logo

STATEMENT - National Coordinators advance work on Icebreaker Collaboration Effort Français

Cision Canada12-06-2025

Representatives from Canada, Finland and the United States met to discuss the next steps in the collaboration to build Arctic and polar icebreakers
OTTAWA, ON, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ - The National Coordinators of the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact) and other officials from the governments of Canada, Finland and the United States (U.S.) have successfully concluded a 2-day meeting to discuss their shared commitment to strengthening Arctic presence and icebreaking capabilities through the ICE Pact.
During the discussions, delegates from Canada, Finland and the U.S. successfully advanced deliverables under the ICE Pact workplan by focusing on the 4 areas of work: technical expertise and information exchange, workforce development, relations with allies and industry, and research and development.
The 3 countries each presented their initial review and analysis of their Request for Information, which collected industry views and recommendations within their respective markets. This will help in engaging with interested shipyards and supply chains, and in laying the groundwork for future involvement with the private sector.
The delegates also participated in a panel discussion and roundtable with Canadian industry, academia and think tank representatives, hosted by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. The event was an important forum to discuss the purpose and potential of the ICE Pact and identify opportunities for industrial collaboration. Participants shared valuable insights into the national perspectives on the ICE Pact and Arctic collaboration, promoting trilateral cooperation and strengthening stakeholder support for ICE Pact activities.
The 3 partner countries concluded a successful meeting with a strong commitment to continue the ICE Pact work. They agreed to meet again in-person in fall 2025. The U.S. will host the next meeting.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Ivison: After the inferno, Jasper is on the rebound
Ivison: After the inferno, Jasper is on the rebound

Calgary Herald

timean hour ago

  • Calgary Herald

Ivison: After the inferno, Jasper is on the rebound

Rachel Bailey finally saw a future for herself running a fine dining restaurant in the Rocky Mountain paradise of Jasper, Alta. Article content The native of Manchester, England, was drawn to the snowy peaks and turquoise lakes in 2013, and spent much of the next decade struggling to realize her dream of Canadian citizenship. Her plan was to use her British law degree to become accredited in Canada, but she found herself working part-time in a Jasper bistro and at a local law firm. Article content Article content Article content By the end of 2023, she'd become a Canadian citizen, and the owners of the bistro where she worked had asked her to use her sommelier skills to open a new concept that paired wines with fresh local game and produce. Bailey was invited to become part-owner, and the idea for Peacock Cork and Fork was born. Article content Article content Bailey and her partners purchased an upper-level space on Patricia Street in Jasper's downtown, and on June 12, 2024, the restaurant opened to great fanfare. Article content Just 40 nights after opening — on July 22 last year — the Peacock was so badly damaged by the wildfire that nearly swept away the entire town that it had to be condemned. Bailey lost not only her livelihood but also the house she rented farther up Patricia Street. Article content Article content Article content My wife and I met Bailey — Rachel — when she served us in one of the bustling restaurants that survived the fire, Harvest, just downstairs from where the Peacock was located. Article content Eleven months after the fire that destroyed one-third of Jasper's 1,113 buildings and burned an area nearly the size of the island of Montreal in the surrounding national park, it feels like a town that is just getting by. Article content Gazing toward the town from the Maligne Canyon look-out, the landscape looks like Mordor, scorched earth, pockmarked by thousands of blackened tree stumps. No one knows how much wildlife was lost, though it was recorded that elk and grizzly bears wandered the main streets of the town in the days after the fire, looking for an escape route.

Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney will have no choice but to kill supply management
Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney will have no choice but to kill supply management

Calgary Herald

time2 hours ago

  • Calgary Herald

Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney will have no choice but to kill supply management

Article content For a while there, things were going so well. Prime Minister Mark Carney — aka 'the Trump whisperer' — had morphed from critic to texting buddy of the U.S. President. Over the past three months, Carney had been chatting with Donald Trump, building backchannel goodwill. After the successful G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., hopes were high that Ottawa would strike a deal with Washington in 30 days, and that the rhetoric of making us the '51st state' had finally been retired. Article content Article content Until last Friday, when everything fell apart. Article content Article content Article content That's when President Trump abruptly cut off trade negotiations with Canada over our three per cent digital services tax, set to take effect June 30. Aimed at U.S. tech giants Amazon, Meta, Google and AirBNB, the tax was retroactive to 2022 and would have cost them an estimated $2 billion in back payments. The tech bros howled, the president barked, and Carney blinked. Sunday night, he backed down and cancelled the tax: Monday morning, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick thanked him for the climbdown, as did the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Negotiations were back on. Article content But if you thought that was the last bump in the road, you couldn't be more wrong. In an interview broadcast Sunday morning on Fox, Trump mentioned a veritable mountain: supply management. That's the system that protects Canadian dairy, poultry and egg industries from foreign competition through quotas and tariffs, including Trump's favourite bugaboo, a 200-plus per cent markup on U.S. dairy products. Article content Article content It's true that the tariff only kicks in after the U.S. exports 50,000 zero-tariff metric tons of milk and 12,500 metric tons of cheese per year — levels it is nowhere near approaching. But supply management was already a sticking point with Trump in the CUSMA negotiations under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Republican lawmakers and U.S. dairy producers continue to demand its elimination. Article content Article content In our country, unfortunately, it has become a hill on which political careers go to die. Case in point: People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier, whose ambition to lead the Conservative party in 2017 was thwarted by the Quebec dairy lobby after he promised to ditch the policy. And the sacred cow lives on: in June, the House of Commons and Senate passed a Bloc Québécois bill with all-party support to prevent bargaining supply management away. Article content Carney knows that he owes his recent election victory in large part to Quebec voters — and with a minority, needs the support of opposition parties like the Bloc to stay in power. But if Canada wants a serious trade deal with a Trump White House, supply management will have to go. Not just for the sake of negotiations, but because it's a cartel policy that has had its day.

Canada withdraws Digital Services Tax following suspension of trade talks by Trump
Canada withdraws Digital Services Tax following suspension of trade talks by Trump

Canada Standard

time2 hours ago

  • Canada Standard

Canada withdraws Digital Services Tax following suspension of trade talks by Trump

Ontario [Canada], July 1 (ANI): Canada has officially withdrawn its proposed digital services tax, aiming to revive trade negotiations with the US, just days after US President Donald Trump halted discussions in protest of the levy, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. As per Al Jazeera, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday announced that he and President Trump had reached an agreement to restart talks, targeting a July 21, deadline outlined at the recent G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis. The now-scrapped tax, which was set to take effect from Monday, would have imposed a 3 per cent levy on revenues earned by digital services companies from Canadian users above USD 20 million in a calendar year, retroactive to 2022, as per Al Jazeera. It was intended to target online platforms, digital advertising, social media, and data monetisation, impacting major US tech firms such as Apple, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, and Meta. President Trump denounced the tax on Friday, calling it 'a direct and blatant attack on our Country,' in defence of American tech giants, as reported by Al Jazeera. Criticism followed the Canadian government's decision to withdraw the tax. Tech analyst and journalist Paris Marx told Al Jazeera that the move signals Canada's vulnerability to US pressure, arguing that digital services taxes are crucial to ensuring large multinational tech firms contribute fairly to the countries in which they operate. Marx pointed out that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) efforts to establish a global framework for digital taxation have stalled largely due to US resistance under both the Biden and Trump administrations, leading many countries to adopt their own taxes. 'It has been continually delayed for years in the hope that a diplomatic process in the OECD would create an international framework to ensure those companies pay more tax in countries around the world. But the United States, under [former US President Joe] Biden and Trump, has ensured it's been unable to move forward... More countries are enacting digital services taxes for that very reason, and Canada is wrong to back down,' he stated as quoted by Al Jazeera. Canada's Finance Ministry confirmed the suspension of tax collection and said Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will introduce legislation to repeal the Digital Services Tax (DST) Act. The ministry reiterated that the DST was originally introduced in 2020 to address the low tax burden of large tech companies operating in Canada but emphasised Canada's preference for a multilateral solution, as reported by Al Jazeera. As per Al Jazeera, citing the US Census Bureau, Canada is a major trading partner for the US, second only to Mexico, and purchased USD 349.4 billion worth of American goods last year, while exporting USD 412.7 billion to the US. While Canada avoided sweeping US tariffs introduced in April, it still faces a 50 per cent duty on steel and aluminium exports to the US, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store