Politics Briefing: Check your mailbox: Liberals deliver Canada Post reforms

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Good morning,

The Liberal government will today deliver its plans for Canada Post, nearly a year behind schedule. (Perhaps they should have sprung for Priority shipping?)

Sources tell The Globe that Canada Post's delivery services will, essentially, be frozen in place for the near future. If you currently get home delivery, you will still get it; if you have your mail delivered to a community mailbox, your daily trudge through the snow will stay. Home delivery will not be restored to those who no longer have it, but will be kept for those who haven't yet lost it. The government will, sources say, provide assistance to those with mobility issues, however.

And to solve the really existential problems – like how to keep the Crown corporation solvent when people are mailing fewer and fewer letters – the government plans on installing a new management team in the near future, so they can figure it out.

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CANADIAN HEADLINES

In Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with U.S. business executives and says he is talking up the benefits of trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Meanwhile in Montreal, Canadian negotiators say they are open to making concessions to the U.S. in the North American free-trade agreement talks, but only if the U.S. is likewise willing to compromise. "We're hoping that when we're bringing flexibility to the table, we'll see that reciprocated on the other side," chief Canadian negotiator Steve Verheul said.

Canada and 10 other Pacific Rim countries have struck a trade deal now called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. It builds on the TPP that Barack Obama pushed for while in office, but Donald Trump abandoned. Canadian industry is so far split on the agreement, with many in the agricultural sector praising it and others in the auto industry decrying it.

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott says the government will soon put more money into helping Indigenous children and keeping them out of foster care.

Transportation Minister Marc Garneau is supportive of VIA Rail's $1.5-billion request for new trains. VIA Rail has an aging fleet and the company has stated that some of its vehicles are set to be pulled out of service later this year. The Crown corporation is also eyeing costly and ambitious expansion plans for the Windsor-to-Quebec City corridor.

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the former PQ leader and current CEO of Quebecor, is evasive about a potential return to politics. He told Radio-Canada that his surprise decision to step down in May, 2016, was due to family reasons and wasn't something that he had wanted to do. Under Jean-François Lisée, Quebec's main sovereigntist party has suffered at the polls and currently sits in third place by many estimates.

Kellie Leitch, the former cabinet minister and Conservative leadership hopeful whose campaign focused on "Canadian values," will not be running for re-election in 2019.

Lobbyists are meeting with senators in record numbers.

The federal government is set to rule on a trade spat between steel fabricators and an international consortium looking to establish a LNG terminal in British Columbia.

B.C.'s emergency warning protocol was put to the test following a tsunami scare early yesterday morning. "Although the tsunami warning was eventually suspended, this event demonstrates that coast warning systems do work," B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a statement. "In the event of a future tsunami warning, stay calm, stay safe; listen to your local officials and head to higher ground."

And Metrolinx, the Ontario transit agency, says it was targeted by a cyberattack that originated in North Korea.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Jane Philpott and Indigenous care: "Specific goals have one great virtue in government: They are harder to miss. Mr. Trudeau's government will work to meet them; if his Liberals lost the 2019 election, another government would find it hard to drop the target. There was something refreshing about the way Dr. Philpott laid out figures to demonstrate the stark problems. She sometimes described how she sees long-term success. Now she needs to map some specific targets on the way."

Globe and Mail Editorial Board on science and government: "The Liberals regularly vow to 'restore science as a pillar of government decision-making,' the words used by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last September when he named the country's new chief science advisor. Given this, it's hard to understand why Ottawa isn't renewing the Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program, the only dedicated federal program that funds long-term, large-scale research into the effects of climate change."

Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on trade deals: "Ottawa's embrace of the Asia trade deal – along with its inherent risks – strongly suggests Canadian officials don't expect a successful renegotiation of NAFTA any time soon."

Marcus Gee (The Globe and Mail) on Ontario's Liberals: "The Liberals learned nothing from the gas-plants mess. Back then, they were willing to waste a fortune in public funds to save their own skin. Now, they are willing to waste an even bigger fortune to precisely the same end. A thirst for self-preservation whatever the cost is the constant. The only thing that has changed is the scale of their ambition."

Mark Milke (The Globe and Mail) on government unions: "Problems in services and goods often crop up when monopolies or near-monopolies are allowed to capture a service or the production of a product. That is why giving over even more government work to more government unions, already entrenched and which rarely face competition, is a poor idea."

Supriya Syal (Policy Options) on behavioural science in government: "Despite these initiatives and widespread academic expertise, support and talent, the public sector application of behavioural science in Canada lags behind that of other comparable nations, and the opportunity to create better outcomes for Canadians through behavioural evidence-based policy is immense."

John Sinclair (OpenCanada.org) on a proposal for the Group of 20 nations: "Two new permanent, full seats [should] be added to the G20, selected by and from the world's least developed (LDCs) and fragile (so-called 'g7+') countries.  The goal would be to include the voice of the often-overlooked poorest at this table for international policy deliberation."

Chantal Hébert (Toronto Star) on the Conservative base: "With every passing year, a higher vote turnout among older voters is less likely to mitigate a relative lack of a following among younger ones. Short of change in the paradigm of the relationship between the Conservatives, female voters, millennials and/or Quebecers, Scheer could continue to hit his head on a hard ceiling that stands to limit his party's support to one in three votes."

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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team have questioned U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Session as part of their probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Mr. Mueller's team also interviewed former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump in May of last year. Mr. Mueller is also looking into interviewing Mr. Trump.

Turkey has continued its offensive into Syria and has killed at least 260 Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants. The U.S. is expected to reach out to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an effort to raise its concerns about the military action. It is unclear what impact the call between the U.S. and Turkish leaders will have. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that Russia is ultimately to blame for chemical weapons that are used in Syria.

The White House slapped a tariff on imported solar panels, prompting the U.S. solar industry to warn that the move would increase prices and potentially cost jobs. The 30 per cent tariff is the most recent protectionist move by the U.S. since Mr. Trump's election and will largely target solar panel components that originate in Asia.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is seeking re-election. Under his leadership, the government has moved to stifle opposition through constitutional reforms. The country's economy has also been in freefall and the currency has been going through a period of hyperinflation.

And Tammy Duckworth, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, is pregnant and is slated to become the first senator to give birth while in office.