Goodbye to the much-maligned digital services tax

Monday, June 30, 2025

Good morning. This is Hanna Lee.

The digital services tax has been axed, the government confirmed late last evening. We'll have more on that below. Then, we'll look at the second chance Canada is getting at becoming a major LNG player. And finally, Thunder Bay, Ont., has declared today Indigenous Survivors Day.

Canada rescinds digital services tax to advance trade discussions with the United States

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will soon bring forward legislation to rescind the Digital Services Act, Finance Canada said Sunday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

The digital services tax is no more, the federal government announced late Sunday evening. It comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump cut off trade talks with Canada in response to the levy.

What's happening: Canada and the U.S. have agreed to resume negotiations, Ottawa said in a news release, with the goal of reaching a deal by July 21. The tax collection, which was set to begin today, will be halted, and the finance minister will soon bring legislation to rescind the Digital Services Tax Act.

How much was owed: The tax would have applied retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2-billion US bill due at the end of the month. The Liberals under Justin Trudeau had pitched the DST as a way to bring tax code up to date and capture revenues earned in Canada by companies located abroad.

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Canada is getting a second shot at becoming a major LNG player

A rendering of the future Cedar LNG project, proposed for Kitimat, B.C., the result of a partnership between Pembina Pipeline Corporation and the Haisla Nation. (Cedar LNG)

Spurred by the shock of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade roller-coaster, there's renewed political appetite to build major energy infrastructure. The long-awaited LNG Canada project is up and running, and six more are in the works.

But even still, Canada may have missed its chance, some say.

What's happening: The U.S. still leads Canada by a wide margin at exporting liquified natural gas. That country only started ramping up LNG exports in 2016, but has since become the world's largest. In Canada, on the other hand, many of the projects that began development ended up getting cancelled. Some believe this speaks to the level of policy uncertainty and red tape here. However, new projects are breaking ground, and experts say the next five to 10 years will be crucial, as the role of gas becomes uncertain.

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'Indigenous Survivors Day': A day of reflection before Canada Day

Troy MacBeth Abromaitis is campaigning to get the federal government to declare Indigenous Survivors Day on June 30 as a national day of recognition. (Submitted by Troy MacBeth Abromaitis)

In Thunder Bay, Ont., June 30 has been declared "Indigenous Survivors Day." It's the first city to designate it as a full-day event, and organizers hope others will follow.

What's happening: Troy Abromaitis, a Sixties Scoop survivor, created the day to honour the children who were taken from their families and lands. He says that for many Indigenous people, Canada Day means celebrating a country that facilitated loss and family separation. Placing Indigenous Survivors Day on June 30 offers a chance to reflect and remember.

Filling in a gap: While Sept. 30 honours the victims and survivors of residential schools, there are survivors of other family separation campaigns, Abromaitis says. That includes the Sixties Scoop, when, between the 1950s and early '90s, thousands of Indigenous children in Canada were taken by child welfare agencies and placed with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents. Many were subject to abuse and most lost connection to their cultures and languages.

Canada's stubby beer bottle finds new meaning in an age of American bluster

Stubby beer bottles were the predominant vessel for beer in Canada from 1961 to 1984. Today, they exist largely in antique shops or private collections. (Craig Baird/Canadian History Ehx!)

Though it's long been retired, the stubby beer bottle, introduced in 1961, is taking on a new meaning in the ongoing U.S. trade war. A combination of factors meant that for a generation of Canadian beer drinkers, the stubby was everywhere. It may be on par with bagged milk in terms of a uniquely Canadian design and function, one history podcaster says.

Read why one researcher says it's a stealth way to protect a national industry

Today in History: June 30

1859: French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, with a crowd of 25,000 watching.

1912: The Regina Cyclone strikes the Saskatchewan city, killing 28. It remains Canada's deadliest tornado event.

2020: Beijing passes a sweeping, hugely controversial national security law for Hong Kong, expanding China's control over it. Here's our story from that day.

(With files from The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters)

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