Juno News - Mark Carney already lost a vote in the House of Commons

00:00:00.000 Government statistics in Manitoba indicate that human activity is the primary cause of

00:00:09.440 the vast majority of wildfires this year. Ontario Premier Doug Ford praised the meeting

00:00:14.080 with Prime Minister Mark Carney and other premiers in Saskatoon, calling it the most

00:00:17.760 productive interprovincial gathering in a decade and even went so far as to compare Carney to,

00:00:22.400 quote, Santa Claus. The Liberal minority government narrowly lost a House of Commons

00:00:27.440 vote on a Conservative amendment demanding an economic update before summer adjournment.

00:00:32.080 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday June 4th and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux.

00:00:37.360 And I'm Noah Jarvis. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:41.120 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:49.920 The overwhelming majority of wildfires in Manitoba have been started by people,

00:00:54.080 according to provincial government data. As the wildfires in Manitoba continue to rage

00:00:58.880 across the province, the fire situation report from Manitoba's Natural Resource Department

00:01:04.160 found that 99 of the past 109 fires reported this year were human-caused. Only five fires were

00:01:10.880 natural-caused, while another five remain under investigation. The Alberta government announced

00:01:15.600 similar findings last year after nearly all of the province's wildfires in 2024 were human-caused.

00:01:21.280 Thousands have been evacuated across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where officials have declared a

00:01:25.680 state of emergency as dozens of out-of-control wildfires rage on. Hundreds of residents have had

00:01:31.040 to flee their homes in northern Manitoba over the weekend as communities were threatened by smoke.

00:01:35.840 Nearly 600 people from Cranberry Portage were evacuated and are expected to be removed from their

00:01:40.960 homes for the next several days. Around 17,000 Manitobans have had to leave their homes since the fires

00:01:47.040 began last month. Pamichikamak Cree Nation was also evacuated last week with multiple flights departing

00:01:53.200 for Winnipeg. Emergency centers across the province have been opened, including as far south as Winkler,

00:01:58.640 Manitoba, located only 20 kilometers from the U.S. border. So, Noah, has the frequency

00:02:04.240 of legacy media and politicians attributing wildfires to climate change matched or exceeded that of previous

00:02:10.480 years? I don't think the current coverage has matched what it has been in the past. I think

00:02:15.840 legacy media has really attempted to pivot and move on from the issue. A bit surprising and I think

00:02:22.000 that's because of a few reasons. First of all, when Prime Minister Trudeau got elected in 2015,

00:02:28.480 the environmental question was a big issue and he put it as a first and foremost issue for his

00:02:34.480 government championing emissions caps, championing the tanker ban, championing Bill C-69, and of course

00:02:42.560 the carbon tax. And I think that now that we have someone like Mark Carney in power who is promising to

00:02:50.560 reduce the consumer carbon tax to zero and actually repeal that legislation, promising to build energy

00:02:57.920 infrastructure and specifically a pipeline and that he's willing to get rid of some of the Trudeau

00:03:05.120 government's approach to resource development, I think that the legacy media, you know, still being

00:03:11.200 supporters of the Liberal Party, have decided to focus on other issues, decided to focus more closely on

00:03:17.280 the need to develop our resources because of the threat of the United States that Donald Trump really

00:03:23.760 presents. So it still satisfies the sort of left-wing, right-wing dynamic that the the legacy media

00:03:31.200 tries to establish, them being the defenders of democracy and of the left and really trying to report

00:03:37.920 against the right, that being Donald Trump, they have really refocused their message away from the climate

00:03:45.520 change issue. And now that we have more and more evidence that these wildfires have been human-caused, 95% of the

00:03:53.600 wildfires in Manitoba were human-caused, not caused by natural causes, I think that really dispels a lot of the

00:04:01.600 narrative that the climate change activists have been talking about. And a lot of one of the big ways

00:04:08.160 to avoid having these wildfires is to A, you know, make sure that people are better informed in how to

00:04:15.760 prevent wildfires from happening. You know, don't smoke cigarettes in, you know, the forest and then drop

00:04:21.040 your lit cigarette bud in somewhere where that's possibly flammable. You know, you don't want to

00:04:27.680 be lighting up fires that could go out of control. And it's incumbent on the provinces and the federal

00:04:33.280 government too to manage these forests to ensure that deadwood, drywood that is just lying in the forest

00:04:40.160 is cleaned up so that these types of, you know, very flammable types of wood don't cause these fires,

00:04:47.920 you know, simultaneously just because it's a bit of a hot day and the wood decides to catch

00:04:54.560 fire. So I think that there's a lot that can be done to prevent these wildfires and you don't

00:04:59.920 necessarily need to attribute it to climate change because honestly much of it is because humans do

00:05:05.920 stupid things. Ontario Premier Doug Ford was overjoyed after he met with Prime Minister Mark

00:05:14.640 Carney and his fellow premiers in Saskatoon on Monday, calling the encounter the best in the last

00:05:19.680 decade. As chair of Canada's premiers, Ford went as far as comparing Carney to Santa Claus,

00:05:25.040 bearing gifts. Ford said, quote,

00:05:27.040 This has been the best meeting we've had in 10 years. We all walked out of that room united.

00:05:31.920 That's the most important thing. I described him today as Santa Claus. He's coming and his sled was

00:05:37.280 full of all sorts of stuff. Now he's taking off back to the North Pole. The meeting was marked by

00:05:42.560 unusual consensus among the premiers and the federal government as Carney outlined a new two-year

00:05:48.000 timeline for approving nation building projects under a streamlined federal process. The plan includes

00:05:53.920 eliminating internal trade barriers and forming indigenous equity partnerships. Ford similarly

00:05:59.280 positioned the meeting as a push against Trump. Premier Scott Moe and Daniel Smith also expressed

00:06:04.640 cautious optimism. Smith says she was, quote, encouraged by the immediate change of tone,

00:06:10.000 known in Carney's new willingness to support oil development and recognize Canada's energy potential.

00:06:15.520 Smith's newfound cautious optimism comes the day after warning Carney of the risk of losing $14

00:06:20.880 trillion in wealth due to anti-oil laws. Going into the meeting, Smith reiterated her priorities for

00:06:26.880 Carney, which included working with Alberta to build a pipeline to the BC coast, repealing the emissions cap,

00:06:33.360 Bill C-69, the tanker ban, and the net zero electricity regulations by 2035. Although at the First

00:06:40.800 Minister's meeting final press conference, Smith said that her province was aiming to achieve carbon

00:06:46.000 neutrality by 2050, a goal which is possible through technological advancement without artificially

00:06:52.400 capping energy production. So Isaac, it looks like the main message that is coming from this premier's

00:06:57.840 meeting is that there is a consensus and agreement and unity amongst these premiers, but all that unity

00:07:04.640 and a good feeling doesn't really matter much if no tangible results and agreements and deals are being

00:07:11.040 reached at these meetings. So regarding the recent meeting between the premiers and the prime minister,

00:07:15.520 what agreements or deals were reached? Yeah, Noah, like you said, the main thing

00:07:20.400 that came out of the meeting was Carney outlined a two-year timeline for approving nation-building

00:07:25.120 infrastructure projects and committed to streamlining federal processes. But importantly,

00:07:31.360 no binding legislation came out of the meeting. The premier seemed, however, generally more united than

00:07:38.240 they had been in the past. As you mentioned, with even cautious optimism coming from leaders like Alberta

00:07:43.680 Premier Daniel Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe out of the Western provinces.

00:07:48.880 And Ontario Premier Doug Ford also highlighted the strategic importance of new energy and resource

00:07:54.640 projects, pointing to oil pipelines and the Ring of Fire as key areas of growth. He described the meeting as a

00:08:00.320 turning point in countering economic threats from the United States, specifically taking a very anti-Trump stance.

00:08:08.080 He went as far, as Ford did, as saying, quote, President Trump has declared an economic war on

00:08:13.120 every single business, every single person in this country. We're going to unleash our strengths.

00:08:18.640 While Ford celebrated Carney, as you mentioned, calling him Santa Claus, he did celebrate as well the new

00:08:24.240 approach from Carney, which he said signals a shift away from over-regulation and high taxation that has

00:08:30.240 obviously previously hindered the government, specifically under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

00:08:35.280 Ford said, quote, if we continue putting red tape and regulations in high taxes, guess what?

00:08:39.520 No one is going to come and invest. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also said the meeting showed an

00:08:44.800 unusual degree of federal provincial alignment. He said, quote, today was a very positive meeting.

00:08:50.000 I hope that Canadians would feel very positive with their provincial, territorial

00:08:53.760 and federal leaders coming out of here today in agreement. However, again, this was mostly just

00:08:58.960 discussing what could happen and no legislation has yet to come forward. So we'll have to wait and see

00:09:04.080 what really occurs from a legislative standpoint.

00:09:09.920 The minority Liberals suffered a significant defeat in the House of Commons after a Conservative

00:09:14.320 motion to amend the throne speech narrowly passed. The motion, sponsored by Interim Leader of the

00:09:20.000 Opposition, Conservative MP Andrew Scheer, passed by a vote of 166 to 164, with support from all opposition

00:09:28.800 parties. All Liberal MPs voted against it, but four government members were absent due to paired votes

00:09:35.040 allowing the amendment to pass. The amendment calls on the government to present an economic update or

00:09:39.920 budget before the House adjourns for the summer that includes, quote, full accountability of Canada's

00:09:44.640 finances while respecting provincial jurisdictions and Indigenous peoples. The final text was the result of

00:09:50.880 negotiations that incorporated a Bloc Québécois sub-amendment on provincial autonomy and an earlier

00:09:56.320 amendment addressing Indigenous considerations. Initially, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne

00:10:02.640 had previously stated that there would be no budget this year, with the government instead

00:10:06.720 aiming for a fall economic statement. Prime Minister Mark Carney later revised the government's position

00:10:12.000 and pledged a budget in the fall. Government sources have indicated that the motion is

00:10:16.400 non-binding, noting that House motions express the will of Parliament but do not carry the force of

00:10:22.000 law. The vote marks an early test for Carney's government, which won a minority mandate in April.

00:10:27.760 While the Liberals are not legally obligated to table a spring budget, the opposition now

00:10:32.000 holds a symbolic victory in forcing the issue onto the government's agenda. So Noah, have the Liberals

00:10:37.200 indicated they plan on respecting the vote and tabling an update this spring? Well, for those who wanted

00:10:42.240 the Liberals to table a budget before June 20th, it does not look like that will be happening.

00:10:47.680 The thing with these motions is that they don't carry the weight of law, meaning that the government

00:10:53.600 is under no obligation to table a budget because this is just a motion. It's just a declaration of

00:11:01.120 Parliament's will. It doesn't actually force the government to table a budget before June 20th.

00:11:07.920 So we had Mark Gerritsen, the whip of the Liberal Party. He came out and he told the media that this is

00:11:15.840 just a motion that the Liberals don't really have to take too seriously. But I think that Mark Gerritsen

00:11:24.320 might actually be in a bit of trouble because there was four Liberals who abstained. They just weren't

00:11:32.080 able to make the vote. And the Liberals, they lost the vote by two votes. So if they had all of their

00:11:37.600 other MPs voting against the motion, it actually would have failed. But nonetheless, the Liberals

00:11:43.600 said that they were going to table a full budget in the fall when Parliament returns from its summer

00:11:50.000 break. Let's see if Mark Carney is able to stick to that promise and table a budget. It's not like it's

00:11:58.080 going to take that long for Finance Canada to generate the numbers necessary to put in a budget. But it is

00:12:05.600 all the extra padding that the government usually puts around the budget, the flowery language about

00:12:11.360 the new programs that they're introducing and trying to couch all this government spending as

00:12:16.880 actually beneficial for the Canadian people, even if it is driving the country further into debt and

00:12:23.280 driving up price inflation. So it remains to be seen whether or not the Carney government will stick

00:12:29.280 to their commitment to table a fall budget. But no, it does not look like the Liberals will be tabling

00:12:35.120 a budget before June 20th. And if they do, color me and I think the entire nation surprised.

00:12:45.200 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday

00:12:49.920 by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it,

00:12:54.720 make sure to hit us with a five star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - June 04, 2025

Mark Carney already lost a vote in the House of Commons

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