Liberal cabinet retreat to focus on housing, immigration

Housing and migration will return centre shape connected Monday arsenic nan national furniture retreat successful Halifax moves into its first afloat time of meetings.

The yearly end-of-summer furniture gathering is intended to group nan schedule for nan autumn sitting of Parliament which originates 3 weeks from today.

The Liberals are successful a make-it-or-break-it moment, pursuing much than a twelvemonth of slumping polling numbers and astatine astir a twelvemonth near earlier nan adjacent national election.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to return questions from nan media early Monday morning, thing he has done acold little often since nan Liberals mislaid a captious byelection successful a Toronto stronghold astatine nan extremity of June.

Ministers are besides expected to supply updates connected nan government’s ongoing revamp of nan impermanent overseas workers program, arsenic good arsenic nationalist kid attraction and electrical conveyance tariffs.

The furniture will besides beryllium forced to contend pinch nan still unsettled labour strife wrong nan 2 nationalist railways, pinch Teamsters readying a protestation astatine nan gathering today.

The authorities past week asked nan Canada Industrial Relations Board to statesman binding arbitration to extremity a activity stoppage that began erstwhile some Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) locked retired workers connected Thursday astatine midnight.

The committee agreed Saturday to nan binding arbitration petition but Teamsters President Paul Boucher has vowed to conflict it successful tribunal and will lead a protestation successful Halifax today.

But for nan Liberals, affordability and nan lodging proviso crunch will stay nan main priorities.

The detonation of migration nether their watch has go a important problem, contributing to soaring lodging costs and driving anti-immigration sentiment successful galore parts of nan country.

Last summer’s furniture retreat began to reside nan detonation of world student visas and successful January, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced nan authorities would o.k. 35 per cent less student visas this twelvemonth than it had successful 2023.

He has now turned his attraction much heavy to impermanent overseas workers, galore of whom are paid debased wages to do activity that’s difficult to find Canadians to do. The number of low-wage overseas workers grew 5 fold betwixt 2016 and 2024, overmuch of that maturation during nan post-COVID-19 labour shortages knowledgeable successful 2022.

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Miller has said nan conditions person changed and truthful must nan program. The authorities precocious approved a six-month frost connected caller low-wage impermanent overseas workers successful Montreal.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is besides expected to talk pinch her furniture colleagues nan summertime consultation that studied whether to subordinate nan U.S. and Europe and enforce caller tariffs connected electrical vehicles made successful China.

The furniture heard Sunday nighttime from U.S. nationalist information advisor Jake Sullivan during a moving meal that launched nan furniture retreat, who warned astir China’s economical policies, including overproduction and authorities subsidies that lead to unfair pricing and competition.

President Joe Biden announced successful May he would quadruple nan import taxes connected Chinese-made EVs to 100 per cent and Canada is expected to travel nan U.S. lead pinch caller tariffs of its own.

Freeland spent July holding nan required consultation to do so, but has hasn’t yet said erstwhile tariffs would hap aliases what they will be.

The European Union is readying to ballot successful October connected introducing caller tariffs successful its personnel states arsenic well.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pressuring nan authorities to enforce tariffs, promising he would do truthful if he wins nan adjacent election.

Speaking to reporters connected his measurement into nan furniture gathering Sunday night, Sullivan said nan U.S. won’t show Canada what to do but that location are important issues astir economical fairness and information information related to Chinese-made cars.

“The U.S. does judge a agreed front, a co-ordinated attack connected these issues, benefits each of us,” he said.