Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump during the FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington in December, 2025.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Bad faith
Re “Carney rejects notion that U.S. ‘dictates the terms’ of USMCA negotiations” (April 23): The whole notion of presetting terms in exchange for merely agreeing to negotiate is classic “art of the deal.”
It is blatant bullying, putting the other party at a disadvantage prior to meeting to enable easier exploitation. If the preconditions are refused, the other party can be accused of refusing to negotiate and it opens the gate to arbitrary terms as the only alternative.
This is no way to reach any kind of agreement which is fair to all involved. But that doesn’t seem to be the intention of the U.S. President, and never has been in his dealing with others.
David Hughes Glass Saugeen Shores, Ont.
Power up
Re “When an oil shock is renewable energy’s best friend” and “Global conflict is making the case for renewables that climate politics couldn’t” and “Ontario is buying clean generation. But its long-term plans remain anything but technologically agnostic” (Report on Business, April 18): Imagine a community where we harvest and control our sovereign electricity production. Imagine a place where our utility has the means to store this cheap, clean electricity generated at its peak for later use.
Imagine a provincial government investing 1/10th of its multibillion-dollar nuclear expansion plans to develop reliable electricity storage systems, along with investment in skills training and job creation in renewable electricity.
Imagine a time when the only “strait” we need to worry about is the one in the hands of the poker player across the table.
It will happen, far sooner than we can imagine.
Chris Gates Cobourg, Ont.
Re “AtkinsRéalis Group’s Monark nuclear reactor misses output target” (Report on Business, April 20): Much of the reporting relates to the potential size of the Monark. However, as a nuclear analyst said in an interview, “size will be of secondary importance to its cost.” Such costs would include construction, operation and maintenance.
It is presumably for these reasons that South Korea has dropped one Candu reactor and Ontario Power Generation is going for a different type of reactor at Darlington.
Candu was good in its time but has been overtaken by other technologies. Candu technology, then, seems at a dead end.
We should stop flogging a dead horse.
John Riley Guelph, Ont.
Money pool
Re “Without Churchill Falls deal, Newfoundland faces a dire fiscal future” (Opinion, April 18): The new deal is likely worse for Newfoundland.
While Newfoundland has hydro aplenty, it has little political power, especially compared to Quebec. If the original deal were fair, then Newfoundland would not be a poor province.
Quebec seems to be renegotiating out of self-interest. Its profit estimates have not been disclosed. They exist, unless Newfoundland’s payout amounts are plucked from thin air.
And not mentioned is Michael Sabia, Mark Carney’s right-hand man and ex-chair of Hydro-Québec, whose hands are all over the new deal. His conflict of interest and bias are as obvious to me as his influence.
Newfoundlanders deserve support to secure a fair deal on Churchill Falls. C’est la vie.
Ward Jones Richmond Hill, Ont.
Top-down
Re “A lesson in the importance of showing up” (Editorial, April 20): This hints at a major problem in education: The administrative class has largely lost the plot.
I believe “innovations” in grading policies and discipline and the growth of “student success teachers” – tasked with, for example, getting kids to do that one assignment that may be the difference between 47 per cent and 50 per cent – have made it harder and harder to make a positive impact on students via the education system.
If the primary reasons for public education are to increase opportunity for all and create strong citizens, then current policies that incentivize doing the minimum and don’t effectively deter non-participation should be reversed.
Wayne Nickoli London, Ont.
Instead of hiring “experts” and “consultants” to fix the problem of absenteeism in high schools, try talking to students, both those who attend and those who don’t. I bet those conversations would be enlightening.
Have these experts considered that some absentee students might be copying all those adults who now insist it is their right to work from home? I think a hands-off policy is the best bet.
Linda Bunting Collingwood, Ont.
Root of it
Re “How a simple question could help reduce youth homelessness” (April 18): If youth homelessness is treated as a housing problem and we keep adding shelter beds, then we manage the outcome, not the cause. This means the flow into homelessness continues.
But, as reported, if support happens earlier and young people are reconnected to even one stable person, then fewer enter the system at all. This means prevention replaces containment.
The question, then, is simple: Do we scale prevention, or keep funding the outcome?
Michael Brooke Thornhill, Ont.
Two birds…
Re “Youth facing ‘perfect storm’ in job hunt this summer, economists say” (Report on Business, April 18): Given that the government has cut back the numbers of temporary foreign workers, perhaps the resources from that program could be used to establish a temporary domestic student worker program to ease the crisis in youth unemployment rates. Jobs previously filled by TFWs in, for example, child care, supermarkets, tourism and agriculture could be filled by domestic youth.
When I was young, more than five decades ago, an after-school job was a rite of passage. Summer work during my university years paid my fees (which, of course, are much higher today).
I hope governments recognize that jobs for youth are a vital cornerstone of Canadian society, and do what they can to offer incentives and encouragement for employers to hire the hundreds of thousands of young people looking for their first jobs.
Richard Hoover Delta, B.C.
We read that youth unemployment is a major problem. Elsewhere, we read that towns in Northern British Columbia are struggling with a “shallow” employment pool and desperately want foreign workers to fill empty positions (“Rural B.C. communities ask province to back foreign-worker program changes” – April 18).
Maybe one problem has a solution for another. Can Dawson Creek and Fort St. John rustle up some housing for young people to use during summer employment months? Can they offer full-time hours? Can they fire off job postings to Canadian universities?
Sometimes solutions can be found in a single edition of The Globe and Mail.
Deanna Hutchings Victoria
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