Politics This Morning: Trying to hold back the tide in the Gaspé peninsula

Good Tuesday morning, School’s out for the summer and cabinet ministers are fanning out across the country to make funding announcements. This, after a Canada Day weekend that had Heritage Canada's event planners in Ottawa contending with tornado and thunderstorm warnings. Transport Minister OMAR ALGHABRA and National Revenue Minister (and local MP) DIANE LEBOUTHILLIER will visit Port-Daniel-Gascons, Que., at 9:30 a.m. local time to announce federal funding to build climate-resilient railway infrastructure in the Gaspé peninsula. Lebouthillier’s riding, which extends into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is especially vulnerable to the encroaching seas and other effects of climate change. The eastern half of the Gaspé peninsula has been without passenger rail since VIA Rail suspended service in 2013 due to erosion and poor track conditions. The freight trains that once supplied local heavy industries had already disappeared. Lebouthillier announced in 2019 that the government was committing $45.8-million from Infrastructure Canada’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund to rehabilitate the railway between the coastal communities of Port-Daniel-Gascons and Gaspé. The Quebec government announced last week that it was committing $518-million to bring this stretch of rail back into service by 2026. Radio-Canada reports that this project will require $870-million overall. PTM will refrain from an apocryphal analysis of whether KING CANUTE could have held back the tides in his day if he’d had the 12th-century equivalent of $870-million. Federal Court judge rebukes federal government in funding dispute with Indigenous police services A judge has rebuked Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, pictured in a Hill scrum with reporters on June 15, and his officials for being inflexible in their negotiations with three First Nations police services. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade In case you missed it: CBC News reported on Friday that a federal court judge has ordered Public Safety Canada to provide 12 months of emergency funding to three Indigenous police services that have not seen any federal money since March 31, as negotiations on a new annual agreement broke down. The Treaty Three Police Service, the UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service, and the Anishinabek Police Service together serve 30,000 people across 45 First Nations communities in northern Ontario. Representatives of the three organizations came to Parliament Hill on June 12 to warn MPs and policymakers that they were running out of money to pay employees’ salaries and would have to shut down by the end of June. According to The Globe and Mail, Justice DENIS GASCON ruled that Public Safety Canada officials had been overly rigid and that the department “did not consistently follow its duty to act honourably and in the spirit of reconciliation.” The Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario, which went to court on behalf of the three police services, said in a press release Friday that the court ruling had rescued the three police services. The British Columbia and Quebec-Labrador arms of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) released a statement yesterday calling the court ruling “a positive development” and saying the AFN would continue pushing for First Nations policing to be made an essential and equitably funded service. What else is happening today? Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in the National Capital Region today and will be in private meetings, the Prime Minister's Office says. There are no House or Senate events scheduled this week. Many Ottawa-area VIPs will be dropping in to the U.S. ambassador's official residence this afternoon for the U.S. embassy's annual Independence Day party. Tourism Minister RANDY BOISSONNAULT and local Liberal MPs CHRIS BITTLE and VANCE BADAWEY will be in Niagara Falls, Ont., at 10 a.m. local time to make an announcement related to the federal government’s new tourism growth strategy. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH will be in Toronto at 10:30 a.m. local time to “announce a plan to deliver more affordable homes faster to address the housing crisis facing Torontonians.” Singh now has a strong ally in new Toronto mayor OLIVIA CHOW, who made affordable housing a major part of her successful campaign. Prairies Economic Development Minister DAN VANDAL and Manitoba Métis Federation President DAVID CHARTRAND will be in Winnipeg at 10 a.m. local time to announce a government-to-government partnership on economic and community development, tourism, and food security initiatives in Manitoba. Official Languages Minister GINETTE PETITPAS TAYLOR will be in Victoria, B.C., at 1:30 p.m. local time to announce “”significant funding” to expand services to Greater Victoria’s francophone community. YA’ARA SAKS, parliamentary secretary to Families Minister KARINA GOULD, will be in Vancouver at 4 p.m. local time for an announcement about childcare funding. In the news The latest Consumer Price Index report showed headline inflation dropping to 3.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis, but political observers say the government should be wary of trying to spin a positive narrative while housing and grocery costs are still rising. IAN CAMPBELL has that story. LAURA RYCKEWAERT covers recent changes in the offices of Transport Minister OMAR ALGHABRA and Seniors Minister KAMAL KHERA for her Hill Climbers column. Tuesday's book give-away: a signed copy of Barry Wilson's Sir Mackenzie Bowell: A Canadian Prime Minister Forgotten by History Mackenzie Bowell. Image courtesy of Flickr It's Tuesday's Beautiful Book Give-Away, and this week's book is Sir Mackenzie Bowell: A Canadian Prime Minister Forgotten by History, by former Hill journalist BARRY K. WILSON, and published in 2022 by Loose Cannon Press. Here's the back-jacket blurb: "In this meticulously researched and documented book, Barry K. Wilson redresses this imbalance, examining the life, impact, successes and failures of this largely overlooked prime minister and the crucial nation-building issues in which he was influential as an MP, customs minister, 'minister of war,' trade minister, prime minister and Senator." Here's this week's question: when was MACKENZIE BOWELL prime minister? The first person who answers the question correctly will receive a free, signed copy of Wilson's book. Please email your responses to news@hilltimes.com with the subject line: Beautiful Book Give-Away. Good luck! Don't forget to vote in this year's Politically Savvy Survey, folks Also, this is a gentle reminder to vote in our 28th Annual Politically Savvy Survey here. Your opinion matters. In the end, it makes for a better story and a great read. So some time this morning, please, get your cup of coffee, or tea, or lemon water (with a splash of apple cider vinegar and a touch of honey and turmeric, perhaps), and spend seven-to-10 minutes giving us your smart take on Canada's federal politics and politicians today. Just think: you'll be a part of the story. Thank you. kphilipupillai@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Trying to hold back the tide in the Gaspé peninsula

Plus, the Federal Court rules that Canada must resume funding Indigenous police services in Northern Ontario while negotiations continue on a new agreement.

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Trying to hold back the tide in the Gaspé peninsula

Plus, the Federal Court rules that Canada must resume funding Indigenous police services in Northern Ontario while negotiations continue on a new agreement.

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