Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.
Alberta to draw up proposal for new oil pipeline to B.C. coast
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans to submit an application for a new oil pipeline to northwestern British Columbia on Wednesday.Todd Korol/The Canadian Press
The Alberta government is taking the lead on an application for a major, one-million-barrel-a-day bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast, aiming to send the proposal to Ottawa’s new Major Projects Office by May. As Emma Graney writes, the project is an attempt to reverse several federal policies – including a ban on oil tanker traffic along the northern B.C. coast, and a cap on oil-sector emissions – that Premier Danielle Smith has blamed for scaring away private investors from the province’s energy sector.
The premier, whose Wednesday announcement confirmed an earlier Globe and Mail report, said Alberta does not want to be the financial backer, but she hopes the project will be deemed in the national interest after a fast-track review, then ultimately built and owned by private sector and Indigenous interests. Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the MPO will examine the plan, while B.C. Premier David Eby, who has been hesitant to directly oppose the project, said his NDP government would fight to keep the existing large oil tanker ban in place.
Ottawa weighs greater retail access for U.S. dairy industry
Canadian dairy farms, like this one in Saguenay, Que., may face more competition as Ottawa weighs allowing more U.S. imports into Canada.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
The federal government is considering allowing changes to Canada’s supply-management system to allow more U.S. dairy products in this country’s stores, sources told Kate Helmore. The discussions, which came during industry consultations ahead of next year’s formal review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, are an effort to address the protectionist dairy policies U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently criticized.
Supply management, which limits dairy imports to Canada, has been a constant irritant in bilateral trade talks and is expected to be one of the most heated parts of the review, which is seen as a crucial stage in ending the trade war. However Canadian consumers would also stand to gain if more U.S. imports were permitted, with American producers saying they would be able to sell a wider variety of their products at lower prices.
Decoder: U.S. rakes in tariff revenues on Canadian goods
The United States is accumulating a growing horde of tariff revenue from Canadian imports, even as Canada’s own tariff haul from imports of U.S. goods is set to dwindle, according to government finance records. For a time, Canada appeared to come close to matching the U.S. in the tariff revenue the two sides collected on imports of each others’ goods, but that’s no longer the case since Ottawa removed many counter-tariffs.
It’s impossible to know exactly how much Canada has collected in duties from U.S. goods, but Jason Kirby breaks down how a picture emerges of the tariff revenue generated by the Canada-U.S. trade war. And with the Trump administration’s additional 10 per cent tariff on softwood lumber imposed this week, U.S. tariff revenues are set to grow even more. Despite the escalation, Canada’s minister for U.S. trade says he’s still hoping to make progress on reducing or eliminating tariffs on sectors such as steel and aluminum before a formal review of the USMCA trade pact starts next year.
Five years after vowing to hire more Black employees, Bay Street’s enthusiasm for DEI is waning
Illustration by Stephanie Singleton
In the wake of a global racial reckoning sparked by George Floyd’s brutal murder by a police officer in 2020, corporate Canada rushed to pledge to hire more Black employees. The BlackNorth Initiative, launched by prominent Bay Street financier Wes Hall, rallied nearly 500 companies and non-profits to publicly declare their vow to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
The initiative’s wide reach made it a benchmark for corporations’ commitment to DEI, but a recent survey of signatories by The Globe and Mail indicates that determination is wavering considerably. As DEI comes under attack in the United States, a team of business reporters take a closer look at its state in Canada, finding data lacking and many promises so-far unfulfilled.
Alleged hack of Carney’s banking info points to growing threat of internal fraud
Banks work hard to prevent fraud, but what happens when it's an inside job?Illustration by Photo illustration by Marcelle Faucher
Allegations that someone had illegally accessed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s banking profile – and attempted to do the same for Justin Trudeau’s account – rocked RBC last week. But the accused wasn’t an everyday fraudster, he was an employee of the bank itself who police believe was recruited by organized crime.
The case has put the pervasive threat of inside jobs back in the spotlight, as banks and financial institutions reckon with what to do when a staff member goes rogue. As Alexandra Posadzki writes, these insiders can do considerable damage to banks or any large corporation, from committing fraud to stealing sensitive information to letting hackers into the network. The repercussions – reputational damage, lawsuits, financial losses and even regulator blowback – can be devastating to any organization, but the solutions aren’t so simple.
a. TD Bank's connection to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein resurfaced as part of a U.S. congressional inquiry. The bank has acknowledged that two of Mr. Epstein’s “business associates” were once clients.
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