More than 2,000 Brampton autoworkers have been laid off since Stellantis idled their plant. Its planned Jeep Compass went to Illinois. In October 2025 Ottawa halved Stellantis's quota of US-built vehicles free of Canada's 2025 tariff, citing broken commitments. The US points to such cuts in its case for the August 22 tariffs. Stellantis may sell the plant, and Unifor blames the plan for a bargaining impasse. President Trump has announced a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian cars for 2027.
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Drivers in Canadian cities paid an average of C$1.87 a litre for regular gasoline in the week ending September 15, 2026. It was C$1.40 in the week ending February 24, 2026, four days before US and Israeli strikes on Iran began a war. Canada exports oil, but its refiners pay world prices, and oil-producing provinces collect more revenue. The International Energy Agency put the Persian Gulf's August oil exports at nearly half the prewar level. No official negotiations are under way.
In August 2026 Canadians paid 3 per cent more than a year earlier and lost 42,000 jobs. The Bank of Canada, which aims for 2 per cent inflation, held its rate at 2.25 per cent on September 2, its seventh straight hold. Cutting could feed inflation that is above target mainly because of gasoline, made costly by a Middle East conflict. Raising could cost more jobs while US tariffs, taxes on imports, hit exporters. It decides again on October 28.
Canadian and American importers are paying tariffs, taxes on imports, on billions of dollars of each other's goods. Some of that cost can reach shoppers. Canada suspended trade talks on August 21, 2026. Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke of 'walking away from a bad deal'. The U.S. trade representative says Canada 'walked away from a near-final trade deal'. Some measures are in force, others only scheduled or announced. U.S. bans on some Canadian goods are scheduled for September 29, 2026.
Albertans vote October 19, 2026 on ten government questions. The tenth asks whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada or start the legal process toward a later, binding referendum on separation. Neither option takes Alberta out of Canada. An independence group's plan says Alberta has most of what a country needs, while a business council says leaving could raise mortgage costs. The Globe and Mail reports polls putting separation's supporters in a motivated minority. Turnout is the unknown.
Western Alaska's salmon collapsed, and Yukon River families who lived on them cannot fish for chinook salmon through 2030. Offshore, pollock trawlers legally catch salmon by accident, as bycatch. Federal scientists say a major factor in the chinook decline was deaths at sea, connected to heatwaves. With river chinook fishing suspended, bycatch is where rules can still tighten. A proposed cap on chum bycatch and a Senate bill aim there. In summer 2026 more salmon returned. Researchers are not calling it a recovery.
The European Union's top official, Ursula von der Leyen, invited Canada to become its first 'associate member', a status the two sides would have to invent. Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent months pulling Canada closer to Europe as the US trade war drags on. Two pieces are already real: a trade deal and access to Europe's defence-buying fund. What the new label would mean, from jobs to visa-free travel, should take shape at an October summit in Montreal.
