The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/06 at 04:00 EST

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/06 at 04:00 EST

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Neil Herland. Canadian officials continue talks with American counterparts trying to scrap the Trump administration

tariffs. Dominic LeBlanc is Canada's finance minister. He spoke with CNN last night. If the American administration wants to discuss parts of the agreement that they'd like us to review together, again, we'd be of course open to do that. But you can't do that when you have these unprecedented punishing tariffs on the Canadian economy. Canadian businesses and Canadian people think of Americans as our best friends and our closest

ally. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday. It lasted 50 minutes, and Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were also on the line. A senior government official says the U.S. proposed dropping some, not all, of its tariffs if Canada pulled its retaliation plan to slap tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods, but Trudeau said no to the offer. In New Brunswick, forest mill towns are on edge about the impact of the U.S. tariffs.

92 percent of the province's exports go south of the border, the most of any province or territory. And as Jacques Poitras reports, a large part of that is wood that's already subject to other protectionist measures. The forest is the blood that flows in our veins, according to Éric Gagnon, the Mayor of Kedwick, a rural community of 2,300 people with two major sawmills. Now we are very nervous, but it's not of our control. Donald Trump's tariff lands on top of an existing 14.4% duty on softwood for most Canadian producers, a duty his administration is seeking to increase later this year to 26.8%. That's a total of almost 52% with even more duties

possible using national security as a rationale. Canadian softwood's been losing market share in the U.S. for years, but it would take years to ramp up enough American supply to replace it. So for now, some mills should survive as U.S. buyers are forced to pay higher prices. Jacques Pothra, CBC News, Fredericton. Even health care in this country isn't immune to the U.S. tariff war. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the provincial government has directed its health authority to take a hard look at what it buys. The health minister says he procures 400,000 different items each year. John Hagge, who

is also a surgeon, is asking his officials to check which items come from the states. There is going to be a challenge though because there's a lot of fairly specialist stuff and I'm thinking from my background in surgery, particularly cardiac surgery, some of these prostheses are pretty well sold source from the states. A lot of orthopedic prostheses come from companies like Stryker. You might have to look at AO, which is a Swiss company. So there's a lot of untangling going on. Haggy says he doesn't know how much at this point comes from the U.S.

Australia is bracing for a major storm. Tropical cyclone Alfred is headed towards the Gold Coast, north of Sydney, and it could bring 12 meter high waves. Phil Mercer reports. For some thrill seekers the large waves that have begun pounding parts of Australia's East Coast are a novelty. But the authorities are warning that Cyclone Alfred will be incredibly dangerous. Brisbane's Mayor Adrian Schrinner is urging millions of Australians to stay at home. I don't want to see one single person electrocuted. I don't want to see one single person impacted by flying debris. The best way we can make that happen is for everyone to stay at home for the next two days.

The military has been brought in to help as the storm continues its erratic path to the coast. Many residents have laid sandbags to protect their homes. We've done everything we can in terms of securing the house and our belongings and everything like that trying to find a safe place for the cars but I think we're just going to try and hunker down. Phil Mirza for CBC News, Sydney. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Neil Hurland.