Morning Update: Federal government and Ontario announce $15-billion Honda EV deal

Good morning,

Touted by the federal and Ontario governments as the largest single investment in the history of Canada’s auto sector, Honda Motor Co. has announced a landmark $15-billion deal to make electric vehicles and their batteries in Ontario, backed by up to $5-billion in federal and provincial subsidies. The deal stands to make Ontario the epicentre for the Japanese automaker’s North American rollout of EVs.

The bulk of Honda’s investment will be at its existing auto-manufacturing site in Alliston, Ont. That will include a vehicle-assembly facility there, scheduled to open in 2028 and eventually have the capacity to build 240,000 vehicles annually, and a new EV battery factory.

The plan will preserve Honda’s existing 4,200 jobs in Alliston while adding another 1,000 there, the two governments and the company say.

Read more:

• EVs aren’t burdening Canada’s electricity grids – yet
• Explainer: Canada’s committing tens of billions of dollars to the EV industry. Here’s a list of the planned projects so far

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B.C. asks Ottawa for help on decriminalization fallout

British Columbia is asking Ottawa to help curb public drug use arising from its decriminalization pilot project, after its own efforts to establish limits through legislation were derailed by a B.C. Supreme Court injunction earlier this year.

In a meeting on Friday between Ya’ara Saks, the federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, and her B.C. counterpart, Jennifer Whiteside, the province will be asking Ottawa to review its exemptions to decriminalization, as pressure mounts on both governments over aspects of B.C.’s three-year pilot project.

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Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is overturned by New York’s top court

Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction has been overturned by New York’s highest court, in a ruling that shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the #MeToo era and left those who testified in the case bracing for a retrial against the ex-movie mogul.

The court found that the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against Weinstein based on allegations that weren’t part of the case.

Weinstein, 72, will remain in prison because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape. But the New York ruling reopens a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures – an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.

• Here’s why Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next

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Alberta to fill primary health care gaps with $15-million nurse practitioners program

In a bid to improve access to primary care, Alberta has announced a $15-million program aimed at supporting nurse practitioners to work independently.

More than 700,000 Albertans do not have a primary health care provider, according to the province. Health Minister Adriana LaGrange told a news conference Thursday that the government estimates 50 nurse practitioners will participate in the new program this year, eventually supporting a minimum of 45,000 patients, which she said will go “a long way” to address the current shortage.

The provincial program will provide a one-time incentive of $75 per patient after reaching the 900 mark and $10,000 in one-time mentorship funding to clinics, communities and primary care networks that partner with nurse practitioners who are entering the practice.

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Also on our radar

Air Canada is reviewing its policies after ‘regrettable incident’ that saw removal of national chief’s headdress from airline cabin: Air Canada is reviewing its policies after what it called a regrettable incident that involved airline staff removing the headdress of the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations from a plane’s cabin.

More graduates will pursue family medicine in Canada, up from 2023: More new medical school graduates will train to be family physicians in Canada this year than ever before, a development that will help but not solve a primary-care crisis that has left millions without a family doctor.

U.S. Supreme Court justices in Trump trial signal some support for criminal immunity: Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court signalled they may rule that American presidents are entitled to some form of immunity from criminal liability, a move that could thwart the prosecution of Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

• Analysis: Trump’s New York trial is a political spectacle unseen in America since Watergate

Israeli protesters hold up convoys transporting aid to Palestinians in Gaza: Inside Gaza, international agencies say, more than a million people have fallen into catastrophic hunger. Famine is imminent, the World Food Programme warned in March. In Israel, numerous blockades have been staged since the early days of the war by those who have made it their business to impede the transport of help to Palestinians.

• USC cancels graduation ceremony as college officials worry about pro-Palestinian protest disruptions

BHP makes US$39-billion offer for rival Anglo American in bid to create world’s biggest copper producer: Global mining companies’ lunge for copper, a critical transition metal to a low-carbon future, has intensified with BHP Group Ltd.’s BHPLF unsolicited proposal to buy rival Anglo American PLC NGLOY for about US$39-billion ($53-billion). Competing offers are expected.

Bombardier also granted exemption from Canadian sanctions on Russian titanium: Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. says it too has been granted an exemption from Canadian sanctions targeting Russian titanium that could interfere with its business in Canada.

Morning markets

Global stocks were teetering toward their worst month since September, although futures markets predicted strong tech earnings would spark a Wall Street relief rally later in the day that would help traders recoup some losses.

MSCI’s broad index of global stocks was down 3.3 per cent for the month, although 0.17 per cent higher on the day. In Europe, the benchmark STOXX 600 share index rose 0.6 per cent, still heading for a 1.4 per cent monthly drop.

In early trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 per cent, Germany’s DAX was up 0.75 per cent, while France’s CAC was up 0.28 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 0.81 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2.44 per cent.

The dollar traded at 73.20 U.S. cents.

What everyone’s talking about

Can a female VP pick salvage Trump’s chances with American women?

“To try and stem the losing tide on the women’s side, Mr. Trump could very well opt for a woman to join him on the Republican ticket as his vice-presidential nominee.” – Lawrence Martin

What might a serious growth agenda look like? More labour, more capital, and more incentive to use both wisely

“On one level what makes an economy grow is tediously simple, a function of labour, capital and technical change. More labour – more people working, and more of them working longer hours – plus more capital (machinery and equipment, but also intellectual property, education and skills) for each worker, plus more ingenuity in how these are combined, should lead to higher growth. But these are more easily observed than engineered.” – Andrew Coyne

Today’s editorial cartoon

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Living better

Ten Father’s Day gift ideas for your dad in 2024

For the father figures in your life, here are 10 thoughtful, practical gifts for all budgets – including a custom T-shirt, a designer beard oil and fashionable swim trunks that are made in Canada.

Moment in time: April 26, 1954

Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai film released in Japan

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Akira Kurosawa, whose father had samurai lineage, grew up wanting to be a painter. By 1954, he’d earned a reputation as a gifted transposer of genre and culture, infusing hard-boiled detective noir and Soviet existentialism with a deeply Japanese world view and aesthetic with classics such as Rashomon and Ikiru. Seven Samurai, then, was a culmination: a gorgeous parable in black-and-white inspired by John Ford’s westerns, about samurai who are hired to defend a farming village from bandits in 16th-century Japan. From the opening scene of raiders on horseback flooding over the hillside, to the final, long, meditative shot of a windswept row of graves, Kurosawa’s hand-painted storyboards come to life in front of the lens. And the movie bleeds with his devotion to honest emotion, naturally captured. “There is something that might be called cinematic beauty,” he wrote in his memoir, Something Like A Biography. “When it is very well expressed, one experiences a particularly deep emotion while watching that film.” Seven Samurai and Kurosawa’s creative approach influenced generations of filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese (“Kurosawa was my master”) and George Lucas and his space-western Star Wars. Adrian Lee.

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