Carr bullish on Manitoba-Ottawa relations

Minister rebuffs critics of economic performance, touts job growth

OTTAWA — International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr is echoing his fellow cabinet ministers in defending the country’s ballooning debt by pointing to strong job numbers.

Economists have noted Canada is recording historic job growth, and statistics suggest most are not part-time gigs. Even with an increase in immigration, jobs are getting filled and unemployment is the lowest in decades.

Yet experts note wage growth isn’t keeping up, possibly due to more short-term and freelance contracts.

Many economists have also questioned the government’s moves to go further into debt by ramping up spending on social programs, including in this fall’s economic update. The government argues this will help more enter the job market, but it also leaves Ottawa with less of a cushion when the next recession hits.

Interest rates are also expected to rise by mid-year, which add to the cost of servicing the debt.

“There are more people working than have ever worked before. So, I think we have every reason to feel that we’re on the right track,” Carr said in a recent interview. “Manitobans are an essential part of the economic engine that drives Canadian growth, and I just feel very good to be a part of it.”

Critics have also honed in on Bill C-69, which would change how Ottawa reviews major energy projects.

The bill is seen as an attempt to avoid a repeat of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. A court halted the project in August due to insufficient consultation with Indigenous communities, moments before Ottawa took possession of the multibillion-dollar project from Kinder Morgan. Pipeline proponents fear the new rules will bungle future projects.

Despite already passing in the House, the Liberals have hinted at reforming the bill after angry protests in Alberta. Premier Brian Pallister has said the bill also risks derailing the Lake St. Martin and Lake Manitoba flood-prevention channels, but Carr said that’s a misunderstanding.

“It has nothing to do with Bill C-69,” said Carr, adding the project is only subject to existing rules. He said Manitoba’s contractor still has to submit its environmental report.

“The ball is in the province’s court right now,” he said. “I have no indication from anybody that the government of Canada is stalling anything.”

Carr also pushed back on Pallister’s recent criticism of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which has invited groups far downstream from the channel-outlets project for consultations. Pallister said this was an overreaction to the Trans Mountain debacle, though Carr said the agency is following the rules.

“We are bound by the Constitution and the court,” Carr said.

— Dylan Robertson

MP says ‘bumps along the road’ expected in dealings with China

OTTAWA — Manitoba’s sole cabinet minister says he’s optimistic Canada and China will get through their escalating spat.

Canada tried to forge a trade deal with China a year ago, but the country firmly pushed back during a visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who extolled the need for labour rights and other progressive policies.

Meanwhile, in this autumn’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that will replace NAFTA, Canada would have to share the draft of any China trade agreement with the U.S. before signing.

This fall, the government started hinting at a sectoral approach instead of an all-out deal with China, which would see agreements involving specific industries such as agriculture.

That was until Dec. 1, when Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of China’s state-supported telecom giant Huawei. Meng may be extradited to the U.S., but China has since threatened trade blowback and has detained Canadians.

Carr is coy about whether the spat is keeping him up at night. “It’s endlessly challenging, fascinating, complex, but it’s a privilege,” he told the Free Press.

“In any bilateral relationship, there are bumps along the road, there are tense moments, difficult times. We’re going through such a moment with China,” he said. “You have to put what’s happening at the moment into the perspective of many decades that have come before, and certainly the many decades that will follow as the relationship matures — as the nations mature.”

Carr will also have to deal with the fallout if Canada cancels a controversial, lucrative deal to provide armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

He stressed that the government has made progress elsewhere.

In September, Carr introduced a bill to ratify an Asia-Pacific trade deal, formally titled the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but most commonly called the TPP.

The fast-tracked bill passed the House and Senate within a month, and comes into effect Sunday. As one of the first six signatories, Canada gets a special tariff cut when trading with countries such as Japan and Australia.

The Liberals clinched a deal to replace NAFTA, securing trade with the United States and Mexico after a year of negotiations that ended with a late-night deal. A year prior, they ratified a trade deal with the European Union after years of work by the previous Conservative government.

“We are the only G7 nation with a free-trade agreement with all of the others, which gives us a tremendous advantage,” Carr said.

— Dylan Robertson