Hello,
Encana, a Canadian oil-and-gas company that can trace its lineage back to the time of Sir John A. Macdonald, will be Canadian no longer.
Encana CEO Doug Suttles made the announcement this morning. The company said they will maintain operations in Canada, but that moving their headquarters to the United States and rebranding as Ovintiv will give them access to more U.S. capital.
The move is sure to raise questions about the ability of Canadian companies to attract foreign investment, which research shows has become more difficult. It will also add more fuel to the conflict between Western premiers and the federal government over pipelines and getting Canadian energy products to market.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
In the U.S., the House of Representatives will hold its first official vote on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump today. Today’s vote would show just how much support the investigation has in the chamber, and would call for public hearings and the release of documents.
Tarun Chhabra, a former member of the U.S. national security council under Barack Obama, says Canada must pull back engagement with China further until the Canadian hostages Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig are released. “There still has to be a red line, and arbitrary arrests like the two Michaels have to be the red line,” Mr. Chhabra told The Globe.
The United Nations refugee agency says Canada should consider a refugee program similar to what it did for Syrians four years ago, but this time for residents of Venezuela.
The federal New Democrats say they would like the Liberal government to do two things if it wants support in the upcoming hung Parliament: drop the court challenge to a human-rights tribunal ruling on Indigenous children, and institute a national pharmacare plan.
Former cabinet minister Peter MacKay was in Washington yesterday, where he criticized the Conservative campaign and said leader Andrew Scheer’s chances of winning were like “having a breakaway on an open net and missing.” He also said Mr. Scheer’s social conservative views hung around his neck like a “stinking albatross.” Mr. MacKay said early this morning that what he meant to say was that the Conservative Party needed “modern policies” and better communications.
Meanwhile in the Senate, the Conservatives in that chamber are having their own leadership race, between senators Don Plett and David Wells. The Conservatives currently represent 29 seats in the 105-seat Red Chamber, though four of them are set to retire over the next four months. The leader of the Senate Conservatives is usually the most vocal critic of the Prime Minister in that chamber.
The Liberal government says it will decide by the end of the year if the carbon pricing put on industrial emitters in Ontario and Alberta suffices, or whether the federal tax will be imposed.
In Ontario, an advisory panel says the Progressive Conservative government should scrap its controversial plans to change the funding for therapy for those with autism. Seven families of nine autistic adults are suing the provincial government for breach of contract after their funding was abruptly cut this summer. The Globe and Mail revealed today that one of the advocacy groups whose views on the funding differed from most others was given free media training by Warren Kinsella’s Daisy Group, a firm that had done unrelated work months before for the minister in charge of the autism file at the time. Mr. Kinsella later threatened to sue the group, Autistics For Autistics, when they asked if the free services were offered to help the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. The Globe reported earlier this month that Mr. Kinsella’s group had been hired by the Conservative Party to discredit the People’s Party of Canada before the federal election.
Saskatchewan is asking the federal government to make it easier for prospective truckers to access student loans to pay for new safety courses.
Ian Edwards has gone from interim CEO to full CEO of SNC-Lavalin, and says profit in the latest quarter shows the engineering company’s plans to turn itself around are paying off.
And there’s no Halloween in Montreal tonight because of bad weather. “It will be a lot of rain, so for the little children in the street it will be dangerous,” a municipal spokesperson said.
John Duffy (The Globe and Mail) on the new minority government: “The wrenching changes coming to Canada’s economic foundations are certainly of a scale that could produce a string of minority governments that do not command genuine nationwide support. Canada’s 43rd parliament – and its budget votes and confidence motions – is accordingly one where the left wing will be defined by opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline-expansion project, the right wing will be defined by opposition to the carbon tax, and the centre will be occupied by a minority brokerage party that favours both.”
Carlo Dade and John Law (The Globe and Mail) on getting Canadian goods to foreign markets: “The private sector, including our ports and railroads, are ramping up spending and making substantial new investments; new grain companies have entered the market and are experimenting with more efficient logistics. But this is not moving perception in Canada’s foreign markets. For that to happen, there has to be a larger signal from the government that trade infrastructure is important. That signal is a national action plan that has permanence beyond electoral campaign slogans such as infrastructure banks that solve problems that Canada does not have.”
Andrew Coyne (National Post) on whether Andrew Scheer should stay on as Conservative leader: “Whatever Scheer’s failings, they pale in significance beside the more fundamental limitations of the party’s appeal — notably, its unwillingness or inability to come up with a coherent conservative message, relevant to the concerns of voters and distinct from those of the other parties, and to present it in a persuasive manner.”
Brigitte Pellerin (Ottawa Citizen) on the invectives thrown at Catherine McKenna and other women in politics: “True, verbal violence does not always lead to physical violence. After years of Twitter abuse, McKenna was recently verbally assaulted by some guy in a car while she was out with her kids. Verbal doesn’t alway lead to physical, but physical violence is nearly always preceded by verbal violence. Aggressors need to dehumanize someone before striking them.”
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Chris Hannay