Feds pledge action on Inuit issues
IQALUIT, Nunavut — The federal government pledged Thursday to take steps to address the painful historical memories of Inuit who experienced relocations and mistreatment during the tuberculosis epidemic of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
The announcement came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with Inuit leaders and signed a joint declaration in Iqaluit — his first visit to the territories since the 2015 election — committing to multiple future meetings.
There is a lot of work left to address the unique social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues Inuit face every day, but progress is being made, Trudeau said.
“The Inuit-Crown partnership committee will play an important role as we take action on the priorities that matter to Inuit and Canadians,” he said.
The hard part begins now, said Natan Obed, the president of Canada’s national Inuit organization.
“We’re going to come together with senior officials that are going to decide how to craft action on things like landclaim implementation, on health issues — whether it is suicide prevention or tuberculosis — housing and infrastructure or language and culture.”
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos were also part of Thursday’s discussions about severe housing and health challenges in the North.
Indigenous people continue to face serious health challenges, including high rates of chronic and contagious diseases and shorter life expectancies, Health Canada data suggest.
Tuberculosis-infection rates are 50 times higher among the Inuit population than the general population, the department said last year.
Trudeau also met Thursday with Nunavut’s premier, Peter Taptuna, and made an impromptu visit to a local women’s shelter to drop off goods.
In the evening, the prime minister attended a community gathering at a high school attended by dozens of people, including a number of territorial and federal employees.
During the event, Trudeau was confronted by 34-year-old Zoya Martin — a biologist in the public service who is on maternity leave to care for her eightmonth-old son, Parker.
She demanded to know more about what the government was doing about the problem-plagued Phoenix payroll system, which resulted in more than 82,000 government workers being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
The backlog has been pared down to fewer than 7,000 files, although dealing with them has significantly slowed the processing of new payroll changes that have been filed over the last few months.
Trudeau seems genuinely frustrated by the problem, Martin said. The issue is “unacceptable” and the government is working on the matter, the prime minister said.
Bethany Scott also attended the event and held up a sign complaining about the government’s decision to abandon its campaign promise on electoral reform — something she described as a “betrayal.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will receive Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House on Monday — their first official meeting after weeks of back-and-forth about setting a tangible agenda beyond pleasantries and first-encounter photo ops.
Several people familiar with the planning said uncertainty about the date lingered for a reason: the Canadian side wanted specific results, while the American administration is still busy getting its cabinet confirmed.
The scheduling drama was further fuelled by a spectacular public rift between Trump and the president of Mexico last month, scrubbing plans for a potential trilateral meeting of the continent’s Three Amigos.
The White House announced the encounter at its daily press briefing.
“The president looks forward to a constructive conversation in strengthening the deep relationship that exists between the United States and Canada,” said spokesman Sean Spicer.
The countries discussed various plans for a first encounter. The Canadian side considered different destinations that would allow it to leave a positive first impression of trade with Canada, while avoiding the blast radius of the Manhattanite’s project of reducing imports.
During a visit to the Arctic, Trudeau was asked Thursday about whether he planned to broach some of Trump’s more controversial policies, such as the now-infamous travel ban.
His answer nicely illustrated the fine line Canada must now walk as he described what he considers his two primary responsibilities.
“The first is, of course, to highlight Canadian values and principles and the things that we know make our country strong. We have a set of solutions that work very well, not just for our community and our country, but indeed our world,” he said.
“The second responsibility I have, which we will very much be engaged in, is creating jobs and opportunity for Canadian citizens through the continued close integration on both sides of the border. I will continue to discuss on a broad range of issues with the American president.”
That border was one possible meeting venue that had been under consideration — the idea was raised in a December interview by Canada’s U.S. ambassador David MacNaughton. The new administration wants a massive construction-jobs program, and there are several big projects underway along the border.
Another early idea considered was a U.S. manufacturing facility — the goal being to emphasize the nine million American jobs tied to trade with Canada.
The Canadian government is working to drill that figure into the memory of every American it meets. Different cabinet ministers were in Washington this week, reciting that statistic with metronomic regularity.
The latest was Finance Minister Bill Morneau. In a speech to Georgetown University, he referred to the nine million jobs; the fact trade-related jobs pay more; and the fact that trade surpluses and deficits are fairly even in the northern half of the continent, which appears to be a priority for the Trump team. “I think Americans intuitively understand the strength of the relationship,” Morneau later told reporters. “But the specifics, and the specific advantage, that’s up to us to communicate.”
Trump’s rift with Mexico hinted at the scare scenario for trading partners like Canada. The U.S. president promised some kind of border tax would make Mexico pay for the wall he intends to build. Canada has launched a pre-emptive warning over the idea, with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland saying Ottawa would retaliate if hit with any such border tax.
The good news is that the conversation about U.S. corporate-tax reform is only just beginning — every idea floated so far for a foreign-goods penalty has found some criticism, even within the Republican party.
Freeland said she left Washington feeling optimistic about U.S. sentiment towards Canada. In a possible hint of the conversation next week between Trump and Trudeau, she said that in her meetings she discussed making trade easier with Canada.
One idea Freeland specifically mentioned: extending pre-clearance for cargo, amid ongoing pilot projects to screen train passengers before they board so they bypass customs logjams.
“Our conversations focused on ways to make that border thinner,” she said.
Canada has one major advantage working for it right now, said one prominent analyst of Canada-U.S. relations: Trump could use some productive international relationships.
The Mexicans are furious. Hostile phone conversations with the leaders of Australia and France have been leaked to the media. The leaders of the U.K. and Spain have extended an olive branch — only to face a backlash from their own citizens, who want that branch pulled back. The U.S. president was even declared persona non grata by the Speaker of the U.K. Parliament.
“Trump is looking for some victories right now,” said Laura Dawson, of Washington’s Canada Institute at the Wilson Center.
“You’re not going to invite a world leader to your office in order to treat them badly. So I think they’ll be looking for an ‘announceable’ that will be a mutual win for both of them. Showing himself to have a positive relationship with Trudeau will help Trump’s image and success at home.”
But Trudeau faces domestic pressure, too. The prime minister is already being pulled in different directions as to how he should handle his unconventional interlocutor — on the one hand, some critics on the right have accused him of sounding too negative about Trump, and jeopardizing business ties.