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Yukon’s Premier says the downing of a mysterious object over the territory marks an necessary milestone within the debate over the safety of Canada’s arctic.
“It’s a turning level,” Ranj Pillai stated an interview on Monday.
Mr. Pillai, who took over as premier in mid-January, stated there have been some talks amongst premiers on what he referred to as the “Arctic-security dialog” whereas they have been in Ottawa for a gathering on the federal authorities’s funding of well being care.
However occasions over the weekend have made the difficulty way more concrete. Throughout a Monday information convention, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated 4 aerial objects shot down in current days, together with one over Yukon territory on Saturday, are related in a roundabout way, with out elaborating.
“Clearly there’s some kind of sample in there – the actual fact we’re seeing this in a big diploma over the previous week is a trigger for curiosity and shut consideration,” Mr. Trudeau instructed reporters in in Whitehorse, Yukon’s capital. Story right here.
In the meantime, Mr. Pillai stated the query is whether or not we’re headed for a future the place incidents like this will not be going to be an anomaly within the Canadian north.
“Are we going to be in a state of affairs over the subsequent 20 years the place the exercise that occurs is simply not one thing that occurs as soon as over the Yukon?
“Are we going to have extra exercise on our coast? Are we going to have our airspace extra lively, with international gamers? These are all of the issues we’ve to consider. This weekend simply gave us a contact of what the longer term may carry?”
In concrete phrases, Mr. Pillai says the safety concern is about bolstering infrastructure within the north to facilitate the longer term growth of an extra army presence. For instance, he cited growth of {an electrical} grid connection into the Yukon, the event of fibre traces, and ongoing upgrades to the Whitehorse airport.
“The infrastructure we want goes to be advantageous to each the army and the expansion of the north and our skill to help the vital minerals infrastructure everybody desires to see flourish.”
He stated Arctic leaders, together with First Nations, need to be on the desk on future discussions about Arctic safety involving the federal authorities. “We would like our voices to be heard,” he stated.
On Monday, the Liberal Premier met with the Prime Minister, who was in Whitehorse for a sequence of occasions.
“He was open to the dialogue round Arctic safety,” he stated. “He was supportive of the factors I made and the significance I confused on this matter.”
Mr. Pillai stated he has had useful discussions with Defence Minister Anita Anand, Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal.
He additionally stated he has not been instructed precisely what the item is or the place it might need come from, saying each factors are unclear at this level.
Mr. Pillai had beforehand launched work to construct a brand new territorial advisory committee to supply steerage on the topic. “I need to be told once I come to the desk.”
On Monday afternoon, there was phrase of a technical briefing on “high-altitude objects” in Ottawa at 4:30 p.m. ET that can be held by the Division of Nationwide Defence , Public Security Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Coast Guard. Please examine The Globe and Mail for updates.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
TORY STILL HAS WORK TO DO AS PREMIER – Toronto’s price range chief says John Tory, who lately introduced plans to resign as mayor after an affair with a former staffer, will keep within the job till after Wednesday’s metropolis price range deliberations. Story right here. There’s an outline right here of 5 potential candidates who could run to switch Mr. Tory as mayor.
PM AND AIDES WARNED ABOUT DEALINGS WITH FORMER ONTARIO MINISTER – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior aides have been warned on not less than two events that authorities MPs needs to be cautious of their political dealings with former Ontario Liberal cupboard minister Michael Chan due to alleged ties to China’s consulate in Toronto, national-security sources say. Story right here.
MAROUF WAS BARRED FROM ENTERING CANADA – Laith Marouf, an anti-racism advisor on the centre of a scandal over a sequence of tweets about “Jewish White Supremacists,” was barred from re-entering Canada from Syria in 2009 and interviewed by a Canadian intelligence official on the embassy in Damascus. Story right here.
PRISON WATCHDOG CALLS FOR MORE HARM-REDUCTION SERVICES TO PREVENT DRUG OVERDOSES, DEATHS – Canada’s jail watchdog says Ottawa can’t proceed to make use of the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for gradual progress on increasing companies to cut back inmate drug overdoses and deaths. Story right here.
MINISTERS, PAST AND PRESENT, COULD TESTIFY BEFORE COMMITTEE – Present and former cupboard ministers needs to be referred to as to testify earlier than a parliamentary committee in regards to the distribution of inauthentic Canadian authorities journey paperwork to a whole bunch of Afghans making an attempt to flee the Taliban in 2021, say the New Democrats. Story right here.
PERSONNEL SHORTAGE CHALLENGES AIR FORCE F-35 PLANS – A personnel scarcity is difficult Canadian Air Pressure’s plan to introduce the F-35 fighter and different tools, with Canada’s air-force commander saying the drive is brief practically 2,000 full-time members and 500 reservists, at a time when it’s presupposed to be increasing. Story right here.
SINGH SEEKS BLOCK OF ROGERS SHAW PLANS – Federal NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh is urging Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne to dam Rogers Communications Inc.’s $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc., citing issues that it may result in larger cellphone payments and job losses. Story right here.
PM’S LAWYERS OPPOSE CALLS FOR HIS TESTIMONY IN LONDON, ONT., INCIDENT – The Prime Minister’s attorneys are preventing a subpoena for him to testify on the London trial of a person accused of throwing stones at him, alleging the request is politically motivated and infringes on his parliamentary privilege. Story right here from The London Free Press.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Enterprise on the Home of Commons, Feb. 13, accessible right here.
POLITICAL FORECAST – THE WEEK AHEAD – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Yukon on Monday, can be on the street later this week, travelling to Nassau, the Bahamas, on Wednesday and Thursday as a particular visitor on the forty fourth Assembly of the Convention of Heads of Authorities of the Caribbean Neighborhood.
The group consists of the leaders of 20 Caribbean governments. In keeping with a authorities assertion, Mr. Trudeau is to work on shared priorities with Canada, together with continued help for Haiti. He will even take part in group discussions of leaders and meet with them individually.
Additionally, Protection Minister Anita Anad can be in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday for conferences of NATO protection ministers and the Ukraine Protection Contact Group, which consists of about 50 nations united in help of Ukraine as it’s coping with Russia’s invasion. Continued army help to Ukraine can be a part of the talks on Tuesday on the contact group assembly.
Within the Home of Commons, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez nonetheless has to resolve whether or not to simply accept Senate amendments to Invoice C-11, which might regulate on-line streaming. If Mr. Rodriguez decides he’s okay with the amendments or the Senate agrees to his choice on the amendments, the invoice may shortly develop into regulation.
Committee hearings within the Commons this week embody the standing committee on international affairs and worldwide growth having a Tuesday briefing on the humanitarian disaster following earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Additionally Financial institution of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers seem Thursday earlier than the standing committee on finance to report on financial coverage.
MINISTERS ON THE ROAD – Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, in Montreal, introduced the federal authorities would make investments nearly $40-million to help greater than a dozen synthetic intelligence tasks. (Story right here.) Worldwide Improvement Minister Harjit Sajjan, in Vancouver, made an announcement on revitalizing Vancouver’s historic Chinatown. Filomena Tassi, the minister for the Federal Financial Improvement Company for Southern Ontario, in Vars, makes an announcement of help for tourism, jobs and the economic system in Japanese Ontario. She additionally made a rural financial growth announcement in Embrun.
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS – Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is among the many witnesses showing Monday earlier than the standing committee on human rights as regards to Islamophobia in Canada. Different witnesses embody Michael Mostyn, the chief govt workplace of B’Nai Brith Canada. Particulars right here, together with videolink data, on the assembly, which begins at 4 p.m. ET.
DENTAL BENEFIT APPLICATIONS – The federal authorities says dental therapy for greater than 200,000 youngsters has been topic to the Canada Dental Profit for the reason that authorities started accepting functions on Dec. 1. The milestone was introduced in a press release from the departments of well being and nationwide income, issued on Monday.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Whitehorse, held personal conferences, met with Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai, and toured a tech and startup incubator and met with native entrepreneurs. Mr. Trudeau additionally held a media availability.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Chief Yves François Blanchet held a information convention on his occasion’s opposition day movement on the however clause, accompanied by BQ justice critic Rhéal Fortin.
Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre scheduled after which cancelled a information convention on Parliament Hill. He was to be accompanied by Abbotsford MP Ed Quick and Saskatchewan Senator Denise Batters.
NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, was in conferences on Monday.
No schedules supplied for different occasion leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Monday’s version of The Globe and Mail podcast, science reporter Ivan Semeniuk explains precisely how fusion – the act of deriving power by smashing atoms collectively – works and the Canadian efforts which might be working to take this idea and switch it right into a viable and widespread power supply. Due to a current scientific breakthrough, there was a rise in public pleasure that someday, we would be capable to use this as a steady, clear supply of power, however we would not get the know-how earlier than our 2050 net-zero local weather targets arrive. The Decibel is right here.
TRIBUTE
Quebec’s former immigration minister, Nadine Girault, has died, Premier François Legault introduced Monday. Ms. Girault, aged 63, was in cupboard throughout the Coalition Avenir Québec’s first 4 years in energy. Story right here from CBC.
Individuals pays tribute to former long-time Mississauga, Ont., mayor Hazel McCallion beginning Monday as she lies in state for 2 days earlier than her funeral on what would have been her 102nd birthday. Story right here.
PUBLIC OPINION
What’s the subsequent act for Canada’s arts and tradition sector? Nik Nanos, the chief information scientist at Nanos Analysis, and the official pollster for The Globe and Mail and CTV Information, takes a Knowledge Dive on the difficulty right here.
OPINION – JOHN TORY
Marcus Gee (The Globe and Mail) on how John Tory’s exit is a tragic departure, however a giant alternative for Toronto: “The problems are necessary and pressing. How does Toronto home the unhoused and develop into a metropolis the place younger individuals can afford a spot to stay once more? How does it get spooked commuters again onto public transit, plagued lately by violent incidents? How does it even pay its payments, whereas preserving taxes inside cause? Ought to it transfer to reject the strong-mayor system, simply imposed by Queen’s Park and embraced by Mr. Tory? If Toronto is to deal with all the issues in entrance of it, it badly wants new management, new power, new concepts. It’s a disgrace it occurred this fashion, however right here is its likelihood.”
Rita Trichur (The Globe and Mail) on how Toronto’s subsequent mayor must make transparency a precedence: “There’s a lesson to be realized from John Tory’s unceremonious choice to resign as Toronto’s mayor. The principle takeaway isn’t that “No story Tory” is simply as unimaginative as different highly effective males who’ve had affairs with youthful feminine staffers. It’s that Canada’s largest metropolis is stricken by governance and transparency issues. Mr. Tory’s successor must carry extra than simply dignity again to the mayor’s workplace – they have to enhance accountability. There’s a belief deficit in Toronto’s choice making that dangers harming its fame internationally and chasing away funding.”
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how, to shut the sponsored daycare hole, for-profit centres can be wanted: “An excessive amount of of the controversy has pitted non-profits in opposition to for-profits and set punitive, unrealistic caps on the variety of for-profit areas. There have to be house, with wise safeguards, for entrepreneurs to enter the market. There’s a actual divide between households with entry to sponsored daycare and people who could have to attend years for these vital financial savings. That divide have to be closed as shortly as potential.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the way it’s not okay for Doug Ford to host a celebration the place builders include money: “Ontario Premier Doug Ford hosted a celebration at his home the place land builders introduced ca sh presents for his soon-to-be-married daughter. Wow. That’s an actual drawback. Let’s see if this makes it higher: The Premier stated these builders (whom he gained’t title) have been his buddies.Nope. Not significantly better. Mr. Ford is mates with a whole lot of builders, in some instances for many years – however that doesn’t imply the whole lot is okay as a result of the money presents got here from the Premier’s buddies. However wait: Mr. Ford ultimately went to the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, David Wake who, in response to the Premier, cleared it “1,000 per cent.” Nonetheless not higher.”
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