Carney points to Brexit, warns Alberta separation push could be ‘dangerous bluff’

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday the Alberta referendum on separation could be a "dangerous bluff," while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith cautioned it's a decision for Albertans to make, not the federal government.

Carney, who was the governor of the Bank of England during and immediately after the Brexit referendum campaign, warned that people in the United Kingdom are still trying to undo the damage caused by that decision a decade later.

"In these separation issues, it is often advanced that, 'Vote for this and it's a free option. Vote for this and we will strengthen our hand in a future negotiation.' That is a very dangerous bluff," Carney told a news conference in Ottawa on Monday.

Smith said last week her government will pose a question in the referendum planned for October asking Albertans if they think the province should remain part of Canada or should begin the legal process for a separation referendum.

Experts explain how Indigenous rights are a major hurdle for Alberta secession

EDMONTON - Political scientists say Indigenous treaty rights represent a significant legal hurdle for separatists in Alberta, and have brought the debate on secession in Canada into unchartered territory.

"This is a new dynamic ... It's creating a lot of uncertainty," said Andrew McDougall, a lawyer and professor in the University of Toronto's political science department, in an interview Saturday.

"There needs to be consultation with Indigenous peoples, the extent to which is unclear," said Andre Lecours, a University of Ottawa professor.

Premier Danielle Smith announced in a televised address on Thursday that an Oct. 19 referendum question will ask Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or start the process to hold a binding referendum on separation.

Highest proportion of people since 2017 say Canada is on the right track: poll

OTTAWA - The number of Canadians who believe the country is heading in the right direction has hit its highest percentage since 2017, according to a new poll from Abacus Data.

The poll published Sunday, which can't be assigned a margin of error because it was conducted online, said 47 per cent of people believe Canada is heading in the right direction, while 39 per cent say the country is on the wrong track.

Meanwhile, the poll suggests 76 per cent of Canadians see the rest of the world as moving in the wrong direction. That figure increases to 80 per cent when the question was about the United States

Pollster David Coletto said that this is reflected by respondents saying they see Canada as a stabilizing force in a turbulent world.

‘This country cannot be broken:’ Campaign to keep Alberta in Canada launches

EDMONTON - Hundreds of people in red-and-white clothing waved Canadian flags, cheered as honking cars passed by and sang "O Canada" at a launch event for a campaign aiming to stop Alberta from quitting Confederation.

Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's former deputy premier, said his Forever Canadian campaign will see him and hundreds of volunteers zigzagging from the province's north to the south in his "Unity Bus" to encourage Albertans to vote for staying in Canada in an October referendum.

"I will be on the road for the next six months, riding in this bus from town to town, campground to campground," he told the crowd outside his campaign's new headquarters in Edmonton's northwest.

"This is definitely the most important vote in the history of this province. This country cannot be broken up by anybody."

Proponents of solar power push for provincial infrastructure investment to boost grid resilience

In the early 1970s, licence plates were stamped with the slogan “Sunny Manitoba” — a nod to long summer days, crisp blue winter skies and frequent sun dogs reflecting off of blinding white snow. While the slogan later changed, Manitoba’s ranking as Canada’s second-sunniest province has not.

Despite that sunlit reputation, solar power — one of the most-developed renewable energy sources — makes up just a small fraction of the province’s electricity grid.

“It’s extremely marginal, especially when you compare to other jurisdictions like Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said James Wilt, policy development manager at Climate Action Team Manitoba.

Manitoba boasts a predominantly emissions-free grid, with 97 per cent of its power generated by a network of hydroelectric dams. But the provincial utility, Manitoba Hydro, has forecasted that its once-abundant renewable energy source will soon fall short. There is growing demand for power amid the electrification of sectors like transportation and heating, and the rapidly growing interest in developing electricity-hungry data centres. Combined with more unpredictable water levels owing to climate factors like extreme drought, it’s all prompted the utility to warn that capacity could run out as soon as 2030.

Banning YouTube removes tools from schools

It’s been a long time since the norm for audio-visual presentations in classrooms took the form of a slide projector, or a TV cart with a VHS player and a small cathode-ray tube set.

But Manitoba’s premier is asking himself something lately: are the modern equivalents good for schools?

Premier Wab Kinew said during a recent CBC interview that he does not think YouTube, the popular video-streaming site, should be used in classrooms. He made the comment during a discussion on his broader effort to keep kids aged 15 and younger from accessing YouTube and other social media apps.

The comments have caused some consternation among educators who, while recognizing YouTube in general is not a great source of information for young people, believe it nevertheless offers access to a solid repository of educational video content provided by reputable sources.

Vast marine conservation reserve, bigger than P.E.I., to protect B.C. central coast

An enormous national marine conservation reserve is being established on British Columbia's central coast, spanning an area larger than Prince Edward Island.

The protected area, named Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon, is the result of an agreement between six coastal First Nations and the provincial and federal governments.

An official says the area is around 6700 sq. km and will be operated by Parks Canada along with its Indigenous and federal partners.

The reserve is within the Great Bear Sea, a diverse marine ecosystem that covers more than half of B.C.'s coast and includes glass sponge reefs, salmon, killer whales and migrating humpbacks.

Alberta is to vote on whether to hold a separation referendum. Here’s how we got here

Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that Albertans will be going to the polls Oct. 19 to vote on whether there should be a future binding referendum on the province quitting Canada.

Here's a timeline of pivotal moments in Alberta's separatism debate:

Oct. 28, 1980 — The federal government ignites widespread alienation in Alberta with the National Energy Program, which seeks to cushion the shock of high oil prices through a system that artificially depresses prices for the oil-dependent province. Albertans view it as a federal money grab.

Feb. 17, 1982 — Gordon Kesler of the Western Canada Concept Party of Alberta wins a provincial byelection in the riding of Olds-Didsbury on a platform of Alberta separating from Canada. Later that year, he loses his seat in the general election, even though the party receives nearly 12 per cent of the popular vote.

CRTC triples streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content

OTTAWA - Large TV streaming services like Netflix must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content, the federal broadcast regulator said Thursday.

That’s three times the five-per-cent initial contribution requirement the CRTC set out in 2024, which is being challenged in court by major streamers, including Apple and Amazon.

Contribution requirements for traditional broadcasters, which currently pay between 30 and 45 per cent, will be lowered to 25 per cent.

"The total contributions are expected to stabilize the funding at more than $2 billion in support of Canadian and Indigenous content, such as French-language content and news," the regulator said in a press release.

Alberta legislature committee eyes separation vote as meeting hits bizarre roadblock

EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA - Alberta’s journey toward holding a fall referendum on separation took a bizarre turn Wednesday — straight into another roadblock.

It occurred when the governing United Conservative members on a bipartisan legislature committee introduced a motion to formally ask Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet to initiate a provincewide vote on Alberta's status in Confederation this October.

The motion was expected to pass, given the UCP members on the committee outnumber the Opposition NDP members on it three to two.

But while the motion was still being debated, the UCP caucus published a news release announcing the vote had taken place and that the motion had passed.

Winnipeg police get behind Ottawa’s ‘lawful access’ bill

Winnipeg Police Service Deputy Chief Cam Mackid said Wednesday the force fully supports the federal government’s proposed lawful access bill.

The legislation would give law enforcement and the national spy agency broader access to digital data following judicial authorization.

Part of the bill would require social media, internet service providers and telecommunication companies to adapt systems to allow for officials to more easily access data, after a warrant is obtained, and order certain providers to retain metadata for up to a year.

The bill has received significant pushback from advocates and technology companies who say it will erode privacy and civil rights and enable excessive surveillance.

Time for change? Province launches survey to review clock changes

The provincial government has asked Manitobans to weigh in on whether to end the seasonal time change.

Premier has everyone’s attention on and about social media; now it’s time for some careful thought

Using social media to condemn social media may seem hypocritical. But when you look at the audience Premier Wab Kinew commands across his social media accounts, there is a certain logic. An admittedly perverse logic, but logic all the same.

Hydro advisory circle brings ‘wealth of Indigenous perspectives’

The board of Manitoba Hydro has appointed an Indigenous advisory circle as part of the Crown corporation’s reconciliation efforts.

Former Fox Lake Cree Nation chief and Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership board chair Robert Wavey will co-chair the group with Manitoba Hydro board chairman Jamie Wilson. The provincial government ordered the creation of the advisory circle in its 2023 mandate letter to Hydro’s board.

“I think we wanted to get everything right on this one,” Wilson said when asked why it has taken more than two years to appoint Indigenous advisers.

“This is a pretty fantastic group of people from a diverse background, including communities that are directly impacted by Hydro development in the past,” the first Indigenous chairman of the Manitoba Hydro board said in an interview Tuesday.

This not just in: treaty rights carry legal force and are protected in the Constitution

More than a century after the numbered treaties were signed across Western Canada, the courts delivered a blunt reminder last week that those agreements are not ancient historical footnotes.

They still carry legal force and governments cannot ignore them.

Two major court rulings — one in Manitoba and one in Alberta — reinforced a reality many Canadians still do not fully understand: treaties between First Nations and the Crown remain constitutionally protected agreements that continue to shape Canadian law, public policy and governments’ obligations today.

The decisions also underscored something else: Canadians would benefit greatly from learning more about treaties, why they were negotiated as Canada expanded westward and why courts continue to uphold Indigenous and treaty rights.

Alberta’s timing targets for West Coast pipeline ‘best-case scenario’: CIBC analysts

CALGARY - The targeted timeline the Alberta government set out for construction to begin on a potential new West Coast oil pipeline is ambitious, with many obstacles yet to clear, analysts at CIBC World Markets wrote in a recent report.

The province aims to submit a proposal to the federal major projects office by July 1, have it designated a project of national interest by Oct. 1 and get shovels in the ground as early as Sept. 1, 2027. Oil could begin to flow around 2033 or 2034, a provincial official told a media background briefing last week.

"While we are encouraged by the continued sense of urgency, we would characterize these timelines as optimistic and reflective of a best-case scenario," analysts Robert Catellier and Rogan Anantharajah wrote in a Monday industry update.

The Alberta government laid out those targets Friday after it and Ottawa finalized one of the last outstanding elements of the energy accord they signed late last year: an agreement on how the market price on carbon is to gradually increase to $130 a tonne by 2040.

Americans are looking back centuries to find Canadian ancestors — and citizenship

Cody Sibley was born and raised in Louisiana, but he always felt his family shared strong ties to Canada thanks to his Acadian ancestors from Nova Scotia.

Sibley said that as an eighth-generation descendant of Acadians, his family's roots could be traced back to "generation zero," Agathe Doucet, who was baptized on Jan. 19, 1710, in Nova Scotia.

He said Doucet married to Pierre Pitre in 1727, but the couple's lives were turned upside down in 1755 when British soldiers arrived at their doors and ordered their expulsion; like many Acadians, they ended up in Louisiana, where the community went on to become known as Cajuns.

Sibley is now among a surge of Americans combing through genealogical records in the hopes of finding a Canadian ancestor — some, like Sibley's, dating back hundreds of years, long before Canada officially existed. They plan to use the information to claim Canadian citizenship, under recently introduced legal changes that remove the so-called "first-generation limit" on citizenship for people born or adopted outside Canada to a Canadian citizen.

The folly of war: the wisdom of peace

In the 1980s I was a peace advocate —I still am. One of the founders and first president of the Educators for Social Responsibility, I helped organize, promote and speak at peace and anti-nuclear rallies and marches. We developed, collected and distributed peace curricula from across Canada for teaching in Manitoba schools.

$61-M investment in high-speed Internet planned for northern First Nations

More homes on remote Manitoba First Nations will have access to high-speed Internet that most Canadians take for granted thanks to $61 million in new federal funding.

“Your communities have been living way too long without internet,” federal Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand told a gathering at Wasagamack Anisininew Nation Thursday. The MP for northern Manitoba said the four projects will deliver modern, reliable internet to 2,309 households.

“This really is a public safety issue and an equity issue,” Chartrand said in the community 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg that’s accessible by air, water and winter road.

“The lack of broadband has been a public safety failure. When families can’t call for help or nurses can’t access files or lives are at risk when you’re travelling roads without phone service, without internet,” she said.