Canada’s first CE0 Prime Minister has confounded First Nations, offended environmentalists, bamboozled some provinces, and called the bluff of the Official Opposition, but he may have found a way to block the path of Western separatists and move the country forward on his projects of “national importance.”

PM Carney appears to have landed on a compromise solution, albeit a very costly one for the Canadian government and taxpayers, to allow Alberta to transport its bitumen to the Pacific coast.

The answer may well be to increase the capacity by about 360,000 barrels per day of the existing Trans-Mountain pipeline bought and paid for by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau. Already the Trans-Mountain project is costing $34 billion.

 
The NDP government of Premier David Eby of British Columbia appears to view this compromise position as acceptable, and Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta remains the big winner after proudly signing an MOU on moving her province’s oil to the Pacific with P.M. Carney.

Enough First Nations view the expanded existing pipeline as acceptable, the Carney government is no longer insisting on a Northern British Columbia coastal pipeline route, something unacceptable to First Nations on that Northern coast. Unless a private sector owner for the expanded pipeline comes forward, which seems unlikely at this point, the government of Canada will take a substantial financial hit to expand the southern route.

Gaagwiis, the president of the Haida Nation on the Northern coast has said he cannot support a project that could pose "a significant risk to our way of being." The proposed Northern pipeline could result in more tankers in the Hecate Strait near that nation's territory on Haida Gwai.

 "We do want to work together and be partners and find areas of common interest and alignment. Unfortunately, the oil pipeline is not one of those areas," Gaagwiis said.

Rare is the family, anywhere, that is not touched by mental health and addiction issues.

Given that, we say Bravo to the Susan Holt government of New Brunswick for announcing Dec. 1 that a 50-bed adult rehab centre will be operating on the Kingston Peninsula by next summer.

Operating on the principle of “Social Sharing” the centre will be located at Carters Point just north of Saint John. It will cost $6.3 million annually to operate.

That sounds like a lot of money for a cash-strapped province like New Brunswick which has a $549 million operating account deficit for 2025-26. But consider the social cost for individuals and their families of leaving the scourge of mental health, addictions, and homelessness, unaddressed.

There is a difficult situation now in the three largest cities of the province, Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton, as well as smaller communities like St. Stephen.

The province is partnering with Edgewood Health Network Canada to establish the centre. Edgewood will cover the cost for continued building of the centre, which will include cabins already on the site.

“The new therapeutic community that will be built here will ensure that individuals can receive treatment close to home, at no cost to clients,” said Christina Basedow, Edgewood’s chief operating officer. Edgewood already operates eleven other facilities across Canada, but this would be its first in New Brunswick, according to Basedow. 
 
Premier Holt says the need is great. “It is something we want to address, because at any given time, we have about two hundred people on a waitlist for treatment options…That could mean a wait of up to nine months, Holt said.

There is some “easy-speak” in that analysis because many sufferers are not even putting their names on waiting lists, they are simply suffering in silence. And some, are dying. Much work will have to be done “in the field” with professionals including therapists and social workers to help sufferers develop the will to get help.

 New housing initiatives such as co-op housing or construction of “tiny homes” or community efforts to combat food insecurity can be part of the solution.

The previous provincial government of Premier Blaine Higgs took the approach that addicts must be forced to go into treatment. The Against the Flow blog argued strenuously against that approach.
​
We must remember that alcohol is another drug which hurts even more people and their families in the province, and those who have seen alcoholism know that a person must develop the will to be sober before he or she can get on a better path. Even at that, sufferers may well need help to recognize their problem.
​
Addiction is not a new problem, after all, many veterans of wars like World War Two, Korea or Afghanistan came home suffering with various forms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) causing such negative consequences as flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, or domestic violence. Wars like Russia’s war in Ukraine or the war in Gaza are no doubt leaving similar tragic legacies.

Rob McKee, the N.B. Minister responsible for addictions, says the centre will take a group-based approach where residents will live with and support each other through their recovery.

Residents will typically stay four to six months, and the centre will likely be able to serve over one hundred people each year, according to McKee. 

McKee said with the addition of this facility, the province is doubling its capacity for adult live-in treatment. McKee describes it well when he said the new treatment centre will be “a place of healing, recovery and hope.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been under fire for leaving British Columbia out of his discussions about an oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific, about his lack of consultation with BC. coastal First Nations prior to announcing his MOU with Alberta about the pipeline, and about paying insufficient attention to climate change, and yet, Carney has made a very good choice in bringing Marc Miller back into the federal Cabinet.

Miller, the new minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, is in the mold of a great Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. He is also a long-time friend of Trudeau’s oldest son Justin, also a long-time Prime Minister. Miller is perfectly fluent in French and English, also speaks Swedish at home, and learned an Indigenous language while serving previously as Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs.
 
Miller, a lawyer, was educated in the McGill University Faculty of Law as well as the College Jean de Brebuef, University of Montreal. Who could be better qualified to be the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture?