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Hello,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned to the public eye today, after a summer vacation. The holiday was the first he and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, embarked on as co-parents, since announcing their separation on Aug. 2.
While Mr. Trudeau was off for private family time, vast swathes of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia were burning. With states of emergency being declared, residents of Yellowknife, Kelowna and other cities and towns fled from the destruction of the worst wildfire season on record.
Mr. Trudeau, in Prince Edward Island for meetings before kicking off his cabinet retreat this afternoon, had a delicate needle to thread politically. The rhetoric around the retreat was that it would be all about refocusing on affordability and housing – the two issues causing the greatest consternation among the public, and areas where Mr. Trudeau’s government is facing criticism from Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
But with smoke blanketing massive areas of the country, exhausted firefighters still battling to limit the destruction and tens of thousands of emotional residents far from homes they can only hope are still standing, there was an obvious shift in top-line priorities required.
“People are facing horrific situations, people are fleeing for their lives, they’re worried about their communities,” Mr. Trudeau said of the wildfires. “And Canadians from coast to coast to coast are watching in horror the images of apocalyptic devastation, and fires going on in communities that so many of us know and so many of us have friends in. This is a scary and heartbreaking time for people.”
Mr. Trudeau announced that the Incident Response Group – a round table of relevant ministers who meet when a major crisis is afoot – would meet Monday afternoon, before the cabinet retreat kicked off. He highlighted that his government is trying to provide emergency supports for the current moment – including Service Canada capacity and accelerating Employment Insurance payments – but also looking “towards the moment” when the people who have fled can return home and rebuild their lives.
The Prime Minister also took aim at the tech giants who have blocked access to news in Canada in response to Bill C-18, saying it is “inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of ensuring that local news organizations can get up-to-date information” in an emergency situation.
