Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Quebec City on Thursday for two days of private meetings with his cabinet to prepare for Parliament's return next week.
The cabinet retreat begins the day after Carney returns from a nine-day overseas tour drumming up new investments for Canada, and just ahead of the return of Parliament on Monday.
In a news release, the Prime Minister's Office said the cabinet meetings will focus on the economy, affordability and security, and cabinet ministers and secretaries of state will discuss progress on the priorities laid out in their mandate letters. Carney publicly released just one mandate letter for his entire cabinet, rather than the traditional list of individual assignments, saying that showed every member of his cabinet shares "a unified mission."
"In particular, the Prime Minister and Cabinet will focus on next steps in the government’s plan to bring down everyday costs and make life more affordable for Canadians," the news release said.
When he laid out core priorities in May following the federal election, Carney said his government would work to bring down the cost of living and reconfigure some of Canada's most important international relationships.
Carney is returning to Canada on Wednesday concluding his foreign trip that included stops in Beijing and Qatar for state visits and Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, where those attempts at reconfiguration were front and centre.
In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Carney urged middle powers to band together as larger ones try to pressure them through economic coercion.
Earlier in the trip he finalized a deal to get China to lower agricultural tariffs in exchange for opening some market access for Chinese electric vehicles, before making pacts on defence, trade and investments in Qatar.
Discussions at the retreat may also revolve around U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his desire to take over Greenland. The Greenland crisis dominated much of the discussion in Davos. Carney met with multiple world leaders who all reiterated a mutual commitment to protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark, including Greenland.
During the meetings in Quebec City, cabinet will hear from experts in finance, community services, advanced technology and global affairs, the news release said.
Parliament is set to resume on Monday for the first time since December 11. Carney's Liberal government is two seats shy of a majority, following the floor crossing of two Conservatives in the fall, and the departure of Toronto MP Chrystia Freeland earlier this month.
The Liberal budget itself passed the House of Commons in November, when the government survived a confidence vote with the backing of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and the abstentions of two NDP and two Conservative MPs, but now must still get through the legislation to implement parts of that budget.
That bill passed second reading before the break but still needs to go to committee for study before a final vote in the House of Commons and then debate and votes in the Senate.
In the fall, the Liberals introduced three justice bills — which have yet to be passed by Parliament — that would implement a long list of changes to the Criminal Code.
They include new intimidation and obstruction offences in Bill C-9, measures in Bill C-14 to make bail more difficult to obtain and to allow for consecutive sentencing for some crimes, and Bill C-16’s move to restore mandatory minimum imprisonment penalties.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
