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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing calls for action on the unofficial border at Roxham Road in Quebec, says his government is working to close it through talks with the United States.

The path, between Quebec’s Eastern Townships and New York State, has allowed tens of thousands of refugees to enter Canada, prompting calls from Quebec Premier François Legault and Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, this week, for Mr. Trudeau to close it.

During a news conference in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau said talks on the issue are focused on the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, but he declined to get into specifics.

Full story here.

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

MONITORING DEVICES FROM CHINA FOUND IN ARCTIC - The Canadian military found and retrieved Chinese monitoring buoys in the Arctic this past fall, a development whose public exposure adds another item to a list of pressing concerns about Beijing’s interventions in Canadian affairs, including interference in recent federal elections. Story here. Meanwhile, Canada’s spy service warns that adversaries will turn to espionage and foreign interference tactics to target the country’s increasingly important artificial-intelligence sector. Story here.

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVANTS SHOULD GET 9 PER CENT RAISE: LABOUR RELATIONS BOARD - Ottawa should increase wages for public servants by 9 per cent over three years and allow employees to have more of a say in remote work arrangements, a new report from the federal labour relations board recommends. Story here.

ONTARIO LEGISLATION TO PROTECT PATIENTS, PUBLIC HEALTH AS FOR-PROFIT CLINICS USED - The Ontario government says its new draft legislation to allow more publicly funded surgeries and other procedures in for-profit clinics comes with “guardrails” to protect patients and the public health care system. Story here.

HOCKEY CANADA RENEWS, EXPANDS LINKS WITH KENNEDY GROUP - Hockey Canada says it has renewed and expanded a partnership with Respect Group, an advocacy organization co-founded by former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy. Story here.

LEGAULT HEADED TO NEWFOUNDLAND FOR ENERGY TALKS - As Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey prepares for energy talks this week with Quebec Premier François Legault, an expert panel is recommending the two strike a new Churchill Falls hydroelectric energy deal. Story here.

LIBERAL MPS DECRY VANCOUVER PORT TRUCK PROGRAM - Four federal Liberal MPs have written to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra expressing frustration with a much-criticized program that aims to replace older trucks that service the Vancouver Port Authority. Story here.

AT LEAST 17 UNMARKED GRAVES AT RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL, SCANS SUGGEST - Geological scans point to at least 17 unmarked graves on the property around the former Alberni Indian Residential School on Vancouver Island, the Tseshaht First Nation says. Story here.

NOTLEY, NDP MLA TARGETED BY COMPLAINTS - The former head of Alberta’s human-rights commission has filed complaints with the provincial law society against New Democratic Party Leader Rachel Notley and one of her top MLAs, as aggrieved individuals increasingly rely on the professional regulator to sanction politicians. Story here.

NON-BINARY PERSON ALLEGES OHIP DISCRIMINATION - A non-binary person is accusing OHIP of discrimination after the Ontario government-run insurance plan denied him coverage for the gender affirming surgery he sought. Story here.

THIS AND THAT

ON A BREAK - Both Parliament and the Senate are on breaks, with the House of Commons returning on March 6 and the Senate on March 7.

JIVANI REBUTS MOORE - Jamil Jivani, president of the Canada Strong and Free Network, is bluntly responding here to criticism from former federal Conservative cabinet minister James Moore here about a planned event on critical race theory. “It’s kind of bizarre to me that people who consider themselves part of the Conservative movement are afraid to talk about this,” says Mr. Jivani.

POILIEVRE IN CLARENVILLE - Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will be holding a “Keep the Heat On, Take the Tax Off” town hall on the cost of home heating in Clarenville, NL, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. NT. Clarenville is a town of about 6,700 people about 190 kilometres west of St. John’s.

ELGHAWABY ON THE JOB - Canada’s new special representative on combatting Islamophobia writes here that she is on the job.

CHIEF ON NEW ROLE - Chief Cadmus Delorme speaks out here on his new role as chair of the Government of Canada’s Indian Residential School Documents Advisory committee.

MINISTERS ON THE ROAD - Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, in Windsor, announced $12.5- million in funding for a ballast-water innovation program. Defence Minister Anita Anand, in British Columbia, visited the Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver as part of a visit that also included meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian-Canadian and Iranian-Canadian communities, and visited a Royal Canadian Legion Branch in North Vancouver. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, in Dartmouth, announced an oil-to-heat-pump affordability grant on behalf of Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. Rural Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, in Ferryland, NL, with provincial Digital Government Minister Sarah Stoodley jointly announced up to $94-million in funding to expand high-speed Internet access. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, in New York, delivered remarks at the UN General Assembly’s emergency special session on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, in Montreal, attended an event to highlight funding for a clean-technology company. Filomena Tassi, minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, announced a $46.5-million grant, at Mohawk College in Hamilton, on developing demand-driven work force training solutions for a net-zero emissions economy. Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, also minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, in Moncton, N.B., announced $36.3-million in joint funding to upgrade Moncton’s municipal infrastructure and improve its climate resiliency. Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, also minister for Prairies Economic Development Canada, in Winnipeg, announced PrairiesCan investments for Indigenous initiatives and communities.

Shauna Van Praagh has been appointed president of the Law Commission of Canada, an independent body that provides non-partisan advice to the federal government on matters relating to the improvement, modernization and reform of Canadian laws. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino made the announcement Wednesday. Sarah Elgazzar and Aidan Edward Johnson have been appointed to four-year terms as commissioners. The appointments are effective June 6.

PRIME MINISTER’S DAY

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Ontario’s York Region, participated, along with Seniors Minister Kamal Khera, in a discussion with personal support workers. He then held a media availability. Later, Mr. Trudeau met, in Longueuil, Que., with Mayor Catherine Fournier and participated in a town hall with farmers and agricultural producers.

LEADERS

No schedules provided for party leaders.

THE DECIBEL

On Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Salmaan Farooqui - the Globe’s personal finance reporter - talks about title fraud, which happens when someone poses as a homeowner to sell real estate they don’t own to an unsuspecting buyer – and while still rare, it’s on the rise in Canada. Mr. Farooqui has explored why title fraud has gotten a boost thanks to the pandemic, despite all the paperwork and checks and balances built into the process of home-buying. The Decibel is here.

PUBLIC OPINION

NATIONAL PARTY COMPETITION - The federal Conservatives have an eight-point lead nationally, and Liberal support has dropped in Quebec by five points in three weeks, according to a report from Abacus Data available here.

CANADIANS ON WAR IN UKRAINE - Half of Canadians say Ukraine should continue fighting Russia although research by the Angus Reid Institute, accessible here, says there are divisions about the goals of that effort.

OPINION

The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how Canada needs to pick up the pace of ocean conservation: As Canada sets out this year to accelerate its efforts to set aside patches of its oceans, it would do well to spell out how it will measure success for marine protections. How will we know if protection measures are effective? And are we protecting the right places?”

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on how what happened after CSIS found specific Chinese interference in Canada’s election: We now know the Canadian Security Intelligence Service found there was an organized Chinese-government effort to interfere in Canada’s election in 2021. What we don’t know is whether anything has been done with that information. It’s not a question of exposing CSIS’s spy-versus-spy world of clandestine surveillance and neutralizing threats with shadowy techniques. What we need to know is what, if anything, emerged into the more solid world of policing elections. We need to know if Canada actually did anything about it. That’s what the House of Commons’ procedure committee has to investigate.”

Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on how Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have big entitlement problems: There is an old saying in politics that governments defeat themselves. They are often brought down by arrogance, carelessness and the lack of a meaningful agenda. Voters resent governments that begin taking their power for granted. We may be seeing this now with the federal Liberals in their almost allergic reaction to accountability. The lack of respect they routinely demonstrate toward a public whose trust they promised not to betray is beyond disappointing. We see this playing out in ways big and small.”

Charles Burton (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on what the government is doing to protect Canada’s sovereignty against China: “The fact that someone inside CSIS was prepared to allow journalists to see classified documents suggests a split inside Ottawa, between a concerned security agency and a political centre that may be too fearful of economic retaliation by China to act. If this interference goes unchecked and there are no criminal or diplomatic consequences, though, it will obviously embolden China to do much more of it.”

Lori Turnbull (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how increased cost is just one problem with the rise in government outsourcing: “If this external advice is becoming louder and more sought after than public service advice, this is a problem that needs fixing because it is a disservice to Canadians. Further, the lack of transparency around value for money is a more significant concern than the amount of money spent. Some of these contracts have been nothing but a headache for the government. The work to develop the ArriveCan app, for example, was contracted out to the tune of $8.3-million. The app has been widely panned as a waste of money.”

Cassandra Richards (Policy Options) on how getting tougher on bail will not improve public safety: “However, research shows that tough-on-crime bail mentalities have never kept our communities safe. By looking at these provisions and what has happened with recent reverse onus legislative amendments, we see it is doubtful that the premiers’ call to expand this approach will enhance public safety. The federal government should therefore reject the call from the premiers and territorial leaders. Instead, it should focus on dealing with the social and economic root causes of crime.”

Vaughn Palmer (The Vancouver Sun) on how a defector says the BC Liberals cannot win the next provincial election: “When B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon ousted MLA John Rustad from the Opposition caucus last summer, he must have anticipated that a payback would be coming soon enough. It happened Thursday. Rustad, after six months as an independent, announced he will henceforth sit in the legislature as a B.C. Conservative. Five terms as a B.C. Liberal MLA. Wins his Northern B.C. seat handily, with an average 54 per cent of the vote. Former cabinet minister in the Christy Clark government. Advocate for the forest sector and natural gas development. Now he’s given the Conservatives, perennial also-rans in provincial elections for decades, their first toehold in the legislature in a dozen years.”

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