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By Dean Brown.
Good day,
A bill we’ve already talked about just became much more important.
Bill C-39 passed second reading yesterday with Conservative support and is now heading to a special committee. The Bloc, NDP and Greens opposed it. Conservatives supported moving it forward but say they intend to push amendments.
You might remember this as Ottawa’s attempt to get major federal project decisions completed within one year.
That is still part of it.
But the more I dig into Bill C-39, the clearer it becomes that this is about much more than speeding up paperwork.
The One-Year Promise Still Needs an Asterisk
Ottawa says federal reviews and decisions should be completed within one year, but that clock only starts after the company submits a comprehensive application and all required information and studies. In other words, it is one year of federal decision-making, not one year from somebody drawing a project on a napkin to construction beginning.
That is still a potentially major improvement if Ottawa can actually coordinate departments and reduce duplicated work. But the company’s earlier studies, financing, provincial approvals, Indigenous engagement and eventual construction can still add years around that federal clock. See exactly when Ottawa’s one-year clock starts →
The bigger change is how much flexibility government would have once the bill becomes law. Bill C-39 reaches into environmental rules, permitting and federal labour disputes, not simply project timelines. See everything Ottawa says Bill C-39 would change →
The government says the goal is greater speed and certainty while maintaining environmental protections and Indigenous rights. Critics, including labour and environmental groups, argue the bill gives ministers too much discretion. That argument is now moving to committee.
Stelco Made Ottawa a Promise. Now 500 Jobs Are at Risk.
Stelco has begun issuing layoff notices in Hamilton. Roughly 330 Hamilton workers are expected to be affected, with additional cuts elsewhere and as many as 500 workers potentially affected across Hamilton and Nanticoke. Cleveland-Cliffs says weak demand, imports and the current trade crisis have made parts of the operation uneconomic.
What makes this more interesting than a normal layoff story is what Cleveland-Cliffs promised Ottawa when it bought Stelco in 2024. Its takeover was approved under the Investment Canada Act with binding five-year undertakings, including maintaining at least the same number of unionized employees and the vast majority of non-union employees. See the job commitments Cleveland-Cliffs made to Ottawa →
The company also promised to keep Stelco’s head office in Hamilton, honour collective agreements and pension commitments, and continue significant capital and research spending.
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves says the layoffs are temporary and workers would be recalled if Canada and the U.S. reach a steel trade agreement that restores demand. Ottawa, meanwhile, is threatening enforcement if the company cannot show how it plans to honour its commitments.
That leaves a pretty important question:
What is a legally binding foreign-investment promise worth when keeping it becomes expensive?
We’re about to find out.
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Tip Culture Is Out of Control
I posted a video about tipping this week and it did really well across all four of my platforms.
Apparently I’m not the only person getting annoyed.
My argument is pretty simple:
When did tipping stop being a reward for service and start becoming an expectation attached to almost every payment screen?
Coffee shops.
Takeout counters.
Fast food.
Places where I order online, drive there, walk inside, grab the bag myself and leave.
Then the machine gets turned around.
18%.
20%.
25%.
At some point, I think we lost the plot.
I do need to correct something from my video
I said tipping was originally meant for workers making less than minimum wage.
That is too broad.
Ontario did have a separate lower minimum wage for liquor servers, but that ended in 2022. As of October 1, 2026, Ontario’s general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour, and most servers are covered by that same general minimum-wage floor.
And honestly, that makes my question more interesting.
Why do we culturally expect customers to add another 15% or 20% to one minimum-wage worker’s compensation while we generally don’t do that for someone working at a grocery store, retail counter or fast-food restaurant?
I’m not saying those jobs are identical.
Serving tables can be difficult.
I’m asking why the expectation is so different.
The Tip Screen Is Where I Draw the Line
I have no problem tipping when somebody actually serves me.
If I sit down at a restaurant, someone takes my order, brings the food, checks on the table and gives me good service, I tip.
What I don’t understand is why I should feel pressured to add 20% when I ordered online, drove to the restaurant and picked up my own bag.
And apparently a lot of Canadians feel the same way.
A 2026 H&R Block survey of 1,545 Canadians found 93% said tipping has gotten out of hand, 89% said suggested percentages have become too high, and 41% said they have avoided businesses they know use tip prompts.
That 41% number stands out to me because I’m basically in that group.
If I walk into a takeout place and the payment screen aggressively starts at 20%, you will probably get zero from me.
And if the whole experience feels like I’m being guilted into paying more, you may not see me again.
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Workers See This Very Differently
A separate survey commissioned by hospitality-payments company Actual and conducted through Angus Reid surveyed 506 Canadian hospitality workers, including 250 who receive tips. Among those tipped workers, 67% said their tip income had fallen over the previous two years, and 43% said they rely on tips for essential expenses like rent, groceries or bills.
But there is an important distinction here. That survey does not prove Canadians reduced their average tipping percentage by a specific amount. Workers could receive less tip income because of lower tips, but also fewer customers, fewer hours, weaker sales or changes in tip pooling. Actual also sells hospitality payroll and tip-management products, so its commercial interest is worth knowing.
Still, I think it shows the real problem.
Workers increasingly see tips as part of their normal compensation.
Restaurants can offer employees total earnings above the base wage without putting the entire labour cost directly into menu prices.
Customers increasingly see the tip screen as another fee.
Everybody is reacting to a different part of the same system.
Here’s Where I Land
I’m not anti-tip.
I’m anti-automatic-tip.
If I sit down at a restaurant and get good service, I tip.
If someone goes above and beyond, I’ll tip more.
But takeout?
Handing me a coffee?
A counter where I did most of the transaction myself?
No.
If a business needs workers to earn more money to attract good employees, then price that into what you sell me.
If the burger really needs to cost $22 instead of $20, charge me $22.
At least I know what it costs.
To me, a tip should mean:
You did something worth rewarding.
Not:
The payment machine asked.
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Quick things worth knowing
Ontario froze OSAP payments to private postsecondary institutions. The province says a KPMG audit found preliminary concerns including common ownership between schools, involvement of immigration-services firms, weak student verification and unusual concentrations of OSAP applications. The government has referred the matter to the OPP, but that is not proof every private college or student did anything wrong.
Canada is backing away from expanding MAID to people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness. Justice Minister Sean Fraser says Ottawa intends to maintain that exclusion indefinitely while separately moving toward allowing some advance requests for people who may later lose capacity. The actual legislation will matter because the existing law currently points to March 2027.
And Bill C-39 is now officially a committee story. The next question is what amendments Conservatives push and whether the government changes any of the environmental or labour provisions before final passage.
🔒 Where the story gets harder
Faster approvals sound simple.
But Bill C-39 is not only about making departments move quicker.
The bill would also give Ottawa more flexibility over environmental conditions, allow some preparatory work before a final impact-assessment decision, and create a clearer process for intervening in nationally significant labour disputes.
That is where the real trade-off begins.
How much extra discretion should Ottawa get in exchange for speed?
In the Plus edition, I’m digging into:
what the one-year clock actually covers
what can still delay a project before and after that clock
how much more power ministers would have over environmental conditions
when Ottawa could intervene in a strike
why the Stelco layoffs are becoming a test of legally binding foreign-investment promises
and why Ontario’s $2.4B OSAP headline is not the same thing as $2.4B of fraud
The Canadian Take Plus
I do the digging. You get the important part.
One thing before I go…
The tipping story obviously isn’t as consequential as hundreds of steel jobs or a major federal law.
But I understand why the video connected.
It is something people experience every week.
And when 41% of respondents say they have actually avoided businesses because of tip prompts, it stops being just an etiquette debate.
It becomes a business decision too.
Until next time,
Dean
P.S. I want to know where you draw the line. Sit-down restaurant, takeout, coffee shop, barber, Uber or food delivery. Which ones are you tipping? Hit reply and tell me.