OTTAWA - Canada stands to face the biggest fallout of political turmoil in the United States in 2026, a new report by the Eurasia Group warned on Friday. 

The risk management firm says the long-standing relationship between the two countries "is history" and ongoing trade uncertainty will have an impact on the Canadian economy.

"(U.S. President Donald) Trump's systematic effort to dismantle checks on his power and weaponize the machinery of government against his political enemies will inevitably reshape not only Canada-U.S. relations, but the Canadian economy and Canadians' engagement with the rest of the world," the report says.

"The challenge for Ottawa — and Canadian firms more broadly — will be to play defence and offence at the same time: managing an unpredictable and unreliable U.S. while carving out new roles in an increasingly unstable G-Zero world."

OTTAWA - Canada needs to be clear-eyed about the risk of economic coercion as Prime Minister Mark Carney looks to rebuild ties with China after years of political and economic tensions, Michael Kovrig said this week.

Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat in China and now a senior adviser on Asia for the International Crisis Group, was one of two Canadians Beijing detained for nearly three years.

As Carney prepares to make the first visit to China by a Canadian prime minister in nearly a decade, Kovrig said Carney needs to hold the line on Canada's interests and values as he pushes for stronger economic ties.

"It's ultimately about keeping hold of your values and your integrity, and having a strategic approach that prioritizes your holistic national interests, rather than just looking at relations deal by deal and agreement by agreement," Kovrig said in an interview.

GATINEAU - A company that operated a chemical manufacturing plant in western Quebec has been fined $1.35 million for discharging a harmful substance into the Rivière du Lièvre in 2019.

Superior General Partner Inc., which owned and operated the Erco Mondial plant in 2019, had pleaded guilty in Quebec court to 12 counts of discharging sodium chlorite into the water, a violation of the Fisheries Act.

Both the company and Jean-Francois Roux — the plant's technical director at the time of the violations — also pleaded guilty to one additional count of failing to inform federal authorities about the spills.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says in a statement that it was informed by a company official on July 24, 2019, of the discharges into the river, which were the result of equipment failure.

CALGARY - U.S. President Donald Trump's ambition to have U.S. energy companies swoop in and revive Venezuela's beleaguered oil industry has raised questions about what it means for Canadian oilsands producers and whether it's a task American supermajors can or even want to take on. 

Here is a rundown of the past and potential of Venezuela's energy sector: 

There's a gargantuan amount of oil in the ground.   

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that as of 2023, Venezuela had 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves — 17 per cent of the world's total and the largest of any country. 

CALGARY - Calgary officials say water security is just three fewer toilet flushes away as repairs continue on a fragile feeder main that failed last week, plunging the city into a conservation crisis.

Emergency Management Agency chief Sue Henry held up a plastic refillable jug during a news conference on Thursday, similar to the type used with water coolers, to illustrate just how much each resident of the city needs to save.

"This bottle holds 20 litres of water. Thirty litres of water is one and a half of these bottles. When you look at it in this perspective, this is not a lot of water," Henry said.

"Just flushing the toilet three less times in a day will save the 30 litres right there. Every minute you save in the shower uses eight litres of water and running your dishwashers and washing machines only when full will continue to save water."

MONTRÉAL - Fisheries and Oceans Canada has granted authorization to the Montreal Port Authority to expand a container port terminal northeast of the city in the habitat of an endangered fish species. 

The authority announced Thursday it had obtained the green light for the project at Contrecœur, Que., that would increase the capacity of port infrastructure by 60 per cent.

In September, the federal government had referred the project to the Major Projects Office for consideration to be fast-tracked through the approval process.

However, nature advocacy group SNAP Québec says it will challenge the authorization in court because of the project's potential impact on the copper redhorse, a fish species found only in the St. Lawrence River.