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Jun 10 2025

The Roundup: Two percenter. NATO warned. CO2 record.

TUE JUN 10 2024
David Akin's Roundup
Two percenter. NATO warned. CO2 record.
Canada
Carney vows to meet 2% NATO defence target this fiscal year
Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising the biggest increase in Canada's defence spending in decades to hit NATO's two per cent spending target sooner than he originally pledged. Mackenzie Gray looks at how much it will cost, and how this money will be allocated.

How will Canada meet its defence spending targets?
Prime Minister Mark Carney's new defence spending targets are ambitious and will likely require trade-offs. Mercedes Stephenson explains where Carney could come up with the necessary money, and how realistic it would be for Canada to reduce its military reliance on the U.S

Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that Canada’s new government is rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces. [Prime Minister's Office]
The National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa has been defaced with red paint and the words 'feed me' sprayed across the stone of the memorial.  [Global News]
It is not yet known if bin Salman has accepted the invitation. He did not attend last year’s G7 summit in Italy despite being invited there as well. Canada’s invitation marks the third time in recent days that Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government has reached out to leaders of countries whose relationships with Canada have been strained. [Global]
Emergency preparedness
Percentage of households that have taken steps to prepare for an emergency and the steps taken. The data are from the Households and the Environment Survey. The chart here is mine, based on the data which is from StatsCan 2023 survey, just released yesterday. [Statistics Canada]

In a letter sent Monday to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali, civil society groups, academics and others call for a genuine and timely examination of the access law. The next federal review of the Access to Information regime is supposed to begin soon. [CP]
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau allowed PMO staffers in the room, but that is no longer the case under Mark Carney, whom MPs say takes ‘lots of’ notes during national caucus meetings and addresses MPs' concerns. 'This prime minister appears to be open to more ideas.' [Hill Times] 💰
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The Provinces
Eby says it's not him blocking Smith's oil pipeline, it's lack of money and proponent
Eby says that if Smith succeeds in finding a proponent and funding, and assembles a project, then B.C. "will certainly cross that bridge." But he says there are already "countless projects" that B.C. could work on with Alberta to create prosperity in Western Canada. [CP]
Since 2017, government, health and education workers rose from 50,000 to 93,000. Total salaries jumped from $4.7B to $11.5B. [Vancouver Sun]

Gagnon said Aroland has never consented to mining the Ring of Fire. Rather, part of the agreement was designed to give road access to its neighbouring First Nation, Marten Falls.

Marten Falls and Webequie First Nation are fly-in communities that have a month or so of winter road access. "Aroland has never said Marten Falls cannot build a road so that it is no longer remote; if they want to have road access to the highway system like we do, they should be able to," Gagnon said. [CP]

It was one of multiple provinces battling marauding forest fires that have spawned sweeping, soaring tendrils of gauzy wood smoke across the country and beyond. “This is one of the largest evacuations in our province’s history,” said Lisa Naylor, the Manitoba minister in charge of emergency management. [CP]
... the New Brunswick Liberal MP who is playing a central role in the Carney cabinet’s push to build big says major projects that cross interprovincial boundaries are likely to win priority. That’s as Premier Susan Holt has port expansions in New Brunswick at the top of her list of nation-building projects submitted to the prime minister. Instead, what might qualify is what’s being pitched as the “Eastern Energy Partnership,” although it’s up to the region’s premiers to lay out a clear plan of what that includes and then submit it to Ottawa, LeBlanc says. [Telegraph Journal]
Aurora
Elsewhere
Deport Dishwashers or Solve All Murders?
Alex Tabarrok: I’m not arguing against border enforcement or deporting illegal immigrants but rational people understand tradeoffs. Do we really want to spend billions to deport dishwashers from Oaxaca while rapes in Ohio committed by US citizens go under-investigated? [Marginal Revolution]

"We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,’ Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview. ‘That doesn't mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards. ‘But we see that NATO's collective defence promise is to be tested.’ [Latika Takes]
Media

Now, “news deserts” have become more common. This term describes places where there are not enough reliable news sources to help people get information about their local communities. Of the local newspapers that remain, 80% are weeklies, as opposed to the daily local newspapers that were more common in the past. [The Conversation]

Warner Bros. Discovery announced a split that most of the industry saw coming. There will be two independently-operated, publicly-traded companies: Streaming & Studios and Global Networks. Those will be renamed at some point (and probably “Warner Bros.” and “Discovery” — again). It is a very similar move to what NBCUniversal recently did to form Versant. Disney has also toyed with the idea.[Hollywood Reporter]
Science and Technology
Inside Haven Greens, 'the Lamborghini' of greenhouses
The heart of the operation is a Mobile Gully System (MGS) developed by Finnish company Green Automation, while Atrium Agri Group of the Netherlands installed it. The system features conveyor belts and robotic arms guiding gutters through each stage of the cultivation—from soil filling to seeding. The green and red lettuce is planted with a density of about 240 seeds per gutter, while the arugula and mustard greens (for the spring mix) are planted with a density of about 1,000 seeds per gutter.  [Canadian Grocer]
But it's not clear where [AI Minister Evan] Solomon stands on the question of how to balance AI safety with promoting the technology as industrial policy. A month after being appointed, Solomon has declined to answer reporters’ questions about the nature of his job. [CP]

For 67 years, the observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano has been taking these measurements daily  — tracking the invisible gas that is building up in our atmosphere and changing life on Earth. [CBC]
Annotate ggplot with text labels using built-in functions and create non-overlapping labels with the ggrepel package. [InfoWorld]
The Calendar
  • 0815 : Cap-aux-meules, QC - BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet meets with the Coopérative de Transport Maritime et Aérien
  • 0815 : Ottawa - FEDDEV and AI Min Evan Solomon speaks to a Canada 2020 event.
  • 1000 : 135B West Block -  Oxfam representatives speak about the G7.
  • 1000 : West Block - PM Carney meets with his cabinet.
  • 1045 : HoC foyer - BQ MP Christine Normandin and Jean-Denis Garon speak to reporters.
  • 1100 : 135B West Block - LPC MP Salma Zahid , NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice and GPC MP Elizabeth May speak about the war in Gaza.
  • 1100 : NPT -  Auditor General Karen Hogan speaks about her latest reports.
  • 1230 : Parliament Hill - Women and Gender Equality Min Rechie Valdez makes a funding announcement.
  • 1230 : Parliament Hill - PM Carney attends a flag-raising ceremony.
  • 1300 : 135B West Block -  Human rights advocates speak to reporters about the case of Jimmy Lai.
  • 1530 : 225A West Block - Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) | Meeting 1 - Election of Chair
  • 1545 : Ottawa - Housing, Infrastructure and PACIFICCan Min Gregor Robertson speaks to a Canada 2020 event.
  • 1600 : Vaughan, ON - Industry Min Melanie Joly speaks at the 2025 Canada Automotive Summit.
  • 1615 : Ottawa - LPC MP Corey Hogan moderates a panel at a Canada 2020 event.
Issued this day ...
… in 2013. Sc 2649. 250 Years of Postal History. Benjamin Franklin and Quebec City. Design: Andrew Perro.

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