HEADLINES

August Trade Surplus Widens Sharply Ahead of Fresh Tariffs

Canada's goods-trade surplus with the world ballooned to the largest in more than four years as tariff front-running drove a jump in exports to the U.S.

The surplus recorded by Canada for August widened to C$4.2 billion from C$787 million a month earlier, Statistics Canada said.

It marked a sixth consecutive merchandise-trade surplus and the biggest since May 2022, and came in well above the roughly C$1.5 billion economists anticipated.

Canadian Exports Buoyed by Likely Tariff Front-Running

Canadian Trade Suggests Tailwind for GDP Growth in August

Solid Trade for Canada But Tariff Challenges Lie Ahead

Emera to Merge With Canadian Utilities in C$14.3 Billion Deal

Emera and Canadian Utilities have agreed to merge in an all-share deal valued at C$14.3 billion, creating a massive Canadian utility company with a large North American footprint.

The combination brings together C$72 billion in enterprise value and a regulated rate base of C$45 billion serving about six million customers across Canada, the U.S. and international markets.

The two companies together will form a top 20 North American utility, they said.

Xanadu Quantum Stock Spikes on GlobalFoundries Pact to Mass-Produce Computers

Xanadu Quantum Technologies has landed a heavyweight partner to help move its quantum systems out of the lab and into mass production.

The company unveiled a multiyear partnership with GlobalFoundries to manufacture quantum hardware components. Under the terms of the pact, GlobalFoundries will receive the blueprints for Xanadu's specialized light sensors and chip materials, which it will build at its 300-millimeter production line in New York state.

Xanadu shares jumped 11.8% to settle at C$7.21.

Curaleaf Formally Files Sweetened $324.2 Million Offer for Aurora Cannabis

Curaleaf Holdings has officially filed its increased takeover offer for Aurora Cannabis in its bid to force transaction talks and test whether competing offers will emerge.

Under Canadian securities rules, the filing now requires Aurora's board of directors to issue a formal recommendation to shareholders within 15 days.

The formal filing of the Notice of Variation with Canadian and U.S. regulators makes official the company's sweetened $5-a-share offer, which represents a 25% price increase from the prior bid and gives the proposed offer a value of $324.2 million.

Toronto Home Sales Fall for Second Straight Month

Toronto home sales fell 5.2% in September, declining for the second straight month as higher mortgage rates and economic uncertainty weighed on prospective buyers, The Globe and Mail reported.

There were 5,174 sales last month after removing seasonal influences, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. Before August's drop in purchases, there had been five months of increasing sales.

"We started to see sales ebb as we moved into fall," said Jason Mercer, the board's chief information officer. Mercer attributed the reversal to the worsening trade dispute with the U.S., the prolonged war in the Middle East and rising borrowing costs.

B&G Foods, Nortera Foods Terminate Green Giant Canada Sale Over Regulatory Timing

B&G Foods and Nortera Foods have called off their deal for Nortera to buy Green Giant Canada after failing to secure regulatory approval in time.

The transaction, originally struck in October of last year, was terminated on Monday after missing a key Sept. 24 date to receive Canadian regulatory approval to sell the frozen and shelf-stable vegetable brand.

As a result of the termination, B&G Foods said Tuesday that it will continue to own and operate Green Giant Canada and focus on executing its strategic and operating plans, while Nortera will continue to serve as the primary co-manufacturer.

AECOM-Led Joint Venture Awarded Program Management Contract for Ontario's Highway 413

AECOM's joint venture has been hired as program consultant to build a massive stretch of new highway in Ontario, north of Toronto, that will feature dozens of bridges and tunnels to serve growing infrastructure demand.

The infrastructure company said that its JV, 413 Continuity Partners, has been awarded the Highway 413 Program Management Consultant contract by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario.

The new highway, dubbed Highway 413, will create a 59-kilometer transportation corridor, intersecting with major highway arteries that direct often-heavily congested traffic in and out of the city. Throughout the 10-year timeline of the project, the JV will provide services such as program management, environmental coordination and construction oversight.

TALKING POINT

Families of Dead Prospectors Sue Authority That Certifies Gold as Ethically Produced

By Yusuf Khan and Nicholas Bariyo

Families of two independent gold prospectors allegedly killed by security forces at a Tanzanian mine are taking their grievances directly to global markets, suing the London-based authority that certified metal from the deposit as ethically produced.

If successful, the legal maneuver in the case -- going after the London Bullion Market Association rather than the mining company, the gold refiner, Tanzanian authorities or the alleged killers -- could generate questions about whether gold produced amid violence or human-rights violations is seeping into the marketplace.

The case, involving Barrick Mining's North Mara mine, challenges the very system that companies, governments and consumers rely on to ensure the bullion and gold-based goods they buy meet accepted social-responsibility standards.

"It raises bigger questions of how much trust you can put into certifications," said Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, director of the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights.

In court documents, the claimants allege the association, known as the LBMA, "negligently certified gold sourced from the mine as untainted by human-rights abuses," which "cloaked a pattern of violence at the mine and fueled ongoing violations."

The LBMA said it "denies the claim in full," and described the case as an attempt to make the association responsible for the actions of entities, such as the police, miners and refiners, it neither controls nor regulates.

The case is scheduled to go to trial Wednesday in London. The court has barred public release of the names of the dead miners or their family members.

The North Mara mine, which has both open-pit and underground operations, sits near Tanzania's border with Kenya, a short drive from the famous wildlife of the Maasai Mara and Serengeti National Park. Villagers living nearby have long sifted through the mine's waste rock hunting for overlooked gold.

The suit centers on two events in 2019. In July, a villager used a ladder to climb over a wall surrounding the mine's waste-rock area and "proceeded to search for gold-bearing rocks," according to the claimants' court filing. Mine security forces and Tanzanian police chased the prospectors away with "disproportionate and unjustified force, including the use of live ammunition and tear gas," the filing said.

The man escaped, but police were "lying in wait" and "violently assaulted" him, the filings said. He "suffered injuries consistent with a gunshot wound" to the leg and died from "a loss of blood," the filing said.

The first claimant in the lawsuit discovered his relative's body in the morgue, the court filing said.

Several months later, a second villager entered the mine grounds with some 200 other gold collectors, according to court filings. Police cleared them out with "disproportionate and unjustified force," including live ammunition, the filing said. The second man was shot in the back and died from his injuries, the filing said.

The claimants said in court documents that had the LBMA "complied with its common law duties, it would have stopped (or threatened to stop) issuing the relevant certifications, the abuses would have ceased and the claimants' relatives would probably still be alive."

Neither Tanzanian police nor the East African country's government, which has a 16% stake in North Mara, responded to requests for comment.

Toronto-based Barrick declined requests to comment on the specifics of the suit.

In a 2024 statement, the company cited an investigation by the state-run Tanzania Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance, which Barrick said found no human-rights violations related to security at the mine. That probe cited significant efforts by the mine to improve safety, including rules prohibiting private security officers from carrying weapons, Barrick said.

The company said earlier this year that it "maintains a zero-tolerance policy for human-rights violations by employees, contractors or any third parties acting on its behalf."

Barrick has posted a letter from its former chief executive, Mark Bristow, saying "we continue to address a number of legacy social and economic challenges in the area, including those related to resettlement, land acquisition and safety."

The LBMA, a nonprofit trade association, provides clean-gold certification to metal if it deems producers to have followed its Responsible Gold Guidance. It says it bases its decisions on information from gold refiners, verified by auditors, but doesn't carry out mine inspections itself.

The LBMA denied responsibility for the 2019 deaths. The LBMA said it sets standards for gold, but neither owns nor controls mines. The association said it has no authority over the Tanzanian police, and rejected the suggestion that it owed or breached any duty of care for North Mara miners.