Episode Details

Alberta is holding a referendum on whether to hold a referendum on independence. Fourteen of Carney's own MPs say he is tearing apart the environmental legacy that held the Liberal coalition together. And the pipeline he is offering Alberta comes with conditions his own industry analysts say cannot work. That pipeline's $16.5 billion carbon capture requirement is not economically viable without permanent government subsidy, which means the cost will land somewhere, and that somewhere is almost certainly the public. The defence relationship with Washington is fraying over vague commitments and a fighter jet purchase Ottawa still will not confirm. And while B.C. shut down its decriminalization experiment after 15 months and a 16.5% spike in overdose deaths, federal health memos show Ottawa was simultaneously drafting a national version.

Jim Csek and Iain Burns bring the week to a close with the latest from across Canada.

Today on The Really Big Show:

►Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces she will hold a referendum on whether to hold a referendum on independence, after a judge struck down the Stay Free Alberta petition for the 2nd time, ruling the province failed to consult First Nations

►Carney responds by saying Alberta should be "at the centre" of Canada's future, touting the new pipeline and carbon capture agreement as evidence the federation is working

►Carney's pipeline approval conditions include a $16.5 billion carbon capture requirement that the industry's own financial analysts say is not economically viable without massive ongoing government support, raising questions about who ultimately bears the cost

►14 Liberal MPs sign a letter to Carney saying they are "deeply concerned" his rollback of Trudeau-era environmental policies will "seriously compromise" the government's credibility, insisting climate change "remains the greatest threat of our time"

►U.S. officials warn Canada that vague defence commitments are no longer acceptable, demanding a fully-costed plan to reach NATO's 3.5% GDP spending target by 2035, while separately calling Canada's refusal to confirm the $19 billion F-35 purchase "another major irritant"

►Canada breaks ground on 64 million euros in new military facilities in Latvia, bringing its total infrastructure investment on NATO's eastern flank to more than 315 million euros

►Statistics Canada reports core retail sales fell 0.1% in March, snapping 2 consecutive months of gains, with economists expecting further weakness in the second quarter as higher energy costs force lower-income households into debt to cover essential spending

►The CRTC has ordered major streaming platforms including Netflix to contribute 15% of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content funds, triple the 5% rate announced in 2024 that Amazon and Apple are already fighting in court

►Attorney General Sean Fraser told a Senate committee he deliberately limited Bill C-9's banned hate symbol list to designated terror organizations to prevent future ministers from abusing the law against political opponents

►The Fraser Institute finds 59% of First Nations are not complying with the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, calling for universal enforcement to protect against corruption and misuse of public funds

►The Liberal government refuses to release the terms of its $200 million lease agreement with Maritime Launch Services for a Nova Scotia gravel pit it calls a spaceport, as Conservative MP Michael Cooper demands the contract be made public

►B.C.'s decriminalization experiment was cut short after 15 months following a 16.5% increase in overdose deaths, with only 15% of British Columbians now supporting a public health approach to the opioid crisis, while federal health department memos show Ottaw