GZERO North

Hard Numbers: US-Canada beef beef, Ukraine’s “Green Marshall Plan,” Line 5 payout, a June snowstorm!

Meat at a grocery store in Toronto.
Meat at a grocery store in Toronto.
Creative Touch Imaging Ltd via Reuters Connect

8 billion: Canada has beef with the US over, well, beef … and other processed meats. Ottawa has said that a US proposal to change the packaging requirements of meats – to make it clearer which products are grown and processed in the US – puts the US-Canada protein supply chain, worth a whopping $8 billion, at risk and would “discriminate” against its producers. It’s unclear whether Canada plans to pursue a dispute resolution process if the rule is implemented.

20 million: As Ukraine seeks international donations to fund its green economic recovery – dubbed the “Green Marshall Plan” – Canada on Wednesday pledged CA$20 million to aid that effort, while the US says it will dole out a little more … committing to an additional $1.3 billion to rebuild and modernize Ukraine’s infrastructure in the near term. Kyiv, for its part, is looking for a whopping $40 billion for this project.

*5.1 million: A US federal judge ruled that Calgary-based Enbridge, a natural gas utility, must pay a Wisconsin-based Indigenous group some $5.1 million and move part of an oil pipeline by 2026 that impinges on the group’s land. Still, the judge stopped short of saying the pipeline, known as Line 5, should be shut down, which would have caused major economic disruptions in both Canada and the US.

30: It may be June, but residents in Jasper, Alberta, woke up this week to a fresh winter storm that dumped 30 centimeters (12 inches) of snow, toppling trees. Residents were told to get their winter tires in check and avoid non-essential travel, which could end up disrupting some … summer travel plans.

* Disclosure: Enbridge was a sponsor at the Eurasia Group US-Canada Summit in April.

More For You

A laborer works at the Congolese state mining company Gecamines' copper concentrator at its Kambove operation in the southern province of Katanga on January 31, 2013.
REUTERS/Jonny Hogg

The Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrates – the goal is to force more processing at home and capture a larger share of profits generated from its natural resources.

Dozens of migrants celebrate having crossed the border between Ceuta and Morocco in Madrid, Spain on July 31, 2026, as thousands entered the autonomous city by swimming and on foot, skirting the breakwater that separates Ceuta from Morocco, while border control units recovered the bodies of 16 people in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of foreign nationals found dead in Ceuta’s waters this year to 47.
Marcos Moreno/Europa Press/ABACAPRESS.COM

The unprecedented surge stunned European governments and prompted an emergency meeting of EU interior ministers today on strengthening the bloc’s migration policies