Economy
Less than half of billions paid out under a corporate subsidy program will ever be recovered, says the Department of Industry. The $7 billion Strategic Innovation Fund was launched six years ago by then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains on a false claim it would create 56,000 jobs.
The industry department in a submission to the Senate national finance committee said of billions spent under the program less than half was repayable. “To date of the total Strategic Innovation Fund investments approximately 40 percent are repayable and nearly 60 percent are non-repayable,” it said.
A disproportionate amount of funding went to Québec, figures showed. “Of the 110 agreements so far the Fund is supporting 31 projects in Québec, over a quarter of the program’s portfolio,” wrote the industry department. “Investments have been directed to key sectors such as aerospace where funding is aiding recovery.”
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Read MoreAmazon plans to tap thousands of U.S. small businesses, from bodegas to florists, to deliver its packages by the end of the year, Axios is first to report.
Driving the news: Amazon on Monday will start actively recruiting existing small businesses in 23 states including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington.
At least 20 dense cities across the country, including Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, will be targeted by the program.
The company is interested in working with a wide range of businesses such as florists, coffee shops, clothing stores, among others. Amazon notes they don’t need delivery experience to make the partnership work.
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Read MoreAs Susana Ibarra’s maternity leave was ending and she was preparing to return to her office outside Toronto, she still faced a big challenge: finding care for her son and then figuring out how to pay for it.
Finally, after putting him on a dozen or so waiting lists, she landed a spot. Even better, it came at a discounted fee of 600 Canadian dollars, or $450, a month.
The low cost was the result of an ambitious day care plan expanding across Canada, intended to drastically cut fees that supporters say will address one of the most vexing problems facing many working parents.
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Read More— Shopify Inc. will challenge a request from the Canada Revenue Agency to turn over six years of records for Canadian stores using the firm’s software.
“This feels like low-key overreach to me,” Shopify chief executive Tobi Lutke said in a Friday evening tweet.
“We will fight this.”
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Read MoreAndrew Orlowski has written an excellent piece in the Telegraph laying into the Net Zero ideologues running the U.K., who have introduced a mass of unrealistic, contradictory policies around electrification and renewable energy that will only ruin Britain. Here’s an excerpt.
Take climate change targets. How good it must have felt for politicians to set those lofty goals, knowing that someone else must deal with the cost and the implementation? But now the bills are now arriving, and they’re bringing a world of hurt.
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Read MoreA cybersecurity attack on Suncor Energy has forced Petro-Canada gas stations across the country to move to cash only, and also prevents customers from using the Petro-Points loyalty program.
Suncor said in a news release on June 25 that it had “experienced a cyber security incident.”
“The company is taking measures and working with third-party experts to investigate and resolve the situation, and has notified appropriate authorities,” the release said. “At this time, we are not aware of any evidence that customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of this situation. While we work to resolve the incident, some transactions with customers and suppliers may be impacted.”
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Read MoreCompanies will face more pressure to disclose how climate change affects their business under a new set of G20-backed global rules aimed at helping regulators crack down on greenwashing.
The norms published on Monday have been written by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) as trillions of dollars flow into investments that tout their environmental, social and governance credentials.
It would be up to individual countries to decide whether to require listed companies to apply the standards, ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber said, adding the standards can be used for annual reports for 2024 onwards.
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Read MoreAlberta’s Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister said that a strike by dockworkers in British Columbia, which could take place any day, would have dire consequences for Alberta’s economy.About 7,200 members of British Columbia’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) voted overwhelmingly in support of a strike last week.
Dockworkers are looking for higher pay and greater job security amid automation fears. 99.25 percent of ILWU voters authorized their union to strike against the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), as the two sides’ former agreement expired July 1, 2022.
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Read MoreIf you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.
A clear majority of British Columbians are now in favour of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to the West Coast.
A new Research Co. Poll found 54% of BC residents now agree with the federal government’s decision to to re-approve the TMX expansion — up three points since July of last year — with only 28% opposed. In June 2019, 41% of BC residents called on their provincial government to halt the project.
In fact, all regions of the province, including Lotusland, were clearly in favour. Support for the project is highest in Northern BC (62%), followed by Southern BC (61%), the Fraser Valley (58%), Metro Vancouver (53%) and Vancouver Island (52%).
Fully 71% think the project will create thousands of jobs in the province when it comes on stream later this year.
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Read MoreHouseholds will pay a £170-a-year Net Zero levy on energy bills in the coming days, with Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt accused of “slyly” shifting costs back to consumers. The Telegraph has the story.
The Telegraph has learned that the two-year suspension of green levies announced last autumn is to end from the beginning of July, after just nine months.
The cost of the levies was shifted from consumer bills to be funded instead by the Government, following a year-long campaign by energy firms and MPs amid spiralling gas, electricity and food prices last year.
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