Good morning,
Ontario will pay a major share of subsidies for battery factories being built in the province, under a new agreement with the federal government that will relieve Ottawa of some of the financial burden of luring these facilities to Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s deputy chief of staff called the pledge a “framework for future deals,” while a spokesperson for Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the current arrangement only applies to Stellantis-LG and Volkswagen, leaving plans for the future ambiguous.
Now that the province and country are going to be on the EV-making map, which has been a major objective of both the Stellantis-LG and Volkswagen deals, the government will be pressed to explain what tangible economic benefits each additional factory would bring. The federal and Ontario governments have not made significant efforts yet to delve into those details, at least publicly.
Under the terms of the deal, the Ontario government has agreed to pay one third of the costs of up to $15-billion in production subsidies for an EV battery factory in Windsor, Ont., built by Stellantis and LG Energy Solution. The same arrangement will also apply to the Volkswagen battery plant being built in St. Thomas, Ont., according to both levels of government.
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford speaks at the Stellantis Research and Development Centre in Windsor, Ontario, Canada May 2, 2022.REBECCA COOK/Reuters
This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 other Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.
TDSB real estate arm overstepped authority to circumvent executive pay freeze laws, report alleges
The Toronto District School Board’s real estate subsidiary, the Toronto Lands Corporation, met provincial government officials without the full board’s approval, pursued its own policy goals, and attempted to evade a legislated pay freeze for public executives, worsening the organizations’ relationship which has been marked by “tension and distrust” for years.
The TDSB is one of the largest landowners in Toronto, with more than 600 schools and other properties. Toronto Lands raises funds to repair aging schools through property sales. The reports says that Toronto Lands has not been clear enough in communicating its strategy to the school board.
“It is highly unusual in our experience for a public-sector subsidiary corporation to reach out to higher levels of government without the full support of the parent company, let alone its knowledge,” the report says.
The revelations come as Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government sets its sights on using surplus school lands to ease the province’s housing crisis with new legislation, Bill 98. The province’s move raises questions about how much input boards will have when it comes to selling off valuable property.
Wildfires across Canada to pose danger for rest of summer, government warns
Wildfires stoked by drought and scorching temperatures are expected to pose a danger for the rest of the summer, according to a forecast by government officials on Thursday.
“This is going to be a long, tough summer,” Michael Norton, director general of the federal Canadian Forest Service’s Northern Forestry Centre, said at a news conference, as Canadians across the country sweltered under a bout of intense heat and weather warnings.
People who already have heart and lung conditions are particularly at risk from exposure to wildfire smoke, but everyone’s health is at risk, according to according to Marie-Ève Héroux, manager of air quality assessment for Health Canada. Despite the widespread burning, the federal government says it has “sufficient resources” to deal with the problem. The cost of fire suppression is close to $1-billion annually.
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop
Also on our radar
U.S.-Canada relations: The renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement pushed U.S.-Canada relations to their worst point since the War of 1812, with the countries not even speaking with each other for months, former U.S. president Donald Trump’s top trade official writes in a new book. The memoir portrays Canada as an intransigent negotiating partner that often completely refused to engage in substantive talks during the push to overhaul NAFTA.
Instagram’s Twitter rival: Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, officially launched Threads on Wednesday. The app is meant to be a direct competitor to Twitter, and is already being called a “Twitter killer” by tech experts. Here’s what you need to know.
Ticks: Ticks are a growing, disease-carrying menace. Aside from Lyme disease – the most common tick-borne illness in Canada – they can transmit other diseases such as anaplasmosis, which can be fatal in rare cases, and babesiosis, an infection that destroys red blood cells. But getting to know ticks better is actually the best way to protect yourself from them.
Business and investing: Each week, join us to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
Morning markets
Stocks stumble, bonds buckle as U.S. payrolls loom: World stocks slid on Friday to cap a torrid first week of the third quarter for financial markets, with the dollar standing tall and bonds crumbling as the resilience of U.S. jobs data has investors bracing for interest rates heading higher still.
Around 6:45 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.28 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC went up 0.33 per cent and 0.47 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei slid 1.17 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.9 per cent. New York futures were down: Nasdaq and S&P by 0.21 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively, and Dow futures dipped by 0.02 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 74.81 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
We’re not reaching the UN’s Global Goals. What now?
“This is the perfect time to assess the Global Goals (also known as the Sustainable Development Goals), recognize what’s working, admit what isn’t working, and refine our approach so we can do the most good for the people most in need.” - Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg
Reality deflates the NDP’s Big Grocery conspiracy theory
“As the NDP tells it, grocery chains drove inflation by marking up prices during the pandemic in order to pad their profits. Corporate greed, not a huge imbalance in global supply and demand driven by massive fiscal stimulus, was the culprit.
A perfect theory, with just one thing lacking: facts.” - The Editorial Board
Today’s editorial cartoon
Editorial cartoon by Brian Gable published July 7, 2023.Illustration by Brian Gable
Living better
The 10 best movies of 2023 (so far), and how to watch them right now
This summer’s movie season is a “mixed bag,” according to the Globe’s film editor, Barry Hertz, which means guidance is key! Here are the movies you can’t miss and where to find them.
Moment in time: July 7, 1930
Portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sitting at a table in his garden, Bignell Wood, New Forest, 1927. He died on July 7, 1930.Fox Photos/Getty Images
Arthur Conan Doyle dies
Surely it was the villainous Professor Moriarty who dispatched Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Moriarty was the criminal mastermind and archnemesis of Sir Arthur’s greatest creation, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes. Except Sir Arthur had killed off Moriarty in The Final Problem in 1891. Perhaps Moriarty had been reborn in the flesh? No, Sir Arthur’s death was far more mundane. The 71-year-old died of a heart attack on this day in 1930. He was found in his garden in his home of Windlesham Manor, in Crowborough, Sussex, England, on a cool morning clutching his chest with one hand and holding a single white snowdrop with the other. His last words had been to his wife: “You are wonderful.” It was a quiet departure for the man who, among other publications, had written four novels and 56 short stories about Holmes, one of the most endearing characters in crime fiction. In his later years, Sir Arthur had turned to spiritualism for succour and often said he hoped he would be remembered for his psychic work, rather than his novels. He was tired of talking about the deerstalker-wearing sleuth. But Holmes lives on and Sir Arthur’s psychic works? Long forgotten. Philip King
Read today's horoscopes. Enjoy today's puzzles.
If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.