjardins report projects that, in the absence of federal consumer carbon pricing, inflation in April will be 0.7 per cent lower than it would have been otherwise.

That’s expected to bring the annual inflation rate down to 2.1 per cent for the month. February’s inflation figures, released Tuesday, showed a surprise jump in inflation to 2.6 per cent, driven largely by the end of Ottawa’s temporary sales tax break.

Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem also estimated a 0.7 per cent drop in inflation due to the elimination of consumer carbon pricing when he spoke to the House of Commons finance committee in May 2024.

Bartlett said inflation should continue easing off at the same rate for roughly a year, and that could “offset” upward pressure on inflation caused by Canada’s retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. levies and a weaker Canadian dollar driving import prices higher.

Nguyen said she thinks the coming price spike from the tariff battle will “outweigh” the impact of ending the consumer carbon tax. She said she sees prices on perishable goods at the grocery store rising first, followed by appliances and other durable goods in the months after.

Desjardins had projected that, with consumer carbon pricing in place, inflation would rise to more than three per cent by the end of 2025. It’s now forecasting inflation of around 2.5 per cent at the end of the year.

After the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cut last week, Macklem suggested that while monetary policy could “smooth” the impacts of the trade war, the central bank remains focused on keeping inflation in check.

A lower inflation rate in the near-term tied due to the end of consumer carbon pricing could give the Bank of Canada a bit more freedom to respond to the economic hits while worrying a bit less about inflation, Bartlett said.

Carney announces plans to boost Canada’s military footprint in the Arctic

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, March 19, 20205

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Ottawa will expand the Canadian Armed Forces’ presence in the Arctic and turn to Australia’s over-the-horizon radar tech to monitor threats from adversaries such as China and Russia.

Carney also pledged $253 million in new funding for Indigenous reconciliation initiatives in the North.

They include $94 million to upgrade power plants in Nunavut and $20 million for a hydroelectricity project to help move northerners off diesel.

Carney made the announcements during a short stopover in Iqaluit on the return leg of his first official trip abroad, during which the prime minister met with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Carney is widely expected to trigger an early election in the coming weeks or days.

The Liberal party has enjoyed a sharp rebound in the polls in recent months, driven by U.S. President Donald Trump’s frequent threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty and Justin Trudeau’s dramatic exit from federal politics.

Carney is just days into the job after winning the Liberal leadership in a landslide a little more than a week ago and being sworn into office on Friday.

Carney spoke with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Tuesday morning about a new partnership on a long-range over-the-horizon radar system.

Senior government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said ahead of Tuesday’s event that Australia’s system is sophisticated, will be ready sooner than competing options – as early as 2029 – and is expected to win praise within NORAD.

The senior officials said the footprint of the planned radar installation in southern Ontario will also be much smaller than competing options and will consist of a series of monitoring pillars stationed across 1.3 kilometres.

The Trudeau government announced the $6.9 billion over-the-horizon radar project about two years ago, The system is being built to monitor airspace from the Canada-U.S. border to the Arctic for incoming missiles.

The Canadian Armed Forces currently has year-round presence in Alert, Nvt. The Carney government has said it will spend $420 million on setting up another three to four similar operations in the region; the locations have not yet been determined.

The government has earmarked $94 million to upgrade power plants in Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Igloolik and Iqaluit.

The Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation hydroelectric project will get $20 million in federal funding for the engineering, while construction is set to start in 2029.

Carney announced $74 million for housing development, with $66 million going toward building and repairing homes across Nunavut.

(Updated) Ottawa caps non-sufficient fund fees and places other limits starting March 2026

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, March 19, 2025

Ottawa has put in place new rules limiting the fees banks can levy on customers who don’t have enough in their accounts to cover a cheque or other pre-authorized charges.

The updates, included in an order-in-council last week, cap non-sufficient funds fees at $10 for personal deposit accounts, prohibit charging more than one NSF fee in a period of two business days, and prohibit charging an NSF fee when an account shortfall is under $10.

The Finance Department said Wednesday that the changes will take effect starting March 12, 2026.

The government announced in the budget last year that it would reduce the fees, which currently run close to $50 at major banks, saying they disproportionately affect low-income Canadians and people with poor credit history.

Customers have sometimes seen high charges for being only pennies short. In a class-action lawsuit settlement against TD Bank Group last year, the lead plaintiff had been charged $96 for being 45 cents short on a PayPal bill after the merchant tried to put the purchase through twice.

While there’s limited data on NSF fees, the federal government said last year that it estimates the proposed changes represent a $5.1 billion benefit to consumers over 10 years, and a $4.8 billion cost to banks, based on net present values.

It also estimated that banks charged NSF fees on a total of 15.8 million transactions in 2023, and that about a third of Canadians get hit with an NSF fee in any year.

Debit purchases aren’t generally subject to the fee because such transactions are rejected if there isn’t enough money in the account. 

The Canadian Bankers Association said in a statement that the fees encourage responsible banking behavior, and that to avoid the fees, customers can regularly monitor their account balances, set up balance alerts, and consider overdraft protection services.

It said that with the regulations finalized, banks will focus on making the system and process changes needed to comply by the start date. 

There were some changes to the final rules from those proposed, including shortening the period when a consumer can’t be charged twice to two business days from 72 hours. 

A proposed rule to require a warning to customers about a potential charge and to give a grace period to fix the problem appears to have been dropped, as was a requirement that banks disclose statistics on the fees such as total revenue and total number of NSF fees charged.

Prime Minister Mark Carney to visit France, U.K. for first foreign trip

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, March 15, 2025

Mark Carney will make his first foray on the world stage as Canada’s 24th prime minister on a trip to France and the U.K. in coming days.

He has no plan yet to visit the United States.

Carney says he was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for visits to reinforce historical relationships and discuss trade and security.

Carney says he looks forward to speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump at the “appropriate moment.”

He was sworn in to succeed Justin Trudeau at a ceremony at Rideau Hall Friday, along with a leaner Liberal cabinet as an election call is expected soon.

In his first press conference as prime minister, Carney said his government will focus on growing the economy, making life more affordable and making the country more secure.

Disability, gender equality advocates slam Carney’s elimination of cabinet positions

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Ireland, March 14, 2025

Advocacy groups are panning Prime Minister Mark Carney for eliminating the cabinet positions dedicated to people with disabilities and women and gender equality issues.  

Carney was sworn in as prime minister Friday, along with a slimmed-down cabinet of 23 ministers, down from 36 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. 

Kamal Khera, the former minister for diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, is now the minister of health — and her previous position was eliminated. 

The position of minister for women and gender equality and youth, a role previously held by Marci Ien, is also gone. 

Disability Without Poverty’s national director, Rabia Khedr, said the cabinet decisions send “a clear signal that accessibility and the inclusion of people with disabilities are not a high priority.”

Abortion Care Canada and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario also issued statements expressing concern about the government’s commitment to equality. 

“The removal of these roles sends a strong message about the federal commitment to supporting women, trans and non-binary people, and the government’s dedication to building communities which support the diversity of people in Canada,” Abortion Care Canada said in an emailed statement. 

“To not have these ministers engaging in key strategic decisions, policy development, and serving as advisers to the prime minister is an alarming development, with potentially devastating impacts on our communities.”

The elementary teachers group called the removal of the positions “deeply troubling.”

“This is a time where a renewal of support is needed as the most vulnerable and oppressed groups in our society are living in fear due to the political uncertainty surrounding them. With the levels of discrimination and restriction of equality rights in the United States and globally, Canada must support and promote the rights of women and all equality seeking groups,” it said in an emailed statement. 

Khedr of Disability Without Poverty said people with disabilities are being “sidelined, due to the political crisis created by the U.S.A. and the imminent election.”

A government spokesperson told The Canadian Press that the previous departments working on women, gender, diversity, inclusion and disability issues will continue to operate even if they don’t have a dedicated minister. 

The department Women and Gender Equality Canada will now report to Steven Guilbeault as the minister of Canadian culture and identity, the spokesperson said.

Guilbeault will also take on diversity and inclusion, they said. 

The disabilities portfolio will now fall under Steven MacKinnon, minister of jobs and families, the spokesperson said.  

Under Khera as minister, the Canada Disability Benefit was developed and finalized and will take effect later this year.

But the legislation has been widely criticized by many people with disabilities who say the maximum amount of $200 a month will do little to lift them out of poverty. 

“Once again, we are not surprised to find ourselves being left behind,” said Disability Without Poverty’s Khedr in an email after learning the makeup of the new cabinet on Friday. 

Reached by phone later, Khedr said she hoped MacKinnon will prioritize and “champion” disability inclusion and accessibility.

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