Canada Minute: Issue 84

Canada Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Canadian politics.

📅 This Week In Canada: 📅

• The federal government has taken its first concrete step toward fast-tracking Alberta's proposed West Coast oil pipeline, publishing a notice in the Canada Gazette over the August long weekend that starts a 30-day clock before Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc can formally designate the project under the Building Canada Act. If listed, the pipeline would be the first project to benefit from the law's regulatory shortcuts, under which federal approvals that would normally require separate reviews, including under the Impact Assessment Act and the Species at Risk Act, are automatically granted, with conditions set out later in a single document. The Alberta and federal governments have partnered to build, finance and operate the pipeline, estimated to cost between $35.2 billion and $43.7 billion, with Pembina Pipeline Corporation taking an initial 10% private-sector stake. Ottawa had previously said it would decide by October 1st whether to list the project. A federal source linked the pipeline's move ahead of four other national-interest projects to the timing of Alberta's independence referendum, scheduled for October 19th. NDP Leader Avi Lewis criticized the move, warning that approving the project before consulting First Nations would create "a pipeline to the courts".
  
  
• The federal government is set to reintroduce a fuel tax next month that it had temporarily suspended, a move most Canadians oppose. In April, Ottawa set the federal excise tax on gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel to zero, effective April 20th, framing it as temporary relief from fuel-price pressures tied to conflict in the Middle East and estimating it would provide over $2.4 billion in tax relief. That suspension is scheduled to end on Labour Day, and as of September 8th the tax will return, adding 10 cents per litre to gasoline and 4 cents per litre to diesel. A Leger poll shared by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found 63% of respondents oppose the increase and 25% support it, with opposition highest among women, people over 55, and prairie residents. Franco Terrazzano, the Federation's federal director, called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to confirm he will not raise gas taxes in September.
  
  
• The federal government gave pay raises to more than 336,000 employees in 2025, or 78% of the federal workforce. Of the 432,566 people employed by Ottawa during the year, roughly 77% of non-executives and 87% of executives received a raise, while fewer than one in 700 saw their pay cut. Over the same period, the government's own reporting shows nearly a third of departments failed to meet their performance targets, and another 10% provided no data on whether they had. A recent Fraser Institute study found that government workers earned a 4.8% wage premium over comparable private-sector workers in 2024. Carney's first budget, released last November, promised to cut the federal public service by about 40,000 jobs by 2028-29, and the Treasury Board reported a drop of 12,683 positions over the past year.
  
  
• Conservative MP Larry Brock announced last Thursday that he will resign on September 18th, leaving federal politics to take a role with the Brantford Crown Attorney's office in Ontario. Brock, first elected in 2021 and the party's justice critic until stepping down earlier this summer, won his Brantford-area riding with 52% of the vote in the last election. He will be the seventh MP to leave Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's caucus since the 2025 election. Four have crossed the floor to the Liberals, one was appointed to the Senate, and another, Saskatchewan's Cathay Wagantall, is set to step down on August 31st. In a statement, Brock voiced support for Poilievre, describing the Conservatives as "a government in waiting".
  
  
• A new Abacus Data survey finds that most Canadians in seven provinces want their governments to keep US alcohol off store shelves, even as President Donald Trump's latest tariffs loom. Roughly 69% of respondents in British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba, and the four Atlantic provinces said the restrictions should stay, while just 19% wanted American products returned and 11% were unsure, in a poll of 1,363 adults released Thursday. Support was highest in British Columbia at 72% and lowest in Manitoba at 63%. The provincial boycotts, introduced in early 2025 after Trump's "51st state" threats, are among the grievances Trump cited when he ordered 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods, alongside Canada's retaliatory auto tariffs and its dairy import quotas. Those tariffs take effect August 19th. Overall, 54% of respondents said the restrictions should stay until the US lifts its tariffs, even at the risk of further retaliation.
  
  

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨