Economy
Minister Jordan launches engagement on Canada's new Blue Economy Strategy – Canada NewsWire
OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 8, 2021 /CNW/ – With the world’s longest coastline and connected to three oceans, Canada is well positioned to be a global leader in the blue economy – an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs, while ensuring healthy oceans and sustainable ocean industries.
Building a blue economy that benefits Canadians from coast to coast to coast requires input from people in coastal communities and across the country. That’s why today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Bernadette Jordan, officially launched the engagement phase in the development of Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy. Whether it is through new products and technologies to enhance sustainability in the commercial fishing industry, exploring offshore renewable energy to transition to net-zero emissions, encouraging sustainable tourism in coastal regions, enhancing international trade, or developing new green technologies and practices in ocean-related fields, all Canadians have a vested interest in determining how to grow our ocean sectors responsibly and sustainably.
To kick off the engagement, the Minister will host a series of virtual roundtables with ocean innovators, academia, women and global leaders, and the fishing and aquaculture industries. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is also launching a Blue Economy Strategy website today, where Canadians will be invited to provide their views and input. Engagement will continue until June 15, 2021, and the feedback received will inform the development of this whole-of-government strategy, which will be released in late fall. Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy is expected to contribute to sustainable oceans, drive investment in our ocean industries, and create jobs in coastal communities as Canada charts its economic recovery from COVID-19.
Over seven million people live on Canada’s coasts and our ocean industries contribute approximately $31.7 billion to Canada’s GDP every year. With vast ocean spaces, and extensive oceans research capacity, we are in an enviable position to harness even more ocean growth potential in the years to come – and the consultations launched today are the first step in this important process.
Quotes
“Canada’s blue economy should be second to none. That’s why we’re developing a strategy to make our ocean industries more sustainable, more productive and more prosperous. This is about creating more long-term opportunities for our coastal communities, by working with the ocean on its terms. Canadians understand that action on climate change is vital to sustainability and economic growth, and building a thriving, sustainable ocean economy is no different. The Blue Economy Strategy will help steer federal investments and actions, on all three coasts, across all ocean sectors, toward a single goal: to get more Canadians working on and in the water.”
The Honourable Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
“A Blue Economy Strategy means long-term prosperity for coastal and Indigenous communities. A comprehensive strategy will reflect the input of all Canadians, further protect our ocean-based resources while increasing our competitiveness.”
The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources
“Our government understands that Canadians have always had a strong connection with our coasts and waterways. The Blue Economy Strategy aligns and complements what is being accomplished through Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan. Together, with Indigenous communities and stakeholders, we’re investing in protecting the environment while growing the economy by working to create a world-leading marine safety system that improves responsible shipping, protects Canada’s waters and strengthens response measures.”
The Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport
“The oceans are a vital lifeline for Indigenous peoples in Canada’s North and Arctic, for everything from hunting, to fishing, to the delivery of goods through Sealift. It is essential that the unique needs of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities in the North are reflected in Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy. This will help drive future activities that protect these waters while enhancing economic opportunities. That is why we need partners from across Canada to engage in the development of this important strategy.”
The Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs
“If Canada is going to remain a leader in the blue economy, we need to continue to develop new technologies and solutions that allow us to increase productivity in our ocean sectors while enhancing their protection to ensure sustainability. Our world leading ocean-innovators will play a vital role in the future of our ocean sectors.”
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
“Our ocean economy will only continue to grow, and by having a comprehensive Blue Economy Strategy, we can ensure that our actions and investments are coordinated to ensure proper stewardship of Canada’s blue resources. This will in turn lead to long-term economic prosperity for those who depend on our ocean sectors, including tourism businesses in coastal communities.”
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages
Quick Facts
- The World Bank defines the blue economy as the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health.
- Pre-COVID-19, Canada’s ocean-based economy contributed significantly to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding approximately $31.7 billion annually (1.6 per cent of total GDP) and nearly 300,000 jobs across a broad range of sectors.
- DFO will continue working with federal partners, including Transport Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Infrastructure Canada, Global Affairs Canada, regional development agencies, and others, to advance this whole-of-government federal initiative.
- Indigenous peoples will be engaged through ministerial and departmental roundtables, and all Indigenous peoples will be able to share their views about how a Blue Economy Strategy could better serve their economic and environmental priorities through the online engagement website. Indigenous peoples bring vast knowledge and valuable experience given their longstanding and close relationship with Canada’s oceans.
- The Government of Canada has taken strong action and leadership in the area of ocean protection and conservation. This includes ongoing actions under the Oceans Protection Plan, and a public commitment to protect 25 per cent of Canada’s marine and coastal areas by 2025, and 30 per cent by 2030. The future success of our blue economy will be enabled by this comprehensive environmental agenda.
Associated Links
Stay Connected
SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada
For further information: Jane Deeks, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, 343-550-9594, [email protected]; Media Relations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 613-990-7537, [email protected]
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China’s world-beating electric vehicle industry, at the heart of growing trade tensions with the US and Europe, is set to receive a big boost from the government’s latest effort to accelerate growth.
That’s one takeaway from what Beijing has revealed about its plan for incentives that will encourage Chinese businesses and households to adopt cleaner technologies. It’s widely expected to be one of this year’s main stimulus programs, though question-marks remain — including how much the government will spend.
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German business sentiment improved to its highest level in a year — reinforcing recent signs that Europe’s largest economy is exiting two years of struggles.
An expectations gauge by the Ifo institute rose to 89.9. in April from a revised 87.7 the previous month. That exceeds the 88.9 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. A measure of current conditions also advanced.
“Sentiment has improved at companies in Germany,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said. “Companies were more satisfied with their current business. Their expectations also brightened. The economy is stabilizing, especially thanks to service providers.”
A stronger global economy and the prospect of looser monetary policy in the euro zone are helping drag Germany out of the malaise that set in following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said last week that the country may have “turned the corner,” while Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also expressed optimism, citing record employment and retreating inflation.
There’s been a particular shift in the data in recent weeks, with the Bundesbank now estimating that output rose in the first quarter, having only a month ago foreseen a contraction that would have ushered in a first recession since the pandemic.
Even so, the start of the year “didn’t go great,” according to Fuest.
“What we’re seeing at the moment confirms the forecasts, which are saying that growth will be weak in Germany, but at least it won’t be negative,” he told Bloomberg Television. “So this is the stabilization we expected. It’s not a complete recovery. But at least it’s a start.”
Monthly purchasing managers’ surveys for April brought more cheer this week as Germany returned to expansion for the first time since June 2023. Weak spots remain, however — notably in industry, which is still mired in a slump that’s being offset by a surge in services activity.
“We see an improving worldwide economy,” Fuest said. “But this doesn’t seem to reach German manufacturing, which is puzzling in a way.”
Germany, which was the only Group of Seven economy to shrink last year and has been weighing on the wider region, helped private-sector output in the 20-nation euro area strengthen this month, S&P Global said.
–With assistance from Joel Rinneby, Kristian Siedenburg and Francine Lacqua.
(Updates with more comments from Fuest starting in sixth paragraph.)
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When Moscow resident Zoya, 62, was planning a trip to Italy to visit her daughter last August, she saw the perfect opportunity to buy the Apple Watch she had long dreamed of owning.
Officially, Apple does not sell its products in Russia.
The California-based tech giant was one of the first companies to announce it would exit the country in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
But the week before her trip, Zoya made a surprise discovery while browsing Yandex.Market, one of several Russian answers to Amazon, where she regularly shops.
Not only was the Apple Watch available for sale on the website, it was cheaper than in Italy.
Zoya bought the watch without a moment’s delay.
The serial code on the watch that was delivered to her home confirmed that it was manufactured by Apple in 2022 and intended for sale in the United States.
“In the store, they explained to me that these are genuine Apple products entering Russia through parallel imports,” Zoya, who asked to be only referred to by her first name, told Al Jazeera.
“I thought it was much easier to buy online than searching for a store in an unfamiliar country.”
Nearly 1,400 companies, including many of the most internationally recognisable brands, have since February 2022 announced that they would cease or dial back their operations in Russia in protest of Moscow’s military aggression against Ukraine.
But two years after the invasion, many of these companies’ products are still widely sold in Russia, in many cases in violation of Western-led sanctions, a months-long investigation by Al Jazeera has found.
Aided by the Russian government’s legalisation of parallel imports, Russian businesses have established a network of alternative supply chains to import restricted goods through third countries.
The companies that make the products have been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on these unofficial distribution networks.
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