Canada

Opinion piece by David McLaughlin. a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government.

It’s time to embrace “peace, order and good government” as the governing leitmotif for the turbulent year ahead.

It was the British Empire of the day that granted us this phrase. Today we are confronted by three contemporary strands of imperialism that threaten this notion for Canada in the form of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping. Their imperialistic grasps are purveying intercontinental economic and military insecurity and disruption to friends and enemies alike.

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In the narcissistic personality cult [Trump] inhabits, compromise is impossible. The man who names a class of naval warship after himself while attaching his own name to garner the lustre of a beloved president’s cultural icon, is not one to go quietly into the night.

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Putin faces literally deadly choices in his war against Ukraine next year. Does he continue to try to grind Ukraine down at extraordinary costs to his people and economy or does he settle for a ceasefire and perhaps even a U.S.-imposed peace agreement?

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Xi Jinping shows no signs of abating his own ‘China Shock’ [as he] is relentlessly pursuing state-sponsored dominance in the domains of advanced technology, AI, patents, biotechnology, batteries, and critical minerals. Leveraging a deliberately undervalued Yuan currency, Chinese exports continue to grow at the expense of domestic manufacturing in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Xi keeps investing heavily in the People’s Liberation Army, building its capacity and lethality. He has refused to moderate China’s military posture against Taiwan and other nations in the South China Sea.

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Canada has its own share of bellicose politicians. They are not imperialists trying to grow their country but separatists trying to shrink theirs. The threat is no less potent, though. There will be a Quebec election in 2026 with a resurgent Parti Québécois likely to win. It is led by a hardliner committed to a flat-out independence referendum.

In Alberta, a citizens-initiated referendum question on secession has been approved by Elections Alberta, asking, “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” It now moves to the next step of gathering sufficient signatures to become official, all but guaranteeing a separation referendum in the province.

The coming year offers too many inflection points for things to go wrong, for Canadians to be complacent or comfortable. Secessionist referendums will sap our internal strength. Trade wars will sap our economic strength. Military threats will sap our financial strength. We are not suitably prepared for any.

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A middle power caught in the middle, Canada cannot acquire the resilience it needs to persevere by indulging in political games abetting more economic risk and social upheaval. Yet, we are inviting just that. Steadiness of purpose — national purpose — is required to get us through this moment. Take the temperature down and lift the country up is what Canada needs. Citizens need to ask this of their governments and leaders and, frankly, of each other.

We could do worse than demand a little more “peace, order and good government” in these troubling times and embrace the new year in true Canadian style.

[Edit for adding "Opinion" to the headline.]

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The federal government’s new “Buy Canadian" policy for procurement is a good step forward, but the fine print points to a risk where companies only appear Canadian on paper and reap the rewards, failing to deliver the intended outcomes for the country, say observers.

Daniel Perry, director of federal affairs at the Canadian Council of Innovators, says the government should sharpen its definition of what's Canadian.

“Companies with a real footprint in Canada, those that invest here, employ Canadians, and innovate domestically will receive a clear advantage when bidding on federal contracts,” Government Transformation, Public Works, and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert, Que.) told reporters during a Dec. 16 policy rollout announcement in Longueuil, Que.

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The new policy sets a mandate for federal departments to prioritize Canadian suppliers and Canadian content when they are buying goods and services. The policy applies to key procurements valued at $25-million and more, and will be extended to contracts valued at $5-million or more by the spring of 2026.

Under the new rules, Canadian suppliers will be awarded additional points during the bid-evaluation process, and will earn more points based on the amount of Canadian content they offer, which includes domestic manufacturing, and research and development.

This policy also requires the use of Canadian-produced steel, aluminum, and wood products in large federal construction and defence contracts valued at $25-million or more, where at least $250,000 worth of these materials are required and a Canadian source of supply is available. Materials must be manufactured or processed in Canada, not simply sold by Canadian companies, says the government.

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“Being a Canadian firm, or a product cannot just mean having a mailbox in Canada or having provisional staff identified as your Canadian leader for a product that is obviously sourced from elsewhere… So there will be work required of the government, working with us and others, to make sure that they are substantively Canadian and not just in name only,” he said.

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“The policy gives explicit weight to Canadian value added alongside price and technical merit. That’s a shift. It moves procurement away from being purely transactional and toward something more strategic, where companies that build and grow in Canada have a real advantage, not just a paper presence,” Perry told The Hill Times.

According to Perry, the government’s definition of what is Canadian is “extremely broad” as it applies to any company that has a Canadian address, some local employees, and pays taxes in Canada. That definition needs to be “sharpened” to clearly benefit companies that retain their intellectual property (IP) in Canada, and are domestically owned, he argued.

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Without proper verification and enforcement, procurement dollars can end up supporting companies whose profits and IP still leave the country, limiting the policy’s real impact, said Perry.

“In a world where our allies are competing on ownership and control of technology, that means the economic upside and IP created through procurement can still flow out of Canada.”

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Contrary to concerns about cataclysmic traffic if the intersection of Portage and Main was opened to pedestrians, the actual impact was, well, almost nil.

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That fear made the intersection focus of countless newspaper columns, radio shows and bar-stool discussions. It made it an issue in the mayoral election of 2014, and the subject of an unsuccessful plebiscite in 2018.

The theme through these years was that change was too risky. Nothing happened until maintenance costs associated with the concourse under the intersection made the status quo too expensive. This past summer, traffic lights were installed in spite of the fear.

And in early December, about six months later, the city reported that … the traffic is fine.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-cities-reform-change-winnipeg-portage-main-toronto-bike-lanes/

The Public Health Agency of Canada is reporting a fifth hospitalization in an E. coli outbreak linked to recalled Pillsbury brand Pizza Pops.

The federal agency says 23 people in seven provinces got sick with the bacterial illness after eating or handling certain flavours of the frozen snack between early October and late November.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled several pepperoni and bacon Pizza Pops on Sunday due to an E. coli contamination that is under investigation.

The outbreak has now reached Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Australian infrastructure and property developer Goodman Group has teamed up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) to establish a EUR 8 billion (CAD 12.9bn, AUD 14.1bn) European data center partnership.

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The 50/50 venture ... will comprise four projects totalling 435MW of primary power and 282MW of IT load, including two in Paris (PAR01 and PAR02), one in Frankfurt (FRA02), and one in Amsterdam (AMS01).

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According to the partners, all projects have secured power connections, planning permits, and have substantially progressed site infrastructure works, which they claim will enable construction commencement by 30 June 2026.

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“A portfolio of this size and quality – located in Europe’s FLAP markets [FLAP is acronym of “Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris”] – is rare. These powered locations are highly sought after to meet the rapidly growing requirement for cloud computing and AI adoption, particularly when they offer speed to market and delivery certainty. The quality and scale of this partnership make it ideal for our long-term relationship with CPP Investments. We’re pleased to be investing alongside them for their entry into the European data center market,” said Greg Goodman, CEO of Goodman Group.

The transaction will follow a phased approach with completion expected by March 2026, subject to closing conditions. The two companies have had a relationship since 2009, with investments across Australia, Asia, the Americas, and Europe.

CPP has made several significant investments in the digital infrastructure space. Most recently, in August, it announced an investment of C$225m (US$160m) to facilitate the expansion of a data center in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

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[Edit typo.]

OTTAWA - The federal government is suspending the planned export ban on single-use plastics due to tariffs and supply chain issues "creating significant pressure on the domestic economy."

The government launched a 70-day consultation about not moving forward with the single-use plastic export ban on Saturday through the Canada Gazette.

https://mstdn.ca/@jeffhorton/115776211836127486

Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty lays out her government's new plan for the First Nations Child and Family Services Program.

The proposal would provide $35.5 billion in funding between now and 2033-34, with an additional commitment of $4.4 billion annually after that.

Here is the press conference (video, 45 min.)