In the news today: Trump on trade talks, Air Transat to cancel flights

He says he has a good relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney, but that Canada, in his words, “makes a lot of things we don’t need because we make them also.”

The president halted trade talks in October over an Ontario-sponsored ad that quoted former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.

Air Transat poised to start suspending flights today as strike deadline looms

Air Transat is poised to begin suspending flights today as the clock ticks down on a strike deadline.

Travel company Transat A.T. Inc., which owns the leisure airline, has said flight cancellations would kick off Monday and ramp up over the next two days ahead of a potential work stoppage Wednesday.

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 750 pilots at Air Transat, issued a 72-hour strike notice over the weekend.

The two sides have been in round-the-clock negotiations in Montreal over the past week, as the company looks to avert a shutdown on the cusp of the peak holiday travel period.

Montreal hosts G7 ministers to talk about artificial intelligence, quantum

Artificial intelligence is likely to take up much of the agenda as industry, digital and technology ministers from the world’s most powerful Western countries meet in Montreal this week.

The two-day event is part of a series of ministerial meetings as Canada held the presidency of the G7 nations groups this year, a role that also included hosting the G7 leaders’ summit in June in Kananaskis, Alta.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon predicted it would be a “productive” G7 meeting.

Paul Samson, from the Centre for International Governance Innovation, is expecting digital technology issues to take up a large part of the conversation because they’re linked to broader issues such as economic competitiveness and resilience.

Bank of Canada expected to hold key rate, move to sidelines after an uncertain 2025

Economists widely expect the Bank of Canada will hold its benchmark interest rate steady this week and move to the sidelines to cap off a year dominated by trade and economic uncertainty.

As of Friday, financial markets placed odds of nearly 93 per cent in favour of a rate hold at this week’s meeting, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

A series of surprisingly strong job reports from Statistics Canada and an unexpected annualized jump of 2.6 per cent in real GDP for the third quarter solidified most economists’ calls for a hold to end the year.

The central bank started 2025 with cuts in January and March before hitting pause through the middle of the year and following up with reductions at back-to-back decisions in September and October.

Ottawa’s budget bill proposes to end free postage for people who are blind

The federal Liberals’ budget bill currently making its way through Parliament contains a small amendment to Canada Post’s legislation that could spell the end of a critical service providing accessible reading material for people who are blind.

Deep in the Liberals’ Bill C-15, the budget implementation act, are clauses mentioning the repeal of a few sections of the Canada Post Corporation Act without further explanation of what’s covered by those parts of the legislation.

These few lines of legislation are what allow Laurie Davidson, the executive director of the Centre for Equitable Library Access, to do a crucial part of her work.

Her organization — one of a handful in Canada that provide accessible reading material to people who are blind, low-vision, or have other disabilities — ships around 6,500 accessible books and 500 audiobook players to clients across the country each year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2025.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

In the news today: Trump on trade talks, Air Transat to cancel flights

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