Government moves to eliminate consumer carbon pricing for good

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nick Murray, May 28, 2025

The federal government moved on Tuesday to purge consumer carbon pricing from law, effectively putting an end to what was once the keystone of the Liberals’ climate policy.

In a notice of motion tabled in the House of Commons, the government signalled it intends to repeal the law after the government used regulations to end the consumer carbon price in March. That move was Mark Carney’s first official act after becoming prime minister.

That move fulfilled a promise he made during his Liberal leadership run, having called the carbon pricing policy “too divisive.”

The Conservatives claimed during the election campaign that Carney would end up bringing back consumer carbon pricing because the law itself hadn’t been repealed — even though Parliament was not sitting when the policy was ended.

“I call it the ‘carbon tax con job,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a news conference the day Carney cancelled the consumer carbon price on March 14.

“He’s going to hide the consumer carbon tax for 60 days, and if he’s re-elected, he’ll bring it back bigger than ever, with no rebate.”

In March Carney used a regulation to set the price of the consumer carbon price to zero. However the government is now moving to repeal the law which enabled the policy, effectively ending it for good — along with the rebate Canadians received from it.

A report from the Canadian Climate Institute in 2024 found that consumer carbon pricing would cut far fewer emissions than a price applied to big industrial emitters. The pricing system for industry accounted for about 80 per cent of total emissions cuts from carbon pricing overall.

Carney has promised to strengthen the industrial policy but has not said how or when that will happen.

Canadian oil and gas companies have pleaded with Carney to repeal the industrial carbon price as well, arguing it has undermined their competitiveness against foreign oil and gas producers.

A document outlining the government’s plan for repealing the consumer pricing portion of the law says it will retroactively repeal all charging provisions in the law back to April 1, 2025, to align with the regulatory changes made back in March.

It says rebate provisions will be repealed as of October and registration provisions will be repealed to give registrants until the end of October to file rebate claims. All remaining provisions are to be repealed effective April 1, 2035.

“This would provide continuity and certainty for final wind-down activities, including CRA administrative processes that may continue to rely on existing rules,” the document says.

“Subject to the normal limitation periods in the (Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing) Act, the CRA would also continue to have legal authority to make reassessments, and charge payers to file amended returns, in respect of fuel charge obligations that accrued prior to April 1, 2025.”

The Liberals promised a suite of crime measures. Here’s what they’re taking on

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Anja Karadeglija, May 25, 2025

After an election which saw the Conservatives campaign heavily on crime while the Liberals promised stricter measures for offences like violent car thefts, the new minority Liberal government has a stack of new crime policies to implement.

Lisa Kerr, an associate professor at the Queen’s University law school, said the proposals are “all, generally speaking, in the direction of being tougher on crime, but in ways that are targeted to more serious offenders.”

She said they will “likely still preserve discretion for Crown prosecutors and judges to respond in appropriate ways to individual cases.”

The proposals include tougher bail and sentencing guidelines for some crimes, and the creation of new criminal offences involving intimidation at schools and places of worship, as well as online sexploitation.

Justin Piché, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said the moment reminds him of when Bill Clinton became president of the United States and put forward laws to increase the use of policing and prisons and impose steeper sentences.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s because he believed in them. I think it was because he didn’t want to get outflanked on the right on these issues and lose power and the ability to govern more broadly,” he said.

He said the Liberals didn’t want crime “to be an issue for them, and that’s clear in the kinds of policies that they’re promoting.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent much of the recent federal election campaigning against what he dubbed the “hug-a-thug” criminal justice policies of the previous Liberal government. He promised to counter those policies with measures such as mandatory life sentences for multiple offences.

When experts said a number of those policies would be unconstitutional, Poilievre said he would be willing to use the notwithstanding clause to make them law.

The Liberals put forward a list of crime policies of their own, including a promise to “move aggressively” to implement stricter bail laws for a number of offences.

They committed to making bail more difficult to get for those charged with car thefts involving violence or those conducted for a criminal organization, and for home invasions and some human trafficking and smuggling offences.

Kerr said the move to establish a reverse onus for bail for these crimes — which moves the burden of proof from the prosecutor to the accused — is “likely a response to some of the heated rhetoric around bail that was part of the federal election.”

But she said those who make decisions in bail court “are already attentive to public safety in these cases, and we have seen ever-expanding rates of pretrial confinement in a province like Ontario for decades.”

Michael Spratt, an Ottawa-based criminal defence lawyer, said people with prior records who were on bail when arrested, and those who used weapons to commit crimes, already “face an uphill battle” to get bail.

“Promising to crack down or to treat those cases seriously ignores the fact that our courts already do,” he said.

He gave the example of a Liberal election promise to require courts to prohibit individuals from possessing firearms or weapons if they’re charged with a violent offence or an offence involving a criminal organization. Spratt said that’s something that happens already.

Spratt said the Liberals gave “some nods” to tough-on-crime approaches but described some of those measures as “largely performative.”

He argued those promises are “much less damaging to our democratic institutions than the sledgehammer that the Conservatives and Pierre Poilievre wanted to use to performatively get tough on crime by undercutting and overriding Charter protections.”

The Liberal party platform also promised tougher sentencing guidelines for repeat car thieves and violent and organized crimes. They promised to allow for consecutive sentencing for some cases of car theft and for serious and violent offences.

The Liberals also vowed to make it a criminal offence to intentionally obstruct access to places of worship, schools and community centres, or to intimidate or threaten individuals at those locations.

It’s an issue the Conservatives have used to attack the Liberals repeatedly. The Liberals were accused by some Jewish organizations of not doing enough to protect Jewish communities from acts of violence and hate.

Carney also promised to make distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes a criminal offence and to introduce a bill to protect children from online sexploitation and extortion.

Kerr said the proposal on deepfakes is “just a sensible response to changing technology.”

Spratt called it an example of “positive criminal justice reform that’s really necessary to keep up with modern times.”

The measures will be in the hands of new Justice Minister Sean Fraser. It’s not clear which of the promised policies will be government priorities — Carney has released a single mandate letter for all of his ministers and it does not mention the justice policies.

Carney did give a nod to the importance of crime issues to his government by naming Ruby Sahota to the new post of secretary of state for combating crime.

Spratt dismissed the move, using the baseball term “eyewash.”

“It is the performative act of getting your uniform dirty to make it look like you are trying really hard,” he said.

Defence Minister McGuinty says government will move fast to build up military

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, May 28, 2025

The federal government will take “immediate and decisive action” to rebuild Canada’s military, Defence Minister David McGuinty told an audience of military contractors at a trade show in Ottawa Wednesday morning.

He stressed the government’s sense of urgency by citing the speed at which Canada built up its navy at the start of the Second World War. McGuinty also warned that countries around the world are adjusting quickly to a changing global threat environment.

“I read yesterday that the Netherlands let 22 per cent of their public servants go — except for the defence department — to meet their obligations,” he said in a state-of-the-union style speech at the CANSEC trade show in Ottawa.

“Other countries are doing away with national holidays. Others are increasing corporate taxes or running larger deficits in anticipation of the troubles that might be forthcoming.”

That comment references Denmark recently abolishing a long weekend holiday called “Great Prayer Day” to bring in more tax revenue in an attempt to meet its NATO defence spending target.

The Liberal party’s election platform states that the single largest sum in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s spending plan — more than $30.9 billion — is earmarked for defence over the next four years.

McGuinty’s remarks come just a day after the Liberal government signalled in its throne speech, read by King Charles, that Canada plans to join ReArm Europe, a major European defence procurement pact.

McGuinty said joining the plan will diversify Canada’s defence partnerships and give it access to new opportunities in Europe’s $1.25 trillion defence marketplace.

But McGuinty refused to answer questions from reporters at the event after his speech and ducked out through a back door by the stage.

In an interview with CBC News Tuesday evening, Carney said his government wants to join ReArm Europe by Canada Day.

ReArm Europe is a plan to leverage loans and redraw fiscal rules to pump funds into rearming European nations and building up domestic defence industries.

The initiative was launched after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended U.S. military aid supporting Ukraine’s defence in its ongoing war with Russia, which has recently intensified.

Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo is also set to speak at the CANSEC trade show.

Carney spoke about the ReArm plan with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in March, not long after he first took office. He also quickly arranged a trip to the U.K. and France to bolster relationships with those major arms-producing nations.

Speaking with reporters at the CANSEC trade show, Royal Canadian Airforce Commander Lt.-Gen. Eric Kenny said it’s important to have a strong supply chain in place for times of crisis. 

“The lessons that we’re seeing that through the brutal war in Ukraine and the loss of countless of lives unnecessarily by the illegal invasion of Russia … show us that we need to be prepared for potential future threats,” he said. 

“ReArm Europe is one of those ways of diversifying portfolios, and I think it’ll probably be good for Canadian business.”

Canada’s commitment to ReArm comes at a time of profound trade tensions with the U.S., which has long been its most important trading and security partner and remains a key part of its military supply chains.

It also comes as Trump continues to pressure Canada and other NATO allies to ramp up defence spending.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday that he expects NATO allies to commit to spending five per cent of their GDP on defence at the NATO meeting in The Hague next month.

That would amount to a massive hike in Canada’s defence budget requiring tens of billions of dollars in new spending.

Roughly 1.5 per cent of that five per cent commitment may end up being accounted for through broader investments in things like defence infrastructure and cyber security.

Some experts warn Canada’s persistent low level of defence spending is making it increasingly isolated in NATO.

McGuinty will head to Brussels for a meeting of NATO defence ministers next week.

Liberal caucus to consider process for removing an unpopular party leader

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, May 25, 2025

The Liberal caucus is gathering today on Parliament Hill for the first time since the April election to prepare for the start of Parliament — and to decide whether to adopt a process to eject a party leader unwilling to leave.

The meeting follows Liberal MPs’ roller-coaster experience with former leader Justin Trudeau, who rejected calls from caucus for him to step down before finally announcing his resignation a few weeks after his finance minister Chrystia Freeland quit in December.

The caucus is expected to vote on whether to adopt the Reform Act for the first time, although that vote would not place Prime Minister Mark Carney in any danger any time soon.

Adopting the Reform Act would give Liberal MPs a method to remove a party leader — the same method the Conservatives used to oust Erin O’Toole from the leadership after the Tories lost the 2021 election.

If adopted, it would mean just a fifth of the party’s MPs could move to trigger a leadership review.

That would allow MPs to boot their leader if a majority of the caucus votes to do so in a secret ballot.