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Canada’s buoyant housing market, with lots of new construction, booming renovations, and a torrid pace of transactions, has been a good news story in a year that had too few. But as underlined in a recent FP article called “The housing boom that never ends,” the news on housing has been a little too good. Meanwhile, other business investment – in non-residential structures, machinery and…

The battle over Enbridge Line 5 – unfolding in a Michigan courtroom – shows how declarations of friendship between Canadian and American governments are hostage to local politics. This past February, the Prime Minister and the U.S. President concluded a Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. While the Roadmap doesn’t refer to pipeline issues, in spirit and intent it should prevent actions…

Suddenly, inflation is in the news. In Canada and abroad, spending is surging and COVID-impaired production is struggling to keep up. Key commodities – oil, lumber and metals – are expensive. It is front-of-mind in financial markets as well. The yield on the federal government’s 30-year bonds, which was below 0.9 per cent last August, topped 2.0 per cent last week – well above its pre-pandemic…

A couple of weeks back, Jack Mintz warned Financial Post readers that governments that think low interest rates will let them keep borrowing big are on a dangerous path. As he pointed out, the presumption that deficits are sustainable depends on the rate of growth of the economy exceeding the interest rate. Drilling down, if a government borrows to pay all its interest, its debt will…

Keystone XL is dead. Everyone knows that. Nothing can force the Biden administration to reissue the construction permit. The fight is now over any compensation owed to owner TC Energy Corp. by the U.S. government. Even though it was endorsed by the Canadian government and even though Alberta invested up to $1.5-billion in the venture, Keystone is a private-sector project. Claims for compensation…