EXCLUSIVE: Enbridge CEO: Canada standing in its own way in becoming an energy superpower

By Samantha Pope
Updated: October 02, 2025


Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel is urging the federal government to make several changes before his company could commit to being a proponent of a new pipeline.

The CEO of North America’s largest energy infrastructure company says Canada can “absolutely” be an energy superpower — but federal government regulations are standing in the way.

In an exclusive broadcast with CTV’s Power Play, Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel says Canada has the tools to dominate the global energy landscape, with supplies of uranium, natural gas, oil, and gold.

“We have everything set up,” he told host Mike Le Couteur. “The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves.”

On Wednesday, Alberta announced it will commit $14 million to support a new pipeline to northwestern B.C. The province is leading a technical advisory group involving three major pipeline companies — Enbridge, South Bow and Trans Mountain — which will provide counsel on the proposal, though none of those companies would be obligated to be involved in the project.

While Alta. Premier Danielle Smith says she hopes the pipeline will make the federal government’s next phase of major projects, B.C. Premier David Eby has sharply criticized Smith, telling reporters the proposal “is not a real project.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces plans to submit an application for a new oil pipeline to northwestern British Columbia, in Calgary, on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

He notes it would require a lifting of the federal government’s oil tanker ban, which he says is “foundational” for British Columbians who value the province’s coast.

Ebel says that while Enbridge would “entertain the possibility” of becoming a project proponent, the current regulatory conditions are a barrier.

“You’re not going to build a pipeline to nowhere, so if the tanker ban is there, why would you build a pipeline to the west coast?” he said.

Enbridge has been involved in many pipeline projects proposals in the past, including the ill-fated Northern Gateway pipeline project from Alberta to B.C., which was cancelled in 2016.

“I don’t think you have to look too far to see concrete, real examples of Enbridge and other pipelines being willing to be the proponent of a pipeline, if the conditions are set. Capital will go to where the conditions are set, and today, the conditions are not set for that pipeline to exist,” Ebel said.

On April 30, Enbridge wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on behalf of leading energy companies, outlining an action plan to support investment in the Canadian energy sector. Among the requests was an elimination of the emissions cap and industrial carbon levy to allow the sector to “reach its full potential.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

The company wrote another open letter on Sept. 15 with the same requests, writing that though the launch of the federal government’s new Major Projects Office is a “crucial step in the right direction” in becoming an energy superpower, regulations still impede that vision.

When asked by Le Couteur if it matters whether it’s a blanket removal of all these regulations to enable Canada to become an energy superpower, Ebel says having “bespoke regulation is not a great way to formulate capital and bring it together.”

“I think what you would be better off doing is creating the conditions across the entire country that will allow capital to come and these projects to be pursued,” he said.

In a statement to CTV News, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson did not express explicit support for Alberta’s proposal to be the proponent of a pipeline, but said the province has the “right to do so.”

“We have an active and constructive dialogue with Alberta and will always look for ways to advance shared priorities,” part of the statement read.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a meeting of the Conservative caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, before Monday's return of the House of Commons, on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has continued to criticize the federal Liberal government, saying Carney needs to “get out of the way” for a pipeline to be built.

When it comes to federal leadership, Ebel says he believes Carney recognizes that it’s a competitive world and Canada has the products, but government regulation is standing in the way of taking advantage of global demand.

“On election night, I believe he said, ‘Build, baby, build.’ I think those words matter. I love that enthusiasm. I think he recognizes we have been uncompetitive for the last 10 years, and he knows that changes have to be made,” Ebel said. “I support him in that, and look forward to those changes actually coming to fruition.”

With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha
Samantha Pope
Associate Producer, CTV's Power Play

Federal officials were interested in proposed Quebec LNG project, documents show

By The Canadian Press
Published: October 02, 2025 

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Friday, June 20, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

Senior federal officials touted a proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Quebec as having the potential to export “substantial volumes” of LNG to Europe, documents show.

The revelation appears in a federal briefing note prepared in May after Marinvest Energy Canada, a subsidiary of a Norwegian energy company, requested a meeting with the top bureaucrat at the federal Natural Resources Department to discuss its plans.

Although a company representative said a lower-level public servant met with them instead of the department’s deputy minister, the meeting was part of a flurry of lobbying activity in recent months that targeted high-level government officials, political staffers in the office of Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Publicly, the government has said little about the project, which is still in very early stages.

But according to the documents obtained by The Canadian Press, public servants were keen to hear the company’s views on the federal regulatory process last spring, as the Liberal government was preparing to table legislation to fast-track major projects.


The facility “could position Canada to export substantial volumes of Canadian natural gas to Europe in support of its medium-term energy security and long-term energy transition,” said the briefing note for the deputy minister of Natural Resources Canada.

Federal officials who drafted and approved the briefing note also recommended the government ensure the company was aware of the importance of engaging early with First Nations.

The Quebec government in 2021 rejected a similar fossil fuel project in the province’s Saguenay region, which had attracted widespread opposition, including from Indigenous communities.

Details about the meeting in May were not previously reported by the company and are only coming to light as a result of the documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

A representative for the company said it didn’t report this meeting on the federal lobbying registry, explaining it was not required to do so since the deputy minister did not attend.

Plans for a new natural gas pipeline and LNG export facility near Baie-Comeau, Que., along the north shore of the Saint-Lawrence River in the province’s Côte-Nord region, were first made public in July by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir.

At the time, Greg Cano, chief operating officer for Marinvest Energy Canada, said in a statement that there is a “clear and growing demand” for LNG in Europe, and Quebec is “strategically well-positioned to meet this need.”

The May briefing note advises the government to “seek insight on the project’s current status, and next steps,” and to inquire “on Marinvest’s long-term forecast of European LNG demand.”

It also recommends inviting “the proponent’s views on the federal regulatory process and timelines, within the context of the new government’s commitment to develop more efficient processes.”

In June, Parliament passed Bill C-5, Carney’s signature legislation meant to speed up approvals for projects deemed to be in the national interest.

Hodgson’s office did not respond to questions this week about the Marinvest project, but said in a statement that all projects to be referred to the new major projects office must strengthen Canada’s autonomy, provide economic benefits, have a high likelihood of success, benefit Indigenous peoples and contribute to climate change goals.


In a statement, Marinvest said it would be “speculative at this stage” to say whether its LNG project could be formally designated a project of national interest.

However, the company added that the project aligns with Bill C-5’s goals of “Canadian autonomy, resilience, security, economic benefits, and advancement of Indigenous interests.”

The Canadian subsidiary of the Norwegian company Marinvest Energy AS was listed in Quebec’s business registry in June. Cano is named as its sole Canadian shareholder.

Though the company reports having no salaried employees in Quebec, it has already hired several lobbyists to pitch the project to government officials.

Four lobbyists with the public relations firm National are currently registered to lobby the federal government on behalf of the company.

Apart from lobbying staff in Carney’s and Hodgson’s offices, the company has also lobbied Canada’s ambassador to Norway.

The communications were to “determine the applicable conditions for implementing a transformative and beneficial energy project for the future of Quebec and Canada,” according to details in the lobbyist registry.

In its statement, Marinvest said it has held “exploratory meetings” with government officials.

“These discussions remain preliminary, as the project is still in development,” the company said, adding that it has not yet submitted a “defined project” for review.

Marinvest said its “immediate priority” is engaging with First Nations about the project.

The May briefing note from Natural Resources Canada says the government should “emphasize the importance of engaging Indigenous communities early in the project design and planning process,” and should ask the company about its plans to “engage Indigenous communities… ahead of the regulatory application.”

An attachment to the document notes that a previous proposal for a natural gas pipeline and export facility in Quebec’s Saguenay region “faced opposition from Indigenous communities, including Innu in northern Quebec.”

The Quebec government axed that project in 2021, saying it risked “disadvantaging the energy transition.”

The following year, it was also rejected by the federal government, after the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada found it was likely to harm the environment.

A spokesperson for Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette said she could not comment on Marinvest, since “no project has officially been submitted.”

But she said the Trump administration has disrupted the Quebec economy and the province has “a duty to objectively and rigorously examine projects of national interest.”

Three lobbyists from National are registered to lobby the Quebec government on behalf of Marinvest.

Quebec Premier François Legault has previously confirmed that members of his team have met with the project’s proponents.

Louis Couillard, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said the renewed discussion of LNG in Eastern Canada is a reaction to the Liberal government’s focus on big projects.

He said the Marinvest project seems very similar to the one that Quebec rejected four years ago, but the context has changed since then.

“We’re seeing there’s a political appetite. But in terms of the business case, there’s no known investors yet for that project. It’s a small Norwegian company,” he said.

“When I look at it, I think it’s completely unserious. But there’s a small army of lobbyists ... and they’re meeting all the highest politicians in the country. Somehow, somewhere, there are people that think this is a serious project.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.

Startups need to keep intellectual property from leaving Canada, need government support: CEO

By Anam Khan
Updated: October 02, 2025 

Abdullah Snobar, executive director and CEO of DMZ Ventures, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss how the 2025 budget can be the turning point for startups.

Canada needs to invest in startups and help them diversify their business strategies, and one way it can do that is by becoming their biggest customer, said one CEO.

With the federal budget set to release next month, Canadian startups in need of government support, are facing a real pivotal point.

“Tomorrow’s problems in Canada cannot be solved by yesterday’s old business models,” said Abdullah Snobar, the CEO of DMZ Ventures in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Thursday.

“Ottawa needs to think about supporting startups and not just the incumbents.”

What does that look like? Snobar said the government can leverage dual use technology that can be used in defence. It can develop strategies to ‘buy Canadian’ and keep intellectual property within Canada so it’s not sold to global buyers who see “insane value” in it for pennies on the dollar.


Canada committed to spending $63 billion in military spending this year. Snobar said some of it can be used to support innovation while meeting military needs.

He said there are already many great Canadian companies building drone technology for retail sale.

“Can we take that same technology and deploy 10,000 drones to the Arctic to do Arctic surveillance for 24 hours? That’s something that we can consider from a startup perspective,” said Snobar.

Snobar’s firm provides seed funding for startups. He said while there are many ways people can innovate in this country, they struggle with procurement strategies.

“They realize, even if they build a business, the chances of them capturing the biggest single customer in this country, the Canadian government, is almost impossible,” said Snobar.

“If we create an avenue and channels that would actually allow companies, small businesses and startups to realize that when they build, they can actually leverage the Canadian government as a big customer, that would build credibility around the world.”

Canadian auto manufacturing companies are already looking for military contracts to pivot their business models after they were hit hard by tariffs. However, there are many legislative setbacks.

To support them, the federal government announced a $450-million Regional Tariff Response Initiative this summer to help companies transition into the defence sector. The goal is to help companies develop new businesses and machinery that will create auto parts for civilian and defence purposes.
No follow up on research programs

Snobar said Canada has been very supportive of funding research programs in post secondary institutions, but there is not much understanding of what happens post research.

He says the government needs to be more intentional and thoughtful with its strategies.


“Otherwise, as taxpayers, we are enabling the government to continue funding research, but never seeing the actual results, or the fruit of that investment,” said Snobar.

Anam Khan
Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca

Loblaw closing second of three ultra-discount No Name stores

By The Canadian Press
Updated: October 02, 2025

No Name logos on shopping carts are pictured at a Loblaws store in Ottawa on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

TORONTO — Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is closing the second of three Ontario No Name stores it was piloting as a bet on ultra-discount banners, just over a year after they launched.

Loblaw confirmed it will close its No Name store in LaSalle, near Windsor, on Oct. 25, after already shuttering its St. Catharines store in July. A third location in Brockville will remain open, the company said.

The grocer opened the stores last September, which were meant to capitalize on the trend of shoppers flocking to value after years of food inflation ate into budgets. The stores promised to deliver even lower prices than the company’s existing discount banners, such as No Frills. Latest updates on company news here

There was a strong initial response at the LaSalle location, the company said, but the customer base it needed to remain sustainable in the long term failed to materialize.

Loblaw noted the concept was a limited pilot and it is actively applying learnings to reduce operating costs and deliver value to its customers. A new No Frills store near the closing LaSalle No Name store is scheduled to open on Oct. 30, it said.

The No Name stores in the pilot aimed to be less complicated, with lower operating costs. A limited variety of about 1,300 individual products were offered, compared with up to 7,000 products at its smaller-format No Frills locations.

The grocer had the right intentions but missed a beat on execution, said Amar Singh, senior director at the consulting firm Kantar, in an interview.

Singh said several factors, such as a smaller product assortment and no promotions, likely explain why the deep-discount stores didn’t pan out.

“Most Canadians are stressed and they’re time-pressed,” Singh said, and customers don’t want to visit multiple stores to shop for groceries.

Shoppers found a limited selection of frozen items, packaged bakery items, produce and pantry staples, but no refrigerated foods like dairy or fresh meat at the locations.

It was a “very bland assortment, limited assortments, two freezers in the back, and that’s pretty much it,” Singh said. “You can’t even buy milk.”

Loblaw intentionally kept the number of products small to save on building and operations costs. The streamlined selection was also meant to reduce waste.

The lower overhead meant prices at the store were up to 20 per cent cheaper than comparable products at nearby discount stores, including its own No Frills stores, with three-quarters of the products more than 10 per cent cheaper. Two-thirds of the products were priced below $5.

Singh suspects there was some confusion between the No Name stores and Loblaw’s No Frills discount banner.

No Name stores were starting with a new storefront presence in comparison to the well-established No Frills banner, which may have led to confusion among shoppers about what the ultra-discount stores were really offering, he said.


The store also never ran any promotions, which was one of the biggest drawbacks, he said.

Singh said Canadian shoppers “love value hunting” and are “innately value seekers,” but they’re also looking for high quality.

Singh said consumers could find promotional discounts when buying a pack of items elsewhere, such as Costco, while No Name stores didn’t offer further discounts on multi-buys.

Chief executive Per Bank, who joined Loblaw in 2023, seemingly brought the idea with him from his years in the European grocery sector. When energy prices were on the rise a few years ago, he decided to test out this kind of smaller, simplified store at Salling Group with a hard discount banner called Basalt in Denmark, which launched in late 2022.

The concept didn’t pan out there, shutting down after seven months.

The grocery industry as a whole has been under pressure to offer a broader variety of discounted items, as the affordability crisis and economic uncertainty continue to hurt consumers.

Other discount stores, however, are favouring Loblaw’s bottom line. The grocer’s discount stores are doing better than the rest of the portfolio, Bank told analysts during its second quarter earnings call in July.

Earlier this year, Loblaw announced its plan to spend $2.2 billion, opening 80 new grocery and pharmacy stores, about 50 of which are smaller-format discount stores.

Other grocers, including Metro Inc., have been expanding their footprint in discount banners.

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Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.

Canada-bound commercial trucks face long lines at border crossings due to processing delays

By Bryann Aguilar
Updated: October 02, 2025 

Trucks lined up at the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge crossing. (Supplied)

Commercial trucks entering Canada at border crossings in Niagara are facing long wait times due to lingering delays after a system outage earlier this week.

The traffic congestion has prompted the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission (NFCB) to ask trucks to avoid the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge Crossing until further notice.

Photos shared by the commission show long lines of commercial trucks at the Lewiston-Queenston crossing.

Vehicles lined up at the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge crossing. (Supplied)

Trucks crossing over the Peace Bridge are also facing long lines.

The NFCB said the processing delays are caused by a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) systems outage that began on Sunday morning and was resolved on Tuesday afternoon.


“While CBSA has implemented a processing systems fix, the resulting delays continue, and all adjacent queuing areas within the Western New York region are at or beyond capacity,” the commission said.

The NFCB noted passenger vehicles and pedestrians may continue to use the border crossings.

Guillaume Berube, the media relations manager for the CBSA, said issues began after routine maintenance on Sunday morning.

“A data entry problem during the maintenance caused the outage and is being investigated,” Berube said in an email.

He noted that inspections of commercial shipments had to be conducted manually using paper forms during the outage.

“Although the outage has been resolved, commercial drivers continue to experience delays as we resume normal processing and continue to clear a backlog of requests that were received during the outage,” Berube said.

“Systems are being monitored for stability while traffic and shipping return to normal.”

Berube noted the CBSA is working with its partners to ensure traffic management.

“We thank commercial drivers for their cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience.”


Bryann Aguilar
Journalist, CP24.com

Tim Hortons raises coffee prices, calls hike ‘more than reasonable’

By Joe Van Wonderen
Updated: October 05, 2025

A cup of Tim Hortons coffee is poured in Toronto on May 14 2010. (710 millilitres). (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

Canada’s iconic coffee chain is charging more for the drink, reflecting a wider trend of jittery coffee prices.

In a statement to CTV News, a Tim Hortons spokesperson said the restaurant chain is raising coffee prices for the first time in three years, suggesting that compared to inflation, the price increase of 1.5 per cent per cup was “more than reasonable.”

The price of coffee beans has more than doubled, Tim Hortons said. According to MarketWatch.com, the price jumped from C$2.21 to C$5.45 per pound over the last three years. The coffee chain said that the price hike would boil out to “an average of three cents per cup.”

Outside of drive-thrus, Canadians paid 27.9 per cent more for their coffee at grocery stores in August compared to the same time last year, StatCan reported last month.

Canada imports nearly a quarter of its coffee from Colombia, with Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Central American countries making up the rest. The coffee trade was valued at more than $1.3 billion in July, importing 131 million kilograms of unroasted coffee.

U.S. tariffs affect your cup of joe

Although most of Canada’s unroasted coffee comes from Mexico and further south, roasted coffee largely comes from the United States, according to StatCan.

Canada imported 3.9 million kilograms of roasted coffee, mostly from the U.S. in July 2025. Roasted coffee was among the products affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and then were part of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., StatCan reported.

The statistics agency said that the counter-tariff measures were “possibly affecting costs for some Canadian coffee importers.”
Food prices rising especially fast

Food prices rose 3.5 per cent in August, Loblaw reported in their September food inflation report. It found that food prices are rising faster than the Consumer Price Index, which only bumped up 1.9 per cent that month.

Loblaw claims that counter-tariffs were raising prices for Canadians, but since Sept 1, when most were dropped, products are back to “flowing through” to customers.

Loblaw also highlighted coffee in their report, saying “coffee prices have climbed back near their 2025 highs,” blaming the 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on Brazil, the largest coffee exporter in the world.

Loblaw suggested that buyers have to “compete” for alternative suppliers while Brazilian coffee growers are “holding on to their beans,” and being cautious with their sales. U.S. tariffs and cautious Brazilian coffee growers are “keeping global coffee markets volatile,” Loblaw said.


Joe Van Wonderen

CTVNewsToronto.ca Journalist

Newfoundland has the country’s highest per-capita debt. It’s all but hidden in the election.

By The Canadian Press
Published: October 03, 2025 

Provincial election signs shown around St. John's on early Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

ST. JOHN’S — Business and taxpayer organizations are calling on party leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador to stop making costly election promises, as the province carries the country’s highest per-capita provincial debt.

Whoever forms government after the Oct. 14 election will inherit a net debt approaching $20 billion in a province about 545,000 people. That debt will cost more than a billion dollars to service in the current fiscal year.

That’s money that won’t be available for other expenses, such as health care and education, said AnnMarie Boudreau, chief executive of the St. John’s Board of Trade.

“We can’t lose sight of the fiscal reality that Newfoundland and Labrador is facing,” Boudreau said in recent interview. “We can’t make a laundry list of expenditures or additional investments without having a solid plan to … afford the decisions that are being made and the promises that are being made during this election.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has called on party leaders to stop making pricey promises and focus on fiscal restraint. “Every new promise made on the campaign trail today becomes tomorrow’s tax hike or tomorrow’s cut to essential services,” said Atlantic Director Devin Drover in a news release this week.


As party leaders make their pitches to voters across Canada’s easternmost province, only the NDP have pledged to end years of stinging deficits. The party’s costed platform promises a surplus by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year, achieved by slashing spending on privately run shelters, private nursing agencies and oil subsidies.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tony Wakeham has said he is focused on helping residents balance their budgets before he balances the province’s books. He has promised $11.5 million to reduce taxes on small businesses and $26.6 million for seniors housing communities.

Liberal leader and incumbent premier John Hogan said he’d use money from a tentative energy deal with Quebec to pay down the province’s debt. That money will also cover $13 million in increased benefits and services for seniors and $75 million to cut provincial tax on electricity bills, he has pledged.

Economist Wade Locke said he is not surprised to see the province’s finances get scant attention during the campaign.

“I don’t think the electorate are overly concerned about it, either,” the retired Memorial University professor said in an interview. Voters like being told they’ll get new services, and they don’t like having those services cut, he said.

In the 76 years since Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada, the province has posted 10 budget surpluses, six of which were driven by oil royalties, Locke said. The other four were due to cash transfers from the federal government.

Locke said the draft deal with Quebec unveiled in December offers Newfoundland and Labrador an income stream that could help pay off its debt, though not all at once. The Liberals have said the deal will bring about $17 billion to the provincial treasury by 2041. That’s almost $3 billion short of the net debt forecast this fiscal year — $19.7 billion by the end of March.

Asked if he believed any elected party would use the income to pay off the debt, Locke was blunt: “No. Simply no.”

“But we’re not going to go bankrupt,” he added. It is an “extreme possibility and likelihood” that the province will just keep borrowing and paying more and more interest, at higher and higher rates, Locke said.

The high debt takes a toll on businesses, Boudreau said. The province’s unsteady finances, especially when coupled with instability from tariffs imposed by the United States, is driving a keen sense of uncertainty, she said.

“That is definitely making it really hard for business leaders to make decisions about growing or investing or about hiring,” she said. “We’re in a real moment of being stalled, economically.”


It can also be hard for business owners to recruit employees from outside the province if they can’t promise that the province’s health-care and education systems will be improved, Boudreau said.

But she is not pushing for debt repayment to be a top priority. Instead, she is looking for a leader to make a plan to balance debt repayment with smart, steady investment in services that need a boost.

“There are so many priorities that are so important to the province right now,” she said. “But I do think we absolutely need to have a plan.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

Canada’s last hockey stick factory survives in face of tariff threats, globalization

By The Canadian Press
Published: October 06, 2025 

A worker makes wooden hockey sticks at the Roustan Hockey factory, which is the last major manufacturer of hockey sticks in Canada on Aug. 27, 2025 in Brantford, Ontario.

 (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

BRANTFORD, Ontario — Wearing protective gloves and earplugs, a worker feeds lengths of wood into a machine that makes an ear-splitting whine as it automatically cuts a groove into the end of each piece.

Nearby, stacks of wooden wedges wait to be slotted into those grooves to form the beginnings of a hockey stick. Further down the Roustan Hockey production line, other workers are busy shaping, trimming, sanding, painting and screen printing as they turn lumber into a Canadian national symbol.

It’s a typical day on the job for the 15 workers at Canada’s last major hockey stick factory, 100 kilometres southwest of Toronto.Trade War coverage on BNNBloomberg.ca

The operation has origins that date back to the 1800s and has survived decades of trade globalization to hang on as the last North American commercial manufacturer of traditional wooden hockey sticks. Now it’s facing fresh headwinds from the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ripped up free trade deals in North America and imposed tariffs on Canadian exports.

The uncertainty is making life a headache for Roustan.


“You never know” what Trump will do, said Bo Crawford, the factory’s general manager. “You just have to roll with it and the president of the U.S. can change his mind day to day, week to week, hour to hour. So yeah, we have to deal with it the best we can,” he said.

Roustan has spent months dealing with U.S. customer worries and navigating the trade challenges.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian imports, though many goods have ultimately remained exempted because they’re already covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiated during his first term.

Then, in late August, the Trump administration eliminated a widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth US$800 that resulted in new uncertainty over cross-border trade, said owner and CEO Graeme Roustan.

“Even if somebody buys one or two or five or 10 sticks and it’s under US$100, they’re going to be affected by the tariffs, so the jury is still out on how that’s going to impact business,” Roustan said.

Roustan Hockey’s factory churns out about 400,000 wooden hockey sticks a year under the Christian, Northland and Sherwood brands, with about 100,000 exported to the United States. It also makes plastic-bladed road hockey sticks and foam-core goalie sticks.

Crawford said shipments to the U.S. have been held up for manual inspections at the border, where they’ve been hit with surprise tariffs, which the company’s customs broker has managed to get waived.

It’s not just sticks. Shipments of goalie pads, which Roustan manufactures at a separate factory in Toronto, were recently flagged for an unexpected 200 per cent tariff, which company managers said they’re trying to resolve with new forms from their shipping company.

The disruption underscores the broader trade turmoil that’s left the Canadian economy reeling.

Canada’s economy shrank 1.6 per cent in the second quarter, in the first contraction since 2023 and the biggest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. Exports slumped 7.5 per cent, as uncertainty over tariffs and trade pummeled exports to the country’s biggest trading partner, the United States.


Those figures overshadow the longer-term decline of Canadian manufacturing. Some 37,800 manufacturing jobs were lost in the year to August, according to official data.

Real investment in industrial machinery and equipment fell in the second quarter to the lowest level since records began in 1981, experts at the National Bank of Canada pointed out in a recent research note.

“How did we get here? Years of excessive regulation, and a chronic lack of ambition by successive governments in promoting domestic transformation of our natural resources — recently made worse by Washington’s protectionist agenda,” wrote economists Stéfane Marion and Matthieu Arseneau. “That failure has eroded Canada’s manufacturing base and left us at risk of becoming irrelevant in global supply chains.”

The Roustan operation started life in 1847 as an agricultural workshop, 20 years before Canada became a country and 70 years before the National Hockey League was created.

It’s all that survives of the golden era of North American wooden hockey stick manufacturing in the 1970s and ’80s when there were numerous workshops in Ontario and Quebec, as well as U.S. production centred in Minnesota.

Roustan, a businessman who also owns the Hockey News and once attempted to buy the Montreal Canadiens, acquired the operation in 2019 — by then named Heritage Wood Specialties — and moved it from aging facilities in the town of Hespeler, 30 kilometres north of Brantford, hometown of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

Nowadays, global production amounts to about 5 million hockey sticks a year, but wood makes up only about a tenth. No NHL player has regularly used a wooden stick in well over a decade, underlining the sport’s embrace of newer technology.

Composite sticks, made of carbon fibre and other lightweight advanced materials, are now far more popular and preferred by both amateurs and professionals. But composite sticks are pricier because of the advanced manufacturing processes involved.

Meanwhile, over the years, Canadian and U.S. production consolidated or moved to Asia and Mexico amid a wider global shift by Western consumer brands in search of cheaper manufacturing overseas.

“It’s very hard to compete against some of the Asian markets and some of our competitors that are in other countries,” said Crawford. “But our quality kind of stands for itself.”

Roustan acknowledges that the wooden hockey stick market is not a growth industry and, at best, production will hold steady.

“Right now, we have, you know, 5-10 per cent of the market. But it’s diminishing every year. And the kids that are growing up today, they are all about composite. So yes, it’s a shrinking market for sure.”

At Roustan’s 130,000 square foot factory, the manufacturing process is low-tech and artisanal.

At one workstation, a worker uses liquid epoxy to glue fibreglass reinforcing sheets to wooden blades, in batches of six. Nearby, another worker uses a band saw to trim dried excess fibreglass off each blade. In the paint room, sticks are dipped in white paint and then hung on a line of moving hooks to dry.

The factory’s story is not just about evolving trade patterns and modern industrial practices, but also about the place that the national winter sport has in the Canadian soul, Roustan said.

“It’s important to any country to have a manufacturing base of products that you consume on a regular basis,” said Roustan. “Having a factory that makes hockey sticks in Canada really serves two purposes. One, it contributes to the manufacturing base. But two, (it) has the legacy and the tug of the heartstrings of the game that we all love in Canada.”

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Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press

Canada faces wave of mortgage delinquencies and arrears, says national housing agency

By Christl Dabu
Published: October 07, 2025 

Canada's mortgage delinquencies rate rose to 0.22 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, according to data published by CMHC. (Pexels)

The country’s housing agency projects that a growing number of Canadians will struggle to make payments as they renew their mortgages this year and next. A top economist from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says it is monitoring the situation “very closely.”

“My overall expectation is that delinquencies and arrears will be trending upwards,” Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist with CMHC, said about the national picture, in a recent video interview with CTVNews.ca from Ottawa.

“There will be a bit of a downward pressure on the economy as people cope with these higher interest rates on mortgage renewal.”

In 2022, Canada’s mortgage delinquency rate fell to the lowest it’s been in years at 0.14 per cent, according to the CMHC, citing data from Equifax Canada. It rose to 0.22 per cent in the second quarter of this year, a slight dip from the first quarter. It was as high as 0.38 per cent in 2012.

While the number of mortgage delinquencies and arrears are at historically low levels, ab Iorwerth said, the CMHC has observed “a sharp increase” in arrears and delinquencies in some parts of the country.


The CMHC economist estimates that interest rates for homes and condos will probably be three percentage points higher than five years ago. He was not able to provide figures on how much mortgage payments could rise.

When the pandemic began in 2020, many Canadians purchased homes and condos because of the low interest rates.

An estimated two million mortgages across Canada are coming up for renewal this year and in 2026, according to the CMHC.

About 60 per cent of outstanding mortgages across the country are set to renew with higher payments in 2025 or 2026, according to an analysis published in July by Bank of Canada staff. The analysis is produced independently from the bank’s governing council. Most of these borrowers hold a five-year, fixed-rate mortgage, according to the research note.

The impact of the U.S.-Canada trade war is a factor in the bleak picture for some homeowners, as well as the high cost of living, ab Iorwerth said. The general economic slowdown, for instance, means companies will do less investing and hiring, he added.

The situation may also worsen the housing crisis, he said.

“This could also have a compounding effect in that developers and builders will be really reluctant to put shovels in the ground and build more housing,” he said, noting that a shortage of housing could mean rising house prices in a few years.

While many households are facing higher payments, the mortgage renewals won’t “shock” the system, according to Maria Solovieva, an economist with TD Bank, in a report published in July. She noted how total mortgage payments are actually declining due to lower mortgage rates. For instance, mortgage interest payments fell by an average of 1.7 per cent in the final two quarters of 2024, according to her report.

Where are homeowners struggling the most?

Ab Iorwerth said the CMHC is especially concerned about condo owners in Toronto who took out mortgages in 2020 and 2021 when interest rates were low.

Condos were attractive during the pandemic because they were “relatively more affordable” than houses, he said. Many condos were being built in Toronto and the low interest rates enticed many buyers back then, he said. Buyers typically signed five-year terms, which means those owners now have to renew their mortgages at much higher rates. High unemployment in Toronto is also fuelling the CMHC’s concerns.


Shael Weinreb, CEO and founder of The Home Equity Partners in Toronto, says he’s seeing evidence of mortgage delinquencies, especially in Toronto.

“It’s incredibly hard to get ahead, so to be able to keep up with this cost of living, people are forced to carry balances on their lines of credit, on their credit cards,” he said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.

Major cities including Vancouver and Montreal will experience similar pressures, especially condo owners, but to a “lesser extent” than Toronto, ab Iorwerth added.

Meanwhile, other provinces such as Alberta have a stronger economy than Ontario.

“So we think there’s some capacity in Alberta to absorb these delinquencies,” ab Iorwerth said.

Christl Dabu
CTVNews.ca National Affairs Writer

‘It was a terrifying period’: Author details Scotiabank CEO’s career in financial crisis

By Joshua Santos
Published: October 07, 2025 

Howard Green, author of Gimme a Crisis, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss his book which dives into the story of Scotiabank CEO Rick Waugh.

After world economies collapsed during financial turmoil, Scotiabank CEO Rick Waugh’s valiant efforts to keep his company afloat were praised, and now his accounts are penned in a new book.

Waugh managed the bank during the 2008 global financial crisis maintaining interbank lending in Canada. He helped Canadian banks remain stable and profitable during financial meltdown. He worked closely with Bank of Canada governor – and now Prime Minister – Mark Carney to ensure banks continued lending to each other.

“That solved a huge problem during the financial crisis, because Canadian banks were still operating,” author Howard Green told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview.

‘They were still profitable through the crisis. It was very, very difficult. It was hour by hour. It was day by day, but they came through as the soundest banks in in the world.”

Waugh’s time and leadership was detailed in Gimme a Crisis: In the Room with Global Banker Rick Waugh by Green released Tuesday.


“The title, ‘gimme me a crisis’ came right out of his mouth,” said Green.

Green sketched an up-close picture of Waugh to understand what it is like to run a global bank during financial chaos and lead more than 80,000 employees in more than 50 countries at the same time.

Waugh was described as motivated by problem-solving, seen as someone who wants to be “in the room” and respected for his hands-on management style.

His humble beginnings shaped his leadership approach as his father was a firefighter. He learned to handle crises, was comfortable at solving complex problems directly and believed in collaborative, transparent communication.

“He was a teller,” said Green.

“He came from modest means. His dad was a firefighter in Winnipeg, and Rick seems to have inherited the ability to handle crisis.”

Waugh also led the bank during the Argentina crisis of 2001 to 2002 when Scotiabank pulled a subsidiary, Scotiabank Quilmes out of the country during extreme economic instability. The bank took a $540 million loss as a result, according to United Nations Trade and Development Investment Hub.

“The country was breaking down,” said Green. “There were five presidents in 13 days. They lost the bank. Money was running out of the country… you never knew what your money was going to be worth.

“It was absolute chaos. One of the bank employees was mugged and grabbed around the throat. The head of the bank there was detained without counsel and couldn’t leave the country... it was a terrifying period. Rick went all through that handled it with great calm,” said Green.

The situation led to the suspension of Quilmes by the Argentine central bank after liquidity problems. Scotiabank, as the parent company, refused to inject further capital. The South American government converted U.S. dollar deposits into pesos at different exchange rates, which Scotiabank deemed illegal. The bank alleged the country denied its subsidiary the same level of financial assistance as domestic banks.

Cultural change

Waugh was also instrumental in advancing women’s roles in banks during a time of gender discrimination. He helped create opportunities for women to progress in the bank industry and transformed the bank’s culture to be more inclusive of women in leadership roles.

“When Rick started at the bank in 1970 and through probably the first 20 years of his career, women were not allowed on the executive floor of the bank,” said Green. “Women were not permitted to be part of the pension fund of major Canadian banks until the 1960s. Until 1964, if you were a woman, you couldn’t get your own bank account without your husband’s signature.”


Joshua Santos\
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Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca