Your World Tonight - Carney on tariffs, carbon capture, equine encephalitis, and more

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney warns American tariffs on Canada won’t likely be lifted any time soon. His cabinet met to talk about walking the tightrope of boosting defense spending and protecting the economy from tariffs, all while “spending less”.And: Carbon capture is a key part of industry’s plans to mitigate climate change. But it turns out the world’s storage capacity is a lot smaller than we thought it was.Also: It’s called eastern equine encephalitis, but people are most likely to get it from a mosquito — not a horse. We’ll have more on the first human case in Canada this year, and what the risks are.Plus: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants the temporary foreign worker program scrapped, vulnerable N.W.T. evacuees, reaction to U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean, the tragedy of hunger in Gaza, and more.

It's finally summertime. I'm Nala Ayyed, host of ideas. These last several months, maybe longer, have tested our Canadian pride. So that's why this summer, we have some special programming lined up for you. We're revisiting conversations with Canadian artists and thought leaders who are moving this country forward. You'll also hear a special series I did where we traveled across the country asking people how to make Canada better. So join me for a special Canadian society. summer on ideas.

This is a CBC podcast. It's not a sustainable situation. So we need to rein in spending. We need to find efficiencies. Setting the stage, the prime minister meets with his cabinet ahead of a political season that will force Mark Carney to make big decisions and go face to face with his top critic. With Pierre Pauliev now holding a seat,

the government will face more questions about the mounting economic impacts from Donald Trump's trade war. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Wednesday, September 3rd, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. We've known for a number of years

there's technical challenges with it, certainly economic challenges with it. And so just reminding us that is not a silver bullet, it's probably a really good thing. What lies beneath, there has been much hope and money put into carbon capture as a way to bury a key climate change problem. Now, concerns are surfacing. The Prime Minister is hinting at what Canadians can expect from his government in the months ahead.

Some big spending? A lot of belt tightening. and no endgame to the U.S. tariffs. Mark Carney and his cabinet are in Toronto prepping for a key falls session in Parliament. Tom Perry is also there. He has our top story tonight. Good morning, everyone.

Thank you very much for taking the time to come here. In the past, this would have been called a cabinet retreat, but Prime Minister Mark Carney has a different, more business-like term for this two-day session, calling it a cabinet planning forum. A cabinet meeting and a very clear focus on what we're going to be doing over the course of the next six, 12 months, what our priorities are. One of the first challenges for this new government will be bringing in its first budget in October. It, too, expected to be a departure from the previous liberal regime, as the government looks to cut spending in some places and redirect it to areas like defense and critical infrastructure. The aim, Carney says, is a budget that focuses on investment and.

and austerity. It's both. The federal government has been growing spending as a whole at over 7% a year on average for over a decade. That's twice the rate of growth of the economy on average. It's not a sustainable situation. Adding to the economic pressure are U.S. tariffs. Canada has yet to strike a deal with the White House to lift or reduce levies on its exports, though Carney today provided an unexpected update on negotiations. I last spoke to the president. Monday evening, we spoke at length on a wide range of issues, including on trade. The Prime Minister's office made no mention of Carney's conversation when it happened, saying today it was simply part of the close and frequent communication between the two leaders.

Carney warning, however, not to expect any immediate breakthroughs. Polster Jean-Marc Léger spoke to Cabinet today and told ministers, Canadians aren't as worried about tariffs as they were just a few months ago. And as for the possibility of striking a deal with Trump, he says opinions are mixed. So it's 50-50. 50% of the people said they will succeed. 50% said he will not succeed. So that means for me, the prime is to have some room, okay, to solve this issue. It doesn't need to solve the issue in short term. The Cabinet Forum is set to wrap tomorrow with more focus on Canada-U.S. relations.

Ministers will hear from guest speakers, including U.S. political strategist Kevin Roberts. He's head of the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025, a blueprint adopted by the Trump administration to slash government and consolidate power in the office of the president. It's an effort, the PMO says, to get some insight into the Trump administration's mindset, something governments around the world are still struggling to understand. Tom Perry, CBC News, Toronto. Pierre Pauliev was also in the Toronto area, previewing his. his party's fall priorities. The conservative leader today focused on the temporary foreign worker program. He says he wants the federal plan scrapped, arguing it only churns out cheap labor at the expense of younger Canadians. David Thurton has details and reaction. Young people today

form what I call generation screwed. Seizing on that generational angs, conservative leader Peer Polyab called on the liberal government to end a federal program. that big and small businesses rely on. The liberals have to answer, why is it that they're shutting our own youth out of jobs? Polyev says the temporary foreign worker program has flooded the Canadian job market with cheap foreign labor. He was careful, though, not to blame migrant workers, but employers. I think they hire them because they can pay them less. They don't want to pay the prevailing wage to the Canadian worker. Conservatives want a standalone program for difficult to fill

agricultural labor. One already exists. This migrant worker asks not to be identified for fear of reprisals. She says cancellation of the program would affect not only her and the fish plant that employs her, but also the small Maritimes community that depends on foreign workers like her. And I will say... Prime Minister Mark Carney admits Canada's immigration system needs fixing, but seemingly rejected calls to scrap the temporary foreign worker program. When I talk to businesses around the country, their number one issue is tariffs, and their number two issue is access to temporary foreign workers.

The federal government has already put a cap on the temporary foreign worker program. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business backs the program. The Federation is sometimes aligned with the Conservatives on policy, but Kelly says Pahliev should ditch his proposal. To suggest that the program itself be permanently scrapped is just ridiculous. The Conservatives know better. Look, there are thousands and thousands of communities where there just are no entry-level people available to work. They're just really, really hard jobs that don't pay well,

and young Canadians do not want them. Yvonne Sue is a migration scholar at York University. Mr. Pollyev is right that the temporary foreign worker has long been seen to be exploitative. But these programs exist because governments want, cheap labor. Citizens want cheap products. So if we get rid of the temporary foreign worker program, we have to be okay as Canadians to pay more for things. A controversial tradeoff, especially at a time when Canadians are struggling with high grocery bills and Donald Trump's tariffs remain in place. David Thornton, CBC News, Ottawa.

raging in the Northwest Territories, there's no sign evacuees will be returning home any time soon. And some of those displaced say they need more help to make it through this. Plus, it's often said it's not good to bury problems, but carbon capture was supposed to be a viable, environmentally friendly exception to that rule. Now, after billions in investment and endless study, there are new concerns about its future potential. And later we'll have this story. It's a dangerous mosquito-borne virus that's rare in humans, but can be deadly. We're talking about a mortality rate of about 40%. And of the people who survive more than half will have complications.

A resident in Ontario has been diagnosed with eastern equine encephalitis virus, the first human case in Canada this season. I'm Alison Northcott in Montreal. Later, on your world tonight, I'll tell you why experts say it's a sign Canada needs to be more vigilant and on the lookout for more cases. Nearly 90 wildfires are now out of control in the Northwest Territories, with crews working relentlessly to fight the flames. As those efforts continue, some vulnerable evacuees from Fort Providence say help is falling short.

Juanita Taylor is in Hay River with more on their concerns. You hear a lot of coughing at night, you know, people cough in. Elders like 76-year-old Philip Constant say it's been a rough two nights, sleeping on a cot without a mattress, in a Hay River arena with hundreds of other people from his community of Fort Providence. It's very uncomfortable. I mean, it's hard to turn over that. You know, you have to sleep on one side. But then I guess I could get used to it, but it's not like hope.

Constant seems to be taking things in stride. But Brittany Natalie says she wants better care for her elders because they are the heart of their Dene communities. They're tired from they were hoping that they were going to get accommodations. The cots itself, they're like pretty high off the ground. We do have people that have mobility issues and then we do have our elders that will probably find it difficult

to actually go into a race caught. Natalie says traditional dene laws aren't being followed. Elders should be a priority. But she says they're not because the territorial government requires evacuees to fill out forms and get on a point system to see who can get accommodations first like hotel rooms. She feels they should not have to do that.

We don't really go abide by modern government rules, just how we basically take care of our people. The town of Hay River is hosting the evacuees. Mayor Candice Jameson says they've set up private rooms at the evacuation center for families in need of space in the referee and dressing rooms. At the beginning you're in an emergency situation. It's just getting people a place to lay down. Now absolutely. We're slowly finding other. accommodations, like, with beds for them, right? We've got sick people, too, right? People that are fighting cancer or whatever that really need to be more private, more comfortable. And, yeah, so those wrinkles come as you go, right?

As for Philip Constant, he's just waiting for any word of when he can go back home to Fort Providence. So, hello, we'll be here, but we just have to get used to, I guess. But northerly winds are in the forecast today. it could push the wildfire closer to Fort Providence. Juanita Taylor-CBC News, Hay River, Northwest Territories. The carbon capture industry is booming, attracting billions in investment from governments and major corporations

in technologies designed to trap and store carbon dioxide as a way to mitigate climate change. But as Anan Ram reports, new research shows capturing carbon is one thing. The problem may be, where to put it. Carbon capture and storage. Carbon capture and storage. Carbon capture projects. It's a climate-saving technology politicians and oil and gas companies believe in and putting money behind their mouths. More than $21.5 million in federal funding for five innovative CCUS projects. CCUS, carbon capture, utilization and storage, basically sucking the CO2 we emit out of the air,

burying it in the ground, promising a climate reversal. Equal to taking over 12,000 cars off the road. That's equivalent to the emissions from about 250,000 cars. The equivalent of transitioning two million gasoline cars. That's the promise. The proof has been lacking. Critics argue the technology hasn't scaled up enough to help. But now new research says, forget the capturing part. Storage is the problem. Matthew Gidden is the lead author with the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability. The oil and gas industry, climate sciences, they frame it around technical potential. So what we did was we took a number of of different sort of risk-based approaches.

By factoring in things like human settlements or closeness to seismic activity, he estimates viable places to put carbon are 10 times less than previously thought. If we consider carbon swords to be a scarce resource, then countries should be very explicit about how they plan to use it in order to meet their climate pledges.

In other words, rethink reliance on carbon capture as a climate savior. Dave Sawyer is principal economist with the Canadian Climate Institute. We've known for a number of years, there's technical challenges with it. certainly economic challenges with it. And so just reminding us that it's not a silver bullet

is probably a really good thing. It's important to quantify this. But not everyone agrees with all of the study's assumptions. Kate Moran works on carbon sequestration and is CEO of Ocean Networks Canada. She says it ignores a huge potential option. The salt is one of the most vast rocks on the planet. Most of it's in the ocean.

The capacity is huge. So it becomes the most sustainable. way to actually sequester CO2. But regardless of where carbon is stored, the issue remains we're not moving quick enough on capturing. Rob Anix is with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I mean, global emission rates are so high that the window of time in which geologic storage is practical is shutting really, really fast.

And the longer we delay reducing emissions, the larger amount of CO2 that we're going to have to store somewhere. Which is why this study may not be about how silver the bullet of carbon capture is, but that we need to be pulling the trigger faster. Onndraam, CBC News, Toronto. RCMP in Saskatchewan have arrested the woman who calls herself the Queen of Canada. Romana Didolo, along with 16 others, were arrested this morning as she was doing a live stream. Police say they received a report that someone in the building where she lived had a firearm.

Didalo is a cult leader who promotes a number of conspiracy theories. for the past two years, she and her followers have been camped out in a former school building in the village of Richmond, west of Regina. Police seized four replica handguns. No charges have been laid. It was a brazen strike. And now U.S. officials warn, it could be just the start. A deadly military hit on a Venezuelan vessel Tuesday killed 11 people the U.S. claims were drug running. As Chris Reyes explains, the attack appears to to be part of a wider crackdown. There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people,

and everybody fully understands it. U.S. President Donald Trump once again justified the military strike against a vessel from Venezuela in the southern Caribbean, a strike he confirmed on Tuesday. He just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat. Trump also posted a video on social media, Mark, unclassified, showing an aerial shot of the boat getting hit and exploding. Trump claimed the 11 people killed were members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

The allegation of who and what was on the vessel has not been confirmed beyond the White House. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegsef, said he watched the operation live. We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Tren de Aragua. The strike represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's war on drugs, targeting Latin America. In recent weeks, Trump deployed multiple warships, submarines and thousands of personnel to the region. In January, Trump also signed an executive order, designating Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said all those moves are meant to send a message. The president's been very clear that he's going to use. the full power of America and the full might of the United States to take on and eradicate these drug cartels. The Venezuelan government has yet to respond directly about the attack. But President Nicolas Maduro has rammed up rhetoric against the Trump administration. Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Padrina Lopez warned the U.S. We will fight if you dare set foot in Venezuela, he said.

Jennifer Trehan is a professor of international. law at New York University. She explains that although the strike happened on international waters, it could be justified as a direct hit against Venezuela. International waters are not beyond jurisdiction because we treated as if it's a strike into Venezuela, for jurisdictional terms. We use the boat's registry. The Trump administration has released few details on the military operation against the vessel to back its claims that the boat was being operated by drug cartels and issued another warning that other vessels deemed to be trafficking drugs will face the same fate. Chris Reyes, CBC News, New York. Fifteen people are dead and another 18 injured after a streetcar that is one of

Lisbon's landmarks derailed. The Gloria finicular goes up and down a steep hill in tandem with one going the opposite way. Eyewitnesses told Portuguese media, the streetcar care careened down the hill, derailed, and crashed into a building. It's unclear what caused the crash, the worst in the city's recent history. At least 24 people were killed in a heavy night of Israeli bombardment and air strikes on Gaza, as Israel intensifies its push to occupy Gaza City. Gaza's health ministry says a further five children and one adult have also died from malnutrition over the past 24 hours.

In total, authorities say 367 people, including 131 children, have died in the war so far of malnutrition and starvation. Chris Brown has the story of one 17-year-old boy and his struggle to find food and survive. For much of Gaza City's population uprooted from their homes and enduring Israeli attacks from the air and ground, every day is also a struggle to eat. I only get one meal a day, 17-year-old Ahmed Ali Batniji told us. Ahmed spoke to our CBC freelance videographer from a makeshift shelter, he shared with his parents and two brothers. He pulled off his shirt to reveal a tiny frame with protruding bones and a body hollowed out by hunger.

Rashes come on my body. My feet are swollen. I don't have energy, he said. The United Nations and many aid groups accuse Israel of creating a famine in Gaza City and northern Gaza by systematically obstructing food deliveries, which Israel denies. Ahmed's mother showed us photos of him before the war, where he's healthy and smiling. But he has an intolerance for gluten. So when the foods he usually ate disappeared from Gaza's markets during Israel's long food blockade,

he became especially vulnerable to malnutrition. At Gaza's Al-Kud's hospital, Dr. Mohamed al-Dib, was Ahmed's doctor. So the number of these cases are increasing day and day and day, and their immune system is completely disrupted. And if you have immunity deficiency in any other system, you will get sick from any disease. Israel's government has repeatedly challenged the global food security experts who issued the famine report.

And it said people with pre-existing medical conditions, like Ahmed, were dying because of those problems. and not a lack of food. But Francesco Chechi, an epidemiologist with London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, disagrees. There is a whole group of individuals in the community who have pre-existing conditions, who are unfortunately going to be the very first to feel the effects of a famine. Israel's government says more food convoys are now entering Gaza, and its foreign ministry's circulated video

is showing restaurants and people eating pizza to further discredit the famine accusations. But Chechi says the strong and rich will always find a way to eat. Several days after our interview with Ahmed, his mother told us she could see the life seeping out of him. His hands were like ice, she said. He died a few hours later.

He died humiliated, she said. of her son, may God curse anyone who was able to help and didn't. Hanna buried her son in a plot in Gaza City, amidst the tents of other displaced families whose children are also suffering from malnutrition. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify. Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, just find the follow button and lock us in.

A human case of equine encephalitis has been confirmed in Hamilton. Health authorities say an adult with no known history of travel has tested positive for the virus. Two horses in the area have also tested positive. The virus is typically found in birds and transmitted to horses and humans through the bite of an infection. mosquito that has fed on an infected bird. Alison Northcott has more. Last week, we had our first confirmed human case of eastern equine encephalitis, or what we call it triple E.

Hamilton Public Health resident doctor Aelish Scallon says that patient tested positive for the mosquito-borne virus after experiencing neurological symptoms. There is increased incidence of triple E in more rural areas. And so while we can't say definitively where this person might have come into contact with a mosquito, we can say generally that your risk would be higher, while still extremely rare, in more rural areas. There's no human vaccine to prevent AAA and no treatment to cure it. Symptoms can vary. Some have none at all. Others get fever, chills, and body aches, but it can also cause inflammation of the brain. And in about 30% of severe cases, death

within days. And of the people who survive more than half will have complications. Dr. Don Vinn is an infectious disease specialist at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal. This infection is still, for the moment, rare. But for all we know, this single case in Hamilton may be the canary in the coal mine. He says the virus is mostly transmitted between wild birds and mosquitoes, but infected mosquitoes can also give it to mammals. More commonly, horses, but humans too. And VIN says climate change could add to that risk. All the infections that we thought were mostly a U.S. type of infection in North America because we were protected from the cold.

Well, we're actually finding out the hard way that when we mess around our cold winters, we are inviting these types of vectors to come up earlier and to cause infections. Last year, one person in Ottawa died from the virus. According to the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System, seven horses have contracted AAA this season so far. Still, Fiona Hunter, a specialist in medical

and veterinary entomology at Brock University says the risk now remains very low for humans. There are very few horses that have turned up positive. This year we don't have any positive mosquito pools, even though we have ramped up our testing. She and Dr. Vins say Canada needs more mosquito surveillance programs to monitor what mosquitoes are carrying. And people can do things to protect themselves too

by preventing mosquito bites with insect repellent, light-colored clothing, and minimizing types. time outside when mosquitoes are most active. Alison Northcott, CBC News, Montreal. Finally. Live from New York, it's Saturday, for the first time in years, the world's most famous live comedy show

is getting a new Canadian cast member. Barry Ontario's Veronica Sloakowska is one of five newcomers. This is her biggest break by far. the 29-year-old has already drawn a big comedy following on Instagram and TikTok, and she's appeared on shows ranging from CBC's Murdoch Mysteries to Amazon Prime's teen comedy, Davey, and Joneses Locker. Can you believe that high school's this boring? Know what we need?

We need to have fun some more! We're actually just fun-loving BFFs. Girl boss, you got it. Shee-O! The CEO of her new show is still Canadian Lorne Michaels. He created SNL way back in 1975, casting Canuck comedy legends along the way like Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, and Norm MacDonald, Mike Myers, and Martin Short. So, Sloakoska has big shoes to fill, and there's new pressure. S&L just pulled a major shake-up, parting ways with four cast members.

when she steps onto the stage to that familiar theme music written by Canadian Howard Shore, of course. Slovakoska will need to have her best material and she'll have to gel quickly with the cast and crew. This is my family right here. The crew and the cast and the director, that's my family right here.

Showrunner, not my family. Slovakosa's debut is coming up fast. She'll be live from New York from the premiere of the show's 51st season on October 4th. Thank you for joining us. This has been your world tonight for Wednesday, September 3rd. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.