Weekly Roundup - February 20, 2026
Top Federal Stories
One of the most consequential developments of the year arrived on Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.
For Canada, the ruling provides meaningful but incomplete relief. The 25% IEEPA-based tariffs on most Canadian goods are struck down, as are the broader reciprocal tariffs. The steel and aluminum tariffs are explicitly unaffected and will remain in force. As a result, the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are likely not going anywhere for the time being.
The White House has stated it does not consider the ruling a full stop. Senior administration officials indicated they intend to maintain the tariff framework by pursuing re-imposition under alternative means. Canadian exporters should still expect continued uncertainty even as the IEEPA-based tariffs fall away.
Meanwhile, Canada’s diplomatic and trade posture in Washington was reinforced this week, with Mark Wiseman formally taking up his post as Canada’s ambassador to the United States on Tuesday. Separately, Carney named former Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette as Canada’s chief trade negotiator ahead of the mandatory CUSMA review coming later this year. Charette is likely to manage the negotiating substance, while Wiseman handles high-level relationship building. Both appointments come as Commerce Department data confirmed Mexico has surpassed Canada in 2025 as the leading destination for U.S. exports.
In Ottawa, Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux became the third Conservative MP to cross the floor and join the Liberals, bringing the Liberal caucus to 169 seats in the House of Commons, three seats short of a majority. Jeneroux had previously announced his intention to resign his seat in the fall, but now attributes his reversal to Prime Minister Carney’s January address at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Contrary to his public position, Jeneroux had reportedly been in discussions with the Liberals since at least November. Carney announced the floor crossing on social media one minute after Jeneroux emailed Conservative leadership informing them of his decision.
The path to a majority for the Liberals remains narrow. By-elections will need to be called for three vacant seats. Two of those seats are safe Liberal ridings in Ontario. The third is in Terrebonne, QC, where the Supreme Court invalided election result this week after a special ballot was found to have gone uncounted. Upon the initial count, results in that riding were razor-thin between the Bloc Québécois and the Liberal candidates.
This week, Prime Minister Carney also unveiled Canada’s first-ever defence industrial strategy in Montreal. The $6.6-billion plan targets a 70% Canadian share of federal defence contracts, a 50% increase in defence exports, and 125,000 new sector jobs over the next decade. The strategy prioritizes domestic procurement for capabilities the government designates as sovereign and flags the risk of Canada becoming dependent on foreign-controlled intellectual property in advanced military systems. Whether these goals are met will depend on whether the feds can improve Canada’s historically slow and highly inefficient defence procurement system.
Top Alberta Stories
Albertans will cast their ballots in a provincial referendum this fall. Premier Danielle Smith used a televised address this week to announce plans for an October 19 referendum that asks Albertans to weigh in on a slate of questions about immigration and possible constitutional changes.
The announcement comes just over four months after the government’s Alberta Next panel wrapped up its province-wide consultation. Speaking to media ahead of her address, the Premier said immigration was the number one issue heard by the panel. The timing also coincides with what’s expected to be another tough budget. Alberta’s Minister of Finance will table Budget 2026 next week, and the Premier used her address to frame a looming multibillion-dollar deficit around low oil prices and pressure on public services due to what she called “out-of-control federal immigration policies.”
According to Statistics Canada, the number of international immigrants to Alberta peaked in 2023-24 and has fallen sharply since then. However, Smith argued the province needs more control over who qualifies for jobs and provincially funded programs, saying “Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here.”
In January, the province removed access to public health care for people on International Experience Canada (IEC) Type 58 permits, including those on working holiday and young professional visas. The issue gained traction with the tourism industry, which relies heavily on workers with those permits, leading to a pause on the policy with Alberta’s Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services calling it a “premature decision” made within the department.
The Alberta NDP didn’t wait for the Premier’s address to weigh in, releasing a video hours before her speech. In it, Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi suggests the address is a distraction from a budget that’s expected to run red. On Friday morning, Pancholi took to the podium with some strong words for the Premier, saying, “Oil production is hitting record levels, and resource revenue from the past five years is the highest it has been in a decade. Only the UCP can blow a resource boom.”
While the referendum sucked up most of the oxygen this week, the business of government continued and subtly supported Smith’s point about population growth. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education and Childcare announced the government is fast-tracking four school projects, three in Calgary and one in St. Albert, using its School Construction Accelerator Program, moving them out of planning and into design or construction. The province says the program, launched in 2024, is shaving months off build timelines and helping get students into new or upgraded classrooms sooner. Officials note this is the fifth round of accelerated projects, with more than 120 school builds or upgrades now underway across Alberta.
Top Ontario Stories
Defence was the talk of the town this week in Ontario. When President Trump floated the idea of blocking the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, two Michigan state lawmakers pushed back by writing directly to Premier Ford, stressing that the bridge is a critical conduit of international commerce and that Trump's comments put years of bipartisan work in jeopardy. Their message was clear: we have too much at stake to let federal rhetoric get in the way. Border states tend to be more pragmatic about math than Washington, so it’s not surprising that Michigan would oppose POTUS on this front, as the Ontario-Michigan trading relationship runs north of $60 billion annually. Ford's ability to cultivate these sub-federal relationships has been quietly one of his more useful tools when the national trade conversation gets noisy.
Ford also moved this week to position Ontario inside the federal government's new domestic defence industrial strategy. With Ottawa committing serious money to expanding Canadian defence production, the province began making its case early, pointing to its advanced manufacturing base, Great Lakes shipbuilding capacity, and the depth of its existing defence supply chain. The strategy is smart timing. These announcements tend to reward jurisdictions that show up early with a coherent pitch. The harder question, which will take months to answer, is which regions will actually land contracts once the federal commitment moves from policy to procurement.
Last week’s post-secondary restructuring plan continued to generate friction, though the nature of the debate has quickly shifted to focus on the government's changes to OSAP. The core mechanics are stark, with grant-to-loan ratio flips from roughly 85/15 to 25/75 starting this fall. The argument now is about distribution, who carries the adjustment cost, and whether the higher loan component places a disproportionate burden on students from lower-income households. The opposition is framing these changes as a generational economic risk, arguing that graduating students buried in debt is both bad for individuals and for Ontario's long-term economy. The critiques have culminated in the NDP introducing a “Save OSAP” campaign.
The announcement of a $141 million Coca-Cola expansion in Brampton is the kind of good news the government needs in light of the recent report released by Ontario's fiscal watchdog. The new investment hits domestic manufacturing, job creation, and slots cleanly into the province's investment attraction narrative.
Closing out the week, the currently leaderless Ontario Liberals have opened nominations in Scarborough Southwest amid interest from high-profile candidates such as Nate Erskine-Smith. Beyond the political headlines, Ontario moved to fast-track Kinross Gold's Great Bear project under its "One Project, One Process" framework as part of continued momentum under the Ring of Fire flag. The province has been consistent about wanting to compress approval timelines for major mining investments; this project is a high-profile test of whether that commitment holds at scale. The outcome will matter as much for what it signals to Ontarians as for the project itself.
Upcoming Events Calendar
February 24, 2026: Alberta legislative assembly resumes
February 26, 2026: Alberta Budget 2026 to be released
March 23, 2026: Ontario legislative assembly resumes
March 29, 2026: Federal NDP Leadership Race Results Announcement
