Canada doesn't impress Trump much

Build Canada launches Ontario Spends. New week, new Trump tariffs. And Michael Sabia says time waits for no public servant.

Source: Shania Twain’s Facebook page

Parade marshal Shania Twain rides a horse as she leads the Calgary Stampede parade through the city's downtown.

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Announcing Ontario Spends

First things first: Build Canada is delighted to announce the launch of Ontario Spends, our new AI-powered tool that gives clear data-driven visualizations of how Ontario's provincial revenue and spending affect its residents and programs. A spinoff of Canada Spends, Ontario Spends was built by Jesse Lee – an entrepreneur who is also a Build Canada volunteer.

Here’s the vital thing about Build Canada: We are a volunteer-based movement that relies on the work of people like Jesse to advance our core mission to make Canada the most prosperous country in the world. If you would like to volunteer for Build Canada, including building a version of Canada Spends for your province or city, you can sign up here.

In the meantime, we would also like to give a shoutout to another Build Canada volunteer, Jorge Velez. He has a really interesting Substack post about how Canada developed the energy and resources of northeastern Quebec and Labrador.

Trump hearts tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening that he would be imposing 35 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada starting Aug 1. These appear to be on top of the 25 per cent tariffs that have been in place since April, but they also appear to be subject to the same exemptions, namely to any goods that are compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement that Trump signed during his first term.

Trump had been sending tariff letters to dozens of American trading partners all week, so it was probably inevitable that Canada would be included. But making sense of what Trump’s broader goal might be is very hard to discern — recall that Canada and the U.S. have been working toward a self-imposed deadline of July 17 to come to a new trade agreement.

It’s worth noting that while Trump justified the tariffs on the grounds that Canada still had not done enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. (an argument that was debunked by the Manhattan Institute in a comprehensive report released on July 1), in his letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney he also complained about Canadian retaliatory tariffs, the trade deficit, and supply management. He also warned Canada against any further retaliatory tariffs.

This might be a return to the aggressive economic warfare that marked the early days of Trump’s second presidency; it might be just another iteration of the president’s now-standard maximalist negotiating strategy; it may be something else entirely. Prime Minister Carney will not find himself short of advice on what he should do in response. At any rate the new deadline for an agreement with the U.S. appears to be August 1, applying all the usual caveats.

There’s a new Clerk in town

The new Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Sabia, hit the ground running this week. On Monday, his first official day on the job, Sabia released an open letter to public servants in which he framed the challenges facing Canada as an opportunity to make our economy more resilient, prosperous, and fair, while strengthening national unity. He called on public servants to focus their attention on fewer key priorities, to simplify their processes, and to instill a culture of accountability.

But Sabia’s demand for a more focused and accountable public service comes right as Carney has asked federal ministers to find significant budget savings of 7.5 per cent in 2026-27, 10 per cent the next year, and 15 per cent the year after that. A letter went out to public servants this week warning of a forthcoming Comprehensive Expenditure Review that would identify any activities or programs that “can be restructured, scaled down, stopped, or transferred.” Public sector unions are already warning that much of these cuts will take the form of layoffs, something that the government has been steadily signalling as inevitable.

Our memo on how to create a more productive government was sponsored by Build Canada CEO Lucy Hargreaves.

Quick Hits

• The federal government’s thinking on the nation-building “major projects” that were the main topic of conversation at the first ministers meeting in June seems to be firming up. According to a report this week in the FP, Ottawa is looking at projects in five key areas — the Western and Arctic Corridor, the Eastern Energy Partnership, Critical Minerals Pathways, the Next Stage of Nuclear and Export Diversification Infrastructure. A new oil pipeline expected to be on the list of projects.

• Evan Solomon, the federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, was in Montreal this week for Startup Fest, billed as Montreal’s flagship tech and entrepreneurship festival. He took the opportunity to announce almost $100 million in federal funding for Scale AI, a Montreal-based artificial intelligence investment hub. The projects slated to receive a share of the funding include aerospace firm using AI to forecast aircraft maintenance, a recycling company deploying machine vision to inspect bales in real time, and a tech firm helping retailers enhance online search.

  Readers may recall the Build Canada memo, sponsored by Ben Alarie, that set out a path for Canada to become an AI-first government. But when asked about the deployment of AI in the public service, Solomon just replied, “The prime minister has been very clear — government is going to have to be more productive and find efficiencies. He added, “this isn’t about replacing people. It’s about giving workers better tools.”

What else we’ve been reading

• Build Canada CEO Lucy Hargreaves is quoted in this piece looking at how Canada can attract and retain tech talent

• From our friends at The Hub: Canada needs its own DOGE (but one with a heart)

• The Montreal Gazette has a big feature on Quebec’s 25 richest people

• OpenAI and Microsoft are funding AI training for teachers in the U.S.

• And the best news we heard all week: You can stop taking off your shoes when you go through airport security

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