The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/20 at 18:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/20 at 18:00 EDT

Struggling with debt? Help is available. Discover reliable solutions to help you get back on track. Visit Canada.ca slash debt dash solutions for support you can trust. A message from the government of Canada. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Mike Miles. The government needs a strong and clear mandate. And CBC News has confirmed Mark Carney will seek that mandate by calling a federal election Sunday.

And it may be held as soon as April 28th. Carney declined to give details during a trip to Edmonton. The Prime Minister was there, announcing help for Canadians trying to buy their first home. My new government will eliminate the GST for first time home buyers on all new and substantially renovated homes under a million dollars. Now this is a big deal. This can provide up to $50,000 in savings for families entering the housing market. That proposal takes a page straight out of the Conservatives' playbook.

And while in Edmonton, Carney met with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. She delivered a list of demands for whoever wins the election, including within six months, giving the province full access to oil and gas corridors and ending the emissions cap she's long called a cap on production. Smith also told Albertans to support the party that's advocating for freeing the province from what she called federal overreach. And while she didn't name the party, it was clear who she was talking about. The Conservative government will bring forward Canada First shovel-ready zones.

Conservative leader Pierre Polyev is promising to speed up approvals for projects like mines and LNG plants. He said the government would identify locations, do all environmental assessments, negotiate with any First Nations in the area as required by law, then issue the approvals. We will offer pre-permitting before we even get applications. So the permits can be published online with a required checklist of actions

that businesses must take to comply in protecting people and the environment. Polief did not say when the time why the timeline would be shorter if all the same checks and negotiations are carried out. The governor of the Bank of Canada's warning the economy is headed for choppy waters. Tiff Macklem says the uncertainty created by the Trump administration is harmful but adds the Canadian economy is in good shape going into the trade war. We've had inflation around 2% since last summer.

Growth in the Canadian economy picked up pretty smartly in the second half of last year. We started the year in good shape and we've lowered our policy interest rates substantially. This is going to be difficult, but we do think we are well positioned. Macklem says the key going forward for the bank and the economy in general is be flexible and adaptable. China is hitting Canada with a new round of tariffs, 25% on pork and seafood, along with 100% on canola, a key export for farmers in Western Canada. And it's happening at a crucial time of year for those farmers. Cameron McIntosh has more. We average about a thousand acres of canola.

Jason Johnson farms less than two kilometers from the US border near Darlingford, Manitoba. Preparing to seed, he's watching as prices drop about two dollars a bushel. So on my farm that would mean about an eighty thousand dollar loss. The drop comes as China imposes 100% tariffs on Canadian canola. Retaliation after Canada put tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. A move made in lockstep with the US to prevent China from taking over the North American EV market. No one wants the Chinese electric vehicles anyway. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith accuses China of unfairly targeting Canadian farmers.

I think it is a divide and conquer strategy. The federal government calls China's tariffs unjustified but has not announced any plans to help canola farmers. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Winnipeg. The U.S. Transportation Safety Board is calling for the inspection of 68 bridges in 19 states, there to be examined for the risk of catastrophic collapse from a collision by ship or other vessel. The major recommendation is coming out of the investigation into last year's collapse

of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Six people were killed when a cargo ship hit that bridge, plunging a large section into the harbor. That is your World This Hour. For news anytime visit our website cbcnews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Mike Miles.