Politics Briefing: New round of softwood lumber dispute sees Canada challenge U.S. duties – The Globe and Mail

Hello,

Canada is going to officially challenge an American decision to increase duties on softwood lumber exported to the United States.

In a statement issued Wednesday, International Trade Minister Mary Ng said Canada will file notices under the North American free trade pact.

“Rulings on this issue have consistently found Canada to be a fair trading partner, and Canada is confident that rulings will continue to find Canada to be one,” Ms. Ng said in the statement.

“Filing these notices is another step that Canada is taking to defend the forestry sector and Canada’s national interests.”

At issue, said the Minister, is the United States, on Nov. 24, nearly doubled the duty rate for most Canadian softwood lumber producers to 17.9 per cent.

The Minister noted Canada’s softwood lumber industry is key to the forestry sector, which employed nearly 185,000 workers in 2020 and contributed more than $25-billion to the GDP in the same year.

Susan Yurkovich, president of the BC Lumber Trade Council, said they applaud the Canadian move.

“We remain steadfast in our position that these unfair duties are harmful to not only B.C. businesses and workers, but also U.S. consumers looking to renovate and build new homes,” Ms. Yurkovich said in a statement.

“We will continue to vigorously defend our industry against these baseless claims and thank the Government of Canada for standing with forest product workers and their families.”

The trade council noted that B.C. is the largest Canadian exporter of softwood lumber to the U.S, with the forest industry in the province linked to approximately 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the province.

Ms. Ng said Canada is hoping for a negotiated solution with the United States on the issue.

Earlier this month, Globe and Mail business reporter Brent Jang wrote on the impact of the higher U.S. duties. His story is here.

Also, Michael Kelly-Gagnon and Anthony B. Kim offer analysis here on the impact of increased U.S. duties on Canadian softwood.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

BARTON MET MONTHS AGO WITH RIO TINTO – Dominic Barton, Canada’s outgoing ambassador to Beijing, met with Rio Tinto executives in October, two months before it was announced he would take over as chair of the Australian mining giant that does half its business with China. Story here.

MORE CITIES JOINING CHALLENGE TO BILL 21 – Calgary is joining a growing list of Canadian cities supporting the legal challenge to Quebec’s controversial religious symbols law, part of a tide of outrage released by a school board’s recent decision to remove a hijab-wearing teacher from her classroom in the province. Toronto has backed the effort, while Winnipeg’s mayor hopes his city will follow suit. Story here.

TORY MP SAYS HE WAS “BLINDSIDED” ON PARTY CONVERSION STAND – A Tory MP from Manitoba said he missed his chance to halt the fast-tracked ban on anti-gay conversion therapy, arguing his Conservative party “blindsided” him instead of hearing out concerns about the bill. “Before I could process what was happening, the motion had been passed,” wrote MP Ted Falk, who represents the Provencher riding of southeastern Manitoba. “I am deeply disappointed and troubled.” Story here from The Winnipeg Free Press.

JOLY HAS COVID-19 – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has tested positive for COVID-19 after taking a rapid test, and is in isolation awaiting the result of a PCR test.

LAWYER WHO CHALLENGED BILL 21 MADE JUDGE – The federal government has named a Montreal lawyer as a judge to Quebec Superior Court about a year after he made headlines during a legal challenge to Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 legislation, which bars public-sector workers from wearing religious symbols in the name of protecting secularism. Story from CBC is here.

NWT INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER WARNED MINISTER – Questions are being raised after the integrity commissioner in the Northwest Territories notified the territorial health minister that a journalist was asking questions about her family business. Story here from CBC.

THIS AND THAT

The House of Commons has adjourned until Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, at 11 a.m. ET.

RECORD TRANSFERS FOR PROVINCES – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government will provide a record $87.6-billion in major transfer funding for provinces and territories in 2022-23, up by $3.7-billion from 2021-22. A statement from Ms. Freeland’s department says the Canada Health Transfer – the key transfer to provinces and territories – will grow by 4.8 per cent this year. You can read the letter Ms. Freeland sent to your province or territory here.

FEDS CUTTING PARDONS COSTS – The federal government is cutting cost of pardons from $657.77 to $50. In a statement, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the lower fee will improve access to record suspensions, especially for people with lower incomes, so they can access housing, employment, education and volunteer opportunities. Pardons, officially known as record suspensions, allow those convicted of a criminal offence, who have completed their sentence and not broken the law for a prescribed number of years to have their criminal record kept separate and apart from other criminal records.

THE DECIBEL – In the latest edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Decibel producer Sherrill Sutherland talks to acclaimed novelist Esi Edugyan about her new book, which is a non-fiction work. Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling is a collection of essays devoted to bringing a richer context to Black histories and other stories about race that often go untold. The latest Decibel is here.

PRIME MINISTER’S DAY

Private meetings in Ottawa. The Prime Minister receives a COVID-19 briefing from Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

No schedule released Deputy Prime Minister.

LEADERS

No schedules released for the party leaders.

OPINION

Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how Canada’s constitutional order can be restored after the notwithstanding clause has destabilized it: “The federal government could declare, ideally in the form of legislation, not only that it would never use the notwithstanding clause itself, but that it would use the power of disallowance to veto any law, passed by any provincial legislature, that invoked the notwithstanding clause. It’s too late to apply that remedy to Bill 21 – the Constitution requires that it be invoked within a year of a bill’s passage. But it could be used to prevent future Bill 21s.”

John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on how Canadians are converging towards the political centre as Americans become more polarized: “It is reasonable to assume that there was a backlash against Trump in Canada,” says Andrew Parkin, executive director of the Environics Institute. “Not only did Canadians not go down that path, the whole experience might have pushed us in the opposite direction.” Canadians consistently expressed higher levels of contentment than Americans with their political system and its institutions. They also had greater trust in the fairness of elections and were more likely to believe that their rights were being protected.”

Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will complete his father’s work on the notwithstanding clause: “In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his father’s hopes that the political costs of invoking the notwithstanding clause would discourage any government from using it have not materialized. Quebec’s actions, and those of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose government invoked the clause to impose restrictions on third-party election advertising, have him considering asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. Short of abolishing Section 33 – a political impossibility, for now – this would advance the work his father set out to do.”

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