Carr vows to spend more time in riding

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This article was published 27/12/2017 (2982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Jim Carr, the sole Manitoban in the federal cabinet, says he’ll make an extra effort to stay in touch with Winnipeggers in 2018, after a year in which the Liberals grappled with perceptions of being out of touch with Canadians.

“Ottawa can be a surreal bubble, and we try very hard to make sure that we don’t lose sight,” the natural resources minister said in a wide-ranging interview to cap off how the Liberals fared this year.

Touching on four main themes, the Winnipeg South Centre MP counts his greatest success as the landmark energy summit in the Manitoba capital in October, and says his government’s greatest stumbling block has been communicating its agenda.

Communication difficulties

Carr rattled off a series of accomplishments, such as a $867-million softwood lumber action plan, and the provinces’ united front during turbulent North American Free Trade Agreement talks.

In October, the International Monetary Fund said Canada’s economic growth rate was set to top the world’s seven most-advanced economies, while Statistics Canada reported this month the country added 441,000 full-time jobs in 2017.

But Carr admits those figures haven’t hit home. Though he didn’t raise them, the government has faced a series of scandals this year, and accusations of elitism.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dogged by an investigation into his late-2016 vacation with the Aga Khan, which recently found him in violation of the ethics code. The “Paradise Papers” also showed the Liberal party’s top fundraiser (and Trudeau friend) Stephen Bronfman storing millions in an offshore trust.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau piloted a controversial tax reform in the summer, prompting loud outcry from business groups and a town hall that ended in shouting. This fall, Morneau sold off at least $21-million in family assets, after accusations of conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, a memo by the Canada Revenue Agency outlining how staff discounts are taxed — such as free fast-food meals and cheap sweaters — was quickly reversed.

“I’ll quote the prime minister: ‘Better is always possible.’ Better relationships, better ways of consulting Canadians, better ways of expressing policies,” Carr said.

He noted a rise in populism in western countries, as politicians lose touch with their voters.

“We are nourished by our roots in politics, and when you lose touch with those roots, and you become distant from the people who are the reason you’re there, the democratic process begins to breakdown.”

Carr said he personally aims to be seen more in his Corydon-area riding this year, though expense reports suggest he’s there most weekends. “When you’re a minister and an MP, you have to juggle your national and international duties with being at home.”

He said four town halls within his riding generated a sizable crowd, with “fabulous questions” that “weren’t lob-balls,” and a sizable amount of mail.

Kapyong Barracks

It remains unclear why the Kapyong Barracks remained largely untouched this year. The abandoned Canadian Forces base, which sits in Carr’s riding, was declared surplus in 2001.

The military started demolition this month of some nearby housing units, which it expects to end by late March.

But the military said demolition on the main site, spanning 64 hectares and 40 buildings, is expected to only begin next spring and finish “within two years,” because it will involve all buildings, roadways and underground utilities.

Treaty 1 First Nations successfully sued the former Harper government after the military tried transforming the base into a general Crown asset; Ottawa ended its years of appeals shortly before the 2015 election.

Carr said talks are ongoing with the group. “That negotiation is being led by Canada Lands, and I get periodic updates,” he said — yet the Canada Lands Corporation refused an interview, saying it doesn’t comment on properties it doesn’t own.

“The last update I got was positive, that the Indigenous communities were more and more keen to come up with a proposal that will work for them and will work for the community.”

Carr said whatever replaces it, such as an urban reserve with retail, would comply with Winnipeg bylaws and zoning rules, “regardless of the developer.”

Carr wants Kapyong to be fully out of federal hands by the October 2019 election, “in a way that ensures that the community will be given ample opportunity to comment on it.”

“My hope has always been that we could sort this out in the first mandate. So we’re halfway through the mandate, and I’m encouraged that there have been reports of important progress,” he said. “I hope it picks up speed in 2018.”

Energy summit

Carr said his highlight of the year was a two-day meeting in Winnipeg he calls “the most important, public conversation on energy, probably in the history of the country.”

The Generation Energy conference gathered 641 people to talk about what Canada’s energy mix should look like in the next two decades. International experts attended, as did activists, academics, oil tycoons and Indigenous groups, while 340,000 people weighed in online.

The event didn’t result in a written strategy; Carr has said it’s instead an evolving policy. He ended the Oct. 11 conference by asking the crowd if anyone felt uncomfortable during their talks, and said every hand went up.

“If we’re not uncomfortable, we’re not learning,” he said. “If you can agree about where you want to be in a generation, and then dial it back to where we are now, and plot milestones along the way, where we can hold each other accountable, it’s amazing what could happen.”

The conference was held in Winnipeg because of a 2009 closed-door meeting where the leader of almost every major Canadian think tank carved out a set of principles to plan an energy strategy.

“We locked ourselves up in my boardroom at the Business Council (of Manitoba), and emerged with something known as the ‘Winnipeg consensus.’” The document was later adopted into the premiers’ energy strategy proposal, though the former Harper government was reluctant.

Days before the conference, TransCanada announced it was cancelling its planned Energy East pipeline from Alberta to the New Brunswick coast. Carr claims Canada will hardly be dented by that decision, because the lower price of oil that contributed to the company’s decision will still make the Keystone XL pipeline viable.

Carr said the Liberals have done a better job than their predecessors at managing the balance between jobs, the environment and Indigenous relations, such as offering pipeline-monitoring jobs to local First Nations groups, and launching a series of concepts that most provinces have signed onto — but not Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

As energy minister, he sees his role as incentivizing provinces and companies to harmonize their regulations, while kick-starting investments such as electrical-vehicle charging stations.

“The federal government has to lead the energy conversation with humility, and with understanding that the provinces own natural resources in Canada,” he said. “We have to be humble and careful.”

He said Manitoba could transfer some of the clean energy it generates through hydro “to another province where it will displace less-clean sources of power,” while getting something worthwhile in return.

“We seek to drive consensus and very often we can, but you’re never going to get unanimity, especially in my portfolio. But you have to always continue the conversation. And also always imagine that someone might have a better idea than you.”

He even said with an “abundance of energy,” from fossil fuels to hydro power, “maybe one day Canada will actually lead the conversation about a global energy strategy. That’s how well I think Canada is positioned in the world.”

Provincial relations

This month, Carr told the Free Press he’d start hosting “regular” meetings between Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, alongside the provincial government led by Premier Brian Pallister, which whom Ottawa has clashed over a multitude of issues this year, such as marijuana sales and health spending.

Carr said he’s not interested in whether Pallister sincerely feels the province is being shortchanged, or if the former Tory MP is scoring political points by casting himself as the anti-Trudeau.

“I’ve learned over the years never to impugn motive in political leaders,” he said. “It’s my job as a minister of the Canadian government, to take at face value what is done, and to deal with it. Premier Pallister has chosen to disagree, for his own reasons, on a variety of different files. It is my job to make sure that disagreements never are a threat to the interest of the people of Manitoba.”

Carr said his government has taken special care to make sure the province doesn’t miss out on infrastructure projects that require both provincial and municipal support in order to access federal funding.

“We will make certain that the people of Manitoba get their fair share.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca