Latest news with #BlocQuebecois
CBC
16-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Carney ‘has to admit his own failure' over pledge of full free trade with U.S., Blanchet says
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, speaking a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney said a tariff-free deal with U.S. is unlikely, said he wants to see the lowest possible tariffs and 'real' negotiations for 'all sectors of our entangled economies.'
CBC
03-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
New supply management law won't save the system from Trump, experts say
A new law meant to protect supply management might not be enough to shield the system in trade talks with a Trump administration bent on eliminating it, trade experts say. "It's certainly more difficult to strike a deal with the United States now with the passage of this bill that basically forces Canada to negotiate with one hand tied behind its back," said William Pellerin, a trade lawyer and partner at the firm McMillan LLP. "Now that we've removed the digital service tax, dairy and supply management is probably the No. 1 trade irritant that we have with the United States. That remains very much unresolved." When U.S. President Donald Trump briefly paused trade talks with Canada on June 27 over the digital services tax — shortly before Ottawa capitulated by dropping the tax — he zeroed in on Canada's system of supply management. In a social media post, Trump called Canada a "very difficult country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products." Canada can charge about 250 per cent tariffs on U.S. dairy imports over a set quota established by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the U.S. dairy industry, said in March that the U.S. has never come close to reaching those quotas, though the association also said that's because of other barriers Canada has erected. When Bill C-202 passed through Parliament last month, Bloc Quebecois MPs hailed it as a clear win protecting Quebec farmers from American trade demands. The Bloc's bill, which received royal assent on June 26, prevents the foreign affairs minister from making commitments in trade negotiations to either increase the tariff rate quota or reduce tariffs for imports over a set threshold. Employing the 'royal prerogative' On its face, that rule would prevent Canadian trade negotiators from offering to drop the import barriers that shield dairy and egg producers in Canada from price shocks. But while the law appears to rule out using supply management as a bargaining chip in trade talks with the U.S., it doesn't completely constrain the government. Pellerin said that if Prime Minister Mark Carney is seeking a way around C-202, he might start by looking into conducting the trade talks personally, instead of leaving them to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. Carney dismissed the need for the new law during the recent election but vowed to keep supply management off the table in negotiations with the U.S. Pellerin said the government could also address the trade irritant by expanding the number of players who can access dairy quotas beyond "processors." WATCH | PM says scrapping digital services tax is part of negotiations: Scrapping digital service tax is part of U.S. negotiations, Carney says 2 days ago Duration 2:53 Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday that scrapping the digital services tax was one part of the bigger trade negotiation with the U.S., though the White House said Carney 'caved' when trade talks were cancelled. Talks have since resumed. "[C-202] doesn't expressly talk about changing or modifying who would be able to access the quota," he said. Expanding access to quota, he said, would likely "lead to companies like grocery stores being able to import U.S. cheeses, and that would probably please the United States to a significant degree." Carleton University associate professor Philippe Lagassé, an expert on Parliament and the Crown, said the new law doesn't extend past something called the "royal prerogative" — the ability of the executive branch of government to carry out certain actions in, for example, the conduct of foreign affairs. That suggests the government isn't constrained by the law, he said. "I have doubts that the royal prerogative has been displaced by the law. There is no specific language binding the Crown and it would appear to run contrary to the wider intent of the [law that it modifies]," he said by email. "That said, if the government believes that the law is binding, then it effectively is. As defenders of the bill insisted, it gives the government leverage in negotiation by giving the impression that Parliament has bound it on this issue." He said a trade treaty requires enabling legislation, so a new bill could remove the supply management constraints. "The bill adds an extra step and some constraints, but doesn't prevent supply management from eventually being removed or weakened," he said. Killing system a non-starter in Canadian politics Trade lawyer Mark Warner, a principal at MAAW Law, said Canada could simply dispense with the law through Parliament if it decides it needs to make concessions to, for example, preserve the auto industry. "The argument for me that the government of Canada sits down with another country, particularly the United States, and says, 'We can't negotiate that because Parliament has passed a bill,' — I have to tell you, I've never met an American trade official or lawyer who would take that seriously," Warner said. "My sense of this is it would just go through Parliament, unless you think other opposition parties would bring down the government over it." While supply management has long been a target for U.S. trade negotiators, the idea of killing it has been a non-starter in Canadian politics for at least as long. Warner said any attempt to do away with it would be swiftly met with litigation, Charter challenges and provinces stepping up to fill a federal void. "The real cost of that sort of thing is political, so if you try to take it away, people are screaming and they're blocking the highways and they are calling you names, and the Bloc is blocking anything through Parliament — you pay a cost that way," he said. But a compromise on supply management might not be that far-fetched. "The system itself won't be dismantled. I don't think that's anywhere near happening in the coming years and even decades," said Pellerin. "But I think that there are changes that could be made, particularly through the trade agreements, including by way of kind of further quotas. Further reduction in the tariffs for outside quota amounts and also in terms of who can actually bring in product." The United States trade representative raised specific concerns about supply management in the spring, citing quota rules established under the CUSMA trade pact that are not being applied as the U.S. expected and ongoing frustration with the pricing of certain types of milk products. Former Canadian diplomat Louise Blais said that if Canada were to "respect the spirit" of CUSMA as the Americans understand it, the problem might actually solve itself.
National Post
30-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
U.S. and Canada restart trade talks after conflict over digital services tax
Canada and the United States have restarted trade talks after Prime Minister Mark Carney's government dropped Canada's digital services tax. Article content U.S. President Donald Trump suspended negotiations with Canada over the tax on Friday. Following a phone call between Carney and Trump on Sunday, Ottawa announced that it was eliminating the tax. Article content Article content White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Monday the U.S. would immediately restart trade talks with Canada. A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister's Office confirmed trade talks have resumed. Article content Article content Article content Hassett made the comments in an interview on Fox News, adding Trump asked Canada to drop the tax at the G7 meeting in Alberta earlier this month. He said the removal of the tax means Canada and the U.S. can get back to negotiations. Canada's move to drop the tax came just as the first payment under the tax was about to come due. The initial payment was retroactive to 2022 and could have collectively cost American companies US$2 billion. Article content On Monday, business groups on both sides of the border praised the government for moving to eliminate the tax, while critics accused the government of capitulating to the U.S. Article content Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Carney campaigned during the election on finding a way out from under Trump's tariffs but has nothing to show for it so far. Article content « Le gouvernement Carney a sollicité et obtenu le mandat de négocier la fin des tarifs et un nouvel accord commercial avec les États-Unis de Donald Trump. Il a fait de lourds compromis en matière de défense, de frontières et de contre-tarifs, puis le voici en train de reculer sur… — Yves-F. Blanchet 🎗⚜️ (@yfblanchet) June 30, 2025 Article content In a social media post, Blanchet said Carney's government 'made significant compromises on defence, borders and counter-tariffs, and now it is backtracking on a widely supported measure to protect culture, still with nothing to show for it — no gains or progress for Quebec and Canada, neither on tariffs nor on trade. Article content Article content 'This is deeply concerning,' he said. Article content Interim NDP Leader Don Davies also sounded off on social media, saying the decision to end the digital services tax amounts to 'pure caving in to Trump and his billionaire friends.' Article content Davies said that, coupled with Carney's openness to Trump's 'Golden Dome' missile defence plan and his sprint to meet the new 5 per cent NATO defence spending benchmark, 'it's looking more & more like Mr. Carney had his elbows up during the pre-game skate _ only to drop them once the game started.'
National Post
20-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
FIRST READING: How Canada's dairy cartel keeps fumbling our foreign trade negotiations
First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post's own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. Article content TOP STORY Article content Article content As Canada is actively trying to expand its trade with the non-U.S. world, Parliament has just entrenched the one thing that has scuppered more trade negotiations than anything else. Article content This week, the first bill passed by the 45th Parliament ended up being a Bloc Québécois-championed proposal to shield the Canadian supply management system from any foreign trade negotiations. Article content Article content Bill C-202, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, bars the Department of Foreign Affairs from negotiating any trade deal that liberalizes foreign access to Canada's heavily tariffed dairy and egg sector. Article content Article content Although the bill has been framed as a boon to the country's 9,000 dairy farms, everyone from trade analysts to other Canadian farmers have warned that it comes at the cost of kneecapping Canada's ability to grow its global trade links. Article content The Grain Growers of Canada trashed the bill, saying it scares away trade partners at the precise moment that Canada needs to find more of them. 'For grain farmers who rely on access to international markets, the result will be less ambitious trade agreements, fewer export opportunities, and slower economic growth at home,' said Kyle Larkin, the group's executive director, in a Wednesday statement. Article content The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) similarly framed C-202 as throwing a wrench into Canada's 'accelerated trade diversification agenda.' Article content 'At a time when Canada must be demonstrating leadership and consistency in defending predictable, rules-based trade, this bill sends the wrong message,' CAFTA said, in a press release. Article content Supply management has directly led to the collapse of at least one major Canadian trade deal, and has held up negotiations on several others. Article content In January 2024, the U.K. walked away from negotiations for a bilateral trade deal with Canada over Ottawa's refusal to compromise on supply management and accept increased imports of British cheese. Article content During 2015 negotiations for the since-cancelled Trans-Pacific Partnership, Canada's refusal to allow free trade access to its dairy sector wound up becoming one of the deal's most conspicuous snags. Article content As U.S. negotiator Darci Vetter said at the time, Canada was trying to close a 'market access' deal that 'doesn't include market access.' Article content A 2016 trade agreement struck with the European Union was secured only after Canada agreed to liberalized European access to the Canadian dairy market — but at the cost of billions in compensation paid to dairy farmers.
Globe and Mail
03-06-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
‘Every vote counts' is not just a slogan
'Every vote counts' has long been a slogan for those urging participation in the democratic process. But those three words − with a question mark − are now shaping up to be a legal question that could ultimately trigger a by-election in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne. The result, after all the official counting was done, was as close as it could be: Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste received 23,352 votes in a judicial recount, just one more than her Bloc Québécois opponent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. Even with that tiniest of victory margins, that would have given the seat to Ms. Auguste and the Liberals – except that riding resident Emmanuelle Bossé then went public with her claim that her mail-in ballot, with a vote for the Bloc, was returned to her on May 2. Elections Canada had used an incorrect postal code for a self-addressed return envelope. Ms. Bossé has told reporters that she put her ballot in the mail on April 5, well ahead of the April 22 deadline for it to be received by Elections Canada. That ballot was returned to her on May 2, four days after the election. Her additional vote for the BQ would have meant a tie, triggering a by-election. The BQ filed a court application on May 23, as it is entitled to under the Canada Elections Act, requesting a by-election. That would be a just outcome, not just for Ms. Bossé, but for all Canadians' voting rights. Elections Canada says that 106 mail-in ballots were sent out with incorrect postal codes. Of those, 85 were returned in time to be counted, five were returned to Elections Canada late and 16 (including Ms. Bossé's ballot) were not returned at all. It is possible – even likely – that more than just Ms. Bossé's right to vote is at stake. The five late ballots could have been slowed down by their lack of an accurate postal code. And there is a possibility that another 15 votes were cast and not received by Elections Canada, as was the case for Ms. Bossé. That is a question mark hanging over the basic democratic rights of nearly two dozen voters in Terrebonne. And the arithmetic is clear: Even one more vote for the Bloc in the official count would have resulted in a new election. And that is a key fact for the court to consider. It's not enough that Elections Canada made a mistake in addressing the envelopes. No election is conducted without hiccups. Perfection is an unreasonable standard. The mistake must be big enough to have potentially affected the outcome of the election in the riding. Most of the time, that error would have be very large indeed to be bigger or equal to the winning candidate's margin of victory. But in Terrebonne in the 45th general federal election, the margin was tiny, just one vote. So, if the facts are as Ms. Bossé has described, the resulting irregularities would appear to meet the legal standard in the Canada Elections Act for nullifying the election and ordering a by-election. There is a downside, both for partisans and for riding residents. For Liberals, they are trading the certainty of a win for the possibility of defeat. The results were surprisingly good for the Liberals on April 28. In a by-election, voters would know that the Liberals would continue on in government no matter the outcome. That could well mean the BQ wins. More broadly, a by-election would deprive the residents of Terrebonne of representation during the current sitting of Parliament. That is not a step that should be taken lightly. Neither of those is a good enough reason to avoid a by-election in Terrebonne for the very simple reason that Ms. Bossé's vote is no less important than those from the 60,278 people currently in the official count. Her vote should have been part of that group verdict and was not, seemingly through no fault of her own. And that means one of her fundamental rights as a Canadian was violated. Democratic rights are not just part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are set on a higher plane than many other rights in the Charter, beyond the reach of a legislature's ability to use the notwithstanding clause. Freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly: all are important but can be limited using the notwithstanding clause. But not the right to vote, because the power of democracy ultimately underpins all other rights. 'Every vote counts' has been used as a slogan for so long that it has slipped into the bland world of platitudes. But if Ms. Bossé's case has no other effect, it has demonstrated that real power lies in the hands of each voter.
