Good morning. Halifax-based Emera is proposing a massive merger that would turn it into a North American utility powerhouse – one better positioned to finance major projects. This morning, RBC warned that Canada’s wider building ambitions could run up against shortages of workers and materials. In focus today: Will Canada be competing with itself?

Trade war: Ottawa is asking U.S. industrial giant Cleveland-Cliffs to provide a steel job plan or face possible legal action after announcing layoffs in Canada.

Defence: Ontario is emerging as the preferred site for Bombardier to build Saab GlobalEye military surveillance planes.

Tax and effect: A revenue boost from higher oil prices has been largely spent ahead of the fall budget.

The news: Emera Inc., the Halifax-based owner of Nova Scotia Power, is proposing a $14.3-billion merger with ATCO and Canadian Utilities, creating one of North America’s largest utility companies as Canada prepares for a major infrastructure buildout.

The numbers: The combined company would be a powerhouse worth about $35-billion based on the value of its shares, or roughly $72-billion once its debt is included, and would rank among the 20 largest utilities in North America. Emera shareholders would own 60 per cent, while Canadian Utilities and ATCO shareholders would own the rest.

Better together? The combined company under Emera would have more financial capacity to fund new infrastructure at a time when governments and companies are planning major construction projects across the country.

Spiking electricity demand, particularly from data centres, has raised the need for grid investment and fuelled deals like NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy’s US$67-billion merger announced in May.

Emera and Canadian Utilities plan to invest about $32-billion through 2030, and say the larger company would have better access to capital and more flexibility to pursue additional projects.

What the company wants to build: Canadian Utilities already has major projects in development, including a $2.9-billion Yellowhead natural gas pipeline in Alberta. Emera has talked about data centres, new pipelines and stronger links between provincial power systems as areas where greater scale could support more investment.

The merger talks began about 15 months ago – before Carney’s agenda took shape – but Emera CEO Scott Balfour said Ottawa’s ambitions encouraged the companies to proceed. He described the goal as the creation of a “Canadian champion.”

What Canada wants to build: Prime Minister Mark Carney has made major infrastructure investment a central part of Ottawa’s economic agenda, including a push to attract $1-trillion in new investment.

Across the country, governments and companies are advancing liquid natural gas terminals, pipelines, carbon-capture facilities, oil sands expansions, data centres and nuclear plants.

In Atlantic Canada, a federally appointed panel recently called for a more integrated regional electricity system, which would require major new investment in transmission and grid infrastructure.

The clash: An RBC report published this morning warned that Canada’s wider energy buildout will compete with other major projects for workers and materials, while putting added demands on industrial capacity.

More than $100-billion in oil and gas infrastructure is already being proposed or in development, the report said. That phase could stretch over 15 years and include two more LNG terminals, two oil pipelines, a major carbon-capture project and the first stages of oil sands expansions that could eventually add as much as one million barrels a day of production.

Many of those oil-and-gas projects would be getting under way at the same time as major developments in mining and hydrogen. The overlap would put added demands on skilled labour, raw materials, logistics and supply chains, the report warns – including steel and aluminum producers already dealing with U.S. tariffs and market uncertainty.

Ottawa estimates more than 1.4 million new trades workers will be needed by 2033 as retirements mount. Canada may need a more flexible immigration system and stronger incentives for workers to move to where projects are being built, the report said.

ATCO’s next step: If the deal is approved, Emera plans to spin out ATCO’s housing, defence and ports businesses into a new, publicly listed company, which would still be called ATCO and led by current CEO Nancy Southern. The deal shows “how Canada can be unified, east to west,” she told The Globe’s Emma Graney.

“Smooth courses are promised to no one,” said Southern, whose father founded the company. “But I do believe that this is a great opportunity for all of our people in our companies,” she said.

Name-calling: Why is the company called Emera? It’s at least catchier than NS Power Holdings Inc., the name of the parent company for the provincial utility until 2000. In search of a more distinct identity after becoming privatized, the company landed on a portmanteau:

• E: Energy
• Mer: French word for the sea
• Era: ‘Because our time is now’

Emera would keep its name as the parent company of ATCO and Canadian Utilities, it said in a release, which unfortunately rules out the possibility of “EmerAtcoCanUt.”