Goldy Hyder laughed a bit when a reporter asked him Thursday evening what he thought Canada had accomplished at this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.
“It’s a short list, unfortunately,” the president of the Business Council of Canada said, before lamenting something Canada hasn’t accomplished yet: membership in U.S. President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). It’s a group of 14 trading partners that concluded agreements this week on supply chain protections, lowering carbon emissions and fighting corruption — while promising more collaboration to come.
There’s no question Canadian officials from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on down were busy taking meetings all week.
“We’re doing the work,” Trade Minister Mary Ng insisted when reporters questioned why Canada still isn’t in IPEF, despite her insistence that all the current members would support having Canada at the table.
Unlike the U.S., which pulled out of its Pacific Rim trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, when Donald Trump took over in 2017, Canada stayed in and pushed to rename the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Trudeau, Xi stand next to each other in APEC leaders’ photo
Featured Videorime Minister Justin Trudeau stood next to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the leaders’ photo at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in San Francisco.
As Canada takes over as chair of the CPTPP in 2024 and celebrates its fifth year of implementation with its first new recruit — the dubiously Pacific nation of the United Kingdom — Ng said one of her top three priorities would be ensuring the deal lives up to its “progressive” rebranding and supports smaller businesses, women entrepreneurs, and Indigenous enterprises.
But it’s this kind of values-driven foreign policy that’s left stakeholders frustrated with how Trudeau’s government approaches summits like APEC.
Hyder suggested multiple times this week the Liberals need to read the room and understand how things have changed during their tenure. Given wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and growing threats in the South China Sea, investors are anxious about big international ventures that could otherwise be driving economic growth.
“This is a complicated environment in which we operate,” he said. “It is not the time to preach … It is time to be pragmatic.”
He said recent speeches by Foreign Minister Melanie Joly have sounded more on point about the imperative of working with regimes that are less aligned with Canadian principles. He also pointed out that a country like Australia manages, by taking a more practical approach, to sit at more international tables than Canada, serving its national interests well.
Australia is one of a half-dozen or so countries that find value in participating in Biden’s IPEF talks even though they also enjoy the liberalizing benefits of the CPTPP’s tariff cuts, market access and harmonized standards.
CPTPP remains more compelling, ambassador says
Canada’s year-old Indo-Pacific strategy is overseen by its ambassador in Tokyo, Ian McKay.
Speaking to reporters at APEC, McKay appeared to throw shade at IPEF, saying that the CPTPP is “much more compelling” and beneficial to Canada than “other non-binding, almost voluntary agreements.”
“The work that we need to be doing with our partners in the region is being done,” he insisted, echoing Ng’s point from the day before. “If IPEF comes and they have a process whereby new aspirants can join, I have full confidence that Canada will be the first.”
“If” is the operative word in that statement. For now, there is no process to join. And not everything about it is redundant.
Biden, Xi meet face-to-face for 1st time in a year
Featured VideoAfter a year of silence, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke face-to-face for the first time ahead of this year’s APEC Summit in San Francisco. Both leaders acknowledged the importance of the meeting and of continuing dialogue.
IPEF includes countries that Canada is still struggling to negotiate trade deals with, including large southeast Asian markets like Indonesia as well as the notoriously protectionist India.
Both Ng and McKay began saying the quiet part out loud this week: the prospect of restarting trade talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is now contingent on India’s cooperation in investigating and bringing the murderer(s) of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar to justice.
How long all this takes, and how much IPEF moves along without Canada in the meantime, remains to be seen.
If the IPEF club does admit Canada in the future, Ottawa may have to sign on to text it wasn’t at the table to shape, with countries that weren’t necessarily looking out for Canada’s interests.
The political environment in Washington, with populist trade skepticism rampant on both sides of the congressional aisle, won’t let the Biden administration negotiate anything resembling a trade deal at the moment. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo admits IPEF is unlikely to be a trade deal, per se — as a presidential election year looms.
That doesn’t mean, however, its convening power can’t facilitate more investment and trade for American businesses if the Biden administration pulls this off.
The APEC summit saw leaders from almost two dozen member states gather in San Francisco to discuss economic development. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)
As he posed for a family photo with other leaders and ministers in San Francisco Thursday, Biden saluted what IPEF had been able to negotiate in “record time,” calling its work a “race to the top.”
Biden also announced that the deal would include a critical minerals dialogue, something that risks eating Canada’s lunch on one of the strongest emerging exports Canada has to offer a world transitioning from fossil fuels to electric and hydrogen batteries.
Critical minerals
Canada’s ambassador in Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has been heavily engaged in positioning Canada as America’s top supply chain partner for critical minerals. She downplayed this new IPEF initiative as a warning sign Americans might look outside North America for suppliers.
“I’m not really seeing any worries about [Canada] being anything but at the forefront of this dialogue internationally,” Hillman said, noting that critical minerals are part of the economic “pillar” in Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. “We’re talking to all countries … there’s no magic to one particular configuration or another.”
Hillman said once the outcome of IPEF discussions is known, Canada can analyze what joining means.
Hyder agrees that other countries want Canada as a critical minerals supplier. But in his conversations from a business perspective, he’s detecting skepticism that Canada will be able to deliver.
“Are we going to create the regulatory and permitting process that has a predictable, stable environment in which businesses can invest with confidence that, irrespective of elections … the projects are able to move forward,” he said. “If these other countries that we’re competing with can do that, they will draw the capital and they will be the ones that will end up being part of that supply chain.”
Trade diversity still a priority
The U.S. turned to Canada in its push to be less reliant on the world’s dominant battery provider: China. But too much focus on North American supply chains brings the same risk for Canada that it’s experienced when relying too much on the U.S. for other kinds of trade.
“Our national interest is to have more than a single market,” Hyder said. “It’s important for Canada to be able to trade their assets to different countries so that those countries have to compete to pay for those assets.”
Trudeau said Friday that Canada can pursue multiple partnerships at once, without being at the IPEF table.
Featured VideoThe House takes an in-depth look at Canada’s efforts to become a leader in the development of critical minerals. Hugues Jacquemin and Kirsty Liddicoat, executives of Northern Graphite, explain their efforts to expand. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson explains how the government is responding. Mark Podlasly talks about his efforts to help First Nations secure their interests, and experts Nate Wallace, Alisha Hiyate and Ian London weigh in on what Canada should be doing to respond to what some are calling the new gold rush.
“We have critical minerals engagements with the United States that is strengthening and seeing a lot of real investments and supports in Canada,” he said, while also noting that Canada’s strategy includes work with Australia and Indonesia that also will continue.
What’s missing is an admission of how hard it is for Canada to pursue an independent foreign policy.
“The perception of Canada from the rest of the world is directly proportionate to how America perceives us,” Hyder said. “And if America leaves us on the outside of something as important to them as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, it suggests they don’t want us in there, or Mexico for that matter. And it’s troubling.”
If Canada can’t leverage its relationship with the U.S., it will hurt its ability to have influence and impact, Hyder added.
Highlights from President Biden’s visit to Canada
Featured VideoKirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., gives her thoughts on President Biden’s visit to Canada, while CBC’s Rosemary Barton and Alex Panetta break down the big pledges that came out of it and what could change for both countries as a result.
The U.S. may have no strategic interest in facilitating Canada’s economic success in Asia, even as Canada benefits diplomatically from the U.S. re-engaging, particularly with China.
Hillman said Biden’s hours-long discussion with Xi on Wednesday is “good for the world.”
“It’s important for that line of communication to be open,” she said. “As a diplomat, I always think… we need to be talking to each other. We do engage with the Chinese at senior official levels, and there are other discussions that will flow.”
As reporters tried to draw more detail out of Trudeau about his own brief interaction with Xi Thursday, the prime minister suggested in French that Canada might eventually sit down with China for a bilateral meeting. But things aren’t there yet.
In the meantime, at least nothing between them got worse. Trudeau chided a reporter for suggesting that in a summit devoid of announcements from the Canadian delegation, making no news — staying discrete, low-key and controversy-free — might be strategic.
“If you don’t think that doing good work with people across the Indo-Pacific is news, well, that’s a reflection the media has to take,” he said. “There is good work being done here and I think that is important news for Canadians.”
Put another way: it’s a summit. Don’t underestimate the importance of talking.
OTTAWA – Several federal political parties are expressing reservations about the prospect of fresh regulations to prevent foreign meddlers from tainting their candidate nomination processes.
Elections Canada has suggested possible changes to safeguard nominations, including barring non-citizens from helping choose candidates, requiring parties to publish contest rules and explicitly outlawing behaviour such as voting more than once.
However, representatives of the Bloc Québécois, Green Party and NDP have told a federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference that such changes may be unwelcome, difficult to implement or counterproductive.
The Canada Elections Act currently provides for limited regulation of federal nomination races and contestants.
For instance, only contestants who accept $1,000 in contributions or incur $1,000 in expenses have to file a financial return. In addition, the act does not include specific obligations concerning candidacy, voting, counting or results reporting other than the identity of the successful nominee.
A report released in June by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians expressed concern about how easily foreign actors can take advantage of loopholes and vulnerabilities to support preferred candidates.
Lucy Watson, national director of the NDP, told the inquiry Thursday she had concerns about the way in which new legislation would interact with the internal decision-making of the party.
“We are very proud of the fact that our members play such a significant role in shaping the internal policies and procedures and infrastructure of the party, and I would not want to see that lost,” she said.
“There are guidelines, there are best practices that we would welcome, but if we were to talk about legal requirements and legislation, that’s something I would have to take away and put further thought into, and have discussions with folks who are integral to the party’s governance.”
In an August interview with the commission of inquiry, Bloc Québécois executive director Mathieu Desquilbet said the party would be opposed to any external body monitoring nomination and leadership contest rules.
A summary tabled Thursday says Desquilbet expressed doubts about the appropriateness of requiring nomination candidates to file a full financial report with Elections Canada, saying the agency’s existing regulatory framework and the Bloc’s internal rules on the matter are sufficient.
Green Party representatives Jon Irwin and Robin Marty told the inquiry in an August interview it would not be realistic for an external body, like Elections Canada, to administer nomination or leadership contests as the resources required would exceed the federal agency’s capacity.
A summary of the interview says Irwin and Marty “also did not believe that rules violations could effectively be investigated by an external body like the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.”
“The types of complaints that get raised during nomination contests can be highly personal, politically driven, and could overwhelm an external body.”
Marty, national campaign director for the party, told the inquiry Thursday that more reporting requirements would also place an administrative burden on volunteers and riding workers.
In addition, he said that disclosing the vote tally of a nomination contest could actually help foreign meddlers by flagging the precise number of ballots needed for a candidate to be chosen.
Irwin, interim executive director of the Greens, said the ideal tactic for a foreign country would be working to get someone in a “position of power” within a Canadian political party.
He said “the bad guys are always a step ahead” when it comes to meddling in the Canadian political process.
In May, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service at the time, said it was very clear from the design of popular social media app TikTok that data gleaned from its users is available to the Chinese government.
A December 2022 CSIS memo tabled at the inquiry Thursday said TikTok “has the potential to be exploited” by Beijing to “bolster its influence and power overseas, including in Canada.”
Asked about the app, Marty told the inquiry the Greens would benefit from more “direction and guidance,” given the party’s lack of resources to address such things.
Representatives of the Liberal and Conservative parties are slated to appear at the inquiry Friday, while chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault is to testify at a later date.
After her party representatives appeared Thursday, Green Leader Elizabeth May told reporters it was important for all party leaders to work together to come up with acceptable rules.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – The Métis Nation of Saskatchewan has pulled out of a national body representing Métis, citing problems with an Ontario group and throwing the future of the Métis National Council into question.
In a resolution passed Thursday morning, the Saskatchewan group says the Métis Nation of Ontario, which is a member of the national body, accepts and continues to represent people who are not Métis.
“The Métis National Council has increasingly been used for advocacy purposes that are inconsistent with its original mandate and vision, diverting from the foundational role of representing Métis rights and self-determination,” the resolution says.
It also says the Métis National Council has failed to ensure the integrity of the Ontario group’s citizenship registry and has not rectified problems, despite constant calls to do so.
The resolution says its continued association with the Métis Nation of Ontario “no longer benefits the Métis Nation within Saskatchewan or the Métis Nation as a whole.”
The Métis Nation of Ontario did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has previously defended its citizenship registry as being legitimate.
The departure of the Saskatchewan group comes years after the Manitoba Métis Federation withdrew from the council, citing similar concerns about the Métis Nation of Ontario.
“This was not a decision our government made lightly but one we felt necessary. Our (Métis Nation of Saskatchewan) government and our Métis communities need to have control over our identity and culture while making decisions that align with the values of our Saskatchewan Métis Nation,” said president Glen McCallum in a statement on Thursday.
The Métis National Council was, until Thursday, comprised of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, the Métis Nation of Alberta, the Métis Nation of Ontario and the Métis Nation of British Columbia.
The Saskatchewan group was a founding member of the national body, along with the Alberta group and the Manitoba Métis Federation.
According to the national council’s bylaws, quorum for its board of governors meetings must include two of the founding members. As of now only one remains, bringing into question the future of the organization, which often works with the federal government and advocates internationally for Métis.
Will Goodon, who serves as the Manitoba Métis Federation’s housing minister, said the national body is “dead today.”
“A meeting cannot be held. And they cannot change the bylaws without having a board of governors meeting,” he wrote on X.
Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron announced earlier this year she would not be seeking re-election, leaving an open contest for someone to fill her post.
The board voted to postpone and reschedule a September vote and general assembly to November. Caron said in a newsletter that her term will end on Sept. 30 either way.
The Saskatchewan group had already pulled support for federal legislation that would enshrine its self-government over concerns about the Métis Nation of Ontario and the Métis Nation of Alberta, which were also included.
McCallum said in April the legislation was holding the group back, and that they needed to put the needs of Métis in Saskatchewan first.
First Nations chiefs in Ontario and the Manitoba Métis Federation consistently raised concerns about the Ontario group as the legislation was being studied by a House of Commons committee, with Métis Nation of Ontario president Margaret Froh billing the self-government process as the longest in Canadian history.
First Nations chiefs in Ontario have accused the federal government of overstepping its jurisdiction and alleged the legislation infringes on their rights.
The Assembly of First Nations, which represents some 630 chiefs across Canada, passed a resolution calling for the federal government to kill the legislation altogether. The AFN’s concerns are mainly focused on six new communities the Métis Nation of Ontario and the province recognized in 2017, which it says have no historical basis to exist.
The Manitoba Métis Federation has also opposed the extension of self-government to the Métis Nation of Ontario, saying the Ontario group’s membership is not on par with its definition of Métis.
The Métis Nation of Ontario has disputed that, pushing back against the idea Métis only exist around the Red River in Manitoba.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
MONTREAL – Quebec’s ombudsperson is warning that public services are becoming “dehumanized” in the province amid a rise in demand for them.
Marc-André Dowd released his annual report today, which highlights several examples of people receiving inadequate care across the health network in the 12 months leading to March 31.
One dying man who lived alone was denied help cleaning his cat’s litter box by his local health clinic, a service Dowd says should have been given for “humanitarian reasons.”
Dowd also describes staff at a long-term care home feeding residents “mechanically” and talking among each other — despite health ministry guidelines directing staff to maintain eye contact with residents.
The ombudsperson says his office received a record number of problems to investigate across the province’s public services — 24,867 compared with 22,053 last year.
He says his office investigated 13,358 cases between April 2023 and March of this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
