Canada

Premier Scott Moe is pausing Saskatchewan's industrial carbon tax.

The decision targets the carbon tax rate under the Output-Based Performance Standards (OBPS) program, which taxes large industrial emitters. The pause will go into effect on April 1.

"We have always stood from day one against this tax," said Premier Scott Moe on Thursday. "We don't think it is in any way an environmental tax, but ultimately is preventing investment and enhancing the inflationary costs that we are experiencing as Canadians."

Statistics Canada self-reported data shows that women and men both report having experienced physical assaults from partners at similar rates (23 per cent versus 17 per cent, respectively), but Sheehy points out the nature of those assaults and their impact are often vastly different.

The data shows women are considerably more likely to experience the most severe forms of intimate partner violence, including more devastating physical injuries and emotional suffering.

Women are also four to five times more likely to die at the hands of their partners than men are. Saskatchewan's 2024 Domestic Violence Death Review Report found that 83 per cent of homicide victims were female and 82 per cent of perpetrators were male. The review also found that when it comes to the perpetrators' history of violence, 64 per cent had prior police involvement with the victim.

Canadian oil producers selling crude to U.S. refiners are enjoying a significant windfall, and they have one man to thank: President Donald Trump.

The main Canadian crude grades typically trade at a discount to benchmark U.S. crude due to transportation costs and its grade, and the tariff threat initially caused that gap to widen.

But in recent weeks, the discount for Western Canada Select (WCS) delivered in Hardisty, Alberta has steadily shrunk, hitting $9.75 a barrel this week, the smallest since late November 2020, according to LSEG data.

Quebec nationalism and provincial issues like language, immigration and secularism often loom large in federal election campaigns, but Trump's tariffs and threat of making Canada the 51st state has reshaped the campaign so far.

"It's weighing heavily on Quebecers the same way that it's weighing on Canadians," said Sébastien Dallaire, executive vice-president with the polling firm Leger.

"It makes it harder to talk about Quebec sovereignty when the whole country is being threatened by our giant neighbour."

Both the Liberals and CPC are proposing tax cuts to the lowest tax bracket:

much of the benefit of this tax cut will go to the best-off: they get the same tax cut as everyone else, on the first $57,375 of their income. As for the poorest-off, they will get no benefit whatever. They don’t earn enough to pay taxes. ... Neither is it likely to have much impact on those in the lowest tax bracket. They don’t have much money to save or invest, for starters.

Coyne goes on to suggest the tax cut is pandering: it won't help our productivity, spur investment, or help those who need it. He suggests that directed cuts would achieve those goals. I suggest increasing taxes on higher brackets to cover the $6-15 billion loss.

I suppose it’s more disappointing coming from Mr. Carney. The book on him was supposed to be that he was the principled egghead, the guy with the central banking pedigree and the PhD in economics who’d arrived, with impeccable timing, just as the crisis did, as if the moment had been made for him, when his dull decency and lack of political savvy would prove advantages rather than drawbacks.

But with each day and each cynical policy proposal, Mr. Carney shows he’s more than willing to play the political game, with the same all-consuming lust for power as any 20-years-in-the-game hack.

Speaking of 20-years-in-the-game hacks, Mr. Poilievre, too, has much to answer for. Calculating and obnoxious he may be, but the book on him was always that, underneath it all, he was a dyed-in-the-wool free-marketer, someone who, for better or worse, really would take a bracing Friedmanite approach to the economy based on prices, competition and incentives, rather than regulations, subsidies and free lunches.

Instead, what do we get from both party leaders? Scrapping the carbon tax, and unfunded tax giveaways. Truly this is an election for the ages, a historic choice between dull but unprincipled and nasty but opportunistic.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canadas-existential-election-has-very-quickly-become-unserious/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/41346282

Car prices could rise by $5,000 to $15,000 if a 25% tariff on imported cars is maintained, according to Goldman Sachs.

Automakers are likely to pass on the impact of tariffs to customers by raising prices, and that could close the price gap between Tesla's electric vehicle and competing gas-powered cars, analysts said.

I'll say this: I agree with the article. It's going to suck, but we need to reorganize our economy such that we cannot be afraid of US threats. Canadians need to come together and demonstrate the power of a social culture to overcome individualism.

Any politicians that express willingness to kowtow to Trump lose my support. Period.