KPMG’s poll of major players in the country’s economy showed broad support for the Carney government’s agenda, including streamlining approval processes and construction of a new West Coast oil pipeline.

The tax advisory firm contracted Angus Reid to gauge the opinions of 359 leaders or decision-makers at businesses in Canada with annual gross revenue greater than $10 million. Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents worked for companies reporting revenue of $500 million or more.

Fifty-one per cent said they expect the federal government’s economic measures will leave their businesses ‘much better off’ or ‘somewhat better off’ over the next three years, while 55 per cent said they believe the government is making progress in strengthening support for Canadian businesses.

There’s still concerns around existing policies. Sixty-seven per cent blamed regulatory requirements for delaying projects and deterring investment, while 65 per cent said these factors and taxes make it harder to scale up or remain in Canada.

Still, nearly half (47 per cent) said they were confident in their firm’s ability to increase investment in Canada if supported with the feds’ ‘Buy Canada’ procurement policies, other incentives and new financing.

“As the U.S. ratchets up trade pressure on Canada, many Canadian businesses are taking a measured approach and want to wait to see how the latest U.S. tariffs will shake out before reacting,” Lachlan Wolfers, national leader of KPMG Law, said in a statement.

“Our survey shows business leaders want governments to stay focused on the actions that are within Canada’s control to build economic resilience. They want government to work with them to quickly deliver on the federal economic agenda, improve tax competitiveness, reduce red tape and diversify trade.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s broader economic agenda seemed to have the backing of business leaders.

The national business and trade outlook survey asked respondents to rank what they believe should be the priorities for Ottawa, with regulatory reform and construction of a new West Coast pipeline topping the list at 50 per cent each. Accelerating major project spending including on infrastructure (47 per cent) and tax reform (43) were close behind.

Carney is moving ahead with designating the proposed pipeline as a project of national importance, laying the path for a streamlined approval processes. The Liberal government has also outlined plans to spend billions to support trade-enabling infrastructure as well as offer new financing and tax changes to incentivize investment.

BACKGROUND: Pipeline set to become first project fast-tracked under Building Canada Act

Many of the business leaders said they have had to raise prices to adjust to U.S. tariffs (66 per cent), but there was broad support for Canada to avoid making further concessions to the Americans.

Sixty-five per cent said they agreed that Canada should be more transactional and dispassionate when negotiating with the U.S., while 69 per cent supported being tough negotiators and using all points of leverage.

The survey was conducted between June 25 and July 13, failing to capture the latest tariff threat from south of the border. U.S. President Donald announced on July 20 that he was imposing 50 per cent tariffs on a swath of Canadian goods in 30 days’ time.

Carney has sought to soften the blow of American tariffs by prioritizing new trading relationships abroad, setting a target of doubling non-U.S. exports by 2035.

Many business leaders supported the government’s broader push to diversify trade away from the U.S.

One-third said they plan to expand to new markets within the next one to three years, while 26 per cent said they already export or are exploring exporting to markets where Canada has a trade deal.

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Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said it would mark the first time in decades that passenger locomotive vehicles are assembled in Canada.

“This announcement is about far more than new trains. It’s about building our country, supporting our workers, supporting passengers, creating good jobs, and developing expertise right here in Canada,” he said during a press conference in Montreal on Wednesday.

Under the deal, Swiss-based Stadler will supply 45 trainsets to Via, while final assembly and testing of up to 36 vehicles will take place in Montreal. Pomerleau will build the new facility, which will then serve as the maintenance centre for the trains.

Manufacturing will take place in Spain.

The government said the the trainsets will cost $1.6 billion, while Ottawa will spend $357 million on building the assembly and maintenance facility.

The hybrid battery-diesel vehicles will serve routes outside of Via’s busy Windsor-Quebec City corridor. The batteries work by optimizing and reducing fuel consumption, and the government said it would lay the “groundwork for future zero-emission propulsion.”

ABB will supply the batteries from a facility in the Montreal area.

Miguel Cerdá, a Stadler vice-president who joined MacKinnon and others at the press conference, said the trainsets have been “specifically designed to meet Canada’s demanding operational requirements,” including zero-noise rules and operating at temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius.

He said Stadler vehicles already operate in similar cold-temperature environments including the Nordic countries and are “reliable during harsh winters.”

Cerdá added that Stadler will establish a new Canadian organization to “support the fleet through its life cycle, ensuring high availability, reliability, and performance for decades to come.”

The government said it expects the project to create 1,200 full-time jobs, in addition to generating other benefits across the rail supply chain.

Via has already debuted new trainsets for the corridor after receiving federal funding in the 2018 budget.

During the press conference, MacKinnon was asked about media reports that Ontario was considering pulling its support for the Alto high-speed rail project after he rejected the province’s plan to expand the runway at Billy Bishop airport in downtown Toronto.

He said Alto would “redefine travel” between Canada’s largest cities and hoped to have the support of both the Ontario and Quebec governments.

He praised the Ford government for its “extraordinary cooperation on a number of very, very important economic projects” and said that this cooperation “would continue.”

“These are important, critical things, and Canadians want us to roll up our sleeves.”

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The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association’s mid-year report shows that nearly 2,700 new homes were sold in the region in the first six months of 2026, a 49 per cent hike compared to the same point last year.

The group credited the increase to the temporary removal of HST on all homes priced at $1 million or less. The joint federal-Ontario measure was introduced last spring and will expire at the end of March 2027.

Jason Burggraaf, executive director of the GOHBA, said the city’s latest move to cut developer charges could spur more sales activity in the near future.

“Every reduction helps improve affordability and bring more buyers into the market,” he said in a statement.

City council voted last week to drop developer charges by 54 per cent over the next years. This works out to a nearly $30,000 reduction in fees on new single-family homes.

The move was necessary to secure access to the provincial and federal developer charge reduction program. The schemes offers funding for municipalities for shovel-ready projects in exchange for slashing developer charges by 30 to 50 per cent.

Developer charges cover the cost of putting in place infrastructure necessary for new housing such as roads, sewers and wastewater treatment facilities. This is why developers pay more for greenfield developments in the far suburbs compared to already established neighbourhoods closer to the core.

Critics have accused municipalities of raising developer charges to help pay for other costs and avoid having to hike property taxes.

But defenders say the additional tax revenue from new homeowners won’t cover the cost of paying for the necessary infrastructure, and without developer charges, existing homeowners would have to subsidize new development.

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The pro women’s hockey team put forward a valiant effort to extend the PWHL championship series on home ice on Wednesday, but fell short to the Montreal Victorie, who clinched the Walter Cup title with a 4-0 win.

The Victorie were in the driver’s seat from the start of the best-of-five series, running out to an early 2-0 advantage, thanks to two consecutive overtime victories.

When the series moved to Ottawa, the Charge were able to cool off the Victorie, taking Game 3 by a 2-1 margin.

But it was only a temporary reprieve as the Victorie put on a defence masterclass to shut out the Charge in Game 4.

It’s the second straight season the Charge have lost in the finals series.

But there’s a silver lining for the team — the Charge broke the PWHL playoff attendance record by drawing nearly 17,000 fans for Game 3 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

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The team is playing in the recently renamed Canadian Baseball League, which is now a fully professional circuit.

And that was on full display in the Baycats’ season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who fielded disgraced former MLB All-Star Yasiel Puig.

Puig, who is preparing for sentencing in the U.S. in a high-profile sports gambling case, was held hitless by the Baycats, who walked away with a dominant 6-1 win.

But the Baycats would stumble in Game 2 on the road against London, falling 4-2.

Next up is a home game tonight against Welland.

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The Liaison Strategies survey — commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics — found that 64 per cent of respondents disapproved of OC Transpo service, including the O-Train.

Reliability and delays were flagged as the biggest concern (54 per cent), with safety, wait times and poor connectivity far behind at 11 per cent each.

Around 1,000 Ottawa residents were randomly surveyed for the poll between May 8 to 10 using random digit dialling across landline and cellphone networks. It carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.09 percentage points.

The public transit service has been routinely criticized for delays and cancelled trips, as well as its handling of the problem-plagued O-Train Line 1, which is currently running only single-train cars due to issues with the vehicles.

Eighty-one per cent of respondents disapproved of OC Transpo’s handling of service reliability, while the service receives better grades for security, with only 47 per cent disapproving (compared to 32 that approve, and 21 that don’t know).

Approval ratings are also underwater for frequency of service and waiting times (60 per cent disapproval), while residents said Ottawa should prioritize improving existing services instead of expanding the system (60 to 20 per cent).

Meanwhile, 47 per cent said they would be more likely to regularly use OC Transpo if it became more reliable.

Transit will likely become a major issue in the run-up to this fall’s municipal elections.

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The Liaison Strategies survey — commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics — also found that 38 per cent of respondents viewed traffic as a “very serious problem,” with blame mostly laid on there being too many cars on the road (37 per cent), though a sizeable chunk credited it to “poor coordination of roads, signals, and construction.”

However, 35 per cent of respondents found both were contributing to the problem.

Around 1,000 Ottawa residents were randomly surveyed for the poll between May 8 to 10 using random digit dialling across landline and cellphone networks. It carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.09 percentage points.

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents said traffic had become worse over the past year, a number that varied little across different sections of the city, by age group or language spoken at home.

Twenty-seven per cent said it had stayed mostly the same, and only two per cent said it had gotten better.

There was little variation across the city on any of the survey questions, though voters in downtown and the surrounding neighbourhoods were more likely to view traffic as a very serious problem.

But still, most respondents (52 per cent) viewed traffic as only a somewhat serious problem.

The biggest warning sign in the poll for Mayor Mark Sutcliffe — whose first term in office elapses this fall — is that 77 per cent disapprove of the city’s handling of congestion, with that number rising to 81 per cent in the central neighbourhoods.

Voters are split on solutions, with better timing traffic lights (22 per cent) and improved transit (21) leading the pack, compared to faster road construction (18) and more road capacity (16). Enforcement of traffic rules came in behind at 14 per cent, with something else drawing 7 per cent of responses.

Meanwhile, 67 per cent thought the city was doing a poor job in coordinating road work to reduce traffic disruption.

On a separate question, voters seemed to support ‘safe and balanced’ streets (48 per cent) as a bigger priority than moving more car traffic quickly (31), however.

Voters will elect a new city council in October. Sutcliffe hasn’t formally announced his plans to seek a second term, but the Compass/Liaison poll had him narrowly leading the race.

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It’s the team’s second consecutive trip to the Walter Cup Finals, but Ottawa is hoping to bring home the title for the first time in the franchise’s young history.

The Charge entered the playoffs as an underdog as the last seed in the four-team bracket. But Ottawa upset Boston in four games to secure a spot in the finals.

As the higher seed, Montreal will host the first two games of the best-of-five series. Ottawa will host Game 3 and Game 4, if necessary.

If the series goes the distance, Montreal will host the deciding Game 5.

Ottawa has moved out from TD Place Arena for the playoffs, opting to play at the much bigger Canadian Tire Centre.

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The team advanced to the OHL championship after downing the top seed in the East Brantford in a thrilling seven-game series.

But facing off against the Western champions Kitchener, Barrie was unable to get traction, losing four games straight to exit the postseason.

With the win, Kitchener advances to the Memorial Cup in Kelowna, where they will face off against the champions of the other major junior hockey leagues in Canada.

Despite the defeat, Barrie had one of the most successful seasons in franchise history, winning the East for the first time since 2012-13.

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The Colts downed Brantford 5-0 in a dominating performance in Game 7 on Monday, booking a spot in the title series and keeping alive their bid for a Memorial Cup.

It marked an exclamation point on a remarkable come from behind effort from Barrie, who was down 3-1 to Brantford before rattling off to two 4-3 overtime victories to force the deciding game.

Barrie is facing Kitchener in the OHL championship series. Game 1 goes tomorrow.

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