Prominent Winnipeggers to meet cabinet

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This article was published 17/01/2020 (1707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet will hear from the heads of Manitoba Hydro and CentrePort, along with a handful of prominent Winnipeggers, during their retreat in the city, which starts today.

The Prime Minister’s Office has released the list of people who will speak to the ministers as they gather to craft policies for the spring session of Parliament.

The speakers are mostly concered with business opportunities on the Prairies. Conservative MP Candice Bergen had called on Trudeau to invite agricultural groups and first responders who deal with crime linked to methamphetamines.

She had questioned the cost of sending nearly three dozen ministers to Western Canada without hearing from people who disagree with the Liberals.

Winnipeg MP Jim Carr will brief ministers on regional economic competitiveness, with a panel including refugee advocate and former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy; CentrePort head Diane Grey; Manitoba Hydro CEO Jay Grewal; Skip the Dishes co-founder Chris Simair; and Northwest Company vice-president Gary Merasty, a former Saskatchewan grand chief.

Discussions on health care will be part of the agenda, but not a major theme. Former Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson, an emergency room doctor who had pushed for action on meth, will lead a discussion along with Health Minister Patty Hajdu.

However, the cabinet’s main themes for the retreat will likely garner more national attention.

A session on the state of the economy will help ministers craft this spring’s budget. Economists Armine Yalnizyan and Kevin Milligan and Canada’s chief statistician, Anil Arora, will be involved.

A discussion on climate change will include economist Andrew Leach and climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, the duo who last fall graded the major parties’ campaign plans to cut carbon emissions. (They gave the Liberals a B for ambition and an A for feasibility).

There will also be a focus on the Trans Mountain pipeline and Indigenous consultation on that project, with a presentation from the project’s bureaucratic heads. Opposition from some of the First Nations along the pipeline’s route in British Columbia has garnered international attention, as has RCMP officers with military-style equipment.

The Trudeau government bought the pipeline for $4.5 billion after Kinder Morgan decided to scrap plans to twin the pipeline due to political uncertainty and legal hurdles. The government cleared one of those hurdles Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled British Columbia cannot regulate what flows through the pipeline, which is to carry diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands to the B.C. coast for export overseas.

The ministers will also discuss Canada’s role in the world, which will likely include Iran’s shooting down of a plane this month near Tehran, killing all on board, 138 of whom were flying to Toronto.

Trudeau will meet Monday with Premier Brian Pallister and Mayor Brian Bowman, separately.

The choice of Winnipeg is a nod to the East-West divide exposed in the election. The Liberals were shut out entirely in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where voters were irate over environmental policies they believe have gutted the energy industry.

Manitoba, where the Liberals lost three of seven seats, is somewhat friendlier territory.

“We are also committed to listening to and working closely with Canadians in the Prairies to address their specific concerns,” the Prime Minister’s Office wrote.

Starting Wednesday, Trudeau and his ministers will hole up again for three days in Ottawa with Liberal MPs.

Caucus chair Francis Scarpaleggia noted in an interview that this will be the “first real working session” of caucus since the election.

Since most Liberal MPs have never experienced a minority Parliament before, he expects the retreat will focus heavily on the challenges that will bring, with insights shared from veterans like himself who’ve been there before.

— With files from The Canadian Press

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca