Oil prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and according to oilprices.com, Western Canadian Select is selling for over $100 a barrel, up from $45 just last year.

Marco Vigliotti has more. 

Also, the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) counts now some 77 employees, according to the department directory.

That includes some of the more senior roles iPolitics reported on last December, including Chief Investment Officer Kelsen Vallee, Vice-President Justin Ferbey, Electricity lead Michelle Chislett, and Intergovernmental Affairs specialist Louise Baird.

The listing includes more junior roles spread across six departments, including those working in project management, Indigenous relations, regulatory and strategy teams.

The Privy Council Office, which supports the MPO, has previously stated that the goal is to “recruit top-level expertise to help get major projects built at speeds not seen in generations.”

Aya Dufour’s got this one. 

The federal government is stepping in with nearly $64 million in support for Quebec manufacturers hit by tariffs, but questions remain whether the funding will reach the small businesses it’s meant to help.

The funding is part of Ottawa’s broader tariff response that will support close to 100 businesses across Quebec to remain competitive. It’s granted under the Regional Tariff Response Initiative, a part of the government’s broader response plan to U.S. tariffs that includes over $6.5 billion in protecting Canadian businesses and workers.

“In the face of unjustified and unjustifiable tariffs hitting Canadian businesses hard, our government is taking concrete action to support Quebec SMEs. By leveraging productivity, innovation and market diversification, we are giving them the means to strengthen their supply chains and remain competitive in an uncertain commercial climate,” said Industry Minister Melanie Joly on Tuesday.

The businesses will receive funds ranging from $105,000 to $1,170,000 in non-repayable contributions. The government also estimated that the funding will create 1,110 jobs across the province.

Sydney Ko has more. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, in Downing Street, Keir Starmer has been at pains to emphasise that he will only authorise the use of UK bases by the US for “defensive” strikes on Iranian military targets. In the White House, Donald Trump has threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure – and said on Monday that he was “not at all” worried about committing war crimes.

So far in the war, Starmer’s position has allowed him to present the UK as a responsible actor concerned for regional security – but not a direct participant in the conflict on the US side.

But while that has incurred Trump’s displeasure, it has also drawn questions about whether it is legally plausible to neatly divide defensive and offensive operations – and if US attacks do begin against targets such as bridges and power plants, scrutiny of the British position will intensify even if those attacks are not launched from UK bases.

When it set out its stance on “defensive” strikes, the government took the unusual step of releasing a summary of its legal position: that it was acting “in the collective self-defence of regional allies who have requested support”. It is fair to say that many were sceptical from the start about the UK’s attempt to distinguish defensive operations involving US bombers from offensive operations in what most international law experts agreed was a conflict illegally started by the US and Israel.

Read more from the Guardian. 

Elsewhere, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Tuesday signed into law a bill banning state judges from delaying divorce proceedings because a spouse is pregnant.

The measure, HB 1908, which passed unanimously in both the state House and Senate, will modify a state measure enacted in the 1970s requiring couples to disclose “whether the wife is pregnant” — a fact that often led judges in the state to prevent a divorce from being finalized.

Missouri state Rep. Cecelie Williams, a Republican who sponsored the bill, told CNN affiliate KOMU the original measure aimed to simplify matters like child support and custody agreements but also put spouses in dangerous situations if they were in abusive relationships.

HB 1908 states “pregnancy status shall not prevent the court from entering a judgment of dissolution of marriage or legal separation.”

Williams, who has publicly shared how she tried to finalize her divorce from an abusive spouse while pregnant about two decades ago, said at the signing ceremony that changing the state measure was a priority for her since the day she decided to run for office.

CNN has more.

In Other International Headlines

Kicker

Hopefully, today marks the last leg of winter after waking up to a snowy Tuesday morning.

With that said, is it too early to start counting down the tulips blooming on Parliament Hill?

The annual Tulip Festival in Ottawa will run from May 8 to 18. It’s a thing to look forward to because even if trade talks aren’t exactly blooming, at least the tulips will be.