HEADLINES
Unemployment Rate Fell to Two-Year Low of 6.4% in July
Canada's job market continued to warm up into the summer with surprisingly strong hiring in July and a fall in the jobless rate to a two-year low, adding to signs the economy is shaking off early-year weakness.
Employers in the country added 75,100 jobs in July, Statistics Canada said. That was stronger than the modest 20,000 advance economists expected and brings the rise in net employment over the last three months to 181,100, more than reversing a sharp pullback early in the year.
The unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage point to 6.4%, the lowest level since July 2024 and a third decline in a row after it hit 6.9% in April.
The strong jobs report comes on the heels of data showing Canada's economy is again growing after back-to-back quarterly contractions as manufacturing and exports continue to recover. Still, with monthly job growth so far in 2026 averaging less than 10,000 a month and wage growth cooling further, analysts don't expect the Bank of Canada will be in a rush to tighten monetary policy.
Labor Market Recovering But BOC Expected to Sit Tight
Jobs Data Another Signal the Economy is Firming
Gains a Stark Contrast to U.S. Payroll Numbers
Singapore Billionaire Sues Brookfield for Allegedly Aborting Planned Real-Estate Joint Venture
A Singaporean real-estate billionaire is suing Brookfield Asset Management over alleged breaches of contract and confidentiality related to a proposed joint venture to buy industrial properties in the Southeast Asian city-state.
Lim Chap Huat, executive chairman of Singaporean real-estate firm Soilbuild Group Holdings, alleges that Brookfield usurped a property deal that the New York-based asset manager had originally pitched as a collaboration with Soilbuild, according to documents filed Monday to Singapore's High Court. The lawsuit hasn't been reported previously.
The dispute centers on a 2025 transaction in which Brookfield bought three properties in Singapore from Mapletree Industrial Trust, a real-estate investment trust, for more than $400 million.
MDA Space Projects Big Revenue Jump Next Year, Helped by Acquisitions, Recurring Revenue
MDA Space projects a big jump in revenue next year, boosted by recent acquisitions and a shift toward a subscription-focused business with more than a third of revenue recurring.
The Canadian space technology company said it expects revenue to jump 50% in 2027, including the impact of recent acquisitions. Based on the midpoint of its current outlook for the year, the projection puts next year's revenue forecast at C$2.78 billion, ahead of current analyst expectations for C$2.58 billion, according to FactSet.
"MDA Space is emerging into a global full-spectrum space company that is engaged in a growing market along multiple growth vectors," Chief Executive Mike Greenley said on an investor call Friday.
Emera Profit Slips on Higher Costs, Divestiture Loss
Emera's second-quarter profit fell as higher interest costs, foreign-exchange headwinds and divestiture losses dragged on performance.
The Halifax, Nova Scotia-based energy-services company posted a decline in net income to C$105 million, or C$0.34 a share, down from C$135 million, or C$0.45 a share, in the comparable quarter a year earlier.
The decline was primarily due to higher interest expenses and foreign-exchange losses in its corporate operations, as well as an C$88 million after-tax mark-to-market loss. Additionally, Emera logged a loss of C$19 million on the sale of Grand Bahama Power Company and higher operating expenses at New Mexico Gas.
B2Gold Shares Jump on Exploitation Permit Approval for Mali Gold Mine
B2Gold shares surged Friday after the company secured a critical exploitation permit from the government of Mali for its Menankoto deposit, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for its flagship mining complex.
Shares rose 22.5% to C$7.03.
The approval of the exploitation permit follows months of dialogue between the Vancouver, British Columbia-based miner and the State of Mali. The Menankoto permit, together with the Dandoko deposit forms the Fekola Regional, part of the flagship Fekola complex, which in total is expected to produce between 410,000 and 460,000 ounces of gold in 2026.
Algonquin Power & Utilities Profit Falls on Higher Costs
Algonquin Power & Utilities logged a lower profit in the second quarter as wildfire-related costs and write-offs weighed on its regulated services business.
The regulated utility company posted a decline in net income to $4.9 million, or 1 cent a share, down from $14.8 million, or 4 cents a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.
Net earnings from its regulated services fell to $30 million from $43.9 million, largely due to wildfire insurance expenses and write-offs in the quarter. Earnings from its hydro group also declined to $3.1 million from $8.9 million. For its corporate group, its losses narrowed to $28.2 million from a loss of $38 million.
Adjusted earnings were 4 cents a share. According to FactSet, analysts were expecting 3 cents a share.
Superior Plus Shares Rise on Revenue Beat on Compressed Natural-Gas Business Strength
Superior Plus shares advanced after the company reported a strong performance at its compressed natural-gas business that helped drive an increase in second-quarter revenue.
Shares rose 6.1% to C$8.20.
Revenue in the quarter rose to $435.4 million, up from $423.2 million, the company reported late Thursday. Revenue topped expectations of a more modest rise to $429.8 million, per FactSet.
Chief Executive Allan MacDonald said Certarus, the company's compressed natural-gas division, continues to execute with record earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as well as higher volumes, supported by growing data center demand the launch of mobile fleet fueling.
Algoma Central Profit, Revenue Rise
Algoma Central reported higher profit in the second quarter amid broad-based strength across its segments drove revenue higher.
The marine-transportation company on Friday posted an increase in net income to C$35.6 million, or C$0.88 a share, up from C$32.9 million, or C$0.81 a share, in the comparable quarter a year earlier.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose to C$82.1 million from C$72.6 million.
Revenue rose to C$258.3 million from C$211.7 million, driven by stronger results in the company's domestic dry-bulk, product tanker and ocean self-unloader segments.
TALKING POINT
The World is Cooling on Carbon Capture. Why is Canada Still Barreling Ahead in the Oil Sands?
By Tim Kiladze of the Globe and Mail
An hour north of Bergen, up a two-lane highway into the foothills of Norway's fjords, there is a project to save the planet.
Northern Lights, in Øygarden, a coastal region surrounded by the North Sea, is the world's first cross-border carbon dioxide transport and storage hub, designed to capture CO2 emitted during industrial production and then bury it. Built on rocky terrain that resembles Peggy's Cove, the industrial park houses a port, storage tanks the size of grain silos and a labyrinth of stainless-steel pipes.
For two decades, Norway has dreamed of showing the world that carbon capture is both scientifically sound and economically feasible. At Northern Lights, liquid CO2 arrives by ship, gets stored in giant tanks, then travels 100 kilometres west through a pipeline into the North Sea, where it is injected into porous rock 2,600 metres below the seabed.
The first ship delivering carbon for storage arrived in June, 2025, and one year in, the facility now receives liquid CO2 from two partners, the Heidelberg Materials cement factory in Brevik and a wastewater system near Oslo, with agreements to receive shipments from three more emitters in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark over the next few years.
From the start, oil companies have been at the table. While the Norwegian government oversaw development through an arms-length agency called Gassnova, Equinor, Norway's oil and gas company, is invested in the project alongside Shell and TotalEnergies of France. None of them ship their own carbon there - Northern Lights is built for hard-to-abate sectors such as waste incineration and cement - but their involvement was meant to show the world that government and industry can work together to help tackle climate change.
It's exactly the type of project Canada has long promised, but never delivered.
Ottawa, Alberta and Canadian oil companies have talked about carbon capture for years, and in 2021 five oil-sands producers came together to form the Pathways Alliance, promising to build a pipeline to bury carbon emissions from their sites. Five years in, there hasn't been a single shovel in the ground. The oil companies can't even settle on a way to pay for it, despite making a collective $24.7-billion in profits in 2025.
Lately, though, there's been progress. In November, 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta for a new oil pipeline, and as part of that negotiation, he demanded that a carbon capture project get built. The Prime Minister's legacy is at stake. After serving as governor of the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England, Mr. Carney became the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance and his name become synonymous with combatting climate change. "No Pathways, no pipeline," he has said.
Ottawa has since formalized plans for the oil pipeline, which will now travel south, and in July the federal government signed a separate MOU to advance the Pathways project. Final details are due by November, but there is now a concrete plan to construct a 400-kilometre pipeline to transport carbon from oil-sands facilities to an underground hub near Cold Lake, Alta.
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