Prime Minister Mark Carney rolled out billions of dollars in relief for Canadian businesses and workers battered by tariff wars with the country’s two largest trading partners, Bloomberg News reported. Carney unveiled the aid package on Friday, hours after jobs data revealed that Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to a four-year high. The plan targets companies hit by US and Chinese levies, and its centerpieces are a C$5 billion ($3.6 billion) fund for businesses to adapt and a “Buy Canadian” federal procurement program.

Canada unexpectedly shed jobs for a second month running in August, extending a soggy summer for a labor market that is showing signs of weakness broadening beyond areas directly hit by tariffs and trade worries, the Wall Street Journal reported. Employers in the country cut a net 65,500 jobs last month, the steepest decline since the start of 2022 when another Covid-19 variant forced widespread lockdowns, Statistics Canada said Friday. That builds on the 40,800 jobs shed in July to leave the unemployment rate 0.2 percentage point higher, at 7.1%.

The Quebec government is pulling the plug on a $7-billion electric-vehicle battery project near Montreal and trying to recoup some of its investment, BNN Bloomberg reported. Economy Minister Christine Fréchette announced Tuesday that the government is cutting its losses on the planned Northvolt battery factory after spending $510 million on the troubled venture, once touted as the largest private investment in the province’s history. The Quebec government pledged up to $2.9 billion in financing for the project, while Ottawa committed up to $4.4 billion.

Montreal-based online fashion retailer Ssense plans to file for bankruptcy protection as its primary lender attempts to force a sale of the company, a Ssense spokesperson told CBC News in an email. According to the company, its primary lender has placed Ssense under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection in order to launch a sale. Ssense says that its lender made the move without the company's consent. Lenders include Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Laurentian University has confirmed it is finalizing a deal on Aug. 28 to sell several properties to the province for $53.5 million, CBC.ca reported. Laurentian will use proceeds from the sale to pay creditors, following an insolvency in 2021. "The completion of the sale of real estate assets to the Province is a critical step in enabling Laurentian University to complete the requirements of the CCAA [Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act] process," Laurentian president and vice-chancellor Lynn Wells said in a statement.

Canada’s top capital markets regulator has filed applications to push David and Natasha Sharpe, the husband-and-wife team who once ran private lender Bridging Finance Inc., into bankruptcy after they failed to pay millions of dollars in sanctions, Bloomberg News reported. The Ontario Securities Commission said on Wednesday that it filed to appoint a trustee over the couple’s assets.

The province’s real estate watchdog is immediately freezing iPro Realty Ltd.’s funding as it probes the Toronto-area brokerage for its multi-million-dollar shortfall, BNNBloomberg reported. The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) said on Monday that it is doing this to “safeguard funds and secure business operations” as it carries out a comprehensive audit into the real estate brokerage. RECO shuttered iPro earlier this month due to a “significant shortfall” of $10 million in commission and consumer deposit trust accounts. That figure is now believed to be less than $8 million, RECO says.

Canada will remove many retaliatory import tariffs on U.S. goods and intensify talks with the United States on striking a new trade and security relationship, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday, Reuters reported. Canadian tariffs on U.S. autos, steel and aluminum will remain for now, he said. Carney noted that the United States had recently made clear that it would not impose tariffs on Canadian goods that were compliant with the three-nation U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, something he called a positive development.