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CTV News
21 minutes ago
- CTV News
Carney toured Canadian Navy facility as B.C. visit continued Monday
Prime Minister Mark Carney looks through high-powered ship binoculars during a visit to the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR) operations centre on the Winchelsea Islands near Nanoose Bay, B.C., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Prime Minister Mark Carney continued his visit to British Columbia on Monday as he toured the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges facility on Vancouver Island. Wearing a navy blue suit, Carney visited the facility near Nanoose Bay, about 30 kilometres north of Nanaimo, for about 2 1/2 hours, during which he toured the Royal Canadian Navy vessel Sikanni. A statement from the Prime Minister's Office says Carney's visit aimed to highlight Canada's plan to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces. It adds Carney also used the visit to thank Canadian navy members serving on the West Coast. He was accompanied by Navy Commander Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee and Commanding Officer Craig Piccolo from the testing facility. They also joined Carney on a tour of the facility's Range Operation Centre. 'Fire one,' he mused as he peered through binoculars and pretended to fire a torpedo, drawing laughter from those present. Carney marvelled at the strength of binoculars and joked about what he could see. 'I see a ferry,' he said, quickly adding, 'Not Chinese-made.' Carney's comment is in reference to BC Ferries, the private company owned by the provincial government that recently bought four ferries from a Chinese shipyard. While the company has said the shipyard offered the best deal, it has drawn criticism from Premier David Eby and federal Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland. Carney left the facility by car, driving past a group of demonstrators with the Freedom From War Coalition. They held up Palestinian flags and signs calling on Canada to impose an arms embargo on Israel. One of them, Eden Haythornthwaite, said Carney's plan to spend more money on the military runs counter to the wishes and needs of Canadians, who want to see more money spent on public housing and education among other items. 'We don't need a whole bunch of armaments,' she said. Canada's commitment under NATO's new defence spending targets for actual hardware and infrastructure could cost up to $150 billion. Juljana Zeqollari questioned Carney's recent announcement that Canada's government plans to recognize a Palestinian state. 'In the meantime, they are sending bombs and military shipments to Israel to commit genocide,' she said. The federal government has insisted that it hasn't been allowing exports of lethal weapons to Israel — days after the release of a report that says Israeli customs data indicates Canadian arms are still being exported there regularly. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Friday items that the Israel Tax Authority identified in customs data as 'bullets' were actually 'paintball-style projectiles' that cannot be used in combat. Israeli customs officials had identified the bullets as 'munitions of war and parts thereof.' The government's statement comes three days after a coalition of Canadian advocates for Palestinians issued a report that pointed to multiple shipments from Canada to Israel, including one identified as 'tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles' or parts of such vehicles. Anand did not mention that shipment in her Friday statement, which cited three examples of claims in the report she said 'are misleading and significantly misrepresent the facts. Carney did not take questions from media and did not meet with people like Brenton Thompson and Bill MacArthur, who were hoping to catch a glimpse of him. 'That was underwhelming,' Thompson said. The tour marked a continuation of his visit to British Columbia. On Sunday, Carney met with Eby as well as officials from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Carney and Eby discussed U.S. tariffs and a renewed animosity in the long-running softwood lumber dispute. After the meetings, Carney made a surprise appearance at Vancouver's Pride Parade, marching for about a kilometre along the route beginning outside B.C. Place Stadium. With files from Dylan Robertson This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2025. By Wolfgang Depner
CTV News
24 minutes ago
- CTV News
Prime Minister Mark Carney scheduled to visit Kelowna, B.C., Tuesday
Prime Minister Mark Carney listens while touring the Royal Canadian Navy torpedo recovery vessel Sikanni at the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR), in Nanoose Bay, B.C., on Monday, August 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck KELOWNA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to be in Kelowna, B.C., for an announcement at a lumber facility on Tuesday after attending the Vancouver Pride parade on the weekend before he toured a Canadian Forces facility on Vancouver Island on Monday. Carney toured the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges facility near Nanoose Bay outside Nanaimo with officials from the Canadian Navy. He toured the Royal Canadian Navy vessel Sikanni accompanied by Navy Commander Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee and Commanding Officer Craig Piccolo from the testing facility. Carney on Sunday met with B.C. Premier David Eby and officials from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, but the meeting with the premier was closed to reporters. Carney also made a surprise appearance at the Pride parade in downtown Vancouver, where he was greeted with cheers from crowds that lined the parade route. The Prime Minister's visit to the province comes amid renewed tensions in the softwood lumber dispute with the U.S., which has placed anti-dumping duties on softwood lumber products that the B.C. Council of Forest Industries has condemned as 'unjustified and punitive trade actions.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2025.
CTV News
35 minutes ago
- CTV News
After unionized Canada Post workers reject ‘final offers,' what happens next?
A Canada Post employee prepares to check a street letter box while delivering mail, in White Rock, B.C., on Monday, July 28, 2025. Unionized workers at Canada Post rejected the Crown corporatin's latest offers in a forced ratification vote. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck OTTAWA — Labour experts say another postal service strike is unlikely after unionized Canada Post workers rejected their employer's latest round of offers in a forced vote and the parties mull their next steps. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said Friday that the roughly 55,000 members represented by the union shot down the Canada Post's latest proposal, which would've seen wage hikes of about 13 per cent over four years and restructuring to add part-time workers to the deal. Some 68.5 per cent of urban mail carriers who voted were against the deal, while their rural and suburban colleagues were 69.4 per cent against. Adam King, assistant professor in the labour studies program at the University of Manitoba, said the forced ratification vote ordered by the federal government and administered by the Canada Industrial Relations Board was a 'distraction.' 'Hopefully, at the end of the day, we see an agreement reached at the table — where it should have been in the beginning,' he said in an interview. 'Canada Post management is really going to have to put something on the table that the union actually thinks members will accept.' Negotiations for a new collective agreement have been ongoing for more than a year and a half. The federal government asked CIRB to step in and scuttle a holiday season postal strike late last year, but the parties remain at an impasse. The Crown corporation requested Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu send its most recent proposals from late May — calling them the 'final offers' — to a forced vote from workers. Canada Post said in a statement Friday that it was 'disappointed' in the vote results and that it was weighing its next steps. CUPW said in a bulletin to members last week that its negotiators are ready to head back to the bargaining table. A national ban on overtime work, in place since CUPW entered a strike position in late May, will continue in the meantime. King acknowledged that while the vote didn't go in Canada Post's favour, it wasn't a 'resounding' rejection, with more than 30 per cent of voters coming out in favour of the deals as presented. Larry Savage, professor in the department of labour studies at Brock University, said that apparent division in the ranks of CUPW would make it difficult to get members on a picket line. 'Even if you could effectively organize a strike, it's not obvious to me that it would produce the results the union's looking for,' Savage said in an interview. Before Hajdu sent Canada Post's offers to a vote, she had asked the parties to come to terms for binding arbitration to put an end to the dispute. CUPW was broadly in favour of sending talks to arbitration but Canada Post pushed back, arguing it would tie negotiations up in a lengthy process. Canada Post has warned that uncertainty around the fate of contract talks continues to cost the struggling postal service millions of dollars in business each day as customers shift to competitors. The Crown corporation's financial woes have been well-documented throughout the talks. An Industrial Inquiry Commission report from Commissioner William Kaplan earlier this year found the postal service was effectively bankrupt and needed substantial reforms to remain afloat. But King said arbitrators tend to be 'conservative' in bringing parties to a middle ground and are unlikely to make the kinds of sweeping, structural changes Canada Post is looking for in a new deal. Savage agreed that 'binding arbitration is not actually a long-term solution to the problems at Canada Post.' 'I think that management's forced final vote was a gamble and it blew up in their faces, but they still hold cards,' he said. Canada Post could unilaterally impose new contract terms and 'dare the union to strike,' Savage said, or could start laying off workers as its business falters. 'Both of those strategies would put tremendous pressure on the union to reach an agreement,' he said. 'The danger, of course, for Canada Post is that its aggressive tactics thus far have seemingly only driven the parties further apart.' Hajdu said in a statement Friday that the federal government expects the parties to get back to the negotiating table and find a resolution 'as soon as possible.' Given the financial struggles mentioned in the report, Savage said he expects the federal government will look to restructure Canada Post's mandate after the current labour dispute wraps up. That could see, as suggested in Kaplan's report, a further expansion of community mailboxes or an end to daily door-to-door delivery. In that context, Savage said the negotiations are less about which side wins the day and more about 'who will survive long-term.' 'There is a storm brewing for both Canada Post's management and the union. And I think that getting over this hump is important, but I think that it pales in comparison to what's coming,' he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2025. Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
