Standing before a backdrop that declared Quebec's commitment to a clean economy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault outlined the details of what they both described as a "historic" project.

The numbers are eye popping. A new manufacturing facility to be built by Northvolt, a Swedish battery giant, will occupy 170 hectares — an area the size of more than 300 football fields — on Montreal's South Shore, in a parcel of land spanning two communities.

Eventually, it is projected to have an annual battery cell manufacturing capacity of up to 60 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is enough to power roughly one million electric vehicles a year.

This first phase, set to be complete by the end of 2026, will also include facilities to produce cathode active materials (a component of the batteries used in electric vehicles) and recycle batteries.

The government says the project will create as many as 3,000 jobs.

It comes at a high cost: The federal and provincial governments are putting a combined $2.7 billion in taxpayer money toward the project.

There will also be government production incentives totalling up to $4.6 billion — one-third of which will come from Quebec — as long as similar incentives remain in place in the U.S.

'We paid a big price'

The deal is the latest in a series of announcements supporting the burgeoning electric vehicle industry in Canada.

Such projects have faced questions, given the amount of public money involved, but experts say public financing is crucial to compete against cut-throat international competition. 

Last month, Ottawa and Quebec announced an investment of more than $640 million for a new Ford EV plant in Bécancour, Que.

The federal government has also committed billions in Ontario to save the Stellantis-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor and subsidize the Volkswagen battery plant in St. Thomas.

It will take 20 years for the federal and Ontario governments to break even on the pledge to give $28 billion in production subsidies for those two plants, the Parliamentary Budget Officer concluded.

The auto industry has a long history of being propped up by the government, said Greig Mordue, the chair of advanced manufacturing policy at McMaster University's school of engineering, and a former Toyota executive.

"We'll see where this shakes out, but we paid a big price," Mordue said of this week's Quebec announcement.

"Our industrial policy now consists of one tool and that is a chequebook, and that's where we are today."

Levelling the playing field

Trudeau and Legault pushed back on that idea. During Thursday's news conference, Legault likened the investment to the billions spent on hydro-electric dams in northern Quebec 50 years ago under premier Robert Bourrassa.

People called Bourrassa crazy, too, he said.

"For the next 50 years, what's going to be important is the green economy," said Legault.

"So we're building on what Bourassa and company did in Quebec."

Paolo Cerruti, the CEO and co-founder of Northvolt, said the company was drawn to the cheap, clean hydro power on offer and the raw materials that could soon be available. A lithium mine is ramping up production in La Corne, Que., 550 kilometres north of Montreal.

The financial incentives played a big role, too.

"Canada put itself on a level playing field with what the United States has been doing," he said.

The Inflation Reduction Act, viewed as the most ambitious climate action bill in U.S. history, was also an international "game changer," spurring competition between countries to be part of the growing green economy, said Meena Bibra, a senior policy analyst at Clean Energy Canada, a think tank based at Simon Fraser University.

"We're at a point where we either remain competitive in this race to electrification or we get left behind," she said. "The rest of the world, the EU and the U.S. and other economies like China, are moving forward with strong industrial policy on electric vehicles."

The 2023 wildfire season is officially the most expensive and most destructive on record.

According to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), a total of 2,217 fires have been detected this year, burning almost 25,000 square kilometres of trees, bush and grassland. That makes it B.C.'s worst season by land burned, easily surpassing the previous record of 13,540 square kilometres in 2018.

The cost of fighting those fires is also significantly up, to approximately $770 million so far this year, more than the $649 million spent in 2017.

On Thursday, the B.C. government said higher-than-projected costs to fight wildfires had contributed an additional $2.5 billion to the province's projected deficit for this fiscal year.

The government is projecting the total spend for the 2023/24 fiscal year to be $966 million.

The majority of this year's fires — approximately 71 per cent — have been sparked by lightning, while 23 per cent are human-caused, the fire service says.

Underlying conditions of drought made B.C. particularly susceptible to wildfires this year, as tinder-dry conditions made it easier for flames to spread.

Many fires are still burning, though the service says cooler temperatures are helping ease pressure on crews.

Bans and evacuations lifting

Across most of B.C., the fire danger rating has dropped to low or very low as cool, damp fall weather arrives.

The BCWS says there have been no new fires in the last 24 hours, and of the 384 active fires burning in B.C., roughly three-quarters are ranked as under control or "being held," meaning they are not likely to spread.

Wetter and cooler fall weather is reducing the fire risk in B.C. 

Six wildfires of note — highly visible or potentially threatening blazes — are still listed, with four of them either in or straddling the Prince George Fire Centre spanning B.C.'s northeast quarter.

The two others are the 174-square-kilometre Kookipi Creek fire just north of Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon, and the 168-square-kilometre Hell Raving Creek fire in the west Cariboo.

Cooler conditions mean all open fire prohibitions, including a ban on campfires, lifted on Wednesday in the Coastal Fire Centre and Cassiar, Skeena and Bulkley zones of the Northwest Fire Centre, while the Kamloops Fire Centre is set to remove its campfire ban on Thursday.

Bans remain in place in parts of the Prince George Fire Centre.

Evacuation orders lifted in West Kelowna

Evacuation orders and alerts have also been lifted for all but one property in West Kelowna, B.C., about five weeks after thousands were forced out of their homes by the fast-moving McDougall Creek wildfire.

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations says BCWS crews are now patrolling the fire's edge, working to extinguish any remaining hot spots, but it warns that nearby communities can expect to see smoke within the perimeter in the coming weeks.

A firefighter with the British Columbia Wildfire Service, left, works with a colleague from an Alaska smoke jumper unit to set a planned ignition to help contain a fire burning near a highway in northern B.C. (Jesse Winter)

The 139-square-kilometre McDougall Creek fire swept down on West Kelowna on the evening of Aug. 17, engulfing residential streets that were evacuated with little time to spare.

A provincewide state of emergency was declared the next day, as the same winds that fuelled that blaze fanned fires in the Shuswap region.

• Evacuees return to areas near West Kelowna destroyed by McDougall Creek wildfire

About half of the 400 structures or homes destroyed in B.C.'s record-breaking fire season have been lost in the Kelowna area.

The Central Okanagan centre also announced it is rescinding evacuation alerts and downgrading evacuation orders for the 11-square-kilometre Glen Lake wildfire west of Peachland.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District Emergency Operations Centre announced it has rescinded all 124 remaining evacuation alerts in the vicinity of the 456-square-kilometre Bush Creek East wildfire, which destroyed almost 200 structures in the Shuswap.

During a particularly testy exchange, Trudeau pointed out that some of Poilievre's Tory MPs dined earlier this year with Christine Anderson, a far-right German politician who has downplayed the Holocaust and pushed anti-Muslim ideology.

"To this day, the leader of the Official Opposition has not apologized — no recognition, no apologies, no consequences for those three MPs who engaged with a far-right German politician," Trudeau said.

"If the leader of the Opposition wants the government to help him vet who his MPs meet with, we'd be more than happy to give him some better advice."

As for who vetted Hunka, Rota's spokesperson has said that the Speaker's guest list for the event was not shared with the Prime Minister's Office.

Rota's picks to be in the gallery were sent to the House of Commons protocol office and the confirmed list of attendees was then shared with corporate security, which is partly responsible for security in the parliamentary precinct, including the Commons chamber in West Block.

Rota resigned from his post Tuesday.

Regardless, Poilievre said Trudeau and his team should have had some oversight of who was on hand.

"What has he done with that responsibility? He's been hiding out in his cottage," the Tory leader said.

Trudeau has been on Parliament Hill this week but, until Wednesday, he'd been notably absent from question period.

Unlike some of his ministers, including Government House Leader Karina Gould and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Trudeau did not explicitly say Rota should resign over the recognition of a former Nazi soldier.

The shockwaves from the 98-year-old's appearance in Parliament are still being felt.

"The election's coming up, and it's … an important time here in Manitoba and Winnipeg, but it's really an important time for the families. That focus should be on the families only," Shingoose said.

People who want to access the landfill can use another entrance, she added.

Search shouldn't be campaign issue: AMC grand chief

In an interview earlier Wednesday, the leader of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said she's disappointed that the debate over a potential search of Prairie Green has become a campaign issue.

"For certain parties to make it an issue, that's not right," AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said, adding the question of a landfill search for the women's remains is not a First Nations issue, but a moral one. 

"I don't think anybody rightfully would not support to bring them home because we all have relatives, we all have daughters, we all have granddaughters," she said. 

"And if it was you in that position, what would you … think if the government said that we will not search for your daughter in the landfills?"

A recent poll suggested Manitobans are split on whether to search the landfill. 

A focus group of nine voters run for CBC Manitoba this week by Probe Research seemed to reflect that as well. 

Two voters in the focus group said they thought the PCs' refusal to search the landfill was "disgusting," while two others said they weren't "100 per cent" on board with a search. 

However, none said the landfill search was a deciding factor in how they planned to vote. 

"I feel like there's a lot bigger issues than that kind of working first," said Cole Stocki, a focus group participant who lives in the Kirkfield Park riding in Winnipeg. 

Nigel Moore from the River Heights riding in Winnipeg said he found it "remarkable" that the search was becoming a campaign issue at all. 

The focus group was a collaboration between CBC Manitoba and Probe Research to learn more about voters' opinions and get a sense of where they stand on issues. The polling company identified potential participants from its panel and then randomly selected nine people to ensure a mix of people reasonably representative of Manitoba's demographics. 

Important to be clear on stance: PC candidate

Protesters calling for a search also gathered Wednesday morning outside the constituency office of Kirkfield Park PC candidate Kevin Klein, who made a campaign announcement regarding domestic violence there. The incumbent said the issue is one that "all parties are making divisive."

"It shouldn't be that way. But we are seeing all parties make this a divisive issue and that's unfortunate," Klein said following his announcement.

Protesters calling for a search of Prairie Green landfill gathered outside the campaign headquarters of Kirkfield Park PC candidate Kevin Klein earlier Wednesday. 

Asked about the PC ads, Klein said Stefanson has held steadfast on her position on the landfill search. 

"She felt that it was very important to be clear and transparent about our stance on that," he said.

The Manitoba election takes place Oct. 3. Advance voting is open now and continues until Saturday.

Louis Kavaratzis was in shock when he got a phone call from Canada Post Monday telling him that a piece of registered mail — which contained a certified cheque for $301,560 — turned up weeks after it had gone missing.

"I felt a big sense of relief, yet I'm still frustrated, very much. Last night I didn't sleep one bit," Kavaratzis said Tuesday. "[But] I won't rest until the cash is actually in the bank."

The missing envelope contained money left for Kavaratzis in his late father's will. It was sent from his father's estate by his brother, George Kavaratzis, through registered mail on July 25 from Campbellford, Ont., to Ayer's Cliff, Que. But the cheque has seemingly vanished, with the brothers spending nearly every day since trying to track it down with Canada Post.

After CBC News reported on his story last week, Kavaratzis says the local post office in Ayer's Cliff rang him up at 6:30 p.m. on Monday saying they searched the office again and found the missing envelope behind a drawer reserved for registered mail.

"When they removed the drawer, they found my registered mail … [that] supposedly had fallen on the back of the drawer," Louis said.

He says he rushed to the post office as soon as he received the call to retrieve the envelope.

"I was in shock, I didn't know what to say. I looked at it, I opened it in front of them to make sure it was the cheque."

Missing cheque found Monday

In an email to CBC News Tuesday, Canada Post confirmed the cheque was delivered to Louis late Monday afternoon but did not provide any further details on why it had gone missing.

Canada Post had said when the issue was brought to their attention, it conducted a "thorough search" of its facilities.

The Crown corporation previously apologized to the brothers in a statement for the "unfortunate and frustrating delivery experience."

In Ayer's Cliff, mail is delivered to residents' mailboxes located inside the Canada Post office. Louis got a notice in his mailbox on Aug. 3 that he had registered mail to retrieve, but had said when he went to the counter to pick it up, it was missing. 

Thinking he was out more than $300,000 when the piece of registered mail seemingly vanished, Kavaratzis, 57, said the then-missing inheritance would ruin his retirement plans.

But with the cheque finally in hand now, he says he plans to deposit it as soon as possible.

'Why didn't they look there before?'

His brother, George, says while he is happy to learn that the cheque had been located, he wondered why it wasn't spotted in the initial searches of the facilities.

"Unbelievable, what a relief," he told CBC News Tuesday. "I am extremely happy for my brother, that he's getting his money.

"It seems a little fishy to me to be honest. Why didn't they look there before?"

The federal government now has the results of a probe it launched into a federal agency tasked with funding early-stage green technology — an agency that has been the target of employee complaints about hundreds of millions of dollars paid to the green tech sector.

Radio-Canada has learned the final report, drafted by an outside firm, will be presented soon to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who is responsible for funding and overseeing Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

Before presenting the report to Champagne, officials at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada will prepare an "action plan" to respond to the investigation's findings, sources said.

"If there are decisions to make, we will make them," said a federal official.

Little known to the general public, SDTC is at the heart of Ottawa's efforts to foster a technological transition toward a greener economy. It focuses its efforts on small and medium-sized businesses.

According to its current agreement with Ottawa, SDTC has $1 billion to spend between 2021 and 2026. SDTC is managing a budget of $170 million this year. The amount of available funding rises every year to reach $320 million in 2025-2026.

In a written statement, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada said it received "allegations of wrongdoing" last February in relation to SDTC funding decisions and human resources management.

The department called on an external firm, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, "to examine the situation and validate the alleged facts." Its report is expected to be made public in coming weeks.

The department said it "will not hesitate to take all necessary measures in response to the findings of the report to remedy any deficiencies or problems identified."

A SDTC spokesperson said the foundation is continuing its activities in the meantime.

"SDTC is fully cooperating with the fact-finding exercise undertaken by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in response to allegations made by a small group of former employees," said Janemary Banigan. "We eagerly await the findings, so that we can put this matter behind us and focus on serving Canadian entrepreneurs."

She said SDTC hired external counsel to look into the allegations and they "found no evidence to substantiate any of the allegations made."

The foundation has provided $1.6 billion in funding to more than 500 businesses since its inception in 2001.

Whistleblower complaints

A group of former and current SDTC employees has filed a formal complaint about the agency's management with the federal government.

The group initially took its allegations to the Office of the Auditor General last year but was told to direct its complaint to the Privy Council Office before ending up at Champagne's department. A spokesperson for the Office of the Auditor General said that while it is not conducting an audit, it continues to follow the matter.

Sources said Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton examined several elements of SDTC's operations, such as its management of internal policies and expenditure approval process.

External investigators analyzed contribution agreements with more than a dozen companies that received $100 million from SDTC from 2017 to 2022.

One of the issues raised by the whistleblowers was SDTC's decision to offer a 5 per cent boost in funding to all previous funding recipients at the end of the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. The additional payments — which SDTC said were necessary to help firms deal with the COVID-19 pandemic — cost the organization nearly $40 million.

"The government granted SDTC additional financial flexibility during the pandemic to support the Canadian small businesses in our portfolio through an uncertain time," said Banigan.

Minister praised SDTC's 'crucial' work

In a video message last year, Champagne praised SDTC's "substantive contribution" to Canada's economic development.

"As the country's leading source of funding for small and medium-sized clean technology companies, you truly play a crucial role in ensuring a low-carbon future," he said.

SDTC has been led since 2015 by CEO Leah Lawrence, an expert in the clean technology field. She is an engineer by training and has a master's degree in economics from the University of Calgary.

Annette Verschuren, a well-known figure in the Canadian business world, has been SDTC's board chair since 2019. She joined several businesspeople on a 2017 visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Washington, D.C., where the Canadian delegation met with then-U.S. president Donald Trump.

She previously led operations at Home Depot and Michael's in Canada. Since 2012, she has been president of NRStor, which works in the field of energy storage.

The foundation was created by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien to provide funding for clean technology projects in Canada.

Projects funded by SDTC — usually at the initial stage of development of new technologies — receive an average of $4 million.

In all cases, the funding is linked to the development of technologies that are expected to have a positive impact on the environment.