Premier Doug Ford unveiled plans on Tuesday for a five-storey, $400-million parking garage on prime Toronto waterfront land at Ontario Place, attracting new criticism for his controversial redevelopment of the provincial site.

The government also released new designs for fountains, elaborate playgrounds and public gathering places as part of a promised additional 50 acres of park and public amenities at Ontario Place, where its previously announced marquee plans include a massive spa-and-waterpark complex and the relocated Ontario Science Centre.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has apologized for warning that First Nations cannot “keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government” if they oppose mining or other resource projects – comments Indigenous leaders condemned as racist.

The Premier met on Thursday with chiefs from the Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 of Ontario’s 133 First Nations chiefs, to discuss his government’s contentious legislation to speed up resource projects, known as Bill 5.

A group of Canadian premiers and American governors are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal at this week’s G7 summit that eases U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports and ends the American leader’s threats to annex Canada.

The call was made at a Monday meeting in Boston between Eastern Canadian premiers and state governors from the U.S. northeast. It was issued before the White House announced that Mr. Trump was leaving the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alta., a day early because of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Canadian officials said the two countries had plans to continue talks later this week.

Ontario’s freedom-of-information watchdog says a series of systemic issues in the provincial government’s handling of documents in the Greenbelt affair – including deleting e-mails and using codewords that make searches difficult – risks eroding public trust.

In her annual report issued on Thursday, Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim dedicates a separate 11-page section to access-to-information appeals related to the province’s aborted 2022 decision to develop parts of the protected Greenbelt area – a move under criminal investigation by the RCMP.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is too reliant on the United States for security as he announced a significant boost in military spending to meet NATO’s 2-per-cent military expenditure target this fiscal year, five years ahead of schedule.

Declaring that the U.S.’s predominant role on the world stage “is a thing of the past,” Mr. Carney said Canada must take matters into its own hands and work more closely with European allies. He said his government will increase the 2025-26 allocation for the Department of National Defence by $9.3-billion, on top of its existing budget of just under $40-billion.