1) Trudeau said he could have acted faster…

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By David Baxter, November 17, 2024

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government could have acted faster on reining in immigration programs, after blaming “bad actors” for gaming the system.

Trudeau released a nearly seven-minute video on YouTube Sunday talking about the recent reduction in permanent residents being admitted to Canada and changes to the temporary foreign worker program. 

Over the next two years, the permanent residency stream is being reduced by about 20 per cent to 365,000 in 2027.

In the video, Trudeau talks about the need to increase immigration after pandemic lockdowns ended in order to boost the labour market, saying the move helped avoid a full-blown recession. 

But after that, Trudeau says some “bad actors” took advantage of these programs. 

“Some saw that as a profit, to game the system. We saw way too many large corporations do this,” Trudeau said. 

The prime minister adds that “too many” colleges and universities used international student programs to “raise their bottom line” as non-Canadian students pay significantly higher tuition. He also said scammers targeting “vulnerable immigrants” with bogus paths to citizenship.

“Looking back, when the post-pandemic boom cooled and businesses no longer needed the additional labour help, as a federal team we could have acted quicker and turned off the taps faster,” Trudeau said. 

From there, Trudeau talks about the new immigration plan with the stated goal of lowering the amount of permanent and temporary immigrants coming to Canada. 

In addition to a phased reduction in new permanent residents over the next two years, recent changes have made it more difficult to for employers to get temporary worker permits approved. 

Trudeau says the goal of the government’s immigration reduction is to help stabilize population growth while housing stocks catch up, and then to consider gradually increasing immigration rates once again. 

When reached for comment, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s spokesperson Sebastian Skamski referred The Canadian Press to an interview Poilievre did with CKNW 980’s “The Jas Johal Show” in Vancouver where Poilievre discussed immigration.

In that interview, Poilievre said much of his criticism of the current immigration system is coming from what Trudeau himself has said since enacting these recent changes. 

“Now, he’s basically denouncing his entire immigration policy and expecting us to believe that he can fix the problems that he caused,” Poilievre said. 

“The bottom line is we have to fix our immigration, get back to the best system in the world, the one that brought my wife here as a refugee legally and lawfully, the one that brought so many people here to pursue the Canadian promise and that’s what I’m going to do as prime minister.”

Poilievre’s previously said he would tie immigration rates to available housing while considering other factors like access to health-care and jobs. 

Speaking on background, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the video is being released as another means of communicating government policy to Canadians. 

As for concerns around the potential for increased irregular migration with U.S. president elect Donald Trump’s deportation promises, the official said the video was filmed before the American election.

2) With Trump headed to White House, Canada has its eyes on Chinese investment in Mexico

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, November 19, 2024

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday she shares the “legitimate” concerns of U.S. officials about Mexico becoming a back door for China to wedge its way into the North American trading regime. 

Freeland said members of the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden and advisers of incoming president-elect Donald Trump have expressed “very grave” concerns personally to her about the issue of China setting up shop in Mexico to muscle its manufacturing into the North American free-trade zone. 

“We are not a backdoor to Chinese unfair traded goods,” Freeland said Tuesday. “However, the same cannot be said of Mexico.” 

Freeland has sought to reassure nervous Canadians that the country is in a good position with the incoming Trump administration, even as it threatens new tariffs, because Ottawa is moving in lock-step with the U.S. on Chinese trade irritants.

She said Tuesday Canada is the “only country in the world which is fully aligned with the U.S. today when it comes to economic policy vis-a-vis China.” 

Canada moved earlier this year to match U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, accusing China of overproduction and unfair trading practices.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the issue with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Brazil Monday. He called it a “frank” discussion.

“There are questions and concerns around some of the Chinese investments in Mexico — things that I highlighted directly with the Mexican president,” Trudeau said at a news conference Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro. “But I also know that Mexico is dedicated to continuing in this extraordinarily successful trade deal.” 

While Ottawa bristles at Mexico by way of diplomatic blandishments, by far the boldest words are coming from two of Canada’s premiers. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford turned heads last week when he suggested Canada should forge ahead on a bilateral trade deal with the U.S. if Mexico doesn’t clamp down on Chinese auto imports entering into North America. 

On Nov. 12 Ford said that Mexico is “importing cheap products” from China, then “slapping a made-in-Mexico sticker on and shipping it up” into Canada and the U.S.

“What I’m proposing to the federal government: We do a bilateral trade deal with the U.S., and if Mexico wants a bilateral trade deal with Canada, God bless ‘em,” he said. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith echoed that sentiment. While on the national TV talk circuit, she said she’s “a thousand per cent” in agreement with Ford.

“We need to take a bilateral approach and put Canada first,” Smith said on CBC Friday.

A report by the United States Trade Representative earlier this year warned U.S. industry stakeholders “expressed concerns that increasing Chinese foreign direct investment in the automotive sector in Mexico poses a significant threat to the competitiveness of the North American auto industry” and could allow China skirt tariffs.

According to the U.S. industry group Coalition for a Prosperous America, which promotes the U.S. taking a combative trade stance, more than 20 Chinese auto manufacturers have invested billions in Mexico.

On the campaign trail during the summer in Milwaukee, Trump claimed Chinese automakers are building large factories in Mexico to flood cars into the U.S. on the sly, but an Associated Press fact check found no such plants currently being built.

China has become Mexico’s fastest-growing source of foreign investment, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report from last year, and China’s top EV maker BYD, a global leader in electric vehicle sales, has been eyeing setting up shop in Mexico.

BYD is also looking into the possibility of setting up in Canada.

This discussion is happening ahead of a mandatory renewal of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement that must happen by July 1, 2026.

Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman spoke briefly with media after attending a Canada-U. S. relations Cabinet committee meeting Tuesday, rebooted after the U.S. election to tackle emerging bilateral issues with the incoming Trump administration. 

Hillman said the border, trade and tariffs are major issues currently preoccupying the government. “We need to be prepared,” she said.

3) Ontario NDP accuses PCs of creating ‘cash-for-access culture’ ahead of fundraiser

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, Nov. 21, 2024.

Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria attend Question Period at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario’s Opposition leader is accusing the government of creating a “cash-for-access culture” and is asking the province’s integrity commissioner to look into an upcoming Progressive Conservative party fundraiser with the premier and transportation minister.

The fundraiser is billed as an evening with Doug Ford and Prabmeet Sarkaria, and tickets are selling for $1,000.

The Ontario Trucking Association has put out a “call to action” urging members to buy tickets to the “small, relatively exclusive” event and deliver a message to Sarkaria about cracking down on illicit operations.

“We need to turn this event into an OTA member trucking event to deliver one clear message: ‘Our industry supports your government, and we need your government to bring order to our sector,'” chairman Mark Bylsma wrote.

“Participation should be viewed as an investment in our industry and for our own businesses…This is the only way to win this battle.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said cabinet ministers should not be fundraising off of people who have business in their ministry.

“That’s pretty explicit,” she said Thursday in the legislature. “The government has created a cash-for-access culture that is sending Ontarians a clear message that if they want to be heard, they need to pay up.”

Stephen Laskowski, president and CEO of the trucking association, said in a statement that his organization did not speak to anyone in government about the event and put out the call to action on its own accord.

OTA’s callout was first revealed by Global News, the same week it reported that the head of the Ontario PC Party fund sent an email giving cabinet ministers fundraising targets.

Stiles wants the integrity commissioner to look at whether the upcoming fundraiser or any actions taken in response to the PC fundraiser’s email would put Ford, Sarkaria or other elected officials in a real or potential conflict of interest, or otherwise contravene the Lobbyists Registration Act, the Members’ Integrity Act, the Public Service of Ontario Act or parliamentary convention.

Attorney General Doug Downey said all political parties follow the same rules, and donation records are transparent so the public can scrutinize them. 

“The Ontario regulations set a level playing field for all of us,” he said in the legislature. “There are rules the parties have to follow. There are processes. Whether you’re in power, you’re in opposition or you aspire to be in this legislature, there is an ability to raise money with rules.”

The rules were created by this government, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner noted, relaxed from a regime the previous Liberal government had in place. 

“The previous government brought in what I thought were good fundraising rules,” he said after question period. 

“They had lowered donation limits and eliminated cash-for-access fundraising. Unfortunately, the conservatives have brought that back, and the people of Ontario need to hold them accountable, because the Ford government is bringing big money back into politics, and that’s bad for democracy and it’s bad for good public policy.”

The opposition criticisms of fundraising events like Ford and Sarkaria’s hearkens back to a cash-for-access scandal under the then-Liberal government in 2016. 

Kathleen Wynne’s government came under fire over reports of cabinet ministers with fundraising targets as high as $500,000 a year, fundraising dinners with tickets going for thousands of dollars, and pricey fundraising events with direct stakeholders.

In response to the furor, the Liberals banned corporate and union donations, lowered the maximum donation amounts, and prohibited politicians from attending fundraisers.

In 2019, the Progressive Conservative government removed the ban on politicians attending fundraisers and raised maximum donations to parties, constituency associations and candidates to $1,600. That amount was later raised further and now stands at $3,375.

Liberal Stephen Blais said that amount is “probably too high,” but otherwise suggested the rules as they stand are working.

“We had an extreme fundraising ban in the past — it didn’t work,” he said. 

“If we want to have a vigorous debate when it’s time for elections, that requires that political parties are well funded, to express themselves, and ensure that Ontarians can hear that message. That requires money, that requires fundraising.”