CANADA ECONOMICS

NAFTA

Global Affairs Canada. July 17, 2017. Statement by the Foreign Affairs Minister on the North American Free Trade Agreement

Ottawa, Ontario – The Honorable Chrystia Freeland, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“NAFTA supports millions of middle class jobs in Canada, the United States and Mexico. We welcome the opportunity to modernize NAFTA to reflect new realities — and to integrate progressive, free, and fair approaches to trade and investment.

“Today’s report from the United States is part of its internal process and is required under U.S. Trade Promotion Authority legislation.

“We continue to consult with Canadians on the modernization of NAFTA, and invite all Canadians to share their ideas, perspectives, and priorities — including through our online consultation.

“When negotiations begin, we will be ready to work with our partners to modernize NAFTA, while defending Canada's national interest and standing up for our values.

“Canada is the top customer of the United States. Canada buys more goods from the U.S. than China, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined.”

The Globe and Mail. 18 Jul 2017. U.S. issues sweeping demands on trade. Negotiating objectives include abolishing dispute-resolution panels, giving Canadians cheaper access to American goods online. Demands: Trump administration has left itself broad room to manoeuvre in talks, trade experts say
ADRIAN MORROW, WASHINGTON
STEVEN CHASE, OTTAWA

The Trump administration will make wide-ranging demands to sweeten the North American free-trade agreement for U.S. companies in talks with Canada and Mexico that could start next month.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday released a sweeping list of more than 100 negotiating objectives – such as abolishing trade dispute resolution panels that have regularly ruled in Canada’s favour, including on the long-running softwood lumber dispute, and giving American companies more access to Canadian government contracts while reserving the right to bar Canadian firms from seeking U.S. contracts under so-called “Buy America” provisions.
At a White House photo-op celebrating American-made products earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump declared many free-trade deals were “stupid trade” and promised big changes over the next six months.
“We’re going to end up having a level playing field,” he said. “If the playing field were slanted, like, a little bit toward us, I’d accept that also.”
The list of objectives, many of which were broad and vaguely worded, are only an early step in what is certain to be a complicated round of talks between the three countries. » As much as signalling what will be on the table, the 18-page document was meant to build support for the renegotiations in Congress, which must approve any eventual deal, and please the President’s base, much of which voted for him on a promise of “America First” economic protectionism.
Talks could start as soon as Aug. 16. Under U.S. law, the administration must publish its objectives 30 days in advance to give Congress time to provide feedback before negotiations start. Sources have told The Globe and Mail that the United States has proposed starting the discussions in Detroit or Pittsburgh, to highlight Mr. Trump’s promise to rewrite trade deals to bring industrial and manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. No final decision on this has been made.
Among the many items on Washington’s lengthy wish list, the United States will demand:
The abolition of Chapter 19, which provides for the binational panels to hear complaints about unfair trade and issue binding decisions. The panels were a key Canadian demand in its original free-trade talks with the United States three decades ago. But American critics have lambasted it as an unfair ceding of U.S. sovereignty; in the absence of Chapter 19, Canadian companies would have to turn to U.S. courts to plead their case.
More opportunities for American companies to bid on public procurement in Canada and Mexico. But the list makes clear the United States does not necessarily want to reciprocate, specifying it would like to keep “Buy American” provisions and allow state governments to impose barriers to Canadian and Mexican firms. An increase in the amount of goods Canadians can purchase across the border without paying duties or taxes. Currently, the de minimis rate for Canadians is $20, which has not changed since the early 1980s. Washington wants this raised to $800 (U.S.), the same exemption American consumers enjoy. Such a change would mean cheaper online shopping for Canadians but fiercer competition for Canadian retailers from U.S. companies.
Fewer restrictions on U.S. telecommunications and financial companies that want to do business in Canada and Mexico. Current Canadian policies ensure that telecom giants BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. are off-limits to foreign buyers, a state of affairs the United States has complained about in the past. U.S. carriers could also seek more access to wireless networks for international roaming.
A reduction in the U.S. trade deficit in goods – something that would entail either increasing American exports or reducing Canadian and Mexican ones.
Stricter “rules of origin” that govern the percentage of content in a product that must be produced in NAFTA countries to qualify for tariff-free import and export. Such changes could particularly affect the auto sector.
More market access for U.S. agricultural products. The document does not, however, spell out whether the United States will specifically target Canada’s contentious supply-management system, a price-fixing arrangement that favours Canadian-produced dairy, eggs and poultry over imports.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland reminded Americans of how important Canada is to the U.S. economy. “Canada is the top customer of the United States. Canada buys more goods from the U.S. than China, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined,” she said in a statement.
One Canadian official said Ottawa will not know for certain what the United States is actually going to demand until talks start. The official said Canada is nonetheless relieved some of the more protectionist measures floated by the United States – such as a border tax targeting imports – were not listed explicitly.
Trade experts said the administration had left itself broad room to manoeuvre in the talks.
“The objectives are anything and everything – basically it sounds good,” Ottawa trade consultant Peter Clark said. “Ambassador Lighthizer has set a flexible position without specific targets to miss.”
Added Mark Warner, a lawyer who specializes in bilateral trade: “The stuff where they know they’re going to have to negotiate more carefully – on rules of origin and agriculture – they’ve thrown down vague language.”
The rules of origin section, he said, could be interpreted to signal that Washington will demand a U.S. content requirement on some goods, but is careful not to say this explicitly.
Robert Holleyman, a former No. 2 trade official under former president Barack Obama, said the piecemeal approach could cause problems. Demanding a cut in the U.S. trade deficit in goods, for instance, could cause Canada and Mexico to counter by targeting exports of American services.
“The proposal looks not to trade as a whole for the economy, but to segments and pieces. That poses risks for the negotiators and will no doubt cause concern on the part of a number of leading U.S. companies,” he wrote in an e-mail.

The Globe and Mail. 18 Jul 2017. U.S. President’s political descent could take NAFTA down with him
JOHN IBBITSON

The greatest threat to Canada’s economy is not contained in the list of demands that Washington released Monday for renegotiating the North American free-trade agreement. Those terms are not that dire.
The greatest threat comes from a wounded Donald Trump, whose presidency is unravelling.
Mr. Trump could attempt to unilaterally terminate NAFTA, to solidify support among his true believers as the crisis surrounding his presidency worsens.
Fortunately, Congress will have the final say, which is one reason Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s entire government is working flat out to win support for NAFTA on the Hill and in state capitals. That support could be Canada’s last, best defence should this rogue President attempt the nuclear trade option.
The terms released by the office of the United States Trade Representative suggest the Americans are looking for greater market access in the areas of agriculture, financial services and telecommunications.
There are possible red flags around rules of origin and trade remedies. Other concerns will no doubt emerge during negotiations. But another challenge may involve keeping the President onside during the negotiating process.
Mr. Trump has already threatened once to simply withdraw the United States from NAFTA: in April, as he was approaching the symbolic 100-day mark in his presidency. Mr. Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto personally appealed to Mr. Trump to give negotiations a chance. It worked.
Now, with the release of the American trade objectives, talks can begin in August. Meanwhile, the Trump presidency is going south.
The President insists no one on his campaign team colluded with Russia to undermine Hillary Clinton. Except we now know that Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and the campaign manager at the time met with a Russian lawyer in June, 2016, for the express purpose of doing just that. And then they lied about it.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is gathering evidence on what the President knows, and when he knew it.
Hopes for dismantling Obamacare are on hold, while Arizona Senator John McCain recovers from an operation. No one can say whether Republicans will be able to overcome opposition within their own ranks to pass a bill that, in any case, is deeply unpopular with a public that has come to like Obamacare.
The impasse over the health-care bill is blocking Republican plans for a big tax cut. The Mexican wall isn’t being built, there’s no federal budget and international relations are testy at best.
In the history of polling, no president has been this unpopular six months into his presidency. Mr. Trump has accomplished next-to-bupkis.
If things continue to go this badly, it isn’t hard to imagine the beleaguered President declaring that the NAFTA talks are going nowhere and he is terminating the agreement to protect American jobs. At least he could say he had done something.
Could he do it? “Yes and no,” said Christopher Sands, a scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
While the President may terminate American participation in NAFTA, with six months notice, dismantling the actual laws and regulations that make up NAFTA would be problematic without Congressional support. “We could end up with a very messy result,” Mr. Sands believes.
“This is new constitutional territory,” said Carlo Dade, director of the Trade and Investment Centre at the Canada West Foundation. “The United States has never withdrawn from an agreement before.”
Meanwhile, Congress would be under enormous pressure to preserve NAFTA from governors fearful of the economic consequences for their states. Business lobbyists would be pounding on the door.
This is why Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet ministers spend so much time on the Hill and in state capitals working to convince stakeholders that NAFTA has been as good for the United States as it has been for Canada. Think of it as an insurance policy, in case Mr. Trump goes off the rails.
But a lot could go wrong, including Congressional gridlock. Better that the negotiating teams conclude a new agreement that modernizes and improves NAFTA, while leaving the free-trade essentials intact.
Vice-President Mike Pence last week promised the new agreement would be a “win-win-win” for the United States, Canada and Mexico. Here’s hoping he can convince his President to go along.

The Globe and Mail. 18 Jul 2017. Your guide to the U.S. objectives. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday released a broad summary of objectives that will underpin the Trump administration’s trade talks with Mexico and Canada for the renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement.
Jeff Lewis

Although the document is vague, it does single out areas where the United States may seek concessions from Canada. Here are some highlights:

• The United States says it aims to improve the U.S. trade balance and reduce the trade deficit with NAFTA countries.
• Canada’s supply management system for
• dairy and poultry could face closer scrutiny. Among other goals, the United States says it will “seek to eliminate non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports including discriminatory barriers, restrictive administration of tariff rate quotas, other unjustified measures that unfairly limit access to markets for U.S. goods, such as cross subsidization, price discrimination, and price undercutting.”
• The United States is seeking to add a chapter on the digital economy to address
• intellectual property rules and secure commitments not to impose customs duties on digital products such as software, music and e-books.
• A big change the United States wants is to
• see Ottawa increase the amount Canadians can buy from the United States without paying duties to $800 (U.S.).
• Another goal is to bring labour and environment provisions into the core of the agreement rather than a side agreement.
• The United States says it wants commitments
• “to provide fair and open conditions” in telecommunications and
• financial services, including provisions that prohibit discrimination against foreign service suppliers.
• On trade remedies, the United States seeks to preserve its ability to enforce its trade laws, including anti-dumping, countervailing duty and safeguard laws. To that end, it proposes to eliminate the NAFTA global safeguard exclusion as well as the Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism.
• Another priority is better access for U.S. companies to sell U.S. products and services into the NAFTA countries, including “fair, transparent, predictable, and non-discriminatory rules to govern government procurement in the NAFTA countries.”
• However, it proposes excluding state and local governments from commitments being negotiated. Domestic preferential purchasing programs would also be kept in place. They include “buy America” requirements on federal assistance to state and local projects, transportation services and farm support, as well as procurement for the Department of Defence.
• The objectives are vague on energy, but do hint at support for continuing reforms in Mexico, which has begun the process of opening up its domestic industry. The United States aims to “preserve and strengthen investment, market access, and stateowned enterprise disciplines benefiting energy production and transmission and support North American energy security and independence, while promoting continuing energy market-opening reforms.”

The Globe and Mail. 18 Jul 2017. RETAILERS MIXED ON U.S. PUSH FOR INCREASE TO CUSTOMS THRESHOLD. Why should goods from one source be tax free when the ones from another source are taxable?
Karl Littler, Vice-president of public affairs at the Retail Council of Canada
Joyita Sengupta

The Trump administration wants to see a steep increase of Canada’s de minimis threshold, the amount Canadians can purchase online without an import tax, to $800 (U.S.), a move the retail industry is already speaking out against.
The demand came as part of a list of priorities for NAFTA negotiations released by the U.S. government on Monday. Canada’s threshold is currently among the lowest in the world at $20 (Canadian). Mexico’s is at $300 (U.S.) for postal shipments. The United States’ threshold was raised from $200 to $800 in March, 2016.
According to the Retail Council of Canada, the move would give homegrown retailers, required by law to collect taxes on all goods, a severe disadvantage. The national Goods and Services Tax sits at 5 per cent with provincial sales taxes and harmonized sales taxes varying by province or territory.
“Why should goods from one source be tax free when the ones from another source are taxable?” said Karl Littler, vice-president of public affairs at the Retail Council of Canada. “We’re not pushing to push it down. Our point is that it shouldn’t be raised at all and the fundamental point is tax fairness and not cutting your own throat economically.”
Unlike Canada, the United States does not have a nationwide general sales tax, but 45 states have statewide sales taxes.
Meanwhile, online retailers such as eBay have been calling for an increase to the Canadian threshold for years, saying it would benefit customers and small businesses that import goods alike.
“I see my role as advocating for our users, our buyers and our sellers. They bring up two key issues: shipping costs and de minimis being the other,” said Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada. “I think the good thing about this particular issue is that there’s strong support on both sides of the border.”
The C.D. Howe Institute put out a report last year that said collecting duties and taxes at the current threshold costs the government $166-million (Canadian) while only generating $39-million in additional revenue. According to a poll done by Nanos Research last year on behalf of the Canadian American Business Council, 76 per cent of Canadians support raising the duty-free limit to $200 (U.S.).
While Canada’s threshold hasn’t changed in 35 years, Australia’s government went the other way this year by eliminating tax-free imports all together, bringing their once $1,000 (Australian) threshold down to $0.
Talks could start as soon as Aug. 16 and the Canadian government will not be releasing a similar list of goals and priorities for negotiations before then.

The Globe and Mail. 18 Jul 2017. DAIRY. U.S. dairy lobby increases NAFTA pressure. Trudeau government shows little interest in compromise over Canadian milk supply management. The U.S. dairy lobby is ratcheting up the pressure on Canada as talks to renegotiate NAFTA draw closer, demanding concessions the Canadian government looks unwilling to grant, according to people familiar with the file.
DAVID LJUNGGREN, OTTAWA
ROD NICKEL, WINNIPEGReuters

U.S. farmer have long chafed about Canadian dairy supply management, which keeps domestic prices high and imports low.
The result could be a brawl that sours efforts to modernize the North American free-trade agreement, under which Canada sends most of its exports to the United States. Mexico is the pact’s third member.
U.S. farmers have long chafed about supply management, the term for Canada’s system of tariffs and quotas to keep domestic prices high and imports low. A 2016 deal that allowed Canadian farmers to sell milk proteins to domestic processors at a discount, curbing the flow of U.S. imports, further raised their ire.
Jaime Castaneda, senior vicepresident for the U.S. Dairy Export Council, said the influential lobby group will pursue fresh challenges through the World Trade Organization unless Canada stops the sale of proteins.
“If we can’t resolve this through negotiations, I believe my members will be very clear that everything is on the table,” he said in a phone interview.
A WTO panel ruled in 2002 that Canada breached its trade obligations through illegal subsidies to its dairy industry, siding with the United States. The United States and Canada reached a settlement in 2003.
Mr. Castaneda said challenges against the protein sales could eventually result in rulings that force Canada to ditch supply management.
In June, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said he would prefer to address dairy irritants before NAFTA talks begin and said supply management was fine so long as it did not harm U.S. industry. But on July 14 he appeared to toughen his position, saying through a spokeswoman he felt “all options should be on the table” in NAFTA negotiations and that dairy remained a concern.
Although dairy was excluded from the original 1994 deal, the United States may push for it to be part of the talks on a new pact.
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, when you’re looking at an overall trading relationship … there is no doubt in my mind that it would be on the table,” said one person familiar with Washington’s approach.
Despite the more strident U.S. line, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has little interest in compromise.
“We are fully trade compliant and trade in dairy products massively favours the United States,” said a Canadian government source.
Canada’s dairy sector includes $6-billion in annual milk sales.
Fearing the domestic industry’s lobbying muscle, Canadian politicians of all stripes mostly treat dairy as a sacred cow.
In May, dairy farmers helped ensure the defeat of a Conservative party leadership candidate who advocated eliminating supply management.
“Dairy farmers are a force to be reckoned with. I think [politicians] will do well to listen to our concerns,” said Manitoba dairy farmer David Wiens, an executive of the influential Dairy Farmers of Canada.
Dairy is one of several commodities, including lumber and wine, that have sparked complaints by the Trump administration leading into NAFTA talks. U.S. President Donald Trump said in April he would stand up for domestic dairy farmers against what he called unfair Canadian practices.
The U.S. side also wants Canada to start cutting tariffs to allow more imports. As part of talks on a proposed 12-country Pacific trade treaty in 2015, Canada agreed to open up its dairy supply by 3.25 per cent on an annual basis.
That treaty was still-born and any talk of concessions is now off the table.
“The industry is not prepared to give any additional access to the Canadian market,” said Yves Leduc, head of government relations at the Dairy Farmers of Canada lobby group.

The Globe and Mail. Jul. 18, 2017. Canada will have to play hardball at NAFTA talks
LAWRENCE HERMAN

So we now know what the U.S. objectives are in the forthcoming North American free-trade agreement renegotiations.

Some of what was sent by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to the Congress on Monday isn’t a big surprise, having been signalled before and in its initial fast-track notice tabled in Congress last May.

There’s a lot about modernizing NAFTA, improving the agreement to add provisions on trade in services, digital commerce, intellectual property and even reference to establishing “strong and enforceable environmental obligations” and other things that, subject to careful reading, could be acceptable as a basis for negotiations.

However, there are at least four major bombshells, signalling an extremely aggressive stance by the Americans, making it difficult for Canada to accept the document as a basis for negotiations.

The first – not unexpected – is the U.S. objective to eliminate the binational panel system in Chapter 19 of the NAFTA, the system that was first painfully negotiated in the bilateral Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement in the 1980s and later replicated in the NAFTA. Canada made many compromises as part of the FTA talks to get the binational panel system accepted by the U.S. side.

For the Americans to now seek its removal is a major assault on a fundamental Canadian interest and could effectively scuttle the talks.

The second attack – also part of the negotiated deal under the FTA/NAFTA – is the U.S. objective to remove all restrictions on “Buy America” preferences at the state and municipal level, including on all federally funded programs for a huge array of local projects.

What the U.S. is seeking here effectively is a wholesale carve-out of preferential programs that run up against some of the key principles of open trade and GATT-based non-discrimination. Talk about trade distortion, these Buy America preferences will allow it in spades.

The third salvo is the U.S. objective of removing the right of Canada (and Mexico) to be excluded from U.S. safeguard actions against imported goods. Safeguards are global import restrictions that apply when U.S. industries are being injured by an unexpected flood of imports that are neither dumped nor subsidized. Under the NAFTA, Canada and Mexico are exempted from such actions unless their exports “contribute importantly” to the injury caused to U.S. producers. The U.S. wants that out.

The fourth bombshell is the objective to reduce or eliminate barriers to U.S. investments “in all sectors” in the NAFTA countries. This is an aggressive demand and suggests the U.S. wants an end to Canada’s restrictions on American investments in such things as telecommunications, health care, education and cultural industries.

These four areas together comprise an extremely tough set of U.S. objectives that go to the heart of the trading relationship and represent an assault of existing NAFTA rules as far as Canada is concerned, putting the very underpinning of the deal in play.

There are other parts of the USTR notice that could be contentious but possibly less so in comparison to these four items. These stated U.S. objectives alone will make it difficult for these talks to get off to a smooth and friendly start.

I appreciate that some of this may be an overdramatic reaction. Assessing all of this in a less hurried and more deliberate manner will be important. After all, the July 17 document is a statement of ideal objectives on the part of the U.S. government. These don’t have to be taken as diktat or an end game by either Canada or Mexico. We have to get to the table with the Americans and start some horse trading as the dynamics unfold over the next several months.

The U.S. Congress will also be weighing in on the process. As pointed out in a recent C.D. Howe report, the U.S. Congress over the last several decades has reasserted its jurisdiction in trade matters and will have an important voice in the NAFTA negotiations, and possibly a moderating one.

Perhaps some of the more egregious parts of the USTR’s position will be toned down once congressional committees have a look. Canada has been solidifying contacts and enlisting supporters on Capitol Hill that could help to curb some of the most aggressive positions the USTR has tabled.

What also must not be lost in all of this, of course, is that we are talking about negotiations. Canada and Mexico don’t have to accept the U.S. position as the basis for the negotiating agenda. The federal government will have the opportunity to set out its own set of objectives for the talks and Canada can be equally aggressive in making clear to the Americans where its fundamental NAFTA interests lie.

What unfolds over the next weeks and months for Canada-U.S. relations in the long haul will be critical.

Lawrence L. Herman, Herman & Associates, is a former Canadian diplomat who practises international trade law and is a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute

REUTERS. JULY 18, 2017. Mexico minister queries U.S. talk on cutting NAFTA trade deficits

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's economy minister on Tuesday expressed concern that the United States was insisting on reducing trade deficits in objectives it set out for the renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal, a document he nevertheless said contained "no surprises."

Speaking on Mexican television, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo also raised questions about U.S. hopes to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement's Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism that hinders the United States in pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Mexico and Canada.

Talking by telephone from Japan, Guajardo likened the U.S. desire to cut trade deficits with its NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada to a "mercantilist" vision of international trade.

"What I have said insistently in my conversations with my colleagues is that we're delighted to review trade balances provided that we focus on how to improve them by expanding commerce, not by reducing it," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a renegotiation of NAFTA, threatening to dump it if he cannot rework the accord to the benefit of the United States. He argues it has fueled a trade deficit with Mexico and cost thousands of U.S. jobs.

Guajardo said the document sent by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to lawmakers on Monday contained "no surprises", and he explicitly welcomed parts of it, including plans to enshrine anti-corruption provisions in NAFTA.

"What is positive is that (the United States) themselves paraphrased that they won't reintroduce quotas or tariffs during this process (of renegotiation)," he added.

Aside from his concern over Chapter 19, Guajardo also expressed doubts about the United States' intention to get rid of NAFTA's so-called "global safeguard exclusion" that curbs Washington's ability to impose measures on others.

"This will all have to be subject to the three sides being in agreement in the process," he said.

One Mexican official told Reuters on Monday he expected the Canadian government to fight to the "death" on Chapter 19, suggesting it could become a major bone of contention in negotiations due to begin next month.

Both Mexico and the United States face important elections in 2018 which could complicate the NAFTA revamp, and Guajardo has said it would be in the interests of both nations to wrap up the three-way talks by the end of this year.

However, there was no guarantee the process would be finished as quickly as they would like, Guajardo said.

Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Marguerita Choy

TOURISM

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. July 18, 2017. Investments Announced for Tourism Infrastructure and Business Growth. Federal and provincial governments invest in three projects on Bonavista Peninsula 

Port Union, NL – Business and tourism on the Bonavista Peninsula received a boost today with funding from the governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador. Investments in Discovery Aspiring Geopark, DIVE Ventures NL Inc. and the Fishers Loft Inn will help develop new tourism infrastructure, improve visitor experiences and support business modernization and growth.

The Honourable Judy Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), announced a total investment of more than $224,000 for three projects. Neil King, MHA for the district of Bonavista, on behalf of the Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore, provincial Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation, announced a $95,118 contribution for one of the projects.

Discovery Aspiring Geopark Inc. is receiving a non-repayable contribution of $104,412 from ACOA’s Innovative Communities Fund (ICF) and the provincial government is providing $95,118 to further develop the region’s geotourism assets and position the organization to apply for UNESCO Global Geopark designation. The project will focus on five existing sites with geological and cultural significance and involve site development, interpretative signage and training for local tourism operators related to geotourism-based visitor experiences and interpreting geological heritage. The five geological points of interest to be developed are: Fort Bight and Trinity Bight; Port Union and Murphy’s Cove Trail; Elliston-Maberly; The Dungeon; and Kings Cove-Brook Point.

A $70,000 repayable investment from ACOA’s Business Development Program (BDP) will enable DIVE Ventures Newfoundland Inc. to acquire a rigid hull inflatable boat and related equipment to modernize its tour boat operating business and enhance its product offering. The company offers a whale watching and tour boat service and operates a bed and breakfast with an on-site café and wharf facilities in Trinity, Trinity Bay.

In addition, the Fisher’s Loft Inn in Port Rexton is receiving a non-repayable BDP investment of $50,000 to expand the company’s marketing activities. The focus will be on driving shoulder season demand, which will improve competitiveness, increase productivity and enhance the potential for business growth. The Fisher’s Loft Inn is rated as a 4.5 star inn and considered one of the premiere, demand influencing properties in Newfoundland and Labrador.

These projects build on the federal and provincial governments’ Atlantic Growth Strategy designed to help Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs compete internationally, grow their businesses and create jobs at home.

Quotes

“The Government of Canada is pleased to invest in projects that spur economic growth, diversify local economies and foster new opportunities for small business in key sectors such as tourism. These initiatives will help attract new visitors to the Bonavista Peninsula, encourage longer stays and further strengthen a vibrant and popular tourism destination in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for ACOA

“Tourism is an important economic driver in Newfoundland and Labrador and the Bonavista Peninsula is one of the province’s leading tourism destinations drawing visitors from around the world because of its stunning scenery, rugged coastlines and historical sites. The Government of Canada’s investments in these initiatives will enable the region to complement the many spectacular tourism products and assets that already exist and create jobs and economic growth in rural communities.”

- The Honourable Judy Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Burin-Trinity

“As guided by The Way Forward, our government continues to work to improve outcomes to promote a healthy and prosperous Newfoundland and Labrador. This investment into Discovery Aspiring Geopark will further develop the region’s geo-tourism assets, and position the organization to apply for UNESCO Global Geopark designation. The Provincial Government is committed to supporting the future growth and sustainability of our communities, and investing in new opportunities for small business.”

- The Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation

“Bonavista is a beautiful district, and I am very excited for how this announcement will help preserve our cultural and natural landscape, and contribute to our thriving tourism industry. The investments from the provincial government and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency will help encourage Bonavista’s vibrant tourism industry, and contribute significantly to making Bonavista an even more popular tourism destination.”

- Neil King, MHA, District of Bonavista

________________

LGCJ.: