Your World Tonight - Private airport investment, mega deduction lure, AI Canadian-style, and more

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to open up Canada's four largest airports to private investment. The airports will still be publicly owned, but Carney is predicting the change could bring tens of billions of dollars.And: Carney is trying multiple tactics with a common goal: getting companies — both domestic and foreign — to spend more money in Canada. Find out what the “mega deduction” is.Also: What Canada’s AI leaders are saying about calls to regulate or slow down the technology.Plus: Alberta NDP flips a Conservative seat in Calgary, FBI head faces senate questioning, and more.

I'm Phelan Johnson, the host of See You and Corde. It's a podcast about the cases that changed Canada, and we're back with an all-new season. Our first episode is about a woman named Gwen Jacob. On a sweltering day in 1991, Gwen did what she had to do to cool down. She took her shirt off. The 19-year-old was cat-called, fined and arrested, but she refused to back down,

sparking a national debate about bearing breasts. Listen to the story of Gwen's topless walk on C-U-N-Court wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. The process not of privatizing the airports, but moving towards an arrangement where private operators come in to manage the airports

for a period of decades. I want to see how it's going to save money for Canadians. Because if it doesn't save money, then why do it? It muddles Mr. Carney's message that he's trying to send with this summit. Canada's largest airports open for investment.

Not an outright sale. says the PM, but leasing out concessions which could include airport operations. The opposition conservatives want to crunch the numbers. Some critics are rejecting the plan outright. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Salima Shivji. It's Tuesday, September 15th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast.

The federal government needs to make sure that over the long term, it's going to have the fiscal strength to be able to support this additional spending. A mega deduction. That's what Mark calls. Carney calls a new incentive announced today. It will make Canada's effective tax rate for foreign investors the lowest of any major economy. Four of the country's biggest airports could soon have new operators. At his gathering of global money movers in Toronto, the Prime Minister says he wants to sell off the right to run the facilities to private investors.

Mark Carney insists the cash raised will help fund Canadian projects, but much about the plan is still up in the air. especially what it means for travelers. She and Desjardin has our top story tonight. An endless stream of travelers make their way through Canada's largest airport, pulling suitcases lining up to check in. Even on a random Tuesday, Toronto Pearson is busy. And now Prime Minister Mark Carney

is looking for private investors to operate it. There's an opportunity here to provide better passenger service. It's not just this airport. Montreal Trudeau, Vancouver, and Calgary International are part of the plan too. Carney says the land and assets will remain in federal hands the billions of dollars government expects to make. We'll reinvest in our regional airports. It's far too expensive. The service isn't good enough to fly from the smaller airports to the center or other places in Canada. To invest in our transportation system to interest invest in national broadband. The Liberals floated this idea years ago under Carney's predecessor.

It was shelved following pushback. Still, many major airports around the world already have some private investment. London, Heathrow, for example, or Zurich International. So I've seen some positive things from it. Like better restaurants and shops, says Carl Moore, an aviation commentator, and associate professor at McGill University in Montreal. Companies are trying to make money. But on the other side of that coin...

There is some issues around prices going up, you know, for people without a lot of spending capability. it makes life more challenging when it comes to fly. More than two decades ago, Australia's government rolled out a similar plan. Years later, the nation's consumer watchdog found the move led to higher fees and charges for travelers as investors pushed to increase their margins. Unifor's aviation council chair, Tammy Moore, worries about the workers. It changes the dynamic at the bargaining table because then you're dealing with a company

that is trying to squeeze every dollar out. She was part of a demonstration in Toronto on Monday, protesting at the Canada Investment Summit. It's the first of its kind event held to attract investment into Canadian industries, holding a banner that said stop airport privatization. The people making the decisions here are not the ones that are working in these places and seeing what the possibilities are, how bad it could actually be. The Canadian Labor Congress also calling on the government to reconsider, but Kearney could already have a bite.

Dutch pension investment company, EPG, is interested. Annette Mossman is the CEO. We're investing pension money, so we are investing for the long term. And we need investment with long-term cash flows. So airports, these are very, very good for us, and they fit in our portfolio. As for the travelers, it may be too early to tell. I don't quite what to think on that. I mean, it sounds, I'm not opposed to the idea.

As long as it's efficient, it may be. moves people and it gets us where he wants to go on a timely manner. Everyone's in business to make money, you know, that's what makes the world go around. In a statement of the Canadian Airports Council, which represents airports across the country, said it's committed to ongoing discussions with the Kearney government and is hoping some of the capital from this plan is invested back into Canada's airports. She and Desjaldane, CBC News, Toronto. Another big summit announcement involves a big break for companies that want to do business,

in Canada. The Prime Minister calls it the most competitive tax deal in the world. Whether that bill gets passed on to Canadians is a question tonight. Nisha Patel breaks that down for us. We are making it cheaper to invest. The Prime Minister

proposing a major tax change, a productivity megadduction that will let companies write off 100% of the cost of new investment right away. Two-thirds of all assets will now qualify from machinery and manufacturing equipment to software, patents, R&D, fiber, rail, pipelines,

and other infrastructure that's needed. The federal government says it means Canada's marginal effective tax rate on new business investment will fall from 13% down to 6.4%. That basically means the tax burden on business will be the lowest in the G7. It requires a legislative change and is expected to cost $36 billion. over the next five years. This is meant to provide significant incentives for companies

to invest and invest very quickly. It's one way to tackle the country's notoriously weak productivity, though Randall Bartlett, Deputy Chief Economist at Desjardin, says it will impact Ottawa's balance sheet. The federal government needs to make sure that over the long term, it's going to have the fiscal strength to be able to support this additional spending. Mark Carney made the announcement at the,

the Global Investment Summit in Toronto, where Canadian CEOs are pitching big projects across energy, mining, and technology, like Telesat's Dan Goldberg. We are investing about $7 billion to build an advanced global, low-worth orbit satellite constellation. You can think about it as an alternative to Starlink. He says he thinks it's getting easier to do business here. Things are underway that's making the environment much more attractive for companies like mine to put money to work. Carney also urged foreign investors who controlled trillions of dollars to make a bet on Canada, including Nikolai Tangan, who runs the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.

Many of these projects that we want to follow up. Tangan says he wants to boost the fund's investments here, and is especially interested in the renewable infrastructure space. The speed by which one can make investments and get approvals and so on, that seems to be going in the right direction. That's setting up structures so that there is less kind of bureaucracy. Things are simpler for foreign investors to do. Still there is stiff competition for investment dollars as global demand to build new infrastructure grows rapidly. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, says he's ready to put money in the ground. If Canada executes, as was described to,

all of us as investors last night and today, that I do believe even in this more challenging world for supply of capital, Canada will be a large beneficiary. While firm deals on pitchbook projects may still be months away, Ottawa says $500 billion in investment has been committed so far, about halfway to its goal. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. As global executives wrap up in Toronto, the political opposition ramps up to the Prime Minister's plan for Canada and the investors he is trying to court. Tom Perry has that angle for us tonight.

We're happy that the Prime Minister is holding an investment summit, but where are the results? From conservative leader Pierre Palliev, a familiar critique, that when it comes to big projects and big investments, Prime Minister Mark Carney talks a good game, but is slow to deliver. You know, it's all great to have summits and speeches and traveling around the world, but What about right here at home in people's real lives? The Prime Minister's summit was all about bringing some of the world's top investors to Canada and begin selling them on the potential value of investing in this country's resources and infrastructure. Sahir Khan, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa,

says Canadians shouldn't expect that to happen overnight. I don't think it's a fair critique right now. I think down the road we can certainly question whether this activity, this momentum, translating the results. But right now, I think it's an important recognition that capital is mobile, that we as a country have to be competitive in attracting capital. One part of this summit that Khan finds encouraging is how it brought together provincial and federal politicians of different stripes, including former liberal prime minister Jean-Crettiens and former conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. I think it's a really powerful signal when you have multiple generations of leadership, multiple parties involved, multiple orders of government.

Again, it's not something that we've seen in kind of our polarized politics in Canada. Despite his criticism of the summit, Pierre Pauliev says he's glad to see Harper taking part. One person not at the summit is NDP leader Avi Lewis. He and his party have accused Carney of wanting to sell Canada's airports, water systems, and public infrastructure to the highest bidder, with Lewis questioning why so many American investors were invited to the Prime Minister's meeting. I'm confused because I thought this whole project

in this historic moment in Canada was to shore up our Canadian independence under attack from the United States and inviting the captains of American, of Wall Street, it doesn't compute for me. The Prime Minister says, despite cross-border trade tensions, American investment is still welcome in Canada.

Economist Jim Stanford, director of the Center for Future Work, says he has deep concerns about plans to allow foreign money into Canadian airports, but says overall foreign investment can be a good thing. If it's used to build new capability, that's great. If it's just used to transfer ownership over something we already have, like an airport, to take an example,

then it adds nothing to our productive capability. The opposition will have a chance to question the government's plans when the House of Commons resumes next week, as the government keeps working and hoping those investments start rolling in. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Coming right up, the head of Canada's largest AI firm rejects calls by some other key players to slow down and regulate the industry. Plus, in Calgary, Alberta's opposition NDP celebrates a by-election win

in a longtime conservative seat. And later, we'll have this story. I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls. When did you hear that? It's just another lie. When you answered Mr. Blumenthal? Nope. FBI director Cash Patel in another confrontational hearing

with the Senate Judiciary Committee and facing lots of questions about whether agents will be sent to the polls in November. But can you commit to this committee that you will not send FBI agents to the polls on election day? The FBI will follow the law. I'm Katie Nicholson in Washington, D.C.

One day after the Supreme Court ruled against Donald Trump's plan to change mail-in voting, senators grill the FBI head about keeping his agents out of the polls. Coming up on your role tonight. The head of a leading Canadian AI company is weighing in on the debate over whether artificial intelligence is moving too far, too fast. Some top U.S. companies are calling for a slowdown. in the name of safety, a call that's being questioned on this side of the border. Lisa Sching reports.

The risks with this technology are real. Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez at the Canada Investment Summit, saying slowing down AI won't make it safer. The head of the country's biggest AI company says it's how the technology is governed that will. It needs to be led by the government, not by the private sector. We want to make sure that it is truly global and that there are paths. to contribute to that for many of the different countries around the world. These comments come as Prime Minister Mark Carney opened day two of the summit

by emphasizing Canada's goal to, quote, capture its potential. The clean energy that powers it, the computing cloud that runs it, the frontier, AI and quantum and robotics that will transform our economy. Canada wants to establish itself as a data center leader, seeking new investment like Bell Canada's $50 billion expense, of its Saskatchewan data center announced Monday. This push comes amid growing global cause for regulation. Protesters outside a tech conference in San Francisco worry about the risks.

Same with some frontier AI companies, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amade. Let's recommit transparency. Let's invest more in safety. Then let's organize the rest of the industry and say, what can we do to set standards for everyone? A whistleblower from the company warned the technology could wipe out humanity, though U.S. President Donald Trump has written off the warnings as hoaxes. We need to be very careful that we're not selling off our sovereignty. Emily Osborne is with a public policy think tank, Canadian Shield Institute. She says Canada needs to be less reliant on big U.S. tech companies.

It's just making sure that we have the appropriate governance safeguards in place, and that'll be true for both ensuring that the investment has, returns for Canadians and also that the technology is going to be secure. At the summit, AI Minister Evan Solomon says there is a plan. Our AI strategy is investing in Canadian small, medium-sized companies to build options for your data. That means we're Canadian-owned data centers, Canadian-run cloud. Gomez is hoping the government will follow through. Will we just continue to only do infrastructure like bridges and roads,

or will we invest to actually lead in technology? That's a question that's still open. Considering the breakneck speed at which it's evolving, it's a question Ottawa likely needs to answer quickly. Lisa Shing, CBC News, Toronto. As fighting intensifies in Yemen along the country's strategic western coast, the United Nations is warning of a growing humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 Yemenis have been forced to leave their homes inside the country,

and thousands more have fled to neighboring Djibouti across the Babalmandib Strait. That vital waterway has been increasingly targeted by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in an effort to disrupt Saudi Arabia's oil exports. UN spokesperson Stefan Dujarik says the agency is deeply concerned by the effects of the escalating violence. Many families had to flee on short notice with very very serious. few belongings. The toll on civilians continue to grow, forcing families from their homes, killing and injuring those caught in the crossfire, and already stretched humanitarian operations are coming under growing pressure. He says increased attacks are blocking key roads,

making it harder for aid to get to those displaced, and resources are running low. Violent clashes erupted at protests in Ankara today over a nationwide LGBTQ-plus, down in the country. The demonstrations come after sweeping police raids in several Turkish cities over the weekend. Police arrested dozens as part of what the government calls the decade of the family initiative, aimed at protecting children and family values. Rights groups accuse the government of increasingly targeting the LGBTQ plus community with rhetoric, restrictions, and legal measures.

At least 150 people were arrested in similar protests in Istanbul. The NDP has flipped an Alberta legislature seat that belonged to Daniel Smith's United Conservative Party. Last night's by-election in Calgary was widely expected to favor the governing UCP. And as Julia Wong reports, the surprise win for the new Democrats comes just five weeks before the province's referendum on whether to consider separation. Celebration and surprise Monday night as by-election results in Calgary Shaw rolled in. NDP candidate Kyle Campbell won the Southern Calgary suburban riding, historically a safe conservative seat, garnering roughly 47% of the vote. United Conservatives saw their support significantly drop from the 2023 provincial election.

Campbell, Tuesday, pointed to the issue of separatism, which he says often came up. at doorsteps. But everyone, when asked or prompted, had a strong opinion, predominantly about I'm a proud Canadian. I don't know why our government is focusing on this referendum. I certainly heard on multiple occasions people saying, I voted conservative my whole life and cannot any longer because of separatism. A sentiment, CBC News heard from some voters as they cast their ballots. I'm not a fan on how that all came about and how it all transpired and I'm going to vote accordingly. I want to send a message and let the provincial government know what the people's thoughts are.

I know it's, in some cases, the fewer louder, so I feel now is the time to step up. Next month, Alberts will vote on whether to stay in Canada or to eventually vote on whether to leave the country. Polls have consistently shown support for separatism around 25%. NDP leader Nahanenchi suggests the by-election sends a clear message. It means there is no safe conservative seat in Calgary. We deserve a government that is unapologetically, proudly Canadian. Lori Williams, political science professor at Mount Royal University, says health care and education are top of mind for Albertans.

But the UCP did not meet voters where they were at. In other words, the campaign was about the issues that are priorities for Albertans. But the government's focus has not been there. And that, I think, put the UCP candidate at a bit of a disadvantage. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith declined an interview today. In a statement, her press secretary said the split of the conservative vote, along with low turnout, were the reasons for the by-election result. But the turnout was around 38 percent on the higher end compared to recent by-elections. Long-time conservative strategists Ken Bozincool, who worked on Stephen Harper's campaign, rejects Smith's response.

So to me, this was a simple referendum on Daniel Smith and her leadership. and she lost that referendum. The by-election, just one test for the UCP government. The next one, more consequential. Albertans will vote on the issue of separatism October 19th. Julia Wong, CBC News, Edmonton. An investigation is underway after the new owners of a funeral home in Nova Scotia found a significant number of cremated human remains in storage.

Serenity Funeral Home had multiple locations and was recently sold. Several families came forward to CBC to say they'd been contacted by the new owner about remains of family members they thought had been buried. Amanda Sabian's family was told last week that ashes belonging to her father, Hank, were found in storage. He died in 2018. He directed us to do many things in which we thought we did. And now we know that, well, part of the wish was that he was laid to rest, his family. And that's been taken from him. So we have to get this fixed.

The former owner told CBC the ashes were all unclaimed remains, some dating back decades to before he owned the company. The head of the provincial funeral association says the public trustee should always be notified of unclaimed remains. A frustrated U.S. president is bashing a decision by his country's top court, rejecting his attempt to restrict the use of mail-in balance. It comes ahead of this fall's crucial midterm elections, a vote that will shape Donald Trump's remaining tenure in office. And today, the head of the FBI faced some tough questions about that upcoming election in a Senate hearing. Katie Nicholson has more from Washington. Thank you. Please be seated. And with that, a barrage of questions for FBI director Cash Patel.

Director Patel, why has the FBI refused to investigate either of these shootings? Is the FBI involved in the investigations at Homeland Security? Shouldn't that be enough to get the FBI to follow up on that? We'll follow up on any credible information. But some of the most heated exchanges were around whether the FBI might interfere on Election Day. I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls. When did you hear that? It's just another lie.

When you answered Mr. Blumenthal? Nope. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the first of several Democrats to ask Patel if he knew the Department of Justice guidelines, prohibits sending FBI special agents to polling places. I'm aware. And so will you commit to following clear federal law and DOJ policy and not deploy federal agents to polling places? We will always follow the law on the guidelines. Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the same question and got a slightly different response.

But can you commit to this committee that you will not send. FBI agents to the polls on election day. The FBI will follow the law. If there's a reason to go there because there's been a violation of law, we will, otherwise we won't. Would you agree with me that the FBI has no general authority to monitor elections? That priority rests with DHS. Pushed by Vermont Senator Peter Welchon reports from a podcaster that the FBI will have a presence

in Michigan leading up to the election. Patel clarified. We have an election crimes community coordinator in all 56 field office. So you bet we're going to have them there in manning the post for election interference matters. Democrats and even some conservatives have expressed concerns that arms of the federal government may interfere with the midterms. Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a plan by the Trump administration to change and limit mail-in voting. The U.S. president vented about that decision on social media, calling it a big loss for Republicans and America, and insisting it would make cheating easier before calling his own appointees to the court a shell of their own.

original selves. The U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the commander-in-chief's right to complain about the decision. Of course, we're going to comply with the Supreme Court's decision, as we always do. That doesn't mean that we're not going to do everything in this administration that we can to make sure that there are free and fair elections. And that's precisely why Democrats, fearful of interference from their own government, had so many questions for the FBI director about the midterms. Now, just weeks away. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. And finally, the fall harvest has begun at thousands of farms across this country.

And while most of the crops will end up in the commercial food chain, tons will also be donated to help those who would otherwise go hungry. Ken Reed is the founder of 5,000 farms, a Moncton-based nonprofit. Our farmers out in New Brunswick and the rest of Canada have a major responsibility, and they're responsible for building and maintaining our food security in the country. That's not our purpose here. We're trying to address more of a niche issue, which is food insecurity. Reed's organization farms 45 acres on two properties that produce up to 136,000 kilos of vegetables and meat chickens for the Food Bank charity Feed New Brunswick.

Cheryl Wartman has been volunteering there for five years. Today, I'm working a, what we call a tipper. To me, anytime I've been to Feed New Brunswick and I look at the crate, that are there is mostly stuff that's packaged, it's just carbs, and I think it's much better to have fresh vegetables. On the weekend, volunteers pulled about 11,000 kilos of carrots from the ground. Dental student, Shelby Burton, was at it for more than five hours. Definitely keeps you going when you kind of want to quit. Your back's getting sore. You know it's for a good cause.

Next up for the group, corn and potatoes. Reid says he hopes to expand operations. A fundraising campaign is underway. Thanks for being with us. This has been your will tonight for Tuesday, September 15th. I'm Salima Shivji. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.