CANADA ECONOMICS

NAFTA / CANADA-US TRADE

The Globe and Mail. JUNE 4, 2018. Trump ramps up rhetoric on trade, accuses Canada of protectionism
ADRIAN MORROW, WASHINGTON

U.S. President Donald Trump is taking aim at Canada again, accusing his northern neighbour of agricultural protectionism amid an escalating trade war and a mounting war of words with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Since slapping steel and aluminum tariffs on 30 countries last week, Mr. Trump has singled out Canada for his rhetorical fury: The U.S. President has blasted Ottawa far more than Mexico or any of the European Union countries that he also hit with levies.

On Monday, he continued the barrage on Twitter.

“Canada has all sorts of trade barriers on our Agricultural products. Not acceptable!” the President tweeted at 8:41 am, adding an hour later: “Farmers have not been doing well for 15 years. Mexico, Canada, China and others have treated them unfairly. By the time I finish trade talks, that will change. Big trade barriers against U.S. farmers, and other businesses, will finally be broken. Massive trade deficits no longer!”

Mr. Trump appeared to be referring to Canada’s protectionist supply management system for dairy, eggs and poultry. Under the system, foreign imports are subject to tariffs of nearly 300 per cent in order to fix prices for Canadian producers. The U.S. has demanded that Canada dismantle the system as part of the renegotiations over the North American free-trade agreement.

The President’s comments come a day after NBC aired an interview with Mr. Trudeau in which he used some of his strongest language about Mr. Trump to date.

The Prime Minister said Mr. Trump “prides himself on being unpredictable” and said it was “insulting and unacceptable” for Mr. Trump to characterize Canada as a national security threat in order to justify hitting it with tariffs.

Mr. Trudeau also accused Mr. Trump of trying to deliberately drive investment away from Canada and Mexico by insisting on putting a sunset clause in NAFTA; under such a clause, the deal would be automatically terminated in five years unless all three countries agreed to extend it. Mr. Trudeau argued the Trump administration wanted to purposely create uncertainty for business.

Mr. Trudeau did, however, suggest that Canada was willing to negotiate its supply management system, saying the Americans “want more access on certain agriculture products like dairy to Canada” and that he was “moving towards…flexibility” on the matter.

Donald J. Trump

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@realDonaldTrump

 Farmers have not been doing well for 15 years. Mexico, Canada, China and others have treated them unfairly. By the time I finish trade talks, that will change. Big trade barriers against U.S. farmers, and other businesses, will finally be broken. Massive trade deficits no longer!

9:47 AM - Jun 4, 2018

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For more than a year, Mr. Trudeau had been careful not to publicly criticize Mr. Trump. But his tone changed last week after Mr. Trump imposed the tariffs. Canada retaliated with tariffs on a long list of U.S. goods, ranging from steel and aluminium to boats and pickles.

Mr. Trudeau also publicly revealed his private discussions with Mr. Trump, recounting that he had offered to come to Washington last week to discuss NAFTA. But the visit fell through, he said, when Vice President Mike Pence insisted Canada agree to add a sunset clause to NAFTA as a condition of the meeting.

Mr. Trump has reacted to Mr. Trudeau’s tougher tone by slamming Canada more frequently than Mexico or the EU.

On Friday, he threatened to hit Canada’s forestry sector, tweeting: “Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly for a very long period of time. Highly restrictive on Trade! They must open their markets and take down their trade barriers! They report a really high surplus on trade with us. Do Timber & Lumber in U.S.?”

And the previous night, in a statement, Mr. Trump said he had threatened to tear up NAFTA in discussions with Mr. Trudeau: “The United States will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all.”

The Globe and Mail. THE CANADIAN PRESS. JUNE 4, 2018. Quebec ‘will be there to support’ aluminum producers facing U.S. tariffs
ROSS MAROWITS, MONTREAL

The Quebec government is prepared to support financially smaller aluminum producers hurt by U.S. tariffs just as it did with the softwood lumber sector, the province’s economic development minister said Monday.

“If there is a risk of reducing their production or a risk of not being able to export at much, we will be there to support them in making sure that they maintain the jobs that they have in that sector,” Dominique Anglade told an aluminum summit.

“This is the approach we took with softwood lumber, we’ll be taking the same approach yet again this time with Quebec firms in aluminum.”

The minister didn’t announce details of that support, but said a meeting will take place next Monday with the various players.

The province has received about 20 requests for financial support from the softwood lumber sector, but no money has yet been distributed, a government official said.

The aluminum industry and politicians from Canada and Quebec are meeting for two days to discuss challenges facing the sector including U.S. tariffs against Canada and other global suppliers.

The event started Sunday with a discussion about free and fair trade by former Quebec premier Jean Charest and the heads of several aluminum producers. The sessions Monday will focus on government policy dealing with global overcapacity along with the support of free and fair trade.

The summit comes days after the United States imposed import duties on steel and aluminum

U.S. President Donald Trump had exempted Canada, Mexico and the European Union when he imposed 25 per cent import duties on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum in early March. Those exemptions ended Friday, prompting retaliation from the Canadian government.

“Clearly what happened last week was a direct attack on our economy in a way that is totally unreasonable especially in that it’s not addressing the main issue,” Anglade said.

“We all know that we have an issue of overcapacity with China.”

She said the province and Canada have no choice but to fight the U.S. administration’s decision.

Canada has laid out retaliatory tariffs set to be applied July 1. They will match the steel and aluminum tariffs and add duties to a wide range of consumer goods.

Aluminum supports about 30,000 jobs in Quebec, which is a major supplier of the metal. Of the $8 billion worth of aluminum exported from the province, $7 billion goes to the United States.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. Trudeau assails U.S. push for NAFTA ‘sunset clause’. PM says Trump administration is trying to divert business investment from Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with Chuck Todd of NBC News on Sunday about taxes imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum.
STEVEN CHASE

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing the Trump administration of trying to divert business investment from Canada to the United States by insisting on a five-year “sunset clause” in a renegotiated NAFTA agreement, saying no investor would inject capital in this country if they feared Canada’s preferential access to the massive U.S. market could be disrupted within half a decade.

“What company is going to want to invest in Canada if five years later there might not be a trade deal with the United States?” Mr. Trudeau told NBC News in an interview that aired Sunday.

“That quite frankly is probably part of the whole point of the United States to say, ‘Well, we don’t want anybody investing in our NAFTA partners; we want people investing in us.’ ”

Mr. Trudeau levelled the charge while speaking to the U.S. TV network Sunday. Mr. Trudeau employed the interview to step up the campaign against hefty import taxes that U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed on Canada, Mexico and the European Union in the name of national security.

Last week, the Prime Minister revealed that a White House meeting with Mr. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to close a deal on NAFTA was scrapped after the United States demanded Mr. Trudeau agree to a sunset clause, a provision that would automatically terminate the deal in five years unless all three countries agreed to extend it.

Daniel Ujczo, an Ohio-based trade lawyer with Dickinson Wright, said he thinks the continuing uncertainty over NAFTA renegotiation is dampening enthusiasm for business investment in Canada right now.

Canada has spent years positioning itself as a springboard into the U.S. market, Mr. Ujczo said. “If there is uncertainty surrounding the NAFTA, it really does make Canada’s trading relationships around the world more vulnerable,” he said.

Mr. Ujczo thinks however the chief reason for the Trump administration wanting a five-year sunset on NAFTA is that it would give the White House more control over the deal in the future.

Mr. Trudeau also told NBC he finds it “frankly insulting” that Mr. Trump has imposed hefty import taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum in the name of national security, saying that is not how close allies should treat one another.

The Prime Minister revealed to NBC News’ Chuck Todd that last year Mr. Trump had even privately agreed with him that it would wrong to hit Canadian steel and aluminum with this very same national security tariff.

Mr. Trudeau also warned the United States in the interview that American workers are going to be hurt by the trade battle, including the huge retaliatory trade action Canada is taking against $16.6-billion of U.S. goods starting July 1.

“We’re going to be polite but we’re also not going to be pushed around,” Mr. Trudeau said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland appeared on CNN to voice the incredulity and anger that Canadian officials feel toward Washington.

“I would just say to all of Canada’s American friends … Seriously: Do you really believe that Canada, your NATO allies, represent a national-security threat to you?” Ms. Freeland told CNN.

The Trump administration triggered a trade war last week when it imposed hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Mr. Trump justified it as necessary to ensure U.S. “national security” because restricting these imports under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act would expand the United States’ own capacity to construct its own tanks and warships.

Mr. Trump, however, remained unmoved over the weekend by criticism of the tariffs, and celebrated the protectionist move against Canada, the European Union and Mexico on Twitter, saying that “Stupid Trade” is not fair trade.

“The United States must, at long last, be treated fairly on Trade,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Saturday.

A senior Trump adviser, meanwhile, said Mr. Trudeau is blowing this dispute out of proportion and called it merely a “family quarrel” between neighbours.

“I think he’s overreacting,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said of Mr. Trudeau on the Fox News Sunday program.

Mr. Trudeau however, told NBC that in 2017 Mr. Trump had told him it would be disrespectful to hit Canada with such a measure.

“A year ago, when I talked with the President about the possibility of 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, he agreed that it would be insulting to consider Canada as part of the national-security concerns.”

Separately, Ms. Freeland told CBC News the government is in talks with provinces, companies and unions on a package of government support for steel and aluminum workers and firms affected by the Trump tariffs.

Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, has estimated the U.S. tariffs will cost Canada US$3.2-billion in trade losses a year.

Meanwhile, an advance meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers ended with sharp public criticism on Saturday over Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs.

A final chairs’ message from Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the ministers and central bankers asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “communicate their unanimous concern and disappointment” to Washington.

The Prime Minister also revealed to NBC that Canada had been close to granting the United States better access to the heavily sheltered Canadian dairy market in NAFTA talks. Foreign dairy imports normally face massive Canadian tariffs.

“We were moving towards flexibility in those areas that I thought was very, very promising,” Mr. Trudeau said.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. NAFTA is dead and Canada should move on. Vice-chairman of H+K Strategies Canada who served as director of communications to former prime minister Jean Chrétien. Given the choice between a bad North American free-trade agreement and no deal at all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would opt for the latter. After Donald Trump’s crippling tariffs, no deal is what we will get.
PETER DONOLO

NAFTA – at least as we know it – is dead. Donald Trump just killed it. The reckless and crippling 25per-cent tariff on steel and 10-percent tariff on aluminum that the U.S. President’s administration just used to bludgeon Canada and Mexico (not to mention the entire European Union) is the murder weapon.

For all those who have spent the past 20 months convincing themselves that Mr. Trump was just posing, that he could be reasoned with or charmed, this will come as a brutal awakening. In Canada, this group of wishful thinkers has been a large one indeed – almost the entirety of the country’s elite, including a bipartisan consensus of federal and provincial governing and opposition parties, former prime ministers, the business community and virtually every media pundit and analyst.

When someone keeps threatening to smash you, as Mr. Trump has since he announced his candidacy for president, it usually pays to take them seriously. Today, even the most committed somnambulist can’t ignore what the U.S. administration has done.

Now that Mr. Trump has, ahem, gotten our attention, what are we going to do about it?

Our government, like the government of Mexico and the European Union, has already announced specific retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Our Prime Minister has cancelled a tête-à-tête with Mr. Trump. But what about the longer term?

How can we, for a moment, believe that a renegotiated North American free-trade agreement can protect us from further unwarranted and equally ferocious economic attacks from our putative partner? The risible pretext that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross trotted out for the tariffs was “national security,” because, as he put it, “without a strong economy, you can’t have strong national security.” We can expect this elastic interpretation to be the standard approach of Mr. Trump’s administration to any disputes under a renegotiated NAFTA.

The compelling reason that Canada signed on to NAFTA (and to the original free-trade agreement) in the first place was to shield our economy from this type of capricious protectionism. It largely – if not completely – worked for us for the better part of three decades. Our automotive sector, in particular, has flourished and is consequently greatly at risk.

But now we are locked in a relationship with an unpredictable and (economically) aggressive partner. No amount of nostalgia or wishful thinking can change that.

To borrow a phrase from the relationship industry, this isn’t about us (Canada)… it’s about them (the United States). And the sooner we realize that, the better.

Our government increasingly understands it. Last week the Prime Minister told a Toronto symposium that no NAFTA would be better than a bad NAFTA deal. And there are strong indications that no deal is the preferred option of Mr. Trump’s administration.

So, what is our Plan B? It obviously means seriously and aggressively pursuing markets and investment beyond the United States. For example, new markets for Canadian resources are now more important than ever. That’s why the government’s decision last week to effectively nationalize the Trans Mountain Pipeline in order to finally get it built and deliver oil to Asia-bound tankers was such an important step. This decision in itself was a significant response to an unreliable American partner and a signal that we must look farther abroad for greater economic opportunity.

The same goes for the myriad trade agreements on which our country has embarked – most prominently the Canada-EU trade agreement and the TransPacific Partnership. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO) breakthroughs of the 1990s also work in Canada’s favour, providing us with tariffs much lower than what existed before NAFTA and the original Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement. If NAFTA were to cease tomorrow, our trade with the United States would still operate under the WTO’s rules.

Finally, we need to redouble efforts to attract direct foreign investment into Canada. The government recently launched a new agency, Invest in Canada, to do just that. But there are obstacles. The Business Council of Canada cites the regulatory burden as the biggest challenge. In a globalized economy, tax competitiveness is always an issue. And governments need to walk the walk when it comes to opening up to investors from countries such as China, even when there is domestic political blowback.

The only negotiating position that works against Mr. Trump is the ability and willingness to walk away. Mr. Trump sniffs out weakness or desperation – in a friend or a foe – and he pounces without mercy. A defensive crouch is the wrong position. “Sauve qui peut” is the wrong rallying cry. Negotiating with strength, from strength, is the only approach.

At the end of the day, even if we manage to finally achieve the elusive Third Option that Mitchell Sharp first proposed almost five decades ago, a majority of our commercial relations will continue to be with the United States – geography makes it so. But we will be able to do so not as a punching bag, but as a neighbour.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. Opinion. Gordon Pape looks at the best and worst things that might arise out of the Canada-U.S. trade war
GORDON PAPE, editor and publisher of the Internet Wealth Builder and Income Investor newsletters. For more information and details on how to subscribe, go to www.buildingwealth.ca. 

We’re sailing into waters not seen in almost 90 years. There’s no way of knowing how it will turn out, but we should brace for anything

So it’s on. The trade war we all feared but hoped would never happen exploded this past week. Who knows where it will end.

The world has not seen anything like this since the 1930s, when then-U.S. president Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act. That set in motion a series of international retaliatory actions that slashed U.S. exports by 61 per cent and imports by 66 per cent between 1929 and 1933.

And what did that do for the U.S. economy? Gross national product dropped 46 per cent in that period. The unemployment rate in the country rose from 8 per cent at the time the Act was signed to 25 per cent four years later.

None of this has deterred President Donald Trump and his advisers from embarking on the same protectionist journey. There are some who claim this is just an aggressive negotiating tactic by the President to get a better NAFTA deal. I don’t think so. Mr. Trump is proving to be an ultraconservative ideologue who is doing everything he can to implement his beliefs.

He has already indicated that he will not stop with steel and aluminum when it comes to Canada.

He now has our auto industry in his sights – about 80 per cent of the cars we build are exported to the United States. And on Friday, he tweeted again about how American dairy farmers were being mistreated by Canada’s supply-management system and took another swipe at our lumber exports. It appears there is more bad news to come from Washington.

Canada’s response may seem huge in our terms, but it’s a pinprick for the U.S. economy. Slapping tariffs on items as diverse as ketchup, toilet paper, playing cards, soy sauce and inflatable boats, as well as U.S. steel and aluminum, will inflict minor pain on some U.S. companies, but it will be nothing like what we are likely to experience.

So far, the markets appear to have taken all of this in stride. The Dow was up by triple digits on Friday and the Toronto Stock Exchange was down only modestly. But investors may be whistling past the graveyard.

Let’s consider the best and worst things that may flow from this situation.

The best-case scenario is that this is indeed a negotiating tactic that works. Canada and Mexico bend on their positions regarding the North American freetrade agreement and the United States softens just enough to get a quick deal that satisfies the President while leaving the other two partners with a modicum of dignity. A memo of understanding is signed within a month, the metals tariffs are revoked, as are the retaliatory measures, and life in the North American trade world returns to a degree of normalcy. I put the odds on that happening at 25 per cent at best.

The worst-case scenario would unfold over a longer time period. In the initial stage we would see a decline in Canadian steel and aluminum exports to the United States and corresponding layoffs in the affected industries. We would also see consumer prices begin to rise on targeted U.S. imports.

Rising prices would boost inflation, which is already close to the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target and is expected to rise due to higher gasoline prices. That, in turn, would increase the pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates. The result would be to push the loonie higher, making our exports even less competitive and putting the squeeze on highly indebted mortgage holders.

Higher interest rates would further erode the market price of bonds, certain types of preferred share and interest-sensitive stocks, such as utilities and telecoms. We have seen evidence of this already. On the other hand, higher rates could boost the earnings of banks and insurance companies, provided they did not lead to widespread bankruptcies.

If the trade war becomes as nasty as it did in the 1930s, the global economy, which has become increasingly interdependent, will falter. Recession or even depression in many countries is the probable outcome.

As an investor, what should you do? Here are some suggestions.

Reduce exposure to Canada. We will fare far worse than the United States in a trade war, and growing uncertainty about the future will curtail capital investment.

Apart from financial companies and the newly revived energy sector, there are few areas of the TSX that inspire confidence. One exception: Companies that do a lot of business in the U.S. and are not hit by the new tariffs.

Increase exposure to the United States. Mr. Trump has proven he is no friend to Canada (or any other ally, for that matter). However, his policies have revitalized the U.S. economy, particularly with the corporate tax cut and the slashing of crippling regulations.

Unemployment in the United States is below 4 per cent, the lowest in almost two decades, and the American stock market continues to hit new highs.

Raise cash. If the worst-case scenario unfolds, the world economy will eventually tank. At that point, you want to be in a position to take advantage of the bargains that will emerge, as they did in 2008.

We are now sailing in waters not seen in almost 90 years. There is no way of knowing how it will all turn out, but we should be prepared for anything.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. We’ve experienced high unemployment for so long that many have forgotten what a healthy job market looks like. Reaching the elusive economic ‘sweet spot’. The tools available to drive unemployment lower could produce unwanted consequences
BARRIE McKENNA, Columnist

A decade of low interest rates and government deficit spending in Canada has already helped drive unemployment down to 5.8 per cent from nearly 9 per cent in 2009.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has talked a lot lately about the economy reaching a “sweet spot.”

Companies are running flat out and can’t produce more without adding workers or new capacity. Unemployment, now at 5.8 per cent, hasn’t been this low since 1974.

So life is pretty good, right? It could be a whole lot better, according to labour economist Lars Osberg, a professor at Dalhousie University. Canadians suffer from “historical amnesia” when it comes to unemployment, he says. The country is still a long way from full employment, and the jobless rate is still much higher than it’s been for much of the postwar period, he argues in a recent paper. Between 1946 and 1975, unemployment averaged 4.7 per cent, and only briefly spiked above 6 per cent.

We’ve lived with higher unemployment for so long that many Canadians don’t know what a truly healthy job market looks like, Prof. Osberg says.

“Full employment can and should be reinstated as a major policy objective of Canadian governments,” he writes in his paper, Full Employment in Canada in the early 21st century.

This past week, Prof. Osberg joined 60 other economists in signing a letter to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, urging him to add the objective of “full and productive employment” to a new “multi-goal” mandate for the Bank of Canada that would also include price stability and protecting the value of the Canadian dollar.

Right now, the Bank of Canada has a single focus – keeping inflation at or near a 2-per-cent target. And it adjusts its key interest rate to keep prices stable. The mandate is renewable every five years under an agreement with the federal government that expires in 2021.

Prof. Osberg laments that the central bank’s successful control of inflation has produced stagnant wages, higher income inequality and heightened job insecurity.

Even Mr. Poloz would probably acknowledge that life could be better for workers. The Bank of Canada’s April monetary policy report says there is still some “slack” in the labour market. Wage gains remain relatively subdued, the youth jobless rate is high and the share of people who have been out of work for a long time remains above historic norms, according to the report.

Full employment is a laudable goal. It would create more opportunity for youth, disadvantaged minorities and new immigrants.

A decade of low interest rates and government deficit spending in Canada has already helped drive unemployment down to 5.8 per cent from nearly 9 per cent in 2009.

So why not go even further? The downside is that the tools available to drive unemployment lower could produce a host of unintended and unwanted consequences. The risk of higher inflation is only one of them.

Keeping interest rates artificially low acts as a tax on savers, particularly those on fixed incomes. Low rates fuel excessive borrowing at a time when household debt is already at a record high. Easy money also drives up the cost of homes, pricing younger buyers out of the market.

Another way to lower unemployment is by governments spending more. But fiscal stimulus also has its problems. To make a significant dent in the jobless rate, governments would have to either tax a lot more or add to their already hefty debt loads. The latter, in particular, shifts the burden of helping today’s unemployed to future generations.

In the end, achieving full employment may be less important than how we get there, argues Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets Inc.

“Full employment is a mark of success, [but] not all full employment equilibria are the same,” he pointed out in a research document last week. “The mix of spending that has taken us to this point, and how it’s been financed, leaves much to be desired, as does the nature of the jobs being created.”

The jobless rate has been driven lower by debt-financed consumption and housing, Mr. Shenfeld points out. Largely missing, however, has been an expansion of the export economy, which tends to generate more and better-paying jobs.

The goal, he says, should not be achieving full employment, but rather making Canada an attractive place for trade-oriented businesses to put down roots, which in turn will create good jobs.

That’s a different kind of sweet spot.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. OPINION. Trump’s cheap bullying tactics could prompt new Auto Pact
ANDREI SULZENKO, Former Canadian trade negotiator and is current executive fellow at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary

President Donald Trump obviously does not see it that way, as he seems content to have segments of the U.S. economy hit hard by retaliatory tariffs so long as he remains a winner in the eyes of his electoral base.

With last Thursday’s announcement by the Trump administration that it was following through with clearly illegitimate steel and aluminum tariffs, the gloves are off on trade, and the world is venturing into a bare-knuckle slugfest.

The trouble with trade wars is that everyone loses, including companies and workers in newly protected industries. For example, the United States exports more steel and aluminum products to Mexico than it imports. Where is the American win in that if Mexico, as promised, retaliates in kind – not to mention also hitting farm imports from the United States? Canada is piling on too, targeting products in politically sensitive congressional districts.

President Donald Trump obviously does not see it that way, as he seems content to have segments of the U.S. economy hit hard by retaliatory tariffs so long as he remains a winner in the eyes of his electoral base. Maybe this is another tactical ploy to gain some imaginary advantage, subject to being rescinded as part of “the art of the deal.” We will know how that plays out in the coming days as Europe, Canada and Mexico make their moves.

In this same vein, the administration recently announced an inquiry into whether automotive imports are injurious to U.S. national security. The case here is even more farfetched than that of the steel and aluminum tariffs, but invoking national security and slapping on punitive tariffs is one of the few trade actions that a U.S. president can make unilaterally based on the fig leaf of an “unbiased” U.S. Department of Commerce finding.

The auto inquiry is transparently a shakedown of Canada and Mexico in the stalled North American free-trade talks, where Mr. Trump is mesmerized by the alleged unfair imbalance in auto trade.

One of the factors contributing to the unwillingness of Canada and Mexico to accede to blatantly protectionist, and probably unworkable, U.S. auto demands, is the fact that the default option for companies is simply to pay the low 2.5-per-cent U.S. import tariff under alternative World Trade Organization rules.

The availability of that option greatly reduces U.S. pressure on Canada and Mexico to agree to an asymmetrical new arrangement. However, if the U.S. auto tariff were ratcheted up to the 25-per-cent level being suggested under the national-security inquiry, it would (certainly in the President’s mind) fundamentally change the negotiating calculus.

So, the auto inquiry, like the previous steel and aluminum case, is really all about cheap bullying tactics. There is no underlying strategy other than playing to the electoral base, which will wise up to the fact these actions are against its own economic self-interest once retaliation kicks in.

The risk, however, is that actions and reactions will escalate to the point that there is no good face-saving exit ramp for a president whose instinct, in any event, is to double down. It is certainly not obvious how steel, aluminum and autos can be resolved, because on the merits of the issues – the U.S. is 100-per-cent wrong. At least in the case of the trade dispute with China, the Chinese side seems to acknowledge the United States has some valid points, and it is ready to give the President a modest win.

On autos, U.S. wrong-headedness will leave little room for compromise with its trading partners, and the best facesaving outcome for Mr. Trump would be a report concluding that auto trade does not constitute a threat to national security.

That should be the conclusion for a number of reasons. First, the link between auto imports and national security is a stretch too far, even for creative protectionists. The United States already has a long-standing 25-per-cent tariff on trucks, the most obvious application to military preparedness.

Second, all auto manufacturers will be lobbying furiously to avoid disruptions to their intricate supply chains, as will politicians seeking election in auto-plant-heavy jurisdictions.

Third, even a cursory look at the data shows that foreign car brands actually out-manufacture GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler in the United States and are increasingly exporting from the United States – that’s what open trade is about. For example, German auto maker production in the United States exceeds exports to the United States. And yet, Mr. Trump keeps railing about the unfair advantage of German manufacturers – perhaps he is referring to high quality.

Canada and Mexico have a lot at stake in this, since the bulk of both countries’ production is exported to the United States, just as most of their automotive consumption is imported from the United States. But even if the auto inquiry turns out positively, it still leaves the NAFTA impasse extant.

The last time auto trade was deemed a serious problem was in the 1960s when Canada needed help to adjust from an inefficient, protected auto sector to a free-trade regime with the United States. The creative “managed trade” answer was the Auto Pact, which essentially guaranteed Canada production levels equal to sales in Canada. Over time, as production became integrated on both sides of the border, the Auto Pact became unnecessary and was eventually terminated because it was found to be in contravention of World Trade Organization rules following a Japanese-led complaint.

Perhaps in this new Trump-driven world of second best, it is time to revisit some version of managed trade for autos in North America – essentially a production-sharing agreement along the lines of the Auto Pact, but this time for all three NAFTA partners. After all, we have already lost our free trade principles by agreeing to managed trade in other problem sectors such as lumber.

The Globe and Mail. JUNE 4, 2018. What Canadians will pay more for in a tariff war (and some costs may rise fast)
MICHAEL BABAD, Columnist

Canadians to pay more in tariff war. Paying for tariff war

Just when you were getting your head around rising interest rates and the cost of filling up comes the threat of higher prices on everything from soup to (puréed) nuts.

Courtesy of a trade war in the wake of the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs, and warnings of more to come.

This is not to suggest that the Trudeau government’s promised retaliation is wrong, only that you’ll pay for it when Canadian tariffs come into effect in July.

“A fair cross-section of prices in Canada are about to move higher,” warned Derek Holt, Bank of Nova Scotia’s head of capital markets economics.

“Some prices may begin to move higher sooner than the July imposition if purchases are brought forward ahead of the tariffs and retailers take advantage while some prices may increase well after the tariff increases once, say, current model year inventories push through,” he added.

The Trump administration slapped 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and a 10-per-cent levy on aluminum.

Canada immediately responded with countermeasures affecting up to $16.6-billion of U.S. imports including steel, aluminum and other goods.

Ottawa’s measures run from 10 per cent on a variety of products to 25 per cent on steel.

As The Globe and Mail’s David Parkinson reports, Bank of Montreal estimates inflation would rise by 0.1 to 0.2 of a percentage point.

Of course, how you’re affected depends on how much of which American products you buy.

I suspect there’s not widespread demand for bobbins, but toilet paper and coffee are another thing. (Unless you drink decaf, which isn’t being hit.) Soup, too, though I’m not sure how many of us consume puréed nuts or nut pastes.

Besides the tariffs related to steel and aluminum, here’s an slimmed-down list of affected products. The complete list is here.

• Roasted coffee, not decaf
• Prepared meals of spent fowl (by which they don’t mean the loonie)
• Maple sugar and syrup
• Toffee and certain chocolate
• Pizza and quiche
• Strawberry jam
• Nut purées and pastes
• Ketchup and mustard
• Mayo and salad dressing
• Soups and broths
• Whiskies
• Mani and pedi preparations
• Dishwasher detergent
• Candles. (But Ottawa didn’t want to be accused of being a Grinch, so those for Christmas, birthdays and other “festive occasions“ aren’t included)
• Table and kitchenware, tablecloths and serviettes
• Toilet paper
• Iron or steel beer kegs. (Barbecues, too, so there goes the patio)
• Several aluminum products
• Big-ticket items of iron or steel, such as stoves and fridges.
• Inflatable and other boats.
• Mattresses, sleeping bags and bedding
• Playing cards

“For some of the bigger-ticket and more affected categories, look for a possible rush to buy in June ahead of the tariffs in July,” said Scotiabank’s Mr. Holt.

“The government of Canada has given consumers a mild adjustment period to make their purchases now, which helps limit the negative impact while nevertheless possibly adding to sales volatility over the summer months,” he added.

“Some retailers may hold pre-tariff promotions to drive sales higher in anticipation of a soft patch afterward. The sustained effect on retail sales is likely to be muted in keeping with, say, the limited sustained effects of sales tax changes (up or down) upon near-term consumption.”

What happens next could be even more important, with the U.S. tariffs also hitting Mexico and Europe, Dana M. Peterson and Ebrahim Rahbari warned in a report.

“The relatively small dollar value of the U.S. tariffs and the retaliatory measures levied by targeted economies suggest limited direct growth or inflation effects,” they said.

The Globe and Mail. THE CANADIAN PRESS. JUNE 3, 2018. Retalitary tariffs on U.S. imports offer some hope, create some fears for Canadian businesses
ARMINA LIGAYA

Canada’s tariffs on imported U.S. goods – everything from strawberry jam to sleeping bags – could steer consumers to seek out cheaper, made-in-Canada alternatives, but domestic industry players are fearful that input costs will rise and American politicians could retaliate in kind.

Gerhard Latka, president of Canadian jam maker Crofter’s Food Ltd., said while the company does stand to benefit, he is concerned that their industry is now in the crosshairs of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We’ve poked the bear ... There’s a silver lining, but it is far outweighed by the risk,” he said from Parry Sound, Ont., noting that his company exports as much as 80 per cent of its product south of the border.

Canadian businesses are digesting the industry ramifications of the cross-border tariff war that erupted on Thursday, with Trump announcing the U.S. will slap tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau firing back with $16.6-billion worth of “dollar-for-dollar” countermeasures on goods ranging from playing cards to maple syrup to yogurt.

The 10-per-cent tariffs or similar measures on selected U.S. imports are set to take effect July 1 after an industry consultation period. Part of the 10-per-cent levy at the wholesale level may eventually be passed on to Canadian consumers in the retail price, if the tariff war persists.

However, readily available Canadian substitutes for these U.S. goods could get a boost as result, said Joanne McNeish, an associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. On top of being potentially cheaper than U.S. goods subject to the tariffs, some Canadian consumers or businesses may shop more patriotically in protest, she said.

“People will start to look at the tags more closely,” McNeish said.

While there may be Canadian-made alternatives, these tariffs will “inflict pain” on domestic firms as some inputs or unique products cannot easily be switched or replaced, said Dan Kelly, the chief executive of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“That is little comfort for firms that have supply chains where these products are built in,” he said.

Orange juice is one example of a U.S. good that can’t be substituted easily at home.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that the products subject to tariffs were carefully chosen to limit the impact on Canadian producers and consumers.

There could be opportunities for a bump in sales for Canadian substitutes for these U.S. products, said Mike Von Massow, associate professor in the food, agricultural and resource economics department at the University of Guelph.

However, the price advantage for domestic goods will be less than 10 per cent, as the surtax is unlikely to trickle down to the retail price of these American products in full, he added.

The potential for a tit-for-tat measure from the U.S. is indeed a risk in any trade war, he said, but Trump is likely to target bigger industries with more “leverage.”

Still, some American lawmakers have the same fear about its trade war with China. On Friday, for example, Maine Congressional members urged Trump not to put a tariff on seafood because they are worried the Chinese would retaliate with a similar measure and hurt the state’s lobster industry, which exports millions of dollars worth of lobster to the Asian country.

Many of the U.S. products subject to tariffs in Canada appear to be chosen based on political rather than economic impact, said Von Massow.

For example, Massow said, Canada imports just $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually – most of which is from Wisconsin, the home state of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Another product on the list is whiskey, which comes from Tennessee or Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

“Putting a levy on something that we import $3 million worth of is not likely to have any impact whatsoever on any Canadian consumers. It’s much more likely to have an impact on someone who might have the phone number of Paul Ryan ... An attempt to bring pressure on the White House that way.”

REUTERS. JUNE 4, 2018. Canada mulls aid for steel, aluminum industry after U.S. tariffs
David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s cabinet on Monday discussed how to protect the domestic steel and aluminum industry from U.S. tariffs, just hours ahead of a scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and domestic industry leaders.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week unveiled a 25 percent tariff on Canadian steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum, citing national security reasons. Trudeau denounced the move.

A source familiar with the matter said the tariffs would be discussed as ministers opened a meeting at 0930 eastern time (1330 GMT). A spokesman for Trudeau declined to comment on what steps the cabinet might take.

This weekend, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Ottawa was mulling an aid package which could be similar to the support for softwood lumber producers that Ottawa unveiled in June 2017 after Washington imposed tariffs.

Trudeau is due to meet members of the Canadian Steel Producers Association at 1230 ET.

Canada is the No. 1 steel exporter to the United States. Some 84 percent of its steel exports, worth C$9.0 billion ($6.97 billion), were sent south last year, according to Statistics Canada.

It accounts for about 22,000 direct jobs and supports 100,000 jobs indirectly, said the Canadian Steel Producers Association.

Canada retaliated against the steel and aluminum tariffs by proposing tariff on C$16.6 billion worth of U.S. exports and said it would challenge the U.S. move through the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.

Trade ties between Canada and the United States have soured since Trump took power in January 2017.

In June 2017, Ottawa announced an C$867 million package for softwood lumber producers.

Freeland said the government was pondering whether to do the same for steel and aluminum producers.

“It is something that we are in intense discussion with the industry, with unions and with the provinces about,” Freeland told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview aired on Saturday when asked about a possible aid package.

“It was very important for the government to stand up for the (lumber) industry ... in the face of unfair tariffs and I want to assure the workers of the steel and aluminum industries, and companies in those industries, that the government of Canada will support them,” added Freeland, who gave no details.

Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by David Gregorio

G7 2018 (https://g7.gc.ca/en/)

The Globe and Mail.  4 Jun 2018. G7 is isolating U.S. over steel, aluminum tariffs. U.S. stands alone as other leading finance ministers unite to condemn Trump
BILL CURRY, PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER WHISTLER, B.C.

The G7 is isolating its largest member ahead of this week’s leaders summit as new U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs triggered stern condemnation over the weekend from the six other nations in the alliance.

An advance meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bankers in Whistler, B.C., foreshadowed the major diplomatic challenges ahead as Canada hosts U.S. President Donald Trump and the rest of the G7 in Quebec’s Charlevoix region.

A final chair’s message from Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the ministers and central bankers asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “communicate their unanimous concern and disappointment” to Washington over its position that tariffs are justified for reasons of national security.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Morneau said he and others will be repeating the message this week that the new tariffs are destructive.

Mr. Morneau also provided some insight into the G7 finance ministers’ private talks in Whistler, B.C. He said there was broad agreement on most issues, such as co-operating on cybersecurity, but he and his counterparts had strong words for the United States when trade was addressed as the opening topic.

“It was a G7 meeting that demonstrates what the G7 can do. It got clearly more difficult around trade, and around trade, it wasn’t a G7. It was us saying that that action doesn’t work for us,” he said.

The final statement said the tariff discussion should continue at the leaders summit “where decisive action” is needed. The summit begins on Friday.

“We have to be clear that the tariffs that the United States imposed on the other countries are not conducive to good relationships. We are not a security threat to the United States. Neither are our allies around the table. That’s got to be made absolutely clear,” said Mr. Morneau.

“We all said that because we’re such good friends, we need to communicate really clearly,” he said. “And so I led that effort. I said, first and foremost, let’s just explain why this doesn’t work for us. After we get through that, let’s make sure that we actually prove that we can get things done.”

Saturday’s concluding statement was a rare remarkable sign of public disagreement within the group of developed nations.

After the meetings, a smiling Mr. Mnuchin played down the tension within the room and the tone of the G7’s final message.

“I think there was clearly a consensus from the rest of them,” he told reporters. “I was not part of that statement, but there was a unanimous consensus that they do have that concern. I think the concern is not these tariffs, per se, but I think the concern is obviously many of them have put in or are threatening reciprocal tariffs and then perhaps what the U.S.’s reaction [will be.]”

Mr. Mnuchin noted that all seven countries were on the same page on most other issues on the agenda in Whistler.

“We believe in the G7 … and I’m sure the President looks forward to coming to Canada and meeting all the other leaders with many, many important issues going on throughout the world.”

As the finance ministers’ meeting was ending, Mr. Trump defended his trade policies.

“The United States must, at long last, be treated fairly on Trade,” he wrote on Twitter, stating that some countries impose tariffs on U.S. goods while the United States does not impose tariffs on the same country. “That is not Free or Fair Trade, it is Stupid Trade!”

The U.S. announced May 31 that Canada, Mexico and the European Union would no longer be exempt from import duties of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum. Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs that will kick in July 1, while the EU is challenging the tariffs at the World Trade Organization and is contemplating a tariff response.

“It has been a tense and tough G7,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday. “The ball is now clearly in the camp of the United States.”

Mr. Le Maire said the EU and the G7 will be looking for clear signals of compromise from the U.S. over the coming days. If that doesn’t happen, he said the EU and the other G7 nations will respond.

“A trade war is not in the interest of the G7 countries, not in the interest of the United States of America and not in the interest of the EU countries,” he said, “but everything is ready.”

REUTERS. JUNE 4, 2018. Trade war turns Canada's G7 summit into six-plus-Trump
David Ljunggren, Roberta Rampton

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week plays host to a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations with six of the seven members outraged at the United States over a slew of recent moves by President Donald Trump.

This year’s meeting is likely to be overshadowed by Trump’s planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, tentatively scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, where Pyongyang’s nuclear program is expected to be discussed.

Trudeau, who wants the June 8-9 meeting to focus on economic growth, insists he can handle the challenge, though insiders and analysts say he will have to fight to keep the grouping together at a time when Trump’s trade and diplomatic moves have isolated the United States and risk undermining the G7’s relevance.

“What this G7 is going to show is that the United States are alone against everyone and especially alone against their allies,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters on Friday before a meeting of his counterparts in British Columbia.

Trump’s disdain for diplomatic niceties and his “America first” policies have created a rift with countries whose alliance with the United States dates to the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Trump has infuriated Canada and European Union members of the G7 by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum and pulling out of a deal to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities. Japan fears being sidelined in its own back yard as Washington seeks to improve ties with North Korea.

The three-day G7 finance ministers’ meeting, where the closest U.S. allies vented anger over the Trump administration’s metal import tariffs, wrapped up on Saturday with a stern rebuke of Washington.

‘MORE OPEN RUPTURE’

Trudeau played down the talk of divisions at the summit, in the Quebec town of La Malbaie. “These questions get asked every time,” Trudeau told Reuters in a May 24 interview. He said the G7 was “extraordinarily valuable because it’s an opportunity for like-minded nations to come together and talk about shared challenges.”

A spokesman for Trudeau said the prime minister’s position had not changed despite the tariffs.

University of Ottawa international affairs professor Roland Paris, who served as Trudeau’s first foreign policy adviser, has a less upbeat view. “The primary challenge for this summit is to maintain the integrity of the G7 itself,” he said.

While the most likely scenario was that the leaders gloss over their differences, he added, “there is the real possibility of a more open rupture.”

Heather Conley, a former U.S. State Department official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the divisions on trade meant it would be hard for leaders to focus on the other issues.

“They’re either going to struggle through this and remain relevant to the management of the international system as it continues to evolve - or they’re not,” she said.

Trudeau and the European Union condemned the steel and aluminum tariffs, and tempers will no doubt be high on June 8 when leaders hold a traditional discussion about trade.

“Obviously it has the potential to be much more robust this year,” said a senior Canadian government official, who conceded this year’s meeting would be charged.

“Is it more challenging this time than before? Yes, but everyone is showing up,” said the official, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

At the G7, Trump will defend his insistence on “fair and reciprocal trade,” said a White House National Security Council official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow described the tensions over trade as a family quarrel.

“This thing can work out. I’m the optimist,” he told reporters on Friday.

Additional reporting by James Oliphant in Washington and Leigh Thomas and Gernot Heller in Whistler, British Columbia; Editing by Denny Thomas and Steve Orlofsky

Global Affairs Canada. June 3, 2018. Minister Champagne participates in summit of G7 aluminum industry representatives

Ottawa, Ontario - Canada’s aluminum sector is a critical provider of jobs and innovation. It prospers thanks to international trade rules and efforts by multilateral international institutions such as the G7, G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). On June 4, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of International Trade, will participate in the Montreal Aluminium Summit, an exceptional meeting of industry representatives from G7 member countries, to address global overcapacity in primary aluminum production.

Minister Champagne will deliver remarks at the summit and participate in a round table discussion to provide Canada’s perspective on the importance of defending and promoting international trade rules and all similar efforts by multilateral international institutions.

Quotes

“The Government of Canada has shown strong leadership in supporting industry-led initiatives to address the problem of overcapacity in primary aluminum production. This summit is an important forum in which to discuss the issue and seek workable solutions. It is also an important occasion to underscore Canada’s steadfast support of the workers, supply chain and communities, particularly in Quebec and British Columbia that depend on the world-class products the industry creates. I look forward to the discussions, which will certainly help inform this week’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in La Malbaie and the G20 Summit later this year.”

- François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of International Trade

Quick facts

• Canada’s aluminum industry contributes $4.7 billion to our GDP each year and provides 10,500 jobs.
• Canada’s primary aluminum industry is a vital supplier to both Canadian and American energy, construction and manufacturing industries, especially the automotive and aerospace sectors. 
• Canada and the U.S. share a highly integrated aluminum market, with combined trade of more than US$11.4 billion.

Department of Finance Canada. June 2, 2018. Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. Reaffirm Importance of Open, and Rules Based Trade; Conclude G7 Meeting on Investing in Growth That Works for Everyone

Whistler, British Columbia – The Government of Canada is committed to working with its international partners to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared by everyone, including the middle class and people working hard to join it.

Discussions among Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors this week in Whistler, British Colombia, demonstrated what collaboration and cooperation can accomplish, but also centered around concerns expressed by many over the tariffs imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum, noting that these actions undermine business and investor confidence.

Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors also held important discussions reflecting the fact that economic growth is only sustainable when it is shared fairly. This means making sure that more people – including women and marginalized groups – have the opportunity to work, and to earn a good living from that work. It means investing in the things that will deliver a better quality of life for people – things like quality infrastructure, education, skills training and benefits for families.  It means working together so that every person has a real and fair chance at success.

For the first time, G7 meetings included a joint session with Finance and International Development Ministers, co-chaired by Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance, and Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie. The meetings also included members of the Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) for Canada's G7 Presidency, who's mandate is to promote a progressive and transformative G7 agenda that integrates gender equality and women's empowerment across all themes, activities and outcomes.

The Ministers and Governors wish to thank the people of Whistler for their hospitality and, in particular, the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations for hosting the meetings at their Cultural Center.

Quote

"Friends sometimes disagree. The results of our discussions are proof the G7 can bring progress on important issues to our citizens and help grow our economies for the benefit of everyone. But this progress is only possible when we work together. Unfortunately the actions of the United States this week risk undermining the very values that traditionally have bound us together. I wish to thank my G7 counterparts for the productive meetings in Whistler – and I reiterate Prime Minister Trudeau’s appeal for common sense to prevail as the Summit gets underway in Charlevoix next week."

- Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance

Quick Facts

• The G7 is an informal grouping of seven of the world’s advanced economies consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union is also represented at the G7 by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the Eurogroup.
• G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meet each year to discuss key economic policy issues that require international coordination.
• Since 2016, Canada has led the G7 in economic growth.
• Recent estimates suggest that, across the G7, the economic benefits of economic gender parity could be in the trillions.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://www.fin.gc.ca/n18/18-043-eng.asp

Global Affairs Canada. June 2, 2018. G7 development ministers’ meeting focuses on empowering women and girls

Whistler, British Columbia – Advancing gender equality is the most effective approach to eradicating extreme poverty and building a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world. Recent estimates indicate that countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men. Canada and its G7 partners have a shared commitment to strengthening the empowerment of women and girls in development policy and international assistance.

Today, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, concluded the meeting with her G7 counterparts under the broader G7 leaders’ theme of Investing in Growth that Works for Everyone. The meeting, which took place from May 31 to June 2, 2018, in Whistler, British Columbia, marked a valuable and timely opportunity to advance solutions to pressing global development challenges and to make progress on shared priorities, including addressing gender equality in humanitarian action, supporting adolescent girls as key change agents for equality and future prosperity, and accelerating innovation to maximize the impact of development assistance.

Canada brought young women leaders to the G7 table to ensure those directly affected by the issues being discussed could offer their insights and be an integral part of finding innovative solutions for real change and positive outcomes.

The outcomes of this meeting will lay the groundwork for the discussions G7 leaders will have in Charlevoix, including those on girls’ and women’s education and on innovative financing for development. Members of the Gender Equality Advisory Council for Canada’s G7 Presidency were invited to join in a portion of the ministers’ discussions.

Minister Bibeau and her G7 counterparts adopted four declarations in Whistler and agreed on a number of concrete actions to drive positive change in the international assistance landscape, including:

• making gender equality central to development cooperation;
• unlocking the power of adolescent girls for sustainable development by adopting integrated approaches to address the multiple barriers to their full empowerment and rights as human beings;
• addressing gender equality in humanitarian action that takes into account distinct needs and capacities;
• strengthening protection from sexual exploitation and abuse in international assistance; and
• accelerating innovation for development impact by encouraging new ways of working, investing in locally driven solutions, using evidence to drive decision making, taking intelligent risks, and by promoting inclusivity and engaging women and girls as both recipients and resources of innovation.

Quotes

“Canada is fully committed to working with our G7 partners to help ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is at the heart of international assistance. Six young women leaders who joined the meeting reminded us of the importance of consulting local communities and involving women and girls in decision making. Their participation, their ideas and their passion put a human face to the meeting and made the issues real for our G7 guests.”

- Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie

Quick facts

• These were the first G7 development ministers meetings since 2010 and the first since world leaders endorsed a range of landmark global development and humanitarian action plans such as Agenda 2030, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Agenda for Humanity and the Grand Bargain. 
• The G7 is an informal grouping of seven of the world’s advanced economies, comprising Canada, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Italy, as well as the European Union.
• Co-chaired by Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Isabelle Hudon, Ambassador of Canada to France, the Gender Equality Advisory Council is advising Canada in the context of its G7 presidency on how to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment across all themes, activities and initiatives. 

FULL DOCUMENT: https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/06/g7-development-ministers-meetings-focus-on-empowering-women-and-girls.html

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. After Trans Mountain, Trudeau to push for climate-change deal at G7 summit. Oil: Investor group calls for G7 leaders to boost climate efforts ‘with utmost urgency’
SHAWN McCARTHY, GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER

Mr. Trudeau’s climate leadership credentials are under attack after last week’s pipeline deal.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is looking to reassert Canada’s claim to climate change leadership at the coming Group of Seven summit, just a week after his government announced it would acquire the Trans Mountain oil pipeline and fund its expansion.

Mr. Trudeau will host Group of Seven political leaders at the summit in Charlevoix, Que., this week and has said support for the Paris climate change agreement is a key priority, despite opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The G7 leaders are being urged to accelerate action on climate change, given that current commitments under the Paris accord are insufficient to meet the goal of limiting the increase in average global temperatures to less than 2-degrees Celsius.

And while trade and security are expected to dominate discussions, Mr. Trudeau – in his role as chair of the meeting – is pushing for a commitment in climate change to be included in its final statement. He may be less inclined to seek compromise with Mr. Trump over climate change issues given the President’s antagonistic imposition of steel and aluminium tariffs last week.

However, Mr. Trudeau’s climate leadership credentials are under attack after last week’s pipeline deal, which aims to bolster the fortunes of the emissionsintensive oil sands sector.

Canadian environmentalists argue the

Liberal government’s support for the Trans Mountain pipeline and growth in the oil sands is inconsistent with its international commitments on climate change.

While there has been progress in reducing support for coal-fired power, Canadian government support for the oil and gas industry is the highest in the G7, when measured by size of the economy, says a report on fossil-fuel subsidies released Monday by four global environmental think tanks.

That conclusion was reached before the Liberal government announced it would acquire Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.’s Trans Mountain assets and finance its expansion project through Export Development Canada until a new buyer can be found. At the same time, the Alberta government will set up a $2-billion contingency fund to cover extraordinary cost overruns that may result from further politically inspired delays.

“With Kinder Morgan, we see the government going in as an investor; we don’t know exactly how this will play out and exactly what will be the subsidy portion,” said Yanick Touchette, a policy adviser with the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development and co-author of the report.

“It’s all the more reason to provide more transparency regarding the overall picture of support to the oil and gas industry … and come up with a plan how Canada plans to meet its commitments to remove inefficient [fossil-fuel] subsidies.”

Finance Minister Bill Morneau insists the federal deal for Trans Mountain is not a subsidy but rather an effort to get the project built in the face of politically motivated opposition by the British Columbia government.

“We look at the expansion as a commercially viable approach,” he said last week in Calgary. “The government is looking towards ensuring the political risks can be relieved. And of course, we believe that long-term, this asset, this pipeline will be owned by the private sector.”

However, Ottawa will be financing construction through the summer even before the deal closes, and has offered to protect any future buyers from delays caused by provincial-government interference. While the study on subsidies argues that the Canadian government is generous toward the industry, Conservative politicians and industry lobby groups complain that federal and provincial climate policies – including carbon taxes – are driving away private-sector investment.

A group of international investors – including some prominent Canadian institutions – are calling on the G7 leaders to increase their efforts – “with utmost urgency” – to reduce carbon emissions and encourage investment in low-carbon energy sources in order to meet Paris targets.

Among the signatories to the statement released Monday is the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, as well as some of the world’s largest banks and pension fund. While Mr. Trump has announced plans to pull out of the Paris accord, the other G7 leaders need to provide a strong endorsement for it at the Charlevoix meeting, said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, an American non-profit corporation that worked with institutional investors on the G7 statement.

Ms. Lubber suggested that Mr. Trudeau’s support for the oil sands pipeline is misguided both financially and from an environmental perspective. However, she added his government is still an international leader on climate action.

“Nobody is getting this perfect; the Prime Minister is getting it a lot better than many, many others,” she said.

Still, she argued the government-backed pipeline could become a money-losing venture in the long term as the world moves to reduce its use of fossil fuels.

“We are convinced that more money put into the oil sands, in the tens of billions of dollars, are very likely to become stranded assets,” she said in an interview.

The Globe and Mail. 4 Jun 2018. OPINION. Why we must push for a G7 plastics charter
JOHN COYNE, Vice-president, legal and external affairs at Unilever Canada and executive board chair of Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance (CSSA)

The federal government will advocate for a “plastics charter” at this week’s G7 summit in Quebec. Many are framing this charter as a potential Paris-style agreement for the clean-up of ocean garbage and Canadians can rightly take pride in this global leadership.

The plastics charter couldn’t be more timely or necessary. Every year, humans allow more than eight million tonnes of plastic to enter the world’s oceans. At this pace, there will be one pound of plastic for every three pounds of fish in the oceans by 2025. Already, microplastics are entering the food chain through ocean organisms at an alarming rate that will only accelerate without urgent, determined and co-ordinated action by governments, businesses and consumers.

Keeping plastics out of our oceans is not only right for the environment and the future of our species, it’s also good for business. Plastics are an important material with rapidly expanding uses, but 95 per cent of global plastic packaging ends up as waste and is lost to the economy, creating costs and lost opportunity.

The plastics charter will be an important step toward achieving a circular economy – one in which all plastics are recaptured as a reliable stream of resources to be properly repurposed. The elegant beauty behind a circular economy is that it’s an economy without a tailpipe. Nothing gets dumped into the ground, emitted into the atmosphere or shunted into our oceans and waterways. Waste is designed out of the system.

Another essential element of a circular economy is extended producer responsibility (EPR), which places the financial and operational responsibility for material recovery on the businesses that sell products to consumers. It creates a natural incentive to design products and packaging that have less impact on the environment. And, when accompanied by the operation of more efficient material-recovery systems, it can create the economies of scale necessary to support a circular economy.

In Canada, true EPR for packaging and paper is only in effect in British Columbia. Across the rest of the country, we have a patchwork of regulations and collection regimes. Four provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) regulate businesses with shared responsibility programs in which businesses pay either a portion or all of municipal recovery and recycling costs.

Shared responsibility causes fragmentation because it leaves the operational decisions to individual municipalities. Consequently, across a single province there can be hundreds of different recycling programs. Fragmentation creates confusion for consumers since neighbours across municipal boundaries are not recycling the same set of materials; businesses are not made accountable for their packaging choices because they have no way of influencing local programs; and essential economies of scale cannot be achieved.

But what is required to make EPR from coast-to-coast a successful reality? All levels of government, businesses and consumers have important roles to play to achieve better outcomes.

The federal government can take the lead by establishing a national framework that places the responsibility on businesses to collect and manage their packaging. It can establish common definitions for recycling, set targets and standardize labelling.

Provincial and territorial governments can collectively apply a national EPR framework that recognizes local geographic and socioeconomic realities while providing consistent regulatory oversight and enforcement. They can also stimulate better material recovery by using economic instruments such as disposal bans.

For municipalities and First Nations communities, there are opportunities to collaborate with businesses as commercial partners to achieve mutual benefits and better outcomes for residents.

Businesses that produce consumer materials have much to gain by assuming full responsibility for recycling their packaging and paper. Businesses can also set their own corporate packaging and recycled-content goals, which in turn can help drive up demand for recycled material.

And for all of us, we can learn to recycle frequently and well because as consumers, we need to adapt how we approach consumption.

EPR is a transcendent idea that you can find a compelling rationale for, regardless of your jurisdiction or your politics.

While a national framework for EPR won’t solve the plastics crisis or eliminate climate change on its own, it is an essential component of a circular economy. Leadership is necessary and Canadians are increasingly expecting a bolder, more effective range of solutions here and around the world. It’s time for everyone to play their part in building a prosperous, circular future.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

US. CHINA. The Globe and Mail. ASSOCIATED PRESS. 4 Jun 2018. China warns U.S. against Trump’s tax rhetoric. Beijing says any deals reached in current talks ‘will not take effect’ if U.S. President goes ahead with latest threat
JOE MCDONALD
PAUL WISEMAN

China said on Sunday it wouldn’t step up its purchases of American products if U.S. President Donald Trump goes ahead with his threat to tax billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. White House advisers insisted on fundamental changes in ties between the world’s two biggest economic powers.

China’s warning came after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, VicePremier Liu He, wrapped up a meeting on Beijing’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus. Mr. Ross said at the start of the event they had discussed specific U.S. exports China may purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.

“Both sides appear to have hardened their negotiating stances and are waiting for the other side to blink,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. “Despite the potential negative repercussions for both economies, the risk of a fullblown China-U.S. trade war, with tariffs and other trade sanctions being imposed by both sides, has risen significantly.”

Asked specifically on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures if the United States is willing to throw away its relationship with China by proceeding with threatened tariff hikes, Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, pointed in part to an unfair relationship involving a multibillion-dollar trade deficit, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis’s warning of China’s activities in the South China Sea and the threat of China stealing U.S. intellectual property.

“That’s a relationship with China that structurally has to change,” he said.

The United States has threatened to impose tariffs on up to US$50-billion of Chinese products in a dispute over Beijing’s aggressive tactics to challenge U.S. technological dominance; Mr. Trump has asked U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer to look for another US$100-billion in Chinese products to tax. China has targeted US$50-billion in U.S. products in retaliation.

Tensions temporarily eased on May 19 after China promised to “significantly increase” its purchases of U.S. farm, energy and other products. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said then that the U.S. tariffs were suspended and the trade war was “on hold.” The purchases are meant to reduce the United State’s massive trade deficit in goods and services with China, which last year came to US$337-billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

After the apparent ceasefire, global financial markets rallied in relief.

But Mr. Trump upended the truce last Tuesday by renewing his threat to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on US$50-billion in Chinese high-tech goods. The tariffs are meant to pressure Beijing for allegedly stealing trade secrets and forcing foreign companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market. Mr. Navarro later called Mr. Mnuchin’s conciliatory comments “an unfortunate soundbite.”

Mr. Ross nonetheless journeyed to Beijing on Friday to work out details of the vague agreement Mr. Mnuchin had earlier cobbled together with the Chinese Vice-Premier. China balked at making concessions unless the United States lifted the tariff threat.

The dispute with China comes at the same time Mr. Trump has riled some of the United States’ closest allies with the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

After a three-day meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial countries that ended Saturday in British Columbia, Finance Minister Bill Morneau issued a summary saying the other six members want Mr. Trump to hear their message of “concern and disappointment” over the U.S. trade actions.

Allies including Canada and the European Union are threatening retaliatory tariffs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the reciprocal tariffs would hurt both U.S. and Canadian workers and consumers. He also pushed back against the argument that Canadian steel poses a U.S. security threat.

“The idea that we are somehow a national-security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable,” he said.

“We regret that our common work together at the level of the G7 has been put at risk by the decisions taken by the American administration on trade and on tariffs,” he said.

ECONOMY

The Globe and Mail. JUNE 3, 2018. OPINION. Getting Canada to that elusive economic ‘sweet spot’
BARRIE MCKENNA, Columnist

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has talked a lot lately about the economy reaching a “sweet spot.”

Companies are running flat out and can’t produce more without adding workers or new capacity. Unemployment, now at 5.8 per cent, hasn’t been this low since 1974.

So life is pretty good, right?

It could be a whole lot better, according to labour economist Lars Osberg, a professor at Dalhousie University. Canadians suffer from “historical amnesia” when it comes to unemployment, he says. The country is still a long way from full employment, and the jobless rate is still much higher than it’s been for much of the postwar period, he argues in a recent paper. Between 1946 and 1975, unemployment averaged 4.7 per cent, and only briefly spiked above 6 per cent.

We’ve lived with higher unemployment for so long that many Canadians don’t know what a truly healthy job market looks like, Prof. Osberg says.

“Full employment can and should be reinstated as a major policy objective of Canadian governments,” he writes in his paper, Full Employment in Canada in the early 21stCentury.

This past week, Prof. Osberg joined 60 other economists in signing a letter to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, urging him to add the objective of “full and productive employment” to a new “multi-goal” mandate for the Bank of Canada that would also include price stability and protecting the value of the Canadian dollar.

Right now, the Bank of Canada has a single focus – keeping inflation at or near a 2-per-cent target. And it adjusts its key interest rate to keep prices stable. The mandate is renewable every five years under an agreement with the federal government that expires in 2021.

Prof. Osberg laments that the central bank’s successful control of inflation has produced stagnant wages, higher income inequality and heightened job insecurity.

Even Mr. Poloz would probably acknowledge that life could be better for workers. The Bank of Canada’s April monetary policy report says there is still some “slack” in the labour market. Wage gains remain relatively subdued, the youth jobless rate is high and the share of people who have been out of work for a long time remains above historic norms, according to the report.

Full employment is a laudable goal. It would create more opportunity for youth, disadvantaged minorities and new immigrants.

A decade of low interest rates and government deficit spending in Canada has already helped drive unemployment down to 5.8 per cent from nearly 9 per cent in 2009.

So why not go even further? The downside is that the tools available to drive unemployment lower could produce a host of unintended and unwanted consequences. The risk of higher inflation is only one of them.

Keeping interest rates artificially low acts as a tax on savers, particularly those on fixed incomes. Low rates fuel excessive borrowing at a time when household debt is already at a record high. Easy money also drives up the cost of homes, pricing younger buyers out of the market.

Another way to lower unemployment is by governments spending more. But fiscal stimulus also has its problems. To make a significant dent in the jobless rate, governments would have to either tax a lot more or add to their already hefty debt loads. The latter, in particular, shifts the burden of helping today’s unemployed to future generations.

In the end, achieving full employment may be less important than how we get there, argues Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets Inc.

“Full employment is a mark of success, [but] not all full employment equilibria are the same,” he pointed out in a research document last week. “The mix of spending that has taken us to this point, and how it’s been financed, leaves much to be desired, as does the nature of the jobs being created.”

The jobless rate has been driven lower by debt-financed consumption and housing, Mr. Shenfeld points out. Largely missing, however, has been an expansion of the export economy, which tends to generate more and better-paying jobs.

The goal, he says, should not be achieving full employment, but rather making Canada an attractive place for trade-oriented businesses to put down roots, which in turn will create good jobs.

That’s a different kind of sweet spot.

OAS (http://www.oas.org/en/)

Global Affairs Canada. June 1, 2018. Foreign Affairs Minister to attend Organization of American States’ General Assembly

Ottawa, Ontario - The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced she will visit Washington, D.C., to participate in the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) on June 4 and 5, 2018.

At the assembly, she will work to advance the rules-based international order, promote ways to foster strong democracies and respect for human rights and discuss how to address regional and international security issues.

To those ends, Minister Freeland will build on Canada’s leadership in addressing the crisis in Venezuela, continuing to call for a strong hemispheric response to the Maduro regime’s attacks on democracy and human rights.

Quotes

“Canada is committed to the Americas and is proud to be a member of the OAS. All the members of the organization have an obligation to stand up for the principles we collectively hold dear, most importantly democracy and human rights.”

- Hon. Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs

Quick facts

• The OAS is the premier multilateral organization of the Americas. Along with the Summit of the Americas process and broader inter-American system, it provides a key forum for hemispheric cooperation on issues of common interest.
• After 28 years as an observer, Canada became a member of the OAS on January 8, 1990.
• The upcoming General Assembly of the OAS will be held June 4 and 5 at OAS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is an annual meeting at the foreign-minister level to provide direction to the OAS for the coming year.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/06/foreign-affairs-minister-to-attend-organization-of-american-states-general-assembly.html

TOURISM

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. June 2, 2018. Statement by Minister Chagger to mark the close of Tourism Week 2018

Ottawa, ON — The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, issued the following statement marking the wrap-up of Tourism Week 2018:

 “Tourism Week 2018 has been exceptional, just as 2017 was for the Canadian tourism industry. Canadians from coast to coast to coast shared what makes their communities unique for visitors and showcased their hidden gems. They told us why tourism matters—the theme of this year’s Tourism Week—and so did the members of the tourism industry, which is more vibrant than ever in Canada.

 “Tourism matters to the nearly 1.8 million Canadians whose jobs are supported by this industry. It matters to young Canadians, who find more employment in tourism than in any other industry. And it matters to the nearly 200,000 entrepreneurs—mostly small businesses—who have built their livelihoods around tourism and the visitor economy.

“With 20.8 million tourists arriving in 2017, last year was the best year ever for Canadian tourism. We broke a new record for international tourism to Canada. There has never been a better opportunity for us to showcase our country’s must-see destinations and celebrate the unique attractions, experiences and adventures we have to offer.

“During Tourism Week, which is organized by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, I met with tourism industry leaders and stakeholders to get their input on issues affecting businesses in the tourism industry and to discuss the progress being made on national tourism issues. Our government recognizes the importance of tourism as an economic driver in our communities.

“As part of the 2018 Canada-China Year of Tourism (CCYT), I announced the launch of a CCYT-themed photo contest in collaboration with Canadian Geographic. We’ve asked Canadians to submit photos of little-known corners of the country as a way to promote Canada as a year-round tourist destination. I can’t wait to see the entries and discover new places!

“This is shaping up to be a very exciting year so far. Preliminary estimates show that 3.1 million tourists visited Canada from January to March 2018—the best first quarter on record.

“The Government of Canada launched Canada’s New Tourism Vision just over a year ago, and it’s clear our plan is working. We will continue to work with provinces, territories and the tourism sector to grow the industry and create good middle-class jobs.

“I offer my sincere thanks to all who made 2017 a year for the history books, and I look forward to an even more incredible year in 2018.”

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. June 1, 2018. Tourism Business Expanding to Offer Improved Visitor Experiences. Government of Canada invests $175,000 in Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures Limited

Broad Cove (NL) – In 2017, Canadians welcomed a record of 20.8 million international visitors to our shores. The tourism industry is vibrant from coast to coast to coast, as one in 10 jobs in Canada is associated with the visitor economy. Investing in tourism projects in both big cities and small communities throughout Atlantic Canada is essential to growing this important economic sector for Canadians. By investing in our tourism sector, we attract new visitors, grow businesses and create new ones, generating economic growth and good middle-class jobs.

That is why the Government of Canada has invested $175,000 to help Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures Limited expand its tour business with an accommodation facility to offer enhanced visitor experiences in the region.

To celebrate Tourism Week, Churence Rogers, 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), and the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, today announced this repayable investment through ACOA’s Business Development Program for the expansion.

Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures Limited has operated narrated boat tours, sightseeing tours and fishery-based experiences since 2005. This investment enabled the company to renovate and upgrade an existing waterfront property, adjacent to its tour business in Broad Cove, to offer a seven room inn, which opens today.

The expansion will enable Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures Limited to provide unique experiential tourism packages to visitors. This will include adventure tour packages combining activities such as whale watching, sightseeing boat tours and iceberg viewing with on-site accommodations.

This investment builds on commitments made by the Government of Canada and the four Atlantic Provinces to drive economic growth in the region through the Atlantic Growth Strategy by helping the region’s tourism industry attract more visitors and create new jobs across the region. This bold new approach is in line with Canada’s Tourism Vision, which seeks to make Canada a top-ten global tourism destination by 2025.

Today’s announcement comes as Canada celebrates Tourism Week from May 27 to June 2, 2018.

Quotes

“Growing tourism in this region is a key priority under the Atlantic Growth Strategy. Through strategic investments like this one in Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures, our government is helping local operators provide improved services and more enriching experiences for visitors, which will create a more modern and sustainable industry.”

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

“Our government recognizes that tourism is an important economic driver. We are proud to support local businesses, such as Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures, which offers visitors the chance to take in this region’s culture with unique experiences such as whale watching tours and accommodations that showcase local art and heritage. Atlantic Canada’s incredibly rich cultures, history and natural beauty are at the heart of many of the tourist attractions across the region, which our government recognizes as important contributors to our economy.”

- The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism

“It’s no secret that visitors are drawn to our province by the people and places that make it a unique and welcoming destination. Our government’s support for Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures is another example of how we are helping small businesses capitalize on opportunities to expand their operations, which will benefit the local economy with increased visitation to our region.”

- Churence Rogers, Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Burin-Trinity

“We are excited to be expanding our business with the addition of the Dildo Boathouse Inn, as well as the Music and Friends Café.  Visitors will get to experience our area’s culture with performances from local musicians all summer long and through the original art and local crafted furnishings we have included in each room.”

- Paula McEntegart, Co-owner, Dildo Island Boat Tours and Adventures Limited

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. June 1, 2018. Tourism Plan to Attract more Visitors to Miramichi River Region

Miramichi, NB – Last year was the best year ever for tourism in Canada, as we welcomed a record of 20.8 million international visitors to our shores. The tourism industry is an important economic driver in our communities, as one in 10 jobs in Canada is associated with the visitor economy. Investing in tourism projects in both big cities and small towns throughout Atlantic Canada is essential to growing this important economic sector for Canadians. By investing in our tourism sector, we attract new visitors, grow businesses and create new ones, generating economic growth for the middle class.

Thanks to investments by the federal and provincial governments, the Miramichi River Tourism Association will implement a strategic marketing plan to boost tourism throughout the region.

To celebrate Tourism Week , Pat Finnigan, Member of Parliament for Miramichi-Grand Lake,  on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), and the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, along with the Hon. Bill Fraser, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation made the announcement today.

The investment will support the overall implementation of a plan to boost tourism in the region, with a focus on exploring product and experience development for the Miramichi region’s regular season, piloting a shoulder season, and developing a food strategy.  The Government of Canada is providing a contribution of $129,957 through ACOA’s Business Development Program, while the Province of New Brunswick is investing $81,000 through the Regional Development Corporation.

This investment reflects the Government of Canada and the four Atlantic Provinces’ commitment to drive economic growth in the region through the Atlantic Growth Strategy by helping the region’s tourism industry attract more visitors and create new jobs across the region. This bold new approach is in line with Canada’s Tourism Vision, which seeks to make Canada a top-ten global tourism destination by 2025.

Today’s announcement comes as Canada celebrates Tourism Week from May 27 to June 2, 2018.

Quotes

“The tourism industry is a critical part of the Atlantic Canadian economy and offers tremendous opportunity for communities to develop their economies. Through the Atlantic Growth Strategy, the Government of Canada, together with the four Atlantic Provinces, are working to fuel expansion of tourism offerings in our communities. This investment will help prepare tourism operators throughout the Miramichi region to promote the best of what they have to offer to a global marketplace.” 

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

“The Government of Canada is proud to support the efforts of the Miramichi River Tourism Association to attract more tourists to the Miramichi region year-round and strengthen the local economy. As we celebrate Tourism Week, let’s recognize the talent of our local entrepreneurs, who help create unique experiences for the people visiting our communities. Atlantic Canada’s incredibly rich cultures, history and natural beauty are at the heart of many of the tourist attractions across the region, which our government recognizes as important contributors to our economy.”

- The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism 

“Enhancing our ability to promote tourism experiences in the Miramichi River region will have tremendous benefits for businesses and residents throughout the area. The implementation of this marketing plan will help to attract more visitors to our area and encourage longer stays, which will help drive economic growth and add vibrancy to our communities. We have so much to build on, and this will help us to further develop and promote our region as a unique and increasingly in-demand travel destination.”   

- Pat Finnigan, Member of Parliament for Miramichi-Grand-Lake

“Our funding will be used to help promote products and experiences with proven significance to potential visitors, as well as to residents of the Miramichi region. As a government, we are investing $100-million over the next eight years in order to increase tourism revenues from a $1.3-billion a year industry to a $2-billion by 2025. One of the ways in which we will achieve this is by investing strategically in the province’s marketing efforts.”

- Hon. Bill Fraser, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation  

“The Miramichi River Tourism Association is excited to partner with the provincial and federal governments on this project, and we look forward to the results. The future of Tourism in the Miramichi will depend on our ability to develop products and experiences that will attract travelers. Our brand, the Atlantic Canada’s Great Outdoors, truly represents our region. To package what we have as well as to develop new products ready for marketing to the world will unleash the potential and allow us to remain sustainable, competitive and innovative in a global travel destination market.”

- Monique Mills, Executive Director, Miramichi River Tourism Association

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. June 1, 2018. Local Company Will Bring Visitors Closer to Nature with Unique Experiences. Federal investment of $41,000 helps Linkum Tours Limited expand tourism business

Corner Brook (NL) – Last year was the best year ever for tourism in Canada, as we welcomed a record of 20.8 million international visitors to our shores. The tourism industry is an important economic driver in our communities, as one in 10 jobs in Canada is associated with the visitor economy. Investing in tourism projects in both big cities and small communities throughout Atlantic Canada is essential to growing this important economic sector for Canadians. By investing in the tourism sector, we attract new visitors, grow businesses and create new ones, generating economic growth for the middle-class.

To this end, the Government of Canada is investing $41,000 in Linkum Tours Limited to help expand its operation with viewing pods that will overhang the cliffs of Quirpon Island, enhancing visitor experiences with a unique way to view icebergs and whales.

To celebrate Tourism Week, Gudie Hutchings, Member of Parliament for Long Range Mountains, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), and the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, today announced this repayable contribution through ACOA’s Business Development Program for the initiative.

This investment will enable the company to install two transparent viewing pods with seating to allow for a unique and direct view of whales and icebergs in the waters below. The viewing pods will complement Linkum Tours’ existing operation and help sustain employment in the region. The first pod is expected to be in place by early July.

Linkum Tours Limited operates the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn located on Quirpon Island, the most northern point on Newfoundland. The converted lighthouse is a four star inn and has been designated a Canadian Signature Experience.

This investment builds on commitments made by the Government of Canada and the four Atlantic Provinces to drive economic growth in the region through the Atlantic Growth Strategy by helping the region’s tourism industry attract more visitors and create new jobs across the region. This bold new approach is in line with Canada’s Tourism Vision, which seeks to make Canada a top-ten global tourism destination by 2025.
Today’s announcement comes as Canada celebrates Tourism Week from May 27 to June 2, 2018.

Quotes

“The tourism industry makes a significant impact on Atlantic Canada’s economy and offers tremendous opportunity for further growth. That is why our government continues to work with tourism industry partners and businesses like Linkum Tours to help them improve and expand their tourism products to capitalize on emerging trends and opportunities that appeal to visitors from all over the world.”

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

“From coast to coast to coast, tourism is an important economic driver. The Government of Canada recognizes that Atlantic Canada’s incredibly rich cultures, history and natural beauty are important contributors to our economy and create good middle-class jobs.  Our government is proud to support projects like this one with Linkum Tours, which will contribute to this region’s growing tourism industry by enabling visitors to experience the tranquility, natural beauty and pristine wilderness of Quirpon Island.” 

- The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism

“Visitors to our province continue to seek out new and different adventures and authentic ways to experience our exceptional landscape, wildlife and local attractions. This investment is helping Linkum Tours to capitalize on a unique way to experience nature. It will enhance tourism in a rural region of our province and support local employment and spin-off activity on the Northern Peninsula.”

- Gudie Hutchings, Member of Parliament for Long Range Mountains

“Linkum Tours is happy to announce our latest addition, the ‘Iceberg Nest,’ a viewing station designed to allow guests to further enjoy the icebergs and whales at Quirpon Island. With increasing demand for close-to-nature travel, it's exciting to add this option to Newfoundland and Labrador travel this season. Linkum Tours is especially grateful to ACOA for their funding that helped make this vision a reality.”

- Ed English, Partner, Linkum Tours Limited

PM

1) June 3, 2018. Statement by the Prime Minister on Canadian Armed Forces Day

Ottawa, Ontario - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Canadian Armed Forces Day:

“Today, we honour the brave members of the Canadian Armed Forces for everything they have done – and continue to do – to serve our country. Time and time again, Canadians in uniform have gone into harm’s way to protect us and defend everything our country stands for. They have sacrificed their time, their physical and mental health, and, too often, their lives to help keep others safe and secure.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to these extraordinary Canadians, and they deserve the best possible training, care, and support. Canada’s new defence policy – Strong, Secure, Engaged – establishes a credible, realistic, and funded strategy for our military and, most importantly, will deliver the standard of service and care our Canadians in uniform deserve.

“As we salute Canada’s bravest, we also honour their loved ones and families. Military families deal with unique anxieties and challenges – from long separations, to frequent relocations, to the inherent risk that accompanies all those who serve. We are grateful for their sacrifice and enduring support.

“Today, I join all Canadians to thank past and present members of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families for their profound service and sense of duty. We honour these brave Canadians and all those who laid down their lives so we might live in a freer, safer, and more hopeful world.”

2) Itinerary for Monday, June 4, 2018

Note: All times local

Ottawa, Ontario

9:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the Cabinet meeting.

Note for media:

Ministers will be available in the foyer as of 12 p.m.

12:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the Canadian Steel Producers Association.

Closed to media

2:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will attend Question Period.

3) Itinerary for Sunday, June 3, 2018

Ottawa, Ontario

Media appearance

10:30 a.m. An interview with the Prime Minister will air on NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

4) Itinerary for Saturday, June 2, 2018

Ottawa, Ontario

Personal

5) June 1, 2018. World leaders coming together at the G7 Summit to protect our oceans, seas and coastal communities

Ottawa, Ontario - Healthy oceans, seas and coasts are essential to our way of life. They are a vast source of food and energy, and form the economic bedrock of countless communities and entire countries. They drive growth, create jobs and sustain people’s livelihoods around the world.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that Canada will welcome several world leaders and heads of international organizations to the G7 Summit to take part in a special outreach session, which will focus on healthy oceans and resilient coastal communities. It will be held on June 9, 2018.

The following leaders and heads of international organizations have been invited to the Outreach Session of the G7 Summit:

• Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina and Chair of the G20
• Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
• Jovenel Moïse, President of Haiti and Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica
• Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya
• Hilda Heine, President of the Marshall Islands
• Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway
• Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and Chair of the African Union
• Macky Sall, President of Senegal
• Danny Faure, President of Seychelles
• Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
• Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, Prime Minister of Vietnam
• Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
• José Ángel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank

These leaders and heads of international organizations will meet with G7 leaders to discuss how to build resilient coasts and communities, share ocean knowledge and science, and support sustainable oceans and fisheries. They will also explore how to best address pressing challenges, including plastics in our oceans and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Canada is committed to working with others in the G7 and beyond to strengthen resilience, fight climate change, and protect our oceans for generations to come. As with all work under Canada’s G7 presidency, these discussions will include a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Quote

“Our oceans and coasts are under considerable threat – from increases in plastic pollution, more frequent and severe weather events, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Resilient coastal communities and healthy oceans are vital to growing economies that work for everyone and that is why we are committed to working with others to protect the world’s oceans.”

—The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Quick Facts

• These leaders and heads of international organizations will also attend a dinner hosted by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, at the Citadelle of Québec.
• Canada holds the G7 presidency for 2018. Part of this role includes setting the agenda for the year, as well as organizing and hosting the Leaders' Summit, ministerial meetings, and other associated events.
• Canada is advancing domestic and international priorities framed under the following five key themes:
  • Investing in growth that works for everyone
  • Preparing for jobs of the future
  • Advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Working together on climate change, oceans, and clean energy
  • Building a more peaceful and secure world

FULL DOCUMENT: https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/06/01/world-leaders-coming-together-g7-summit-protect-our-oceans-seas-and-coastal

6) June 1, 2018. Prime Minister announces the appointment of a Senator

Ottawa, Ontario - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that the Governor General appointed Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia as an independent Senator to fill a vacancy in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Dr. Ravalia is a community leader, family physician, and senior medical officer at the Notre Dame Bay Memorial Health Centre in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and the Assistant Dean of Rural Medical Education Network at Memorial University.

Dr. Ravalia was recommended by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments and chosen using the merit-based process open to all Canadians. This process ensures Senators are independent, reflect Canada’s diversity, and are able to tackle the broad range of challenges and opportunities facing the country.

Quote

“I am pleased to welcome Parliament’s newest independent Senator, Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia. Dr. Ravalia’s vast knowledge and experience have earned him high respect in the medical field, and I am confident that he will be a great ambassador in the Senate, not just for Newfoundland and Labrador, but for all of Canada.”

—The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Quick Facts

• There have been 34 appointments to the Senate made on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• Under the Canadian Constitution, the Governor General appoints individuals to the Senate. By convention, Senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister.
• Since 2016, the selection process for Senators has been opened to allow all Canadians to apply. Candidate submissions are reviewed by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, which provides the Prime Minister with recommendations. From the recommended pool of candidates, the Prime Minister selects the individuals he then recommends to the Governor General for appointment to the Senate.
• The Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments is guided by public, transparent, non-partisan, and merit-based criteria to identify highly qualified candidates.
• Once appointed by the Governor General and summoned to the Senate, the new Senators join their peers to examine and revise legislation, investigate national issues, and represent regional, provincial, and minority interests – important functions in a modern democracy.

Biographical Notes

Dr. Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia is a physician, mentor, and community leader in Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador. Dr. Ravalia holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Rhodesia, in present-day Zimbabwe.

Dr. Ravalia overcame the apartheid in Zimbabwe and found the community environment he was missing in his native country in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. His deep appreciation for the province, its landscape, and its people comes from his unique experience as an immigrant.

Dr. Ravalia is currently a family physician, as well as a Senior Medical Officer at the Notre Dame Bay Memorial Health Centre. He is also an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and the Assistant Dean of Rural Medical Education Network at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is a member of many medical organizations, including the Medical Council of Canada NAC3 Committee, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, and the Atlantic Provinces Medical Peer Review. He is also a representative to the Group on Regional Medical Campuses. Due to his expertise, he was also consulted on the Primary Health Care Framework for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Beyond his professional commitments, Dr. Ravalia is also an active member of his community who worked throughout his career to reach marginalized peoples and communities.

Dr. Ravalia has been recognized for his dedication to the medical field and his contribution to rural medicine in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has been awarded the Canadian Family Physician of the Year Award and received the Order of Canada. In 2012, Dr. Ravalia was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Dr. Ravalia and his wife Dianne have two sons, Adam and Mikhail. During his free time, he enjoys travelling, reading, and playing golf.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/06/01/prime-minister-announces-appointment-senator

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LGCJ.: