Good morning,
As Canadians brace for the impact of an escalating trade war with the United States, Finance Minister Bill Morneau is promising relief for business owners and workers caught in the crossfire.
The next step in the ongoing tit for tat is expected to take effect this weekend, when Canada is set to impose retaliatory tariffs in response to American levies on steel and aluminium. President Donald Trump is also threatening to attack the auto sector.
Mr. Morneau met with provincial and territorial finance ministers this week, and subsequently said Canadians will be hearing about potential relief soon, though he declined to provide any specifics about what that might look like or which industries could benefit.
At the same time, the federal government is also preparing measures to prevent a flood of steel imports from global producers seeking to avoid the U.S. tariffs. Those measures could include quotas and tariffs aimed at countries including China – following similar plans in the European Union.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and James Keller in Vancouver. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
A long-awaited third-party review of the Immigration and Refugee Board is recommending the system get an overhaul, and could be replaced by a new agency that reports directly to the immigration minister – something refugee advocates say could threaten due process.
The federal government says its hands are tied on helping Toronto cope with all the refugees in its shelters, saying it must wait until the new provincial Progressive Conservative government is sworn in.
The violence and persecution that has forced more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee Myanmar have prompted the Canadian government to impose sanctions on seven officials. Those sanctions come as a new report from Amnesty International concludes the country’s military has engaged in nine crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor says drug makers must stop marketing opioids.
The RCMP commissioner says she doesn’t think the national police force will reach 50-50 gender equity, arguing that its presence in rural areas makes a career as a Mountie difficult for some women. Commissioner Brenda Lucki offered the assessment during testimony at the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Canada has one of the lowest rates of police per capita of any G7 country.
The federal government has agreed to renew housing subsidies for co-ops and non-profit housing associations in British Columbia as part of a 10-year affordable housing agreement with the province.
Public service unions say they don’t want the government to make it easier to fire underperforming workers.
Facebook has hired Agence France-Presse to fact check Canadian content on the social media platform, through until at least the 2019 federal election.
And the drama around a small bird and a large Ottawa music festival has been resolved. The federal environment department has given Bluefest permission to move the nest of a killdeer, who had settled just in the spot where a major concert stage was about to be built.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft (The Globe and Mail) on Canada-U.S. relations: “The U.S.-Canada relationship has weathered disagreements in the past. We move past those disagreements when we pursue outcomes that are good for people on both sides of the border.”
Grant Dawson and Serge Labbé (The Globe and Mail) on Canada’s mission in Mali: “Mr. Trudeau wants to say that “Canada is back” in terms of UN peacekeeping, but needs this to be easy, too. He knows Canadians will ask hard questions if they have to sacrifice too much or take on too much risk in the name of international peace and security.“
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Quebec tax collection: “Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s endorsement of a simple idea – allowing Quebeckers to fill out one income-tax form rather than two – is likely to end up mired in the more consequential question of who defines taxable income.”
Andrew MacDougall (Maclean’s) on Conservative attack ads: “ How you answer those questions will depend on where you place the emphasis in the role of the Official Opposition. Is it to hold the government to account on the intricacies of government business? Or is it to position itself to win the next election? Idealists like to believe it’s always both together, but more often than not, it’s one or the other. And when that’s the case, parties often choose the latter over the former.”
Robyn Urback (CBC) on allegations: “If the climate in Canada were different, an 18-year-old allegation of sexual misconduct against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be swiftly addressed, then probably dismissed.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on equalization: “The strength of Canada’s fiscal union, in contrast to the inherent weakness of the euro zone, lies in the transfers that smooth out regional imbalances that would otherwise undermine the common currency.”
André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on Doug Ford and health care: “As Ontario premier-designate Doug Ford aims to put a mark on health care, one of the places he can start is by bringing some order to the administration of health care in the province. But he has to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors.”
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on B.C.’s proportional representation referendum: “To its credit, the New Democratic Party government of Premier John Horgan, which favours changing the system, is holding a referendum. To its discredit, it has come up with a question that seems designed to stack the deck against the status quo.”
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Chris Hannay
James Keller