Common ground key to unlocking interprovincial conflicts: Leblanc

Creating a federal e-safety czar could help focus the uphill struggle to protect children from the rising threat of online sexual exploitation, frontline agencies have told the government. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale arrives to appear as witnesses at a House of Commons standing committee in Ottawa on July 24. Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair, right, looks on.

Creating a federal e-safety czar could help focus the uphill struggle to protect children from the rising threat of online sexual exploitation, frontline agencies have told the government.

Strengthening legislation to support “timely and effective” investigations and working more closely with the technology sector to shield children from harm are among the other recommendations that emerged from a federal consultation last spring. Public Safety Canada assembled about 70 people — including police, policy-makers, industry representatives, victim service providers and academics — for two days of meetings in late March and followed the sessions with a questionnaire.

The consultation is the latest step in the government’s effort to combat the scourge of online abuse in the era of cameraequipped smartphones and an array of apps, games and messaging services available to young people.

In addition, victims of childhood sexual abuse often suffer great distress over the fact video or pictures of the crimes are circulating in cyberspace,

compounding the difficulties they already experience.

Participants in the federal consultation spoke of a strong, highly engaged network of individuals devoted to protecting children from predators, says a summary of the consultation prepared by Public Safety, which has led a national strategy on the problem since 2004.

At the same time, increased reporting of incidents and resource shortages have led to problems such as a large backlog for investigators, mental health and well-being concerns for workers, “significant challenges” in timely police access to digital evidence and a need to improve services for victims.

The findings come two years after a federally commissioned study found “serious gaps” in efforts — including resources, training and research — to protect young people from online sexual exploitation.

Participants in the latest consultation felt a federal e-safety commissioner could provide “a co-ordinated approach to promoting online safety of all Canadians,” the summary says. Other suggestions included: — Raising awareness of online child exploitation among the general public;

— Conducting research on

how to better meet the needs of victims;

— Creating a pan-Canadian coalition of non-government organizations and key government departments to share knowledge and provide a unified voice to decision-makers;

— Establishing a technology group that supports tech-driven innovations and best practices for safe online services;

— Ensuring the timely sharing of basic information about internet subscribers with law enforcement;

— Strengthening legislation to limit the travel of child sex offenders and improve resources for centralized investigation of transnational offenders.

The office of Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the input is helping “shape our work to modernize and renew the strategy,” adding it would be premature to comment on specific recommendations.

Goodale recently visited the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection. In February, his department announced funding to help the centre further develop a tool that detects online child sex abuse images, continue operating Cybertip.ca, a national tip service, and establish a support network for victims.

The key to unlocking an ever-tightening knot of policy disputes between the provinces and the federal government will be to focus on those areas where everyone can agree, says the minister whose new job is to help do exactly that.

Last month’s Liberal cabinet shuffle handed Dominic LeBlanc the brand new portfolio of intergovernmental and northern affairs and internal trade — a position that makes the veteran New Brunswick MP the minister in charge of minding the priorities of the provinces and territories.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who until earlier this month had served as his own minister of intergovernmental affairs, wanted someone in cabinet to focus full-time on “working collaboratively with provinces,” LeBlanc told The Canadian Press in an interview this week.

“The prime minister’s instruction to me was to do so in a collaborative, constructive way,” he said. “I certainly don’t start with the view that it should be adversarial.”

The Trudeau government is finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil some of its signature policy commitments thanks to a growing list of ideological tensions with — and among — the provinces, including:

— A standoff between Alberta and B.C. over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion plans that has forced Ottawa to step in and ultimately buy the pipeline for $4.5 billion;

— The refusal of Quebec, Manitoba and Nunavut to permit the home cultivation of legal cannabis, despite a newly passed federal law making it legal;

— Alberta’s disappointment with Ottawa’s decision to unilaterally renew its formula for equalization, a system that requires wealthier provinces to share revenues with poorer, “have-not” provinces;

— Several provinces have expressed persistent complaints about the impending federal carbon pricing plan - in particular the newly elected Conservative premier in Ontario, Doug Ford, who has also been clashing with the federal government over the burden posed by asylum seekers from the U.S.

Asked whether his role in cabinet will be as Trudeau’s “Tory whisperer,” LeBlanc provided little more than a hearty laugh, saying he plans to adopt a positive attitude and a focus on building bridges, rather than points of conflict. In fact, he insisted, he has so far heard more consensus than dissent from provincial leaders.

When it comes to Ford’s hardline philosophy on carbon pricing, LeBlanc wants to hear the nascent Ontario government’s other ideas for tackling climate change. And he hopes their difference of opinion over curbing emissions by making polluters pay will not interfere with other areas where they can work together.

In handing him the new cabinet post, LeBlanc said Trudeau flagged internal trade between the provinces as another key area where “urgent and quick attention” is called for. Over the years, governments across the country have, in some cases inadvertently, placed more restrictions on the movement of goods and services between provinces than on those from some foreign countries. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, during a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on July 18.