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Hello,
The federal government is suspending a number of vaccination requirements for travel and federal employees, citing progress in vaccination efforts and declining case counts to justify the measures.
Ministers attending a news conference Tuesday said that, as of June 20, vaccination requirements for domestic and outbound travel, federally regulated transportation sectors and federal employees will be suspended.
“Today we can announce adjustments to our health measures because Canadians have done what they needed to do protect one another, and followed public health guidelines,” said Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
He noted the policy shift is not aimed at reducing wait times at Canadian airports, which he said are mainly caused by staffing shortages.
However, he said that if the pandemic takes a turn for the worse, the government is prepared to bring back policies necessary to protect Canadians.
Health Minister Jean Yves-Duclos elaborated on that point. “While the suspension of vaccine mandates reflects an improved public health situation in Canada, the COVID-19 virus continues to evolve rapidly and circulate in Canada and globally,” he said.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the news conference there is no change to policy for travellers entering Canada. Vaccination for travellers and crew on cruise ships will remain in place, he said.
Transportation reporter Eric Atkins and parliamentary reporter Marieke Walsh report here on Tuesday’s developments.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
CANADA’S 2030 OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY CLIMATE TARGETS NOT FEASIBLE: GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS – Confidential government documents show a large gap between the federal Liberals’ promised target for reducing the oil and gas industry’s greenhouse gas emissions and what an internal analysis says is achievable by 2030. Story here.
JOLY OFFICE KNEW ABOUT PLANS FOR DIPLOMAT TO ATTEND RUSSIAN EMBASSY PARTY – The office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly knew a senior department official would be attending a party at the Russian embassy in Ottawa last Friday and was pressed to apologize by the Prime Minister’s Office. Story here.
QUEBEC TECH SECTOR RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT LANGUAGE-LAW REFORM – Quebec’s most sweeping language law overhaul in nearly half a century is raising alarm among the province’s homegrown technology companies, whose executives say the reinforcement of requirements for immigrants and businesses to use French threatens to do enormous and lasting economic damage. Story here.
SIKH ORGANIZATION PROTESTS ARREST OF TWO ORGANIZERS – The World Sikh Organization of Canada says Canadian law enforcement should fully investigate and prosecute those involved in providing the tip that led to the wrongful arrest of two organizers of a Sikh rally near Parliament Hill. Story here.
B.C. ACTOR PLANNED TO KILL PM – A British Columbia actor who has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his mother had a plan to drive to Ottawa to kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the days following her killing. Story here from CBC.
MORE COUNTRIES JOINING CANADA AND U.S.TO COUNTER BEIJING MINERAL AMBITIONS – The Biden administration’s point person on securing supplies of rare earth minerals says more and more countries are joining with Canada and the United States as part of Washington’s push to counter Beijing’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains. Story here.
FEDERAL BILL TO CALL FOR REPORTING RANSOMWARE, CYBERATTACKS – Businesses and other private-sector organizations would be required to report ransomware incidents and other cyberattacks to the government under a federal bill to be tabled Tuesday. Story here.
MP APOLOGIZES FOR CURSING CRITIC – Ontario MP Adam van Koeverden has apologized for cursing at a Canadian living abroad who called the former Olympian a “disgrace of a Canadian” for the way he dealt with her concerns about vaccine mandates. Story here from CBC.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is campaigning in Ontario this week. Jean Charest is in Toronto. Leslyn Lewis in her riding, Haldimand-Norfolk, in Ontario. Pierre Poilievre is in Ottawa. There is no word on the campaign whereabouts of Roman Baber and Patrick Brown.
NEW BOOK FROM CHAREST CO CHAIR – Tasha Kheiriddin, co-chair for Jean Charest’s campaign, has a new book out soon on the challenges facing the federal Conservative party. The Right Path: How Conservatives Can Unite, Inspire and Take Canada Forward is published by Optimum Publishing International, and due out July 2. A precis on the publisher’s website says the book is a “complete and thorough examination as to what has gone wrong with the Conservatives in Canada” and presents a path forward. In a tweet Tuesday, Ms. Kheiriddin wrote that she started writing the book last October before the leadership race started – the Conservative caucus ousted Erin O’Toole on Feb. 2, and she has spoken to grassroots members, past and present leaders and supporters of other campaigns.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, June 14, accessible here.
PLANS FOR PICKING NEW UCP LEADER – Members of Alberta’s United Conservative Party will be electing a new leader, succeeding Jason Kenney, on Oct. 6 using a mail-in ballot, with an option to vote in-person at one of five polling locations across the province, according to Calgary-based Energy Reporter Emma Graney. Entering the race comes with a $150,000 fee and a $25,000 refundable compliance deposit. The rules are here.
FREELAND APPEARS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON EMERGENCY – In Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is appearing at a the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency. The event will be streamed live here starting at 6:30 p.m. Details on other Commons committee hearings are here.
JOLY HOSTING DANISH AND GREENLAND REPRESENTATIVES – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is hosting her Danish counterpart Jeppe Kofod, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte B. Egede, and Greenland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Motzfeldt in Ottawa from Tuesday to Wednesday for talks on various issues, including a matter covered here.
YELLEN COMING TO TORONTO – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be visiting Toronto on June 20 for meetings and events with Deputy Prime Minister Christia Freeland. Details here.
ANAND IN BRUSSELS – Defence Minister Anita Anand is travelling to Brussels to participate in Ukraine Defense Contact Group and NATO Defence Ministers’ Meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. Chief of the Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre, will participate in the defence contact group meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. The point of the meeting is for Allies to discuss Ukraine’s current and future defence needs and co-ordinate military aid for Ukraine.
SAJJAN IN LYTTON – International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, also the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, is in Lytton, B.C. detailing plans for funding to help rebuild the village, which was destroyed by a wildfire last June.
THE DECIBEL
On Tuesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, science reporter Ivan Semeniuk talks about the struggle over Ontario’s proposed Highway 413 which would cut through the habitat of several species at risk, and, say critics, harm local waterways as well. Mr. Semeniuk discusses what the struggle says about Canada’s efforts to protect its biodiversity. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Ottawa, the Prime Minister attends private meetings, will virtually chair the cabinet meeting and virtually attend Question Period.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet was scheduled to hold a media scrum ahead of Question Period on Tuesday about the 2030 emissions reduction plan.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and NDP MP Heather McPherson met with David Cohen, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada and Mr. Singh was scheduled to hold a media scrum ahead of Question Period and then participate in Question Period.
No schedules provided for other leaders
PUBLIC OPINION
PREMIERS RANKED – Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston is the most approved-of premier while the popularity of other premiers have tracked down, with notable drops for John Horgan of British Columbia and Quebec’s François Legault, according to newly released research from the Angus Reid Institute. Details here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on whether the Trudeau government’s plan for quick, deep cuts to oil emissions is too ambitious: “The Liberals have the right climate ambitions, but the federal documents are a sobering reminder of some basic realities. Hitting the government’s current 2030 target will be challenging, and perhaps even economically damaging, barring technological breakthroughs. But what is equally true is that Canada must lower emissions, and must force industry to steadily cut emissions-per-barrel. Canada must be a world-beater on this score; the industry’s long-term viability depends on it. However, emission targets cannot be so low that the only way to meet them is to shut down oil production. It short, while Ottawa can and should aim to get most of the way to its 2030 emissions target, aiming to get all the way there may not be prudent.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on how Pierre Poilievre poses a real threat to the Liberals if he ignores calls to pivot toward the centre: “Mr. Poilievre should ignore critics who maintain he must abandon his angry populist message or face defeat in the next federal election, assuming he wins the leadership. Following that advice would cost him his most important political asset: his authenticity. That same authenticity helped Doug Ford win re-election on June 2. The Ontario Premier won with the type of pragmatic, centrist platform to which many think Mr. Poilievre should pivot. But there’s more to it than that.”
André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on how airport waits are an inconvenience while health care waits are a travesty: “If you think the wait to board a plane is excruciating, or that an airport with long wait times is hell on Earth, perhaps you should consider how long Canadians routinely wait for essential medical care, or what it’s like for someone to spend 24, 48 or 72 hours on a gurney in a hospital hallway. Getting cancer treatments, hip transplants and mental-health care in a timely fashion seems infinitely more important than getting to a business meeting or holiday destination. Yet, you wouldn’t know it from the political and media reaction.”
Mark Zacharias and Merran Smith (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the fossil-fuel party is raging again, but Canada still needs a plan for the hangover to come: “Canada’s oil and gas patch is partying like it’s 2008, though most Canadian drivers are not enjoying the festive mood. Commercial rents in downtown Calgary are on the rise, and long-thought dead fossil-fuel export projects have zombified. It’s no secret that the oil and gas industry is cyclical: as prices drop, the music stops, the lights come on. But historically, prices go back up, and the cycle repeats. This time will be different, however. There is not likely to be another rebound in the oil and gas sector after this one. Governments at all levels need to acknowledge this fact and plan for how Canada will be competitive in a fundamentally changed economy.”
Vaughn Palmer (The Vancouver Sun) on the risk and reward of a new name for the B.C. Liberals: “The drive to change the name started in the 1990s with supporters of the provincial Social Credit party and the federal Conservative and Reform parties. One of the leading advocates has been Bill Bennett, a cabinet minister and MLA from 2001 to 2017 from Kootenay East. “In my election campaigns,” he once said, running under the Liberal banner “is like running a race with a bag of cement tied to your waist.” Bag of cement notwithstanding, Bennett won four times in a row as a B.C. Liberal. In his last campaign in 2013, he reaped 63 per cent of the vote. The counter argument was well put recently by Jas Johal, the one-term B.C. Liberal MLA who returned to the broadcast industry after losing his Richmond seat in 2017. “The B.C. Liberal name actually plays very well in the urban areas (and) with minority communities,” the CKNW host told Katie DeRosa of the Vancouver Sun this week.”
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