Maybe it’s the post-Spring Economic Update comedown or just the brisk April chill, but Wednesday felt like it was plagued by lethargy. Here’s the latest:

The federal government still has not announced its clean electricity strategy, despite Prime Minister Mark Carney saying it would land weeks ago.

At a news conference in Halifax on March 26, Carney told reporters the government would be releasing “next week” a strategy to expand the electricity grid through hydro, nuclear and renewable energy.

In the spring economic update Tuesday, the government said it was planning to release a “discussion paper” to seek input from provinces and territories on how to modernize the grid.

When asked on his way into a caucus meeting today for an update on the electricity strategy, Carney would only say, “It’s coming.”

The Canadian Press has more. 

The Bank of Canada held its benchmark interest rate steady for a fourth consecutive time Wednesday, but officials warned uncertainty over the war in Iran and the future of U.S. tariffs could push the policy rate either higher or lower in the coming months.

The policy rate remains at 2.25 per cent after the hold, which was widely expected by economists.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem spoke after the rate announcement, where he offered rare insight into the variety of directions the policy rate could go from here.

Macklem said the key rate is probably at about the right level if the economy follows the central bank’s projections, though he didn’t rule out future adjustments depending on how the risks play out.

“If the economy evolves broadly in line with the base case, changes in the policy rate can be expected to be small,” he said.

CP’s got this one too. 

Also, Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says Ottawa’s Spring Economic Update points to a clear path out of the housing crunch and that’s ramping up construction workforce while overhauling how homes are built.

In Tuesday’s update, the Liberal government is promising to spend nearly $6 billion on a strategy to train at least 80,000 skilled workers to become Red Seal certified to help deliver Canada’s housing, infrastructure and defence needs.

“We need the people, we need the jobs, and so this big investment in training is really critical for Canada,” Robertson told reporters at a post-caucus scrum on Wednesday.

The update also marks that $2 billion of the $6 billion package to train young people entering the skilled trades over the next five years. As Ottawa looks to modernize homebuilding, Gregor Robertson said the focus will also be on keeping those workers in the sector.

Sydney Ko has more. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, President Donald Trump has told his top advisers in recent days he wants the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports to continue, sources familiar with the talks said, and his team has begun laying the groundwork for such an extension, including a longer-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The president, for now, is digging into a strategy designed to inflict as much economic pain on Iran as possible in the hopes of forcing Tehran back to the negotiating table without having to resume military strikes, the sources said.

But the strategy for dealing with a war that has now stretched into its ninth week is not without risk for Trump, who once predicted the conflict would last no longer than six weeks.

The strait’s closure has driven up gas prices, contributing to Americans’ weariness of the ongoing war and sending Trump’s approval ratings, especially on his handling of the economy, to new lows. And the cost of the conflict is adding up — a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday the US has spent $25 billion on the Iran war so far. All of that is feeding GOP anxiety about the party’s prospects in November elections.

CNN has more. 

Ukraine has asked Israel to seize a vessel it claims is carrying grain looted from Russian-occupied territories, triggering a rare diplomatic spat between the two countries.

The dispute spilt into public view this week when president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “another vessel” carrying grain “stolen by Russia” had arrived at a port in Israel and was preparing to unload.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko said on Telegram: “The Ukrainian side is asking its Israeli partners to seize the vessel and its cargo, conduct a search, seize the vessel’s and cargo documentation, take grain samples, and question the crew members.”

Ukraine said the cargo vessel Panormitis, sailing under a Panamanian flag, was en route to dock in Haifa.

Read more from The Guardian. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

After caucus on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney paused for a lighter moment with a young visitor clutching a toy camera.

The girl snapped a photo of the prime minister as reporters looked on, before Carney suggested she turn the lens on the assembled media for a group shot.

It’s these brief, candid moments that makes post-caucus scrums worth watching.