Your World Tonight - Tariff relief, interprovincial alcohol, butterfly populations, and more

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump changes his mind on tariffs – again. Trump says trade that falls under CUSMA will be exempted for another month.Ottawa says it will pause its next phase of retaliation, but won’t lift existing retaliatory tariffs. And Ontario’s premier is going a step further – saying he will add a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity going to the U.S., starting Monday.And: Ottawa and most provinces and territories have an agreement to smoothing out a long-term irritant in interprovincial trade: alcohol sales. The new agreement makes it easier to sell booze across boundaries.Also: Researchers say they are shocked by the latest study of butterfly populations. The decline is much worse than previously thought. Some species declined more than 50 per cent in 20 years.Plus: Canadian businesses try to adapt to the quicksand climate, the mother of a Canadian teen sitting in a Polish jail says he should have been prevented from leaving the country, and more.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. The president is sowing uncertainty and chaos, attempting to undermine our economy by implementing tariffs and then quickly pulling them off. Yet another confusing policy swerve by the U.S. president.

With a stroke of his sharpie, Donald Trump suspended tariffs on Mexico and Canada until April. But the threat remains. Steel and aluminum will get levies next week. Unless of course he changes his mind again. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Thursday, March 6th coming up on 6pm Eastern.

You know it's really overwhelming and I think scary is probably the best word to use along with frustrating. It feels like there's a lot of things outside of our control. Canada's business owners have survived a lot. The pandemic, the supply chain crisis. Now they're caught up in a trade war with the U.S. and worry this latest challenge could be the final straw. In a week of whiplash developments about trade, today delivered another head-shaker. U.S. President Donald Trump is pausing those punishing levies on Canadian goods for one month.

But there are questions about what this new order includes. One thing that's included, widespread confusion. Peter Armstrong begins our coverage from Washington. It basically makes it more fair for our car manufacturers during the short-term period before... U.S. President Donald Trump has led North American businesses down one of the weirdest, most volatile weeks in modern history. He unleashed the biggest set of tariffs the continent has seen in 100 years, at least in theory, because he was trying to get Canada and Mexico to curb fentanyl smuggling. But now he says any goods covered by the Canada-US free trade agreement will be exempt for a month.

It's just a modification short-term because I didn't want to hurt the American. It would have hurt the American car companies if I did that. Businesses and policymakers across North America heaved a giant sigh of relief, but Trump says more tariffs, including 25% on steel and aluminum imports, are coming. Those are happening next week and the big one will be on April 2nd when reciprocal tariffs. So what precisely has been accomplished here? Trump has injected a nearly unprecedented amount of uncertainty into the entire economic landscape.

He burned through political capital with friends and allies and sent stock markets plummeting. Even now, with more deadlines looming, trade remains in flux. It's not in flux. It's in chaos. That's Gary Huffbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a veteran of U.S. trade policy.

He says this week's whiplash in policy and reversals will do lasting damage. Because it makes no sense. The policy generates a lot of backlash for very little payoffs. Huffbauer isn't alone in his confusion as to what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish. T-shirts, t-shirts, sneakers, towels. This is the golden age and you're talking about it today. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaking on the financial news channel CNBC left hosts laughing at his claims that tariffs like the ones introduced this week will bring manufacturing back to the United States.

Are we gonna make all those things in the United States? None of them are made here. TVs, electronics. Why did we stop? Because we entered into an illogical world of low tariffs here and high tariffs there. Even as it looked like a deal was close, some of Trump's most senior deputies were trashing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told Fox News that Trudeau's approach won't work. If you want to be a numbskull like Justin Trudeau and say, oh, we're going to do this, then it's going to, tariffs are going to go up. In the end, tariffs, at least most of them, have been lifted, at least for now. That will help exporters, but it didn't exactly mollify nervous investors. Stocks continued to sell off, with the Nasdaq slipping into official correction territory this afternoon.

Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Washington. The next phase of Canada's retaliatory tariffs are also on pause, but Ottawa says the existing ones will stay until the US backs off completely. Ontario's premier is upping the ante using energy as a bargaining chip. Tom Perry explains. I can confirm that it was a colorful call. Justin Trudeau began his day at a childcare announcement, recounting a tense telephone exchange with Donald Trump,

a man known for political tantrums. Trudeau and Trump spoke yesterday. A senior government source says the president used profanity more than once. I've been having conversations and working with Donald for over eight years now, and a lot of it is rolling with it. But as Trudeau was talking, news broke out of Washington. Word Trump would pause his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for another month. That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials,

but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response or and look at the details of it but Trudeau called it a promising sign but added that as he understood it some tariffs would remain in place by this afternoon the picture was somewhat clearer though not by much the White House said its pause would only cover Canadian goods compliant with the USMCA the North American free trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term. It said that meant more than 60% of Canadian exports would still be subject to tariffs,

though trade experts struggled to determine where that figure came from. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who says he'll slap a 25% surcharge on electricity from his province sold in the U.S. as of Monday, says he won't be satisfied until Trump gets rid of all tariffs on all Canadian goods. The only deal is drop the tariffs unconditionally, sit down and let's start moving on the USMCA deal. Goldie Heider of the Business Council of Canada agrees with Ford and says Canada, the US and Mexico need to hammer out a new trade deal and try to move beyond all this chaos. Though Heider acknowledges

there may be doubts around whether Trump would even stick to that deal. Yeah that's a legitimate question and certainly one that we'll all ask but I always say what's the alternative? Is the alternative to simply go on this on this roller coaster, this circus ride that we're all on. For now, Canada's countermeasures on 30 billion dollars worth of U.S. exports remain in place, though the government says it will put off a second wave on a further 125 billion dollars worth of U.S. goods until April 2nd. For investors and consumers in both Canada and the U.S. The roller coaster ride continues. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Donald Trump's constantly changing tariff threats

are making it harder each day for Canadians running businesses. Big and small, they're trying to adapt. And as Anis Haidari tells us, rising to that challenge has challenges of its own. We obviously do not want to operate on an ongoing basis with a kind of sword of Damocles hanging over our head. Nothing feels certain these days for Juliana Farha's business. She's a director at Coon Shoulder Rests based in Ottawa. It makes accessories for musicians.

We're facing 25% tariffs on our products going into our biggest market. That in and of itself is a huge stressor and could have dramatic consequences for our company, for our staff. Those products make violins and violas more comfortable to play. Kuhn has assembled and made them in Canada for decades and sold them around the world. I mean if you don't play the violin you will never have heard of a shoulder rest. If you do play the violin, you will know our brand. The problem is that there aren't exactly

millions of violin players as potential new customers to make up for Americans who don't want to pay a tariff. And every day, it's become less clear if those tariffs will even apply. A company with only 10 workers doesn't have the staff to keep changing its business model. Business like certainty, the kind of recklessness and the feeling of recklessness of all of this has created tension and uncertainty for us.

It's not just the tariffs, it's the exchange rate, it's the reciprocal tariffs, it's a recession. Big companies might have more staff, but face similar problems. That phone call is from KP Tissue reporting its earnings to shareholders on Wednesday. CEO Dino Bianco says one third of the company's revenue is exposed to tariffs in some way. Say, you know, 600 or 700 million. These are all Canadian dollars. 600, 700 million dollars. KP Tissue is Canadian and makes Scotty's tissue in Purex toilet paper, employs 3,000 people

across Canada and the U.S. All that back and forth on tariffs mean it's delaying a decision on where a multi-million dollar plant will go. There is just so much fog right now in the business environment. Simon Godreau is chief economist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. He says economic decisions are impossible to navigate lately. Because there are so many decisions that are being overturned or changed, businesses have a hard time actually adjusting.

Back at Coon, the company that makes something almost every violinist needs, Juliana Farha is focused on keeping the lights on for now. There are factors beyond our control and we don't know what's going to happen. We're very committed to doing as much as we can to safeguard our employees. It's like playing in an orchestra where nobody knows what movement is next. Annie Sadari, CBC News, Calgary. Coming up on the podcast, reconfiguring. While the U.S. throws up trade barriers, Canada's provinces agree to tear some down in this country and European leaders step into the breach left by the U.S. dropping its support

for Ukraine. All provinces and territories are getting behind the push to buy Canadian, just one possible counter to the effect of U.S. tariffs. And there's a new plan in the works to make it easier for some goods and workers to flow from province to province. Rafi Boujikaneian has more on that story. At the wine cellar of his restaurant in Ottawa, Stephen Bekta stacks his bottles of local vintage. We removed all US products, so we struck a line through the mall.

He's hoping to soon have more Canadian choices. I can't wait to get my hands on some top flight BC wine, Nova Scotia wine. Easing up restrictions on selling alcohol across the country is something winemakers and breweries have been pushing for years, encountering resistance from their provincial governments in Ottawa too. No more, says Anita Anand, the Federal Minister for Internal Trade. We have our elbows up because of 25% Trump tariffs. Anand has announced a deal with most provinces and all territories to remove the obstacles around preventing the sale of their alcohol in other jurisdictions.

We need to build one Canadian economy rather than 13 separate economies. She says governments will sit down to hammer out the exact details part of a larger effort to knock down internal trade barriers within Canada including the recognition of labor credentials to allow more mobility for a range of professionals like doctors dentists or trade workers. Free trade and more competition would be beneficial across the board. Trump has a way of making people do things. Fionn Anastasiades says the newfound cooperation unleashed by US President Donald Trump's tariffs may be one silver lining for Canadians.

As he loads up the trunk of his car with Ontario alcohol only after a stop at his local liquor store in Ottawa, thinking about how he could soon have more options. It should be encouraged, and I'm not sure why we don't have it already, like other countries. That comes down to bureaucratic barriers, say winemakers like Rowan Stewart of Quails Gate in BC. He is hopeful governments will iron out the rules

that are not the same in his province in Ontario. There's all these little differences in, you know, the font must be this big. The label must say this. The alcohol must be in this position. B.C. Premier David Eby is optimistic. He points out he and neighboring Alberta managed to sort it out. Albertans are enjoying delicious B.C. wine and British Columbians are enjoying selling it to them.

But the booze may be the easy part. It's sorting out the job credentials across dozens of professions in 13 jurisdictions that could be more complicated. Ottawa and the provinces and territories say they want to get there by June 1st, adding there could be up to $200 billion to unlock in the Canadian economy should they get it right. At a time, every dollar could count. Rafi Boudjikan, YonCBC News, Ottawa.

Ottawa is extending the $10 a day child care program. The federal government is signing agreements with 11 provinces and territories Alberta and Saskatchewan have not signed on. Jenna Suds is the Minister for Families, Children and Social Development. Genesuds is the Minister for Families, Children and Social Development. Last week I was in a Caloet. I met a mom who shared that she has two young children and that she was literally saving $20,000 in childcare fees because of the investments that we have made in creating this affordable, accessible child care program. The agreements will continue the program for another five years at a cost of $37 billion. The federal government has reached a settlement with former patients of what were known as Indian hospitals.

Beginning in the 1930s, thousands of First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients were sent to the institutions. The stated goal was to stop the spread of tuberculosis, but former patients say they suffered verbal, psychological, physical and sexual abuse. Indian hospital survivor Anne Hardy spoke at today's ceremony in Ottawa. I experienced fear, isolation and trauma that has stayed with me for decades. I left the hospital physically, emotionally and psychologically battered. Individual compensation will range from 10 to 200 thousand dollars. Gary Anandasangary is the Minister of Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.

Some of you have carried these memories alone for decades out of fear, out of pain, out of a sense that no one would believe you. Some of you were warned not to speak, that if you did, there would be consequences. Today I'm here to say to you, we believe you. The settlement aims to resolve a class action lawsuit from former patients and covers more than 30 hospitals that operated between 1936 and 1981. 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. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says talks with the U.S. to end Russia's invasion will take place in Saudi Arabia next week. He made the announcement hours after a meeting with European leaders they have pledged to boost defense funding and support for Ukraine after Donald Trump abruptly cut off aid. Briar Stewart reports. As Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky met European leaders in Brussels the reception was much warmer than that Oval Office meeting last week.

It is great that we are not alone. We feel it and we know it. Thank you so much for everything. Unlike the US, which has halted military aid and severed intelligence sharing with Ukraine, the EU is proposing a more than one trillion dollar plan to rearm Europe, a proposal to help Ukraine and beef up defences across the continent in the face of threats from Russia. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Spent, spent, spent on defence and deterrence, that's the most important message. French President Emmanuel Macron went even further in a televised address Wednesday night,

labeling Russia a threat and saying he's open to sharing the country's nuclear arsenal in an effort to protect all of Europe. If a country can invade with impunity, then no one can no longer be sure of anything, said Macron. It's the survival of the fittest that applies. France has a few hundred nuclear weapons. Russia has nearly 6,000 and frequently boasts about its stockpile. While speaking to a group of women whose loved ones were killed in the invasion he launched, Russian President Vladimir Putin referenced the French Emperor Napoleon, who marched his army into Moscow in 1812

and retreated a month later. There are still people who want to go back to the times of Napoleon, he said, forgetting how it ended. In recent days, Russian officials and the country's state media have ratcheted up verbal attacks on Europe. At the same time, the tone towards the US has softened. They praised Trump and Vance for challenging Europe. Maxim Alyukov is a research associate at King's College London and studies political messaging on Russian state media where commentators are now focused on the leaders of France and the UK.

So you hear all kinds of swearing, swearing words about Macron, Stammer, they, you know, do not restrain themselves. As Europe tries to strengthen its support for Ukraine and its own defences, its relationship with Moscow will likely grow even denser. Briar Stewart, CBC News, London. The federal government is working to bring home a Canadian teenager who is locked up in Poland after admitting to spying for Russia. His mother believes he was targeted by Russian agents and lured to occupied Ukraine.

Jonathan Gatehouse has the exclusive details. He didn't tell me that he was going through so much. It was a phone call Adelaine Nelson could barely believe. I was told that Lakin had been arrested and charged with espionage against the Polish government. Her 18-year-old son, Lakin Pavan, now sits in a jail cell as an admitted Russian spy. Yeah, it's hard. You can't do anything for your kid. Like, you can't help him. Pavan left Vancouver last April on what he told his mom was a European backpacking trip. Polish court files say he instead went to Moscow, and then Russian-occupied Ukraine

to volunteer for an aid organization, where he ended up being recruited by Russian intelligence and then sent to Warsaw to spy on the Polish military. His espionage career ended hours after he arrived, when he got drunk in a hotel bar and confessed to police. He was convicted this past December and is serving a 20-month sentence. He turned himself in. He didn't do what they asked him to do,

and he knew it was wrong. He needs to come home. He doesn't belong in a Polish jail. The family thinks Pavan may have been targeted because he was a Canadian forces reservist. And after speaking with global affairs and intelligence agents, they now believe CESIS and the RCMP knew about Lakin's plans before he left. Neither agency would confirm or deny that.

Their son was under surveillance. Lawyer John Phillips is advising the family. This was a troubled kid. He came from a broken home. He was 17 when he was doing these communications with what are likely Russian agents and being manipulated. It's all part of Russia's quantity over quality push to recruit new spies, says Keir Giles of the UK's Chatham House. Russia will reach out and recruit anybody it

can, because that is now very much cheaper and easier thanks to online access. A lot of the assets that Russia has recruited are of no obvious value to Russia in terms of the effect that they will deliver. It could simply be the embarrassment factor that is brought on the target countries and the sowing of fear, uncertainty and doubt. CBC News asked the RCMP and multiple government agencies about the case, but they all declined to answer questions. What we do know is that global affairs is talking to Polish authorities

and it is family hopes Lakin will be home soon. Jonathan Gatehouse, CBC News, Toronto. As spring emerges, so too will the butterflies, but their numbers are dropping dramatically. A new study in the journal Science looked at more than 500 species across the US and found a large part of the population has vanished into thin air. Science reporter Emily Chung has more. Here we go. Oh God. Please don't all escape.

Erica Henry opens a container of fuzzy spotted caterpillars. They're being moved from the lab into the wild. Their new home is a restored prairie in Washington State. If all goes well, the caterpillars will grow up to be butterflies, called Taylor's checker spots. I have a lot of experience with very local populations of rare things. Henry works for Washington State's Fish and Wildlife Department. She and other butterfly researchers noticed certain species declining and wondered how widespread that was.

They decided to analyze millions of records from butterfly surveys from all over the U.S. and when they saw the results, some of her co-authors cried when they saw butterfly populations had dropped 22% in the past 20 years. They're beautiful. They inspire people. They pollinate flowering plants. They are food for baby birds when they're caterpillars. Even worse, it's a sign this could be happening to other important insects. Kind of like a canary in the coal mine situation. Michelle Tseng is an assistant professor of biology at the University of British Columbia.

She was shocked when she read the study. I thought it was depressing. Tseng says many butterfly species live on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border and face similar threats. Climate change, habitat removal and pesticides, and those three things absolutely are affecting Canadian butterflies, well, butterflies living in Canada as well. And so we, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the same pattern.

She asked Canadians to help track butterfly populations here. We love to encourage anybody out there at all to just, if you see a butterfly, take a quick photo and then put it onto iNaturalist or eButterfly or whatever platform is your favorite. Conservation scientists like Erica Henry are doing their best to help butterflies like the Taylor's Checkerspot, but she says there are also ways people can help at home. There is a lot of residential pesticide use that people have control over in their own backyards. Researchers say butterflies respond quickly to environmental changes. While that can cause steep declines, it means with the right support,

they also have the potential to bounce back quickly. Emily Chung, CBC News, Toronto. back quickly. Emily Chung, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, Canadians are finding subtle ways to fight back against U.S. tariffs and all that 51st state talk. You may have seen an updated I Am Canadian video from CBC Radio Afternoon Show host Jeff Douglas. My name is Jeff and we are Canadian!

Not pumped up enough? Maybe you need a coffee. So you visit the Coco & Bean Cafe in Beaconsfield, Quebec. But your favourite drink isn't on the menu board. It's been covered over with a new name and a little red maple leaf drawn next to it. Ashley Murdoch did that. She's the co-owner. So we wanted to, without getting too political, have fun with the idea and switch our name from Americano

to the Canadiano to really show how we support and we're trying to support our community. We have to do something. It's our voices that are gonna make a difference. Later, after a long day, all the talk of tariffs has you craving something a little harder. So you head into a Montreal bar looking for a bourbon. But that spot on the shelf? Empty.

John Gumley says he pulled all U.S. booze from his bar Yoko Luna, even though he knows it's going to hurt sales. My whole idea here is that Canada has to stand strong. We have to unite from small businesses, from individuals, to big businesses, to corporations. And we have to find ways to fight back and slowly develop independence. Okay, nothing wrong with a nice glass of Canadian wine. On to dinner prep. You hit the corner store and choose the can of beans with the Canadian logo Sprague Cannery located in Belleville Ontario. Keenan Sprague is the VP where sales have

been booming. So there was a huge spike in interest. Donald Trump has done more to market our products at least in Canada than any of our efforts combined. As your head hits the pillow after watching son of a Critch, you smile as you drift off to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, all the pushback might help the Canadian economy weather the storm. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for March 6. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.