By Ray Rivers
September 20th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
After Dalton McGuinty was elected in 2003, one of the first things his government did was to develop Canadian/Ontario-made renewable energy. Solar systems were as much as 80% Canadian made. Canadian Solar, a private company established in 2001 became a global leader in renewable energy, and still is today.
There are thousands of small solar panel installations like this across the province – they work very well and in many cases provide revenue for the owners.
The solar panels for Ontario’s systems were manufactured largely by Canadian Solar in Guelph Ontario and the steel frames were locally sourced. Unfortunately McGuinty was accused of breaking international trade rules by demanding in-province manufacturing. The Harper government, who never supported renewable energy, presumably pressured McGuinty to discard his buy Ontario policies as violating GATT international trading rules (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs).
Some twenty years later, GATT and it’s successor WTO (World Trade Organization) have become a sad joke. The so-called leader of the free world imposed tariffs and other trade restrictions willy-nilly to suit his mood of the day. He imposed 50% tariffs on everything Brazilian because his buddy there had been convicted for trying to stage a coup – ironically what Trump is alleged to have attempted on January 6th 2001.
Canadian steel mills are among the best in the world. Keeping them alive is a critical part of realigning the Canadian economy.
So Canada’s new prime minister is pushing ahead with a broad-based buy Canada policy. The steel industry hopes that this could move Canadian content of their products to 80% from its current 30% and help offset Trump’s whacking big steel tariffs. Carney is hoping for the buy Canadian policies to be in place by next year at the latest.
The true story behind this photograph is yet to become public. Prime Minister Mark Carney with Chrystia Freeland as she ends her political career. Her memoirs should be fascinating.
But a good place to start would be cancelling the loan the federal infrastructure bank is giving the BC government to purchase four Chinese built ferries. Shame on Premier Eby for not getting the message. He was one of the loudest critics of Trump’s tariffs yet allowed BC ferries to develop an acquisition tender which effectively excluded Canadian ship builders. There is an email trail indicating that Chrystia had almost gone almost postal with rage about the Chinese aspect of this project. Perhaps that why she thought it a good time to leave.
No premier made more noise about against the tariffs than Ontario’s Doug Ford. But his highest priority has long been to build an American led mini-nuclear facility. And once built it will require a steady diet of imported American enriched nuclear fuel for its twenty or thirty year life cycle. That is if it even lasts that long. It is first off the block with untested technology and expected to generate more nuclear waste than the current Candu reactors. No other nation is interested in this kind of reactor- why is Ford?
Doug Ford’s highest priority has long been to build an American-led mini-nuclear facility.
And this experiment will take longer to get into production and will cost an estimated two to eight times more per kWh than the renewable wind and solar Ford killed in his first term. So one has to wonder why Mark Carney would even allow this pig of a project to make into the first five major projects for consideration under Bill C5.
Perhaps Carney is catering to these premiers just in the interests of keeping them onside. I mean they talk a good story about buying Canadian but are full of it when it comes to walking the talk, Still, sucking up to these hypocrites may keep Carney in their favour for the short run but risks destroying his credibility and our national unity in the longer term. Just tell them no!
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Big Five Projects Canadian Solar BC Ferries Eby Complaint Ford’s Folly –
I agree Philip.Carney may turn out to be another flim~flam Liberal .Lot’s of shuffling the deck chairs.
Harold au contraire, the federal politicians are the enemy.
Canada as structured is no longer economically viable or soon won’t be under Carney. “Nation building” ala Carney style will not save Canada.
Seriously, vote whoring ministers in our electoral system decide which projects are in the national interest and what rules can be dropped or bent?
We need to reduce the federal government to maybe defense, national security, justice, transport and perhaps international affairs. If that can’t be worked out, then only de-confederation or the 51st state option make any sense to me.
When you only delay an EV mandate by one year you send the same consistent message to industry that you just don’t get it. That is seen across all industry.
Companies including auto manufacturers plan capital investments years in advance.
I remain active on major projects in mining (on Carney’s list!) where too Canada is an investment wasteland outside of a gold project announcement here and there.
I have been active on major industrial projects of all types for decades. Ridiculous projects like a high-speed train between Quebec City and Toronto only serve to fill Atkins Realis (SNC) coffers before they die.
Permanent changes are needed in the regulatory and approval processes along with financial incentives for industry investment across all sectors. Enbridge recently announced a couple of major pipeline projects in the USA, not in Canada. They have written the feds on this.
PS: Ray, I thank idiot politicians frequently for buying my solar power for 40 cents a KWHR while I pay 2.5 cents per KWHR to recharge my plug in. Fools are born every minute. Canada is full of them.
Rant over!
Harold my vote is for eliminating the corrupt federal government except for defense and national security. Canada is no longer a relevant nation.
Ray has published a master class in Liberal deflection, transferring the responsibility for Canada’s economic malaise away from the Carney government.
However, the reality of Carney’s first six months in office is that HE has accomplished very little. His election mantra of “elbows up” and his ability to negotiate a trade deal with Trump have proven to be little more than election posturing. He has failed to eliminate the federal roadblocks to private sector investing in Canada; laughably, he has enacted Bill C-5 which promises to remove “such roadblocks” (at his discretion of course) in selected projects of national interest while not actually removing the roadblocks. He alone given his vaunted business experience should recognize that business executives will hardly be mollified by Bill C-5. Carney has created more federal bureaucracies to oversee housing and the projects of national interest—this isn’t ACTION, it’s just the Liberal strategy of talking a good game while accomplishing little. Even the first 5 major projects he announced were projects which had already been approved.
Further, Ray shifts the blame entirely to David Eby for the contract to build BC ferries in China while somehow omitting Freeland’s negligence in the financing of the contract.
And finally, Ray has carefully avoided further Liberal serious social problems which are entirely the fault of the Liberal government, namely criminal justice/bail and immigration. The reality is that the Canadian electorate were sold a bill of goods in the past federal election and we are now paying a very steep price. This is not going to end well.
More Provincial bull. Another argument for deleting Provinces. I look at all provincial politicians as the enemy. They fuck up the big picture. We don’t need them. Hand off their duties to the Counties or Municipalities since these smaller bodies are the only ones with an actual local perspective. And leave the “Nation Building” to the Feds.