Quote from: Herman on November 22, 2025, 08:34:46 PMThis is what Carbey meant when he said "cuts."

Sadly, there are no cuts in this budget. I wish it was a Mellei style austerity budget with deep spending cuts combined with slashing red tape and lowering taxes. And of course repealing all the bad laws that block investment.

His big projects MPO are all smoke and mirrors just like the elbows up scam.

A big project gone that would have created hundreds, possibly thousands of good jobs and revenue. It is gone now to Trump's investor friendly United States.

Nutrien's U.S. port project shows Carney's MPO more about politics than results

Canada is the largest potash producer in the world (about one-third of the total). Our annual potash exports are valued at around $9 billion to $11 billion and are expected to grow for the next couple of decades.

Potash is Canada's fifth-largest export commodity.

So when Nutrien, the world's largest potash mining company, based in Saskatoon, says it's looking to build a new billion-dollar export terminal, don't you think that Prime Minister Mark Carney and his vaunted Major Projects Office (MPO) would jump at the chance to help the company find a Canadian site and remove any roadblocks to the terminal's construction?

That's precisely what Carney has said his MPO is there for, over and over again.

Sure, the Nutrien terminal is not on either of Carney's first lists of "nation-building" projects, but it should be a simple add-on. It meets all the criteria. It will increase GDP. It will create jobs. And, best of all, the funding is already in place — all of it private. No government money required.

It would seem a no-brainer for the Liberal government to refer the terminal to its MPO.

However, in the spring, Nutrien even offered to build in either Vancouver or Prince George if the Carney government wanted to prove its commitment to unleashing growth in the Canadian economy and attracting investment in resource industries and critical minerals.

According to the company, the Liberals weren't interested.

Maybe because the Nutrien terminal would have been too much work for the political credit it would have earned the Liberals. Of the 10 projects announced so far by the PM, most are already through the assessment process; some are substantially underway. It easy to take credit.

Taking on a project that still needs permits and a water-access site just seems like too much work for the "stroke" it would get the Libs from voters and the media.

So, on Wednesday, Nutrien announced it would be building its terminal in Longview, Wash., just down the Columbia River from Portland, Ore.

In the end, Canada's regulations, taxes, freight rates, approval timelines and construction costs weren't competitive with those in the States.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lorne-gunter-nutriens-u-s-port-project-shows-carneys-mpo-more-about-politics-than-results/wcm/b743b201-e374-461c-bb99-0b787df3cb68