 Good morning, my name is Maureen Boyd. I'm the director of the Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement. Welcome to this special Zoom webinar for diplomats. Bienvenue à vous tous et à vous toutes. Comme nous vous en avons informé, cette session déroule en anglais. We have a full morning plan for you, but first I want to show you where we should be today at Carleton University. It's been a tradition for the last nine years for the Carleton Initiative to organize an annual orientation for newly arrived diplomats to Canada. Each year offered new diplomats an opportunity to learn about Parliament from the Speaker of the House of Commons, from the Clerk, and from members of Parliament who would talk about their party's priorities, but also about establishing relationships with the diplomatic community. There were presentations on public opinion, panels of journalists who shared their recommended trusted sources of information and who answered lots of questions. Representatives from the business community spoke about business trends and engaging with Canadian business. The Mayor of Ottawa and the CEO of the National Capital Commission talked about engaging with the National Capital Region. The orientation always finished with lunch and a resource fair allowing organizations that provide services and information for diplomats to explain what they do. But above all, it was an opportunity for diplomats to discuss, to network, to meet each other. We hope that next year we'll be holding this event in person, but right now we're going to recreate some of it virtually with the focus not just on newly arrived diplomats, but with presentations and remarks of interest to the entire diplomatic community here in Ottawa and also across the country. Because we are virtual, we are welcoming diplomats from consulates across Canada, a special welcome to all of you. For today's session, we were received registrations from more than 175 members of the diplomatic community, including more than 65 ambassadors, high commissioners, and Chargé d'affaires. We have a great program for you this morning. We've sent it to you and it's also available on our website, www.carleton.ca.paraldiplo along with the presentations and resource sheets that our presenters will mention. We welcome your engagement on social media. Please tweet your comments or photos. We are at Paraldiplo. And let me recognize our sponsors who help make this happen. Air Canada, CN, Facebook, Forest Products Association of Canada, Insurance Bureau of Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Nutrient, Suncor, TD Bank, and Toyota. We thank them sincerely for their support. And I would like to mention that we are recording this webinar and content may be used for news, promotional purposes, advertising, inclusion on websites, social media, and any other purpose by Carleton University. And now, to start us off, the President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University, Dr. Benoit Antoine-Bacom, assumed his duties in 2018 after an impressive career as a teacher, researcher, and academic administrator at Bishops, Concordia, and most recently at Queen's University. He has a PhD in Neuropsychology from the University of Montreal, and his research is focused on the field of cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Bacom. Thank you so much, Maureen. Good morning, everybody. Bonjour tout le monde, et merci d'être avec nous aujourd'hui. It's a real pleasure to welcome you virtually to Carleton University, to Ottawa, and for some of you to Canada. For Carleton, to be located in Ottawa is such a great advantage, and we call it the capital advantage. And the presence of your embassies is such a big part of that advantage. We reflect this in our brand new strategic plan, where we commit to, it's one of the main axes of the plan, serve Ottawa, serve the world. This is now the 10th year that we do our orientation for newly arrived diplomats as part of our efforts to maintain very strong links with the diplomatic community. And I do want to take this opportunity to thank the organizer of our events today, Maureen Boyd, and her team. Thank you so much. And what a rich and wonderful program you have for us. Many thanks to all our speakers. So many good friends at Carleton will be here today. And P, the Honorable Catherine McKenna. David Colletto will be here. Anil Arora from Statistics Canada, and Goldie Heider who used to be on our board, among many others and I'm excited to hear all the presentations. I sincerely hope that you'll find our orientation useful, and that you will build a sense of connection to our great university. And these, of course, very international. We're home to over 31,000 students and of that number over 4000 are international students from 150 countries around the world. And of course our research enterprise our research collaboration span all continents. And this is a great time for Carlton. Last week, McLean's magazine, which is an authority in terms of university rankings, confirmed that we were in the top five of comprehensive universities in Canada, and we were very pleased in particular to rank in the top three for student satisfaction. And in a few weeks it will become official that over the past two years our research funding, which is a good proxy for research quality and impact has grown by 50%, 50% increase over two years, which is more than any other university in Canada so we have great momentum. So today's only the beginning over your time here I'm sure we will engage in many professional discussions as to how Carlton can partner with your countries around education, research and cultural exchanges. So please don't hesitate to call on our experts to partner with our specific faculties or research group to organize conference and events to make use of our great facilities, especially once the pandemic is over our art gallery or theaters. So please consider your cultural diplomacy or representation. Maybe you can also consider Carlton and our great programs for your personal choice, and your family as well. Let me thank you one more time for taking part in the 10th newly arrived diplomat orientation we really appreciate that you took the time to connect with us today and I sincerely hope that you will find it useful. Thank you for the wonderful years in Ottawa and in Canada and I look forward to working with you over the years. Again messy book. Thank you very much. Thank you President back home for your opening remarks. Our first presenter is going to set the stage for our discussions this morning with his presentation on Canadian public opinion trends, where Canada is, and where it's going. This is Carlton graduate, one of our distinguished alumni. David Coletto is CEO and a founding partner of abacus data, a market research and strategy firm. David is one of Canada's leading pollsters and an expert on generational change and millennials. David. Thank you, Maureen. And good morning, everybody. Pleasure to be here. I'm going to share my screen and get right into it. It's been, as we've all experienced a very unprecedented, I guess it's a word we use all the time now, moment over the last seven months. As a social scientist. It's been both a challenging but also interesting period to be measuring public opinion and looking at how Canadians are reacting to this pandemic and what it means for how we do politics how we use view public policy. So what I'm going to do today is give you just a brief snapshot of what we're seeing and talk a little bit about what the implications are. I think the three takeaways from my presentation for you are that, you know, a lot of the pre COVID trends that we were seeing in how Canadian consumers, Canadian employees, Canadian voters were behaving are likely to accelerate. And there are some things that I think the pandemic, particularly how we view politics has shifted and I'll speak to those today. But when we look at general satisfaction with with the federal government with with many provincial governments, I think Canadians are feeling quite satisfied with how our government has responded to the pandemic and that has impacted. I think our evaluations of many other things one one thing to, you know, keep in mind, many of you do being in Ottawa and and the impact the United States has on on the whole world is that we are as a public very much influenced by what's going on in the United States and so we are in constant comparison. And and the perceptions around how well the pandemic has been handled in the United States does play into our own perceptions and our own views of how our government has handled things and and that leads to a politics despite general satisfaction. A politics that remains quite competitive we had two by elections federal by elections in Toronto. Yesterday the liberals held both they had them prior and they held both of them. But we did see, although it's not wise always to take too much out of by elections we saw still fairly competitive landscape, particularly in York Center, a more suburban Toronto riding. The Liberals held on by a few by a few hundred votes, but it was it was close and I think it confirms some of the polls that I'll share with you today. The first place I want to start though is is where Canadians are today around the pandemic as you interact with with the federal government here and represent your countries here in Ottawa and around the around Canada. Like I'm sure in your countries. As it is here this pandemic is top of mind and it's becoming more top of mind more of a focus for people as the number of cases continues to rise, not only here in Canada, but around the world we've been tracking public opinion on this really from the very beginning doing a survey almost every week now. And as of last week, you can see here when we asked people how worried are you or how worried is the COVID-19 or coronavirus making you feel right now. 36% of Canadians are what I call it an extreme level of concern saying they're either extremely worried or worried a lot about that pandemic another 30% say they are somewhat worried very few are not worried at all. But what's important here is the trend line. This is the percentage of Canadians who say they are extremely worried a lot about the pandemic, you can see that, you know, back in March when it first started, we still had higher levels than we do today but it sort of tailed off into the fall, excuse me into the summer, and we now are at a level that has been more or less higher than it's been for some time so we see this rising anxiety this rising anxiousness around a large number of Canadians. At the same time we asked people over the last seven days are you getting more worried or less worried about the pandemic. The red line represents those who say they're more worried you can see again since August really we've seen a real rapid rise in that momentum to work towards being more worried about things. We've seen a dip. We finished last week a survey we saw a 12 point drop in that more worried group, but it still remains higher than at any point, since the early days of the pandemic so we are at a different stage in this sort of double polls now indicates clearly a second wave, not only of cases but of concern about it. What does this mean well, like in other parts of the world, when cases start to rise people feel anxious. We've seen a, when we compare to June a nine point increase and those who are worried or concerned about getting the virus themselves. Half Canadians are now worried about a family member COVID this connects to the point that this is still a health crisis. In most Canadians minds, and perhaps most striking is when we ask people do you think the worst is still to come or do you think the worst of this pandemic is behind us. Just over half of Canadians continue to believe the worst is still to come it's down again slightly from the middle of October but it's still higher than it's been. This is a point since early April so that's a suggestion that Canadians are very much defensive and concerned about it so when we look at the public mindset today versus just prior to the pandemic really coming into Canada. You can see that you know the public's looking at a number of variables, economic variables on employment rates up consumer confidence is down job insecurity. We measure you know how likely are you to lose your job. That's up almost every Canadian believes Canada is in a recession compared to only 30% prior to the pandemic. More people are saving spare cash as a way to protect against future challenges. Half as many believe is a good time to make a major purchase and from a fiscal and federal policy perspective, our federal budget deficit is about $310 billion larger than it was prior to the COVID prior to the pandemic so all of these variables impact the way that I think the public is viewing the world so you know the current perspective is growing anxiety about COVID-19 as a second spike continues. Many think it will take a year or more before we're back to normal that time horizon has lengthened as this thing has gone on longer and longer. And when we think about changes to behavior and preferences I think the longer this goes on the more those preferences and behaviors are going to stick and and this pandemic becomes far more consequential in terms of the long term trajectory. But the impact, not only on the pandemic has had, not only on how we behave but it's had an impact on how we think about government and the role of the state in our lives. Generally speaking, when we ask Canadians, do you think things in the world, the United States, Canada are headed in the right direction, or are they off on the wrong track? This is how Canadians feel right now so you can see that generally speaking Canadians aren't optimistic about most things whether it's their own country 35% the world or the United States. If you look at this across the trend line, you actually saw interesting enough as the pandemic as sort of first started, we saw a spike actually an increase in those who felt the country was headed in the right direction. That's more or less deteriorated back to where it was prior to the pandemic, but this period was where governments were working together Canadians were sort of coming together to deal with this pandemic. So it actually had a slight boost to the public morale in a way, but we're back more or less to where we were, we're about 35% think the country's headed in the right direction. Now the gap between how Canadians feel about their own country, and the rest of the world and particularly the United States, I think are pretty interesting and not surprising and not unique. If you were to replicate this research in the UK or in many European countries or other countries around the world you see the same thing, maybe not in the United States, where even Americans think, most Americans think the US is not headed in the right direction. But I think this is a starting point this is the foundation by which Canadians have a sense of where the country is going. One of the other interesting things about the pandemic. These are two indicators that we track the green line represents the federal government's approval rating. And I'll show you the number in a moment where we are today, but the orange line or the yellow line represents the right track number. And you can see that prior to the pandemic, these two numbers, more or less moved in the same direction so that as government approval went up so to do feelings about how the country was headed in vice versa but we saw between February and May when this pandemic started a real almost decoupling of these two variables where where government approval really went up much higher you can see up to 58% in the early days of the pandemic. And that was 15 points higher than those who felt the country was headed in the right direction that's they started coming back together. But one of the the legacies as of now of this pandemic is that Canadians are generally more favorable have a higher approval of the federal government than they do in terms of where the country's headed and I think that's an indicator that the decisions of the federal government are not driving so much how people feel about the general country because in the midst of the pandemic that is become the frame by which Canadians are understanding the world. One of the ironies in a way, not necessarily ironies but one of the, perhaps contradictions that's a better word of of this pandemic is despite people feeling quite anxious about the world and Canada and the pandemic and its impact both socially help and economically Canadians actually have more likely to approve of the federal government today 45% in our most recent survey last week, then they did back in January. And that is, at least for now one of the legacies of this is that Canadians are feeling better about as I'll show you the government overall, as well as the Prime Minister, and that may dissipate over time. And as soon as the pandemic starts to become less focus, but it has put a new lens on how people are are evaluating both the federal and their provincial and municipal governments. And this is our tracking of federal government approval. You saw the green line earlier in another chart but you could see that prior to the election and even in the few months after the federal election last October, more Canadians disapproved of the federal government this wasn't a government that was particularly popular. At any point over the last year, and, you know, held on to a minority government wasn't lost their majority in the last federal election so this was a fairly divisive and increasingly polarized population but the pandemic had the effect of bringing people together. We saw it in many other countries around the world are rallying around the flag, and that has has held out, although the government doesn't have anywhere near the approval ratings it was it was getting back in May at 58%, which has you know the highest it had ever registered in our tracking over the last six years that this government's been in power. When we look at the federal leaders themselves, you know Mr. Trudeau the Prime Minister remains relatively popular, same number have a positive view of him the green boxes as view him negatively. That's generally better than he's been prior to the pandemic. And again that's I think he's benefited from the leadership and sort of the crisis that the pandemic created our new conservative leader the opposition leader Aaron O'Toole was elected a few months ago in the summer and he starts more or less even with about same number of people viewing him positively or negatively a much better position than the previous conservative leader Andrew Scheer who ended being the most unpopular leader in the country but a lot of Canadians still don't know who Aaron O'Toole is it's going to take time and maybe even a federal election before they really get to know him. Now Mr. Singh, Jagmeet Singh is the new Democrat leader, and he right now is the more popular leader if you look at net favourables more people like him than dislike him. He's had fairly positive numbers for quite some time and you know has benefited from that in terms of his ability to support to gain support and and and lead this minority government. And just last week propping it up and preventing an election. Now one of the things we've asked Canadians last week is if there were an election today there's lots of talk about a possible election coming up. Which of these issues would be most important in deciding your vote and so we asked six different items having a plan and policies to deal with the pandemic, having a plan for the Canadian economy in the future, finding the right balance and spending and taxation levels helping create, protect existing jobs and creating new jobs, combining coming up with ideas to combat climate change and protect the environment and working to improve the quality of all people in Canada. These were broad policy areas but ways of framing policy and you can see that more Canadians almost half say that having a plan and policies to help deal with the pandemic would be the most important factor in how they would vote in an election if it were held today and everything else sort of falls out about equal with with economic issues or fiscal issues being more important climate change only about 10% of Canadians inequality at nine. But the important difference is how we compare liberals and conservatives, for example, when we look at those who voted liberal in the last federal election looks similar to the national average a little, you know, 10 point higher among pandemic but you can see these kind of economic fiscal issues fall somewhat lower relative to the population as a whole. When we look at conservative voters here we see a very different picture and here's where you start to understand where Canadian politics is going and where it is today. Well, more conservative voters say a plan to deal with the pandemic is their sort of top issue and deciding how to vote. When you combine a plan for the economy or rights balance of spending and taxation levels or or protecting existing jobs you can see you get a clear majority kind of piling into one of the more economic issues and so for conservative oriented voters. The concern is far more about the economic consequences of the pandemic and getting the economy going that's not surprising that's what we normally would see but it does show when you compare these two slides. The two worlds that almost exist in Canadian politics. And while we don't have a very highly polarized system, there is some polarization or some differences in how these voters will approach voting and how I think the parties would approach an election if one were to come. Talk of an election we averted one last week around a confidence vote. There is no real desire for an election. If you ask Canadians I actually think this was a survey we did over the weekend. I don't think there's very few moments in time when Canadians will be, you know, excited for an election or really want one. We typically see when an incumbent government is very, very unpopular, that might be the impetus to have an election. We don't see that so conservatives are more likely to want an election conservative voters than anybody else but again, there doesn't appear to be any real desire for an election, particularly now and we've seen a provincial election in Saskatchewan. Yesterday a BC election on the weekend and and evidence is that turnout dropped substantially in those election, which is an indicator either that people are generally satisfied with their governments or there's not as much engagement because of the pandemic. So all this means though if we were to have an election, our latest polling shows a very close race, very much in line with what we saw in the last election actually the Liberals would have a slight advantage over the conservatives naturally built on leads in Ontario and Quebec. The conservatives do very well in the prairies and the new Democrats, I think are getting slight, slight boost in BC because of the success of the provincial government there but are more or less holding their vote about where they were at the last election. So, despite all of everything that's happened in the world in the last seven months, despite a pandemic despite record unemployment, if an election were held today, and a campaign could change many things. Our early indicators is that it would end very I think very close to how it ended back in October in 2019. Now, I'll end with, I think what I would assume most of us are going to be watching over the next week is what happens in the United States with their election. One of the things we've been tracking is how Canadians feel about it it's important in terms of our, not only how our government and our economy runs but also I think in how we evaluate ourselves everything, or not everything but a lot of what Canadians think about the world and how they view themselves is often done in contrast and to what's going on in the United States and so when we asked this is again data from this past weekend, when we asked Canadians how do you feel about the two leading candidates for president the current president Donald Trump and vice former vice president Joe Biden. You can see two very different perspectives Donald Trump has, I would say, I can say with confidence, probably the most unpopular US president that's ever been in terms of how Canadians feel about it there's been times when Canadians have not responded well to past US presidents recently George W Bush wasn't viewed particularly popular particularly around the war in Iraq, but you know we're close to 80% of Canadians dislike or have a negative view of the US president is I think a remarkable thing and has been this way for some time. What's what's interesting about these two results and you can see where Mr Biden is is if they were political leaders in Canada. Miss Donald Trump would no doubt be the most unpopular leader in Canada but but Mr Biden would actually be the most popular leader in Canada, when we compare them to how we view our own political leaders and Mr Biden's numbers have slowly improved in Canada as Canadians have gotten to know him through our attention to the US election. What does this mean well obviously Canadians are rooting for for one of these gentlemen to win the election. If they could vote. Canada would be one of the most democratic states in the United States 75% of Canadians say they would vote for Joe Biden if they could one out of four Canadians would vote for Donald Trump so as we head towards this election I think there's no doubt who Canadians want to win who Canadians hope wins this election, but the, but the complications around how that election goes the anxiety that it's created. Relative volatility and uncertainty that Donald Trump and the Trump administration has brought to Canada US relations, I think has created a scenario where Canadians are looking for more stability, especially given the pandemic. And so there's a lot of hope that Joe Biden does does emerge victorious next week is sworn in in January but perhaps more worrisome for Canadians is the, what would happen if it's a really close election, and the winner is it's uncertain for for weeks maybe months. That's a scenario where where Canadians feel very vulnerable to to that kind of volatility. So I will end there and leave with just a few final thoughts I think, as I've said, you know it's been a really interesting period to measure Canadian public opinion. Over the last seven months we've seen views and attitudes shift. We've seen a rise in in in fairly positive feelings about our political system. We've done some work with other organizations that showed you know trust in institutions are up feelings that that that government and public institutions play an important role in people's lives have increased. All that being said, you know the second spike has created an immense amount of anxiety right now. Canadians are uncertain about what this is going to mean they know that the economic consequences are severe. They're deeply concerned about the level of public debt and deficits that governments are having to run up to help support people and businesses during this difficult time. And and they don't know what the, you know, the road will bring and what what we're going to do on the other end, despite relatively strong approval ratings for the federal government. When we ask people how they're actually going to vote. It's far more competitive than it perhaps should be I think this is perhaps lingering partisanship and concerns about, you know, Mr Trudeau and ethics questions that have clouded this government, even recently and might and almost brought the government down last week. But the two by elections last night I think show that that these results that we're seeing are in line with what we would have expected those by elections to produce. Ultimately, you know, we're all looking to the US and the US election. And once we have clarity on what's going to happen. And I think Canadians then are going to be starting to shift into what recovery looks like but recovery can't be part of our conversation until we really feel confident that the virus is under control and right now Canadians are increasingly unsure about whether that's happening. So I'll end there it's been a pleasure to share and if you have any questions beyond this session you can always reach out to me, my emails there David at advocate data dot ca, and you can follow me on Twitter as well so thanks so much marine I'll hand things back to you. David, thank you very much for this really interesting snapshot and your analysis of where we are as a country right now and because with this presentation on what Canadians are thinking, David has set us up for our look at the second session of Canada's Let me hear from the politicians representatives of Canada's three main political parties, and what their priorities are for this new session, but first we're going to start off with a discussion on process, the workings of this hybrid minority pandemic parliament. I'm fortunate to have the speaker of the House of the Commons to start us off. The Honourable Anthony Rota was elected the 37th speaker by his peers last December. Late last week, I asked him how this new session is going to work. Hello more in and I just want to say beforehand it's a pleasure to be here with you and it's a pleasure to greet everyone and welcome them to Canada I'd say it's a. I'm hoping that their stay is is going to be the best one in their career and I'm sure it will be of course I'm a little bit biased on that one, but you're asking about how the next session is going to work out. It's going to be interesting because what the parliament has decided on is a hybrid session. So we're limited to a certain number in the House and anything over that either spills over into the gallery, where we have spectators, or they go into their offices and they hook up by by video conference and the debates are there what happens is the speaker has to recognize that there are people at home they are in their offices and they are participating so you've got the people in the house and you've got the people in their own office or their own house and we're using zoom as the platform for that just like we're doing right now. People will make statements. They will present motions they'll have statements by ministers question period happens that way as well. People calling in from home, or people being in the house and it really works out well because the responses don't only come from people in the house. It doesn't come from people who are in their offices, or away from Parliament, which really creates an interesting, an interesting situation, but overall it seems to be working very well. I know with the G seven we've had regular talks amongst the speakers, and I've had speeches with discussions with many speakers from around the world, and we exchange information. And if someone makes a mistake we tell the other one so that they don't make the same mistake and best practices go from there. So it has been working out very well. I just want to turn to your role with the diplomatic community normally the speaker plays a role. Is that on pause given the need for social distancing or how do you maintain maintain ties. You know what that's probably the part that I was worried about the most because I really do enjoy the visits and the phone calls. Unfortunately, the visits don't still take place, but on a regular basis either a phone call or a video conference takes place and I invite all the new ambassadors and to give me a call and let's keep that diplomatic dialogue going so that we know what's going on not only in Canada, but between Canada in their countries and that's something that I plan on keeping very much alive and we are doing, maybe not as often as we did before, but by all means, please keep that door open my door is always open and or should I say my, my connection is always open to to a zoom conference, if they wish or if they're more comfortable with the phone that's okay. And overall, it's been working out very well so I'm very pleased so no the the diplomatic part of the speaker's job is not on hold it continues and hopefully it'll expand even more. Thanks to the speaker. Now the speaker is supported by his team of table officers they're the clerks and officials who make Parliament work. Since March they've been grappling with how to run a pandemic Parliament. Andre Gagnon has been vital in this role. He's the deputy clerk procedure for the House of Commons, and I invited him to talk about what it's been like. We've been talking for virtual Parliaments for years, much before the pandemic, but in this specific case is to make a virtual Parliament. While we are in a pandemic situation so that doubles I would say the difficulty add to this, not a small thing, being in a minority government so that's a very, very interesting challenge. But the fact that we are operating a virtual in a during a minor it during a pandemic situation makes it that the first priority should be the health and safety of the employees, the members of Parliament and the staff of the of the of the members. So that that that re re balances a lot of the issues in the question that we were grappling with over the years to make sure that we would eventually get to some part at least of a virtual Parliament. And in fact what we what we found very, very rapidly is that yes, virtual Parliament is a goal but clearly going hybrid is a clearly the first step to do so. And why is that it's because I bread permits us to permits the members of Parliament to have a kind of a step between going fully, fully virtual because conventions and practices have been there for a long, long time, and they're quite useful. And members see why they are useful and also are attached to those practices, because they, it gives them a sense of how proceedings work. So having a hybrid Parliament has been kind of a step towards getting to a virtual Parliament when members started to talk about virtual Parliament. They were getting back to the basics of saying the government should be accountable in front should be accountable to the House to Parliament to a legislative assembly, which is essentially the basics of what is a parliament. And also one of the big things we've noticed that this country well we were reminded that this country is huge and the fact that if you want members to participate virtually from one side of the country to the other. Well there's a major difference, simply in time zones. There's a four time zones in Canada so when you organize a meeting at eight in the morning. There are issues for certain members of Parliament so we had to adjust that significantly. So just adjusting this made that the Ottawa zone was much larger and expanded in terms of possibilities for members of Parliament to to meet virtually minority governments are very exciting for procedural nerds like me procedural geeks like me. And that's why we dress like this because we're very special in procedural, procedural grounds. And I would say a just a minority government is a very different situation we don't have that much of minority governments in in Canada are traditions don't go exactly in that in in that direction. For instance, so you don't hear much about coalitions in Canada, whereas in other countries where there are minority governments, there are coalitions. So there is a challenge there for as you can imagine for the government before the other parties as well. And for us in Parliament in the sense that there is always the issue of the confidence convention which is essentially we are in a situation where the government could essentially be defeated in the house lose the confidence of the house. So in just in end of it of itself. Sorry. This question is a big one. And whenever we are in a minority government situation. This is an issue we have to work with and make sure that we work. We organize the work of the House properly so that there are no issues or discussions regarding the validity of a vote. You can imagine that is increased significantly when you get into a minority government with a virtual or a hybrid Parliament. And that's why you saw during the proceedings of the committee that study the issue of electronic voting electronic Parliament or hybrid Parliament. The issue of voting was central in there. You can imagine it would be difficult to have a situation where there would be a vote and the way the vote was organized conducted would be discussed. As you can imagine this would be an important issue just having the government losing for instance on a vote that would be contested is a big question for the employees of Parliament and as you can imagine for the speaker. So the minority and the virtual hybrid Parliament. There are those two things together. There's a next I would say a level more important level of complexity and certain certainly of responsibility. For those who want to take a look at how Parliament is evolving into a government and minority government situation. You need to take a close look at what's happening in committees. And as you probably noticed since the beginning of this new session, there is a lot of action in committees and the different committees that have met. I've already started to discuss their plans for the few for next weeks, and they have a very, very ambitious program. And that's where a lot of the action takes place. So some good advice for understanding the confidence convention and to follow what goes on in committee. You will all know that the government avoided defeat on a confidence vote last week a vote that would have triggered an election. And we can expect more votes. I thank Andre Daniel for preparing a presentation on understanding how Parliament works. It's up on our website, as well as an information sheet prepared by the Library of Parliament, Carlton dot ca slash parl Diplo, and a reminder we're at parl Diplo on Twitter. We look forward to your comments. And now we will pivot to hearing some voices from Parliament. I'm going to ask three distinguished members of Parliament to join the conversation. The Honourable Catherine McKenna serves as Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, after previously serving as Minister for the environment. She represents Ottawa Center. She will be joined shortly by the Honourable Michael Chong, the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs for the official opposition. He served as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Sport, and President of the Queen's Privy Council in the government of Stephen Harper. Mr. Chong represents the Southern Ontario Riding of Wellington, Paulton Hills. Heather McPherson represents Edmonton Strathcona. She's the only NDP, in fact the only non-conservative MP from Alberta. She's the NDP critic for international development, the deputy critic for foreign affairs, and the deputy host leader. We are going to discuss foreign policy, but first I want to turn to Minister McKenna. As there was a clear focus on domestic affairs in the speech from the throne, Minister McKenna, you are responsible for infrastructure. How is that going to fit into COVID recovery and Canadian competitiveness? Well, thanks very much Maureen. It's great to be speaking with you, but also to all the diplomats. So a big hello. Bonjour à tout le monde. You know, once I worked in Indonesia, and I saw the important role that diplomats play. So thank you very much, and I'm sure you're very interested. I heard a bit about what Anthony Roto was saying about a minority parliament to get ready for a ride. I'm also really happy actually to be joined by two of my colleagues. You'll see a lot of fighting in parliament. I have a great deal of respect for both Michael Chong, who I've known for an extremely long time, as well as Heather McPherson. So, um, look, I thought I would briefly speak about a few things. One, the speech from the throne to infrastructure, sustainable infrastructure and three foreign policy. I know those are extremely big topics. So I will be short, but I think it's important to really understand what is our, what is the perspective of our government on these issues. Um, so first of all, the speech from the throne, this throne. I think the Prime Minister made it clear that our number one priority, like all I've seen governments around the world, your governments is on the pandemic response. We are still in the throes of a pandemic. We're seeing a second wave in many places across the country. And our focus has been from the start, how do we, how do we ensure that we're responding to a health crisis, but also very much an economic crisis. So the speech on the throne talked a lot about what we're doing to support provinces, including on testing, testing, tracing data, clearly vaccine is really important. Um, so all of those measures and we've been making those investments. So around 80 to 90 cents of every dollar that's being invested on the COVID response is coming from the federal government. Luckily, we're in a very good fiscal position to do so. Um, and our focus has really been, how do we support folks through the pandemic, and that's through a whole bunch of different programs from the wage subsidy to supports to businesses to supports to individuals to support to particular communities like the black community. You'll also see in the speech from the throne, there was a big discussion of inclusivity. So we have a number, as I like to say, we have a number of different things that are coming pandemics are happening at the same time, obviously COVID, which is health and economic. Um, we also have, I think, a recognition that we have some real challenges when it comes to diversity and inclusion and systemic discrimination is real. I see it actually every day, including through my infrastructure programs, which I'm happy one day to talk about that in more detail. So really focused on how do we support racialized communities, how do we support indigenous communities, how do we ensure that everyone succeeds across the country. And then the third thing is the economic response. And that's where I really see in my portfolio that I have a really important role infrastructure has a really important role to play. So we talked about a million jobs and I think this is what we need to be doing we need to be putting the economic response, including climate which is a real economic opportunity in a million jobs frame. So that will come to my second part. So infrastructure. When I came into this job way it seems like it's hard to believe there was a time before the pandemic but there was my focus was on getting projects built quickly to create jobs across the country and improve the quality of life to to make sure that we're moving to a cleaner and more resilient future and three inclusivity to make sure that we're making investments that benefit all Canadians. I would have mentioned actually in the speech from the phone there was a big focus on inclusivity in terms of women. So one thing I do not want to lose this that we've seen when you look at stats about how the pandemic has hurt folks at 63% of the job losses were with women. So investments clearly in early learning and childcare are critically important. I'm a mom. I've tried to juggle like trying to you know homeschool you know make sure my kids are doing school actually and not just video games they're older. But while trying to do my job while trying to maintain my home it's very hard and they're women that are in much less privileged positions than me so I think that's important. So certainly part of infrastructure will be childcare but on the infrastructure pieces that that really are my focus. It really has to be seen through a climate lens. I think that that is critically important. So what we build we're building for the next 50 or more years and we've committed as a government to net zero by 2050. So it was key in the speech from the throne but just generally the climate is going to be critical to how we think about a million jobs and infrastructure is obviously a really important part. So things that are you know you can you can probably expect obviously retrofits huge opportunity job opportunity but also it's a huge opportunity to for people to save money so I think we need to talk about that. You can create jobs you can also save money you can get a cleaner future and you can do it across the country and communities across the country. Clean energy transmission lines between provinces you may not know that Canada is 80% clean electricity. That is one of the top in the world. We want to be 90% or higher clean electricity. We have some provinces that are on call. We need to get off call and for province for countries that are thinking about how do you do this because obviously there are a lot of jobs issues. You need to be making sure that you have a just transition for communities we've worked hard when I was previously environment minister we had one of the first just transition committees in the world where we went to communities that were on call where we're literally phasing out call phasing out jobs and figuring out how we're going to work with them provide the support to workers but also to communities, including investments in infrastructure so that they can build a cleaner future for jobs. I'm zero emission vehicles and public transit extremely important on many of our significant chunk of our emissions come from the transportation sector so we clearly need to be doing a lot more work there. Clean technologies I see the huge opportunity every day for Canada so I want us to be the most competitive country in the world. We're already punching above our weight when it comes to clean technologies, but I think that there's a lot more we can do through the supply chain. I'm originally from Hamilton if you don't know where Hamilton is I call it the hammer. It is a, you know, manufacturing town had suffered job losses but there's opportunities there in the automotive sector but even when we do manufacturing how do we be the cleanest producer, it's an advantage for sure in the future. So let's take now foreign policy. Look, I think is an overarching message we believe in multilateralism and rules based systems. That is the bottom line that they are under threat right now we've seen that around the world, and we need to be working together. Climate change. Climate change knows no boundaries pollution knows no boundaries we absolutely need to be working together that's why we work so hard to play a role in getting an ambitious Paris agreement and we all have to do our part. I want to ask you to stop there. Given us a lot to unpack an opportunity to speak as well. And I'm going to ask a question. Michael actually I was going to start on some foreign policy by, you know, recognizing there was no emphasis on foreign policy and the speech from the throne. But would you rather have a react to what Minister McKenna was saying about about domestic policy, your choice. Before you're right. Well, thank you first Marine for inviting me and my colleague Minister of McKenna MP McPherson to be on this on this zoom chat. I've known Minister McKenna for many years back to our time at U of T so it's great to hear her again. You're right Marine that there was scant reference to form policy and speech from the throne but the speech from the throne did acknowledge climate change and I think that's a good starting point. I think our view is that there's a yawning gap between rhetoric and reality that has come from this government and climate change is a good example of that. The speech from the throne not only committed to meeting Canada's Paris commitments, it's Paris target, but in fact to exceed it. And if you look at the data that's simply not happening. The government on the government's own data climate emissions from climate emissions in Canada been rising. We've been in 2016 the first full year that this government was in office they were 708 megatons during April. The government released the most recent year for which they have data which is 2018 and emissions have risen to 729 megatons, a big jump of some 21 megatons so emissions in Canada are increasing not decreasing so we are actually moving further away from our Paris targets. And so for the government to assert in the speech from the throne that's not only going to meet the Paris targets but exceed them defies reality. I think that, you know, Minister Freeland when she was Minister of Foreign Affairs, several years ago, really sketched out the government's foreign policy. And I think it touches on domestic policy because in that speech, which is the framework, the strategy for the government's foreign policy, she outlined two challenges that the two big challenges in global affairs. One being one of those two big challenges is the rise of populism and its attendant distrust of the global economy and Minister Freeland at the time outlined that the solution to that problem is the government's economic agenda. We now have some five years to evaluate that agenda in our view is that it's not working. If you look at the IMF reports that are coming out the World Bank reports, the OECD reports it's clear that going into the pandemic we were in trouble on a per capita basis we were in a recession for the last year and a half on negative GDP or flatline GDP. And now in the pandemic, our recession is going to be far deeper than many of our economic peers and our recovery much slower. In fact, we have the highest unemployment rate in the G7 and we have many other issues as well. Record high levels in global standing of household indebtedness. We have problems with the regulation of our natural resource sector. And I could go on but the point I'm making is that domestic and foreign policy are intertwined and when you look at the domestic policy elements of the government's agenda, they don't back up its foreign policy. Thank you Michael. I'm going to turn to Heather McPherson welcome MP McPherson. In this pandemic minority parliament, the Trudeau government needs your party's support to stay in power. Because we have an audience of diplomats I'm going to ask you is there one NDP foreign policy priority? No, I guess it's the easy answer well first of all thank you so much for for inviting me and for letting me attend the 10th annual day for diplomats it's wonderful to be here with my colleagues. And as as 2020 is we're all joining online instead of being able to be be in person. When you ask if there is one foreign foreign policy that that is a priority for us. No, there's there's a whole bunch of priorities. I am the deputy foreign affairs critic I'm also the international development critic. I've also spent over 20 years prior to being in the house being elected in in October. Working in sustainable development and international development and foreign affairs issues. So, so to sort of summarize it as one issue is really really challenging for us. I will say that what I what I was hearing from Michael and it really resonates with me in that we are hearing a lot of the right things from this particular government we often hear the right things but but we have not seen, you know, the the equal action on the other side, the words that we heard from the Prime Minister in 2015 when he was elected were perfect. They were wonderful Canada's back, we're going to be a leader in climate change we're going to recommit Canada's place in the world we're going to do all of these things we're really deeply committed to multi lateralism to rule baits order we're going to commit to increasing our ODA all of these things were part of this this these promises and none of that has resulted in action and so that's for us a big part of it for new Democrats our priorities of course are going to include things like nuclear disarmament. You know, this week we actually signed there was the 50 countries that ratified the United Nations Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear armaments. This is a big deal, and Canada is not there. We've fallen off we've you know we're we're not where we used to be we're not playing that role in the world. We need to recommit to peacekeeping. We have a fraction of the of the peacekeepers out in the field that we should have. We need to be committing to making sure that our weapons aren't being used to to fuel conflict in places like Turkey, and we can't say that right now that's that's not what's happening. We need to do more in Israel and Palestine there's there's so many things we need to do. Our ODA is at the worst level it's been in over 50 years, and there's no plan on getting us to a better place for ODA. That's that's unconscionable for a country like Canada in the middle of a global health pandemic. I mean, I can keep going but I'll stop there. Okay, okay, great. Well, we're going to give you more of a chance to come back and talk some more. I'm going to go to Minister McKenna gain, because we're talking about, you know, the world changing and obviously the US role in the world has changed over the last four years. You know an abdication of leadership on certain issues. Regardless of who wins next week's election. How should Canada be reacting to that changed role. Look, I'll give you a practical example I mean there's a lot I can say I have great deal. My colleagues but and I don't have time for a battle but I would say that we are taking serious action on climate change I mean look, the Conservatives actually fought the last election on a price on pollution and we won. The election was won by parties that supported a price on pollution and ambitious climate action the reason was so hard to take action on climate was we had a government. The Harper government who didn't really believe in any action on climate it's great to have a target if you don't actually deliver on your target with clear plan we had the first plan ever. Do we have more work to do absolutely but we bet the current two thirds reducing our emissions by two thirds when you look out to 2030 your mission reductions don't happen the year after you come in after a government has done nothing. But internationally as an example that look I think Canada has to figure out where it can play a role so when Donald Trump said he was pulling out of the Paris agreement what did we do. I thought okay this is a real problem because we just signed a Paris agreement and we need to maintain momentum so I went to Berlin I met with my counterpart from the EU as well as my counterpart from China and yes we have an absolutely have a very challenging relationship with China and China absolutely needs to release the two Michaels that it's unacceptable but we did at that time we're working well with China and climate which is really important because they're a major they are the biggest emitter. And we decided that in the face of the US pulling out we were going to work together. We created the ministerial and climate action. We brought together major economies developed and developing economies around the world. And that was because Canada decided we had a role to play. And we use our good offices to bring folks together because people were very skeptical you and China I think they were like who is this Catherine McKenna why does Canada think it can do this. And that played an important role in maintaining momentum that you've seen the same thing that Minister Freeland when she was Minister of Foreign Affairs on Venezuela on a whole range of different issues that we looked at where can Canada make a real difference in the world. We're always going to stand up for multilateralism and rules based order because that's in our interest and I think that values and interest that's what foreign policy has to be about what do we believe in as a country and where are our interests. Now and let's talk a bit about the US obviously I'm not going to speculate on the election at all. But I mean they are our friends they are a largest trading partner we do need to work with them we spent a significant amount of time across party lines across levels of government with business renegotiating NAFTA. Because we needed to do that. It's just so incredibly important to our economy do we need to diversify of course. But we have to work with the economy that's right beside us and where we have very significant ties so we'll continue to do that I mean obviously it's been a very challenging four years I think that that goes without saying. But you just have to be pragmatic one foot in front of the other and then you still have to stand up for the issues you believe in. That's very much climate change. But it's also multilateralism rules based order we've we've been working very hard to get the WTO working better. That's critically important you've seen the employment of Bob Ray I can't imagine a better and master to the United Nations. I think he's been very blunt which I think is good informed policy sometimes people don't like that that's my my you know you have to sometimes be blunt and be very clear on what we see our vision for the world also what our interests are and what our values are and what we expect in our relationships with other countries so. Look we're going to continue doing what we're doing and you adjust you don't get to choose who you're who you work with. We don't that Americans will decide the outcome their election, and we will work with whomever's there, but we will continue to promote Canadian values and interests. Now, Michael, Mr McKenna raised a number of issues including the detention of in China of the two Michaels, you have been critical of the government's handling and I invite you to discuss that but I also want to know if you've been surprised by the lack of support from our allies. Because it's not clear to our allies in order to Canadians what the government's China policy is and they've implicitly acknowledged that that it's broken, because they've announced for some time now that they're coming forward with a new China policy. We await with fated breath what that looks like. I think the part I think the heart of the problem with the government's China policy is that it has been inconsistent and incoherent I'll just highlight a few examples. Just after the the two Michaels Michael Colverick and Michael Spaber were wrongfully detained by the Chinese authorities in December of 2018, just six weeks after that the government gave two very contradictory messages. The Prime Minister indicated that there was no way that we were looking at trading among one Joe for the two Michaels that there was no way that they were going to interfere with due process and procedural fairness in our judicial system. And then in the very same week we had the Canadian Ambassador of China, the Honourable John McCallum saying quite the opposite on two different occasions. The ambassador was replaced and we still have contradictions last July for example, the foreign minister indicated that the government was looking he told the House of Commons the government was looking considering sanctions on Chinese officials. And then the very next day, the government told Reuters that that was off the table. Just several weeks ago, we had the foreign minister tell the Globe and Mail that Canada was abandoning the pursuit of free trade talks in China. On the very same day we have the Canadian Ambassador to China Dominic Barton telling an audience in Edmonton including the Chinese ambassador to Canada that Canada needs to be in China that we need to expand our presence there and do more trade with China. So these are just several of the examples, many examples of inconsistency and incoherence on China. So I'm not at all surprised that our allies haven't stood up to support us because it's pretty confusing to figure out what our policy is. Look, we believe that we need to be consistent, coherent with China. We believe we need to deliver a clear message. And the clear message is simply this, that we're no longer going to put up with these shenanigans, and that we're going to take a much stronger stand and defensive, not just our values, but our hard interests. And we're going to back it up with some hard decisions and hard action. So we will be unveiling that as we go forward. But we believe that that is the way to deal with the threat that China has presented to our interests and to our values. Thank you, Michael. And now I'm going to pivot slightly from that and ask Heather MacPherson. You referred to the federal government spending well below the UN target for foreign international assistance, yet in the last election the government proposed spending even less, a 25% cut to the levels. How can your party channel public support for increased spending for democratic governance aid and assistance. That's a great question. And, and actually if you look at the numbers, it's, it's what the conservatives were proposing is actually closer to 35% cut for foreign aid it's it's absolutely absurd. And one of the things that that I think in terms of have how we can get Canadians engaged and how we can, we can support this, this contribution this investment in our international development is really working with Canadians and working with Canadians across the country not just in Ottawa not just in Toronto Montreal. What we saw over the last 10 years, particularly in the Harper years but but continuing on is a real decimation of our of our public engagement. We weren't talking to people about Canada's role in the world we weren't talking to people about what it means to be a good global citizen, and, and that meant that people didn't care about it anymore. We decimated our funding, we stopped funding organizations across the country so instead of funding organizations in every province we started funding the World Bank, because it's easier to write one check than actually do the work to engage with stakeholders across the country. And so it stopped being something that Canadians cared about but when you think about our identity Canada's identity. You, you still see that Canadians see ourselves as punching above our weight on the world stage. It's just not the reality anymore because our government has abdicated that role. And I'm, and I'm, you know, live it with the Liberals for doing so little and promising so much, but don't get me wrong the conservatives before them is where these deep, deep cuts started. So, so all of that together means that I mean that's how we get, we get Canadians engaged. This is also COVID-19 gives us also this sort of silver lining opportunity, because people are seeing that are are challenges facing humanity are more and more global in nature, you know the climate crisis is global in nature it doesn't recognize borders. The, the economic crisis that we're in right now is global in nature and and we are in the ultimate sort of global situation a global health pandemic. So, there's been polling done in the US there's been pulling done in Canada that shows that Canadians are starting to really recognize that we need to have global solutions we need to be, we need to be playing a role in the world stage we need to have a better multilateral relationship and bilateral relationships with countries around the world. We need to invest in those relationships and we haven't been doing the work that needs to be done. We're going to get left behind. If we don't Canadians see it. We just need the government to act on it. Okay, I just want to one quick go around from everybody. Earlier this morning David Coletto gave us a great presentation on Canadian public opinion and Canadian public opinion is clearly against holding an election right now. Heather MacPherson what would make the NDP decide to vote against the government and trigger an election. You know, from, from my perspective I was thinking about this question and from my perspective, I think, if we saw the government can. There's there's a few things first of all if we saw the government pivot to sort of that narrative that we're hearing out of the conservative side of the house that that austerity that that that going into an austerity sort of agenda. That would be really problematic for us I mean our priority has been making sure that Canadian families Canadian businesses individuals are helped as we go through this this crisis. So that would be an issue. But the other thing is and Michael alluded to this earlier, you know, the throne speech had a lot of great things in it, and they had a lot of things that we want to see we want to see childcare we think that's a fundamental piece of an economic recovery for this country. We want to see pharmacare it's time it's been promised for years and years it's time. So we need to see a green recovery I'm Albert and I'm looking at the economy in my province and jobs in my province in free fall, and they were in free fall before COVID 19 happened. So, so I need to see that the government isn't just going to make these promises that they're actually going to do this, the work that needs to happen. And as long as we can keep providing the support the Canadians need in the middle of a global pandemic, then we'll keep doing that. But when when the ethics issues become too much when we see the rhetoric outstripping the actual work getting done. And when we see the liberals trying to sort of grab on to that austerity piece. That's those are going to be really problematic for me. Thank you. Michael Chung question to you. Certainly, the conservatives have been prepared to vote to bring down the government but if you look at what's been going on governments that have called an election during a pandemic have been rewarded with a majority so do you want to comment on that. Well, thanks Marine for having us before we sign off. Look, I don't disagree I don't agree with saying that we voted to take down the government we don't want to have a fall election. We voted to create a parliamentary committee, the government decided that for the first time since confederation, the establishment of parliamentary committee would constitute reasons to trigger a federal election. That's what happened last week. Look, there's only one person in this country that's going to decide to have a federal election and that's the Prime Minister either because he declares something a vote of confidence as an excuse to go to a fall and seek dissolution of parliament or because he just goes to Rideau Hall and seeks dissolution. So, we don't want to have a fall election we think it's better to wait until sometime next year. But that's I think the government is looking at the elections in British Columbia in Saskatchewan in New Brunswick and looking at chops I think they really want to go this fall. And so we are doing everything we can to work constructively in parliament and I don't think the establishment of a new parliamentary committee is reasons to go to a federal election. But I'll just I'll just finish by saying this that look, I think the government back to foreign policy I think the government has had some foreign policy accomplishments to be fair they've concluded a number of trade agreements, albeit so many of them started by the previous government. But I think the reality is that the world has changed significantly and Canada is in real trouble and I don't believe that the current government's approach to either domestic or foreign policy is going to address the crisis that we are facing as a country, you know, I'll tell you a very personal story, my, my father was born and raised in Hong Kong, and was a Chinese immigrant to Canada and my mother was born and raised in the Netherlands and she was a Dutch immigrant to Canada and when my parents left their respective homelands in the 1950s and 60s to come to Canada they were leaving much poor, more impoverished places that to come to a land of wealth and poverty. That no longer is the case. Canada's per capita GDP now legs out of Hong Kong legs out of the Netherlands, our government debt is far higher, our productivity is far lower. In short, we are in trouble and we need a government, both in domestic and foreign policy that wakes up to this reality that undertakes the structural reforms needed to get our economy moving and also matches our rhetoric on the global stage with hard power. And if we don't, I think we're going to continue to be buffeted by events in a very turbulent world and we're going to continue our drift sideways if not downward and so I just want to put that out there because I think we really have some hard choices coming ahead that future governments are going to have to take to address this issue. Thank you, Michael and Catherine, your personal opinion on an election. Look, I'm just here to, I got into politics to get things done. I don't think Canadians want an election, I don't want an election, our government does an election, we want to support Canadians through a pandemic, that is what we have been 100% focused on. That's the health pandemic. That's the economic crisis. And I just want to respond a bit to what my Honorable colleague Michael Chong said. I also have a story. My dad came from Dublin over 50 years ago because there was much more opportunity here. We're still the land of opportunity. I think most people would be pretty happy. Most Canadians are pretty happy to live in Canada. I think they're pretty proud about how our country has come together through COVID-19. Sure, our governments played a role but working with other levels of government, working with the private sector. And, you know, we've brought in a whole lot of immigrants. If you look at studies in the world and refugees, if you look at studies in the world stage, Canada is the most welcoming country Canadians believe in bringing in people. Is there more work to do 100% but on the international front, because we're talking to a bunch of diplomats, I'm not going to make any apologies for our stand in the world stage. We're the only country that has trade agreements with almost everyone. You look at who we have trade agreements with the largest trading partner in the largest economy in the world, the U.S. That we're part of, we managed to get CEDA. Yeah, getting across the finish line is more than just negotiating. That's a big deal. That when you look at, you know, being part of an Asian bloc, like we actually have done a lot on the trade side, on the rules-based sort of a multilateralism. That matters. You cannot go it alone if you're a country the size of Canada. I totally believe in international development. We've done a lot, but I agree with Heather. I believe that personally believe we need to do more. I started a charity that did international development work after working for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in East Timor. But I think we played a really important role in a lot of different places around the world where you need to hear voices like Canada working with others. We all need to work together. And on climate, that is the biggest issue, because it's not just an environmental issue. It's an economic issue. And for a lot of the countries that are probably listening in, I mean, it's actually your survival. That, you know, if we don't actually take serious action on climate change, there are many countries that will be underwater that will have climate refugees. That we need to be working together the same way we have to work, you know, to support different countries and, you know, work together in the pandemic response. We have to do that on climate change. And that's what we're going to continue to do. So look, I think that that's what I wake up to do every day is to make a difference in the lives of Canadians, including the folks who live in Ottawa Centre. So many of you may live in Ottawa Centre. And I think that we need to get through the pandemic absolutely and support Canadians. And that's what we're focused on doing. And then we need to build back better. And we need to continue our ambition on climate change. We need to expand to continue our role in the world, working with our major partner than the south of the border, whoever is elected, but working with all the countries that are, you know, around the world. That is incredibly important. And it can be very challenging in different countries. There are different issues. But overall, I think that we see that Canada has a constructive role to play. Anyway, that's what gets me up every day. I'm going to continue working there. And I do want to thank all the diplomats that, you know, I often don't have a chance. I don't go to a lot of events. I guess no one goes to events except for by Zoom. But I do want to thank you for the work you're doing. I think it is really important. And thank you Carlton, of course, in my writing for hosting this. That's right. Ottawa Center is the, the writing for Carlton University. Thank you, Catherine McKenna. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Heather McPherson for giving us your time and your insights and a wonderful discussion. Appreciate it. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Thank you and be more person. Bye bye. Now we're going to look at ways of engaging with parliament and parliamentarians. There are a lot of non governmental organizations that focus on foreign policy and liaise with the diplomatic community, including the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the Canadian International Center, to name just two. They're listed in the information sheet on the website. One organization is also connected to parliament. It's called the Parliamentary Center, and its mission is to support and strengthen democratic institutions. It's new CEO Tom Cormier is a Carlton graduate. He's a democratic governance expert with over 30 years of experience in over 30 countries. I've asked Tom to tell you about the Parliamentary Center and how you can engage. Thank you, Maureen. And it's a pleasure to be with you all this morning and to share with you the story about the Parliamentary Center. Parliamentary Center is Canada's oldest organization that works to support democratic development in the world. And it was born in 1968, interestingly, not with an international mandate with a domestic one. We started to provide support to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons. When it needed research and support to do its work more effectively, this was before the strengthening of the Library of Parliament and the committee staff that we see now today. Since 1993, we've had a global mandate. And since that time, we've worked in over 120 legislatures at all levels of government across 70 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. And we do our work through experience sharing peer to peer exchanges, consultations, training, developing tools and manuals, and always supporting SDGs and other shared commitments where we find common ground. We believe really strongly that effective legislatures are key to resolving all policy challenges in society and also all divisions in society that may exist. We think that parliaments that are more gender equal, that they're more inclusive, lead to more peaceful and prosperous and secure societies. Parliaments and legislatures can take action on important public policy issues like education, healthcare, the environment, natural resources, trade and economic development. And without effective legislatures, oftentimes these important priorities go unaddressed. We also undertake research, we promote dialogue and we engage in partnerships and building networks to help people talk about democracy and its challenges, but also its opportunities. We look at issues such as anti-corruption, oversight of budgets, engagements of citizens and parliaments, and also looking to increase the research capacity of parliaments. There are three nones to remember about our organization. We are non-partisan in that we have representation of all political parties on our board and in the work that we do. We are non-prescriptive in that we don't come with answers, we come rather with a cafeteria of experiences and options for people to explore, and we are non-profit. Our main focus of work is in democratic institutions and with the actors that serve in them. And that is obviously legislatures. We look at how they can become more accountable institutions and how they can become more inclusive. Obviously that involves encouraging and making legislatures more of a better home for women and marginalized groups. We look at the three main functions of legislatures, that is lawmaking, budget and representation functions, and we seek to strengthen those. We also look a lot at the plumbing issues in parliaments in terms of the internal organization and procedures, how they plan and how they can improve their services to members primarily through research and support to the members that serve in parliaments. We also look at strengthening relations between executives and legislatures, but also citizens and the media. We also engage with independent institutions that exist in democracy such as Human Rights Commissions, Audit Offices and Hombuds Persons, where we explore issues of accountability, anti-corruption, and how those institutions relate to the legislatures. We also engage with actors such as legislators, political parties, civil society and the media through skills development and networking with their neighbors and others in the international community. Parliamentary centres enjoys very strong relations with the House of Commons and the Senate. We collaborate with parliamentarians through engaging current and former members of parliament and staff in the work that we do, and Canada has an absolute treasure trove of talent. When you look at members of parliament and staff, interestingly in Canada, up to 20% of members depending on the parliament are born outside of Canada, so it provides a really rich experience for us to draw upon. We engage in thought leadership discussions regarding democracy, we engage with the committees in parliament such as Foreign Affairs, Status of Women and others. We also engage with the friendship groups in parliament that exist to promote more collaborative ties between Canada and different countries and regions of the world. We also engage with the Multilateral Associations in Parliament through the Commonwealth, La Fagrifani, IPU and others. There's also a Democracy Caucus in Parliament which we engage with and they are a group of MPs that are interested in democracy and how it is working both in Canada and abroad. And also we engage with a group of MPs who have a particular interest in democratic development called the Parliamentarians for the Parliamentary Centre. We are always looking at supporting a shared goals and those are obviously universal human rights. We are in support of a rules-based international order and we believe that democracies need to be defended. We undertake international networking with other organizations that share our goals. We look at issues of democratic norms and standards to see how these can be more widely understood, but also increasingly we find ourselves as democracies looking at how to counter malign foreign influence in democracies and interference in elections, for example. We're looking always for new approaches to regulate democratic processes and elections to make sure that they are fair, transparent and credible. And we're always looking at international trends and keeping an eye on emerging democratic transitions, whether in Belarus, in Thailand, Kazakhstan, all around the world, so that we can support aspiring Democrats and democracies. Our work is supported by a variety of international organizations and obviously by global affairs Canada. And a little bit about our future. We are engaged in a strategic planning process right now where we're reaching out to a number of our partners and interlocutors in Canada and around the world. And we will continue to focus on supporting inclusive democratic institutions and actors, particularly looking at the role of women, youth and political parties in making democracy work. We also want to increasingly focus on linking development challenges to governance institutions, because we believe that every development challenge has a governance challenge at its heart. We also increasingly are looking at the use of technology for engagement. Clearly, the pandemic has required us to be more remote in our approaches. But we want to dig deeper on that. We want to learn more about effective engagements with our partners using technology, because we believe that it will be with us for some time. And we can take advantage of the opportunities that technology provides us. We will be a strategic partner of global affairs Canada as well as international development agencies that share our goals of a more democratic and prosperous world. But we also want to talk about foreign policy and the importance of democratic development to foreign policy, more with our policymakers here and with our interlocutors internationally. So we will strengthen partnerships with international and regional democracy support organizations and we will engage more with other countries to seek partnerships. We want to remain a thought leader on democratic development and to learn more and discuss more about the threats to democracy. And in that regard, we would like to engage more with embassies in Canada. And there are many opportunities for us to do so. We believe democracy is worth safeguarding. And we think that inclusive decision making not only is the right thing to do, it actually results in smarter decisions. Research suggests that democratic institutions that are inclusive lead to more peaceful and prosperous societies and better development outcomes. And there are a number of ways that we would like to engage you in our work. I will invite you to visit our website at parlcent.org to subscribe to our updates. But also to look for opportunities to participate in the discussions we will have on democracy, requesting information from us about some of our work, whether in your country or in a neighboring country. And to learn more about our past and current programming. But also there would be opportunities through engaging with us to connect with parliamentarians and Canadian democratic institutions to help enrich your understanding of Canada's role, Canada's democratic institutions here and the work that we do to support democratic institutions abroad. So I do invite you to stay in touch with the Parliamentary Centre through our website and I've left my contact details on the presentation which will be provided to you. Follow us on social media and we hope we'll have an opportunity to engage with you in the work that we do in the roads ahead. And so I thank you for your time today and welcome to Canada. And I wish you a very pleasant and productive stay in the country and hope that our paths cross. Thank you very much. Thank you Tom for that introduction to the Parliamentary Centre for those who don't know it. And now we're many viewers are going to recognize our next speaker, Stuart Wheeler who is the Chief of Protocol for Canada. Stuart served previously in the Ontario government after 20 year career in the Foreign Service with postings in Washington, London, Bogota and Kabul, and serving as our ambassador in Iceland. Stuart, it has been a huge challenge for the diplomatic community to adjust to life during the pandemic from Zoom meetings to virtual national days. And it's been an adjustment for global affairs. What is global affairs planning this fall for the diplomatic community. Thank you very much for the introduction Maureen and for the chance to be with you today for this really valuable annual event. I am sure all of today's great presenters. I only wish I could see you all in person to help celebrate this 10th anniversary. Comme chef du protocole du Canada, je suis ravi de pouvoir me joindre à vous ce matin et de pouvoir adresser la parole à ce groupe distingue de diplomates et de chefs de mission récemment arrivés au Ottawa. As you say Maureen, it's been a huge adjustment for all of us I think to adapt diplomacy to the time of COVID. I should start off by thanking the diplomatic community for their solidarity, their collaboration, the hard work they've been doing to follow public health guidelines and really working with us as Canadians to stem the tide of the spread of the virus. Since March, embassies, high commissions across Ottawa like us at Global Affairs have moved much of diplomacy online. Over the summer we were able to take advantage of the warmer weather to move many things outdoors and to at least meet in person in small groups. But now with the cooler weather and the second wave descending upon us, we're really needing to once again adapt our practices to help keep each other safe. At protocol, we've been reaching out to keep our friends in the diplomatic community up to date with latest protocol procedures and adjustments to those procedures because of COVID through regular circular notes, which some of you in the audience will have seen upon arrival, we will have a new one coming out in the next week or so so people should keep an eye out for that. And of course, if members of the diplomatic community have any questions about protocol procedures, whether it's about accreditation, privileges and immunities, taxes, property visas, you really shouldn't hesitate to reach out by email to our office of diplomatic corps services. Normally in October, we would now be ramping up with a fall and winter season full of outreach activities. And while we're not in a position yet to do those things in person, we certainly are planning many virtual events. As a compliment to today's rich content, we're organizing our annual global affairs orientation session for newly arrived diplomats, which is tentatively booked as two separate events this year, one in English on November 23 and one in French on November 24. Those events will include remarks from our deputy ministers and participants will have the opportunity to network virtually with officials working in the various geographic divisions and bureaus from across our department, who really are you as the diplomatic corps your your primary partners and points of entry into our department. We strongly recommend that all new diplomats tune in online for that session. And others of course are welcome to attend for their interest in invitations will be sent out shortly for that. We recently sent out an invitation for an information event for security liaison officers at foreign missions across Canada and we're hoping to hold that on November 4 in English and November 5 in French. We highly recommend this session for new security officers, but others of course are welcome to attend for a refresher if they'd like. If people didn't see the invitation and are interested, they should contact the diplomatic security email address protocol, which all of the foreign missions will have. Finally, one of the most exciting things that that we would normally be doing at this time of year is to partner with one of the offices of protocol of a different province or territory to organize an economic outreach mission to visit and get to know a different part of this, this great big country. This year we're working with the government of Alberta and adapting that project for cold as well. The government of Alberta will be presenting a series of virtual meetings for heads of mission on Alberta's economy, economic recovery plan, and the commitment to investment in global engagement. The first of these presentations is expected to take place in early December and the invitation we sent out soon to heads of mission. We look forward of course to being able to arrange an in person visit to Alberta once health and travel restrictions allow. Through these and other events that we'll be organizing throughout the winter. We really hope to help diplomats and heads of mission, particularly those who who recently arrived and are facing the challenge of networking in the time of COVID to make the most of their assignments in Ottawa. Thank you again Maureen for the excellent webinar this morning and for the chance to take part today. Merci et bonjour. Thank you Stuart. Now we've got lots ahead we've got a session with the chief statistician the CEO of the business Council of Canada and a terrific panel, but we're going to take a short break. A reminder that documents are available at Carlton dot ca slash Pearl Diplo, and we will be back at 1050. Welcome back. If you're just joining us my name is Maureen Boyd. I'm the director of the Carlton initiative for parliamentary and diplomatic engagement, and we're now starting the second half of our program. And it's my pleasure to introduce the chief statistician of Canada, and they'll Aurora. Since his appointment in 2016. Mr Aurora's focus has been on sharing statistics Canada data and insights, and their importance in making good decisions. Today he's here to tell you about statistics Canada resources and its services to the diplomatic community. Mr Aurora we look forward to your presentation. Thank you very much Maureen and your excellencies it's a real pleasure to be with you today virtually. I hope you can all hear me. My colleague Casey is going to go through some slides very rapidly I believe you're going to have a copy of it. So, don't worry you'll have all the materials in front of you, so I'll be going through it fairly rapidly so similar to many of our international partners, our role at statistics Canada is to connect people with data and insights about Canada society, the economy and the environment where the country's source for trusted credible and independent official statistics. This role is particularly important during the pandemic as we provide our expertise across the spectrum of federal governments provincial partners NGOs citizens and and to you. We also play a pivotal role on the international stage, we are the country the first country to lead the United Nations Statistical Commission, and our leadership extends across the international community. The OECD the International Labor Organization IMF World Bank etc and many other international bodies on how to share data and compare data from country to country on a meaningful basis. And our contribution to the during the pandemic has been vital COVID-19 has had a major effect on travel global markets and international trade. And of course it magnifies existing social economic differences countries with less developed statistical infrastructures will have a more difficult time assessing the impact of the crisis and the impact of the policies for recovery than those that have the necessary health and economic data. I don't want to plan as I said earlier to go through every graph and table. So you can reference these at your leisure. And I'm going to be providing you really the tip of the tip of the iceberg of data and insights that we offer so allow me to give you a few highlights about Canada. Canada is small. And it is precisely the reason why we have to punch well above our weight. We're a country of 38 million people with two official languages and a very diverse society one fifth of Canadians are immigrants, two thirds of our population growth comes from immigration, just over one fifth of Canadians are visible minorities, people other than indigenous people who are non Caucasian in race or non white and color regardless of birthplace. In Canada, there is a rapidly growing and young indigenous population of Métis, Inuit and First Nations people. They speak over 70 different languages with a rich culture and heritage. We have one of the most educated workforces in the G7 in Canada the proportion of adults age 25 to 64 with tertiary education was 58% in 2018, the absolute highest among OECD countries in 2018. One quarter 26% of 25 to 64 year olds in Canada had completed short cycle tertiary education, that is almost four times the OECD average of 7%. In 2017 Canada spent more on primary tertiary educational institutions than the OECD average we put in US dollars 14,428 per full time student compared to 11,231 across the OECD countries. 54% of immigrants in this country come with a bachelor's degree and another 7% have post graduate degrees. So let me move on to health. We have relatively good health and good life expectancy prior to COVID. Most Canadians reported very good to excellent health less than 10% reporting unmet health care needs and an average life satisfaction rating in the upper end of the OECD average at 8.1 out of 10. We have strong community safety and justice in Canada prior to COVID nearly 9 out of 10 Canadians were satisfied or very satisfied with their personal safety from crime, the highest sense of safety again in the OECD countries. Moving on to the you know from the social to the economic aspects of Canada our workforce earns a relatively high after tax income of $61,000 Canadian average weekly earnings are over a thousand Canadian per week. Our GDP was valued at $1.8 trillion in July 2020 with retail sales, exports, imports and manufacturing as our top contributors to our growth. Moving to again the economy before COVID COVID-19 of course is an exceptional situation and like all countries we're working towards a strong economic recovery as we protect citizens health and ensure that no one is left behind. Prior to COVID-19 our labor market was strong and unemployment were near record lows. During the lockdown total employment declined by around $3 million almost 16% of our workforce as employment related to tourism and many consumer services such as retail and accommodation and food were hardest hit and the unemployment rate hit a record high of 13.7% in May but by September 2020 it was down to 9%. Our digital economy is growing faster than the rest of the economy and is bigger than some of the country's staple industries such as mining, forestry and oil and gas. More than 850,000 of our people work in this sector a figure that has grown by nearly 40% since 2010. We're leaders in helping measure this sector working with the OECD and the international community on ways to measure and define various aspects of the digital economy and our society from its reflection in GDP to the definition of labor in the age of gig workers as well as some of the social impacts of digital. Canada is a vast country as you all know with a diverse natural landscape everything from frozen tundra to mountains to prairie fields to beaches. Our natural resources sector accounts for 10% of our economy and 600,000 jobs in 2018 environment and clean technology or ECT products and services accounted for 3.2% of Canada GDP and 320,000 jobs. These products and services account for just under 2% of our exports in 2018 and 2.6% of our imports. Average earnings for clean tech jobs were 84,700 in 2018. Once again I compare that to the economy average of $61,700. So next slide that just goes to show you a little bit of the impacts of robotics and automation and I'll go through more details on that. In light of COVID and like every elsewhere in the world capital spending is decreased as businesses revise their spending plan then this slide shows some of those trends. So in summary for this section Canada is a diverse country with a highly educated workforce, good quality of life, environmental and technology or growth areas, digitalization is changing the nature of our work and like all countries we are seeing the effects of COVID-19 on our economy. Let me move on to trade briefly. Canada is a big nation that has long depended on trade and has a good deal to offer. As part of our work we measure the impact of tariffs on various industries including dairy, softwood lumber, auto parts and automobile industries. Not to mention the potential measures of the impacts of tariffs on commodities such as aluminum and steel and potential impacts on jobs and the GDP. Canada's trade to GDP ratio, the value of exports and imports measured in relation to GDP is over 60%. During the 1990s much of our export growth reflected higher shipments of manufacturing goods particularly to the U.S. And in the early 2000s we shifted to energy exports as a key driver of Canadian trade and contribution to our income growth. We trade on our strengths and that's of course not just hockey players. We trade in energy including oil and bitumen although oil and gas production has been on the decline since the COVID-19 lockdown is a trend that as you know had begun even prior to the pandemic. Our imports, half of our imports into Canada come from the U.S. followed by China 12% and 6.1% from Mexico. Imports arriving from China have slowly grown since the 2000s when Chinese goods accounted for 3.2% of imports and were the fifth largest partner country behind the U.S., Japan, U.K. and Mexico. Imports from Germany strengthened over the past decade increasing from 2.8% of all imports in 2010 to overtake Japan as the fourth largest partner country in 2019 with 3.2%. The U.S. is the main destination for Canadian goods accounting for 75% of all exports followed by China at 3.9% and the U.K. at 3.3%. Our exports have slowly become more diversified over the last two decades as the U.S. export share has fallen from as high as 87% in 2000 remaining now at around 75% since 2010. Our exports to China have increased significantly from just under 1% in 2000 to just under 4% in 2019 while the share of Canadian goods going to Mexico and the U.K. has also increased. Trade is lower in states with proportionally higher number of COVID-19 cases. Our international trade data from March to May underscore the importance of the integrated Canada U.S. supply chains to our overall trade performance. Almost 90% of April's historic decline in exports reflected lower shipments to the U.S. Similarly, about 90% of the modest rebound in exports in May reflected increased exports to the U.S. Clearly, an uneven recovery in the U.S. will have major implications for our firms and for our workforce. So to summarize in trade, our main trade partners are the U.S., China, Mexico, U.K., Germany and Japan. But of course we do trade with so many countries all around the world. Our international trade and investment are crucial to our economic growth. U.S. economic recovery in the state of the Canada U.S. supply chains have an important impact on our economy. As of today, there are almost 10,000 unfortunately deaths due to COVID-19 in Canada. Clearly, COVID has raised significant concerns about the potential disproportionate socioeconomic impacts the world over. The relationship between public health and economic recovery and where governments place emphasis and resources has brought long-term standing issues of equity and fairness along with social cohesion and wellness to the forefront. This has created an unprecedented need for timely and detailed data on everything from our personal protective equipment supplies to business cultures. So in response, we at Statistics Canada have pivoted our operations. We retooled and we've innovated to create collaborations with other government departments, the business community and NGOs to find ways to get urgently needed data to create real-time insights that can be used efficiently. Here you can see preliminary data on the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to Canadians and researchers. We developed geospatial tools in partnership with other departments to allow them to deliver help where it is needed most. We're using crowdsourcing and web panels to see how people are coping with the crisis and Canadians have participated literally in the hundreds of thousands and our reach in almost all the numbers show either doubled or tripled. Partnering with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to conduct the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, this revealed how many businesses have had to lay off employees or have their rent or market payments deferred, for instance, another iteration of how the survey is now underway. The pandemic has had unprecedented impacts on the quality of life of Canadians with lowered levels of life satisfaction reports since 2003 when we started tracking finances, health and social contacts are three pillars of the quality of life. All of these were affected this year and of course they were affected in every country. During our second quarter household spending fell by a record 13% as families faced heightened levels of job and income uncertainty. Our employment earnings fell by almost 9% in the second quarter. Strong retail numbers however remain June and housing numbers in July indicate consumers of course are opening their pocket butts then the outlook on business investment still remains an area to watch. The outlook on trade I would say it's mixed depending largely on developments in the US. Employment in several heavily impacted industries, construction, manufacturing have in fact rebounded to more than 90% of the pre-COVID levels as businesses reopen. But of course by contrast overall employment in accommodation and food services remain low in an area of concern. Among hourly paid workers payroll employment in July remained about 13% below February's levels. Workers at the bottom of the earning distribution have greater risk of job automation and less opportunity for telework and the economic shutdowns disproportionately impacted many Canadians including women, youth, new immigrants, visible minorities and lower age workers. And these are all areas of policy support at this time. Women were hit harder by COVID-19 related employment losses. First Nations, Métis and Inuit were also more severely affected economically. Our data indicate that the indigenous people have been harder hit by the economic impacts of the pandemic due to pre-existing vulnerabilities and evidence in Canada echo studies in the US and Europe that suggests immigrants are often more severely affected by economic downturns than their native born. Almost all of the data that I've shared with you is available free of charge on our website. This can be useful when looking at conditions your expat communities are facing when you're trying to bring in other businesses into Canada and when comparing conditions in Canada to those elsewhere in the world. And of course COVID-19 has affected some Canadians more than others. Healthy economy, job safety, social inclusion are all interrelated and the need for international comparable well-being indicators to make sustained and inclusive progress will of course be key to equitable recovery efforts within Canada and I'll argue across the board. So I encourage you to visit our website and if you're looking for facts, trends, insights and analysis some easy ways to stay informed are to visit our site and sign up for regular updates through a service called MySTAT can or to follow us on social media. So thank you very much and I look forward to serving you back to you. Thank you very much to the chief statistician and for that presentation which inevitably had to focus on the pandemic. And now we're going to pivot to business. This year we're particularly pleased to have the Business Council of Canada provide this presentation a big picture but pandemic view of the economy, where Canada is heading and how the diplomatic community can engage with the business community. The Business Council of Canada is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing business leaders in every region and sector of the country. Its 150 member companies employ 1.7 million Canadians, contribute the largest share of federal corporate taxes and more than half of Canada's private sector GDP. Together they are responsible for most of Canada's exports, corporate philanthropy and private sector investments in research and development. I'm delighted to welcome its president and CEO Goldie Heider. Goldie brings extensive experience in both the private and public sector and is committed to the voluntary sector. He's also served on Carleton University's Board of Governors. I spoke with Goldie last week and asked him where the Canadian economy was going. Oh, how much time do we have? It is such a critical time to be asking that question, Maureen, because I've asked myself, where are we in this process? Is this the beginning, the middle or the end? And the best I've been able to come up with is we might be at the end of the beginning, but there's still a ways to go here. So the answer is it depends on how long we're going to need to deal with this. We have seen a reaction on the part of the Canadian government. They stepped in immediately to put a floor on the collapse of the lives of individuals. We in the business community called for an economic shutdown, literally, to try and contain the virus. But more importantly, protect our healthcare system and to protect the validity of our healthcare system and the viability of it, which I think we were able to do and do well. And then we came through the summer and now we're here in the winter and we're looking forward and saying, is how hard is this period going to be both psychologically, physically, emotionally? And what toll is it going to take on our economy? Because the truth is our economy is not really restarted. It's open, but it's not restarted. And we're seeing a lot of the sort of the whack-a-mole popping up and popping down of the temporary lockdowns here and there. And so I think that the bad news, of course, is very obvious. The headline is we spent a lot of money. We have created probably $400 billion worth of deficit alone. Another 1.3 on the debt, GDP dropped dramatically. Unemployment is up quite a bit. We're not alone, but that doesn't make it any better for the people who are feeling the consequences of this economic collapse. There are a number of sectors that have been very hardly hit. And as you know, the Canadian economy is really about two things, natural resources and human resources. And so when you look at the natural resources side, obviously the energy sector was having its challenges even before COVID arrived at our doorstep. But now they're going to need to deal with the consequences of the additional burden that COVID has also put on their situation. And then we've heard so much about travel, tourism, retail. These are in hospitality. These are sectors that are in some cases on life support, Maureen, and they employ hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Canadians. And so our message to the government has been is while you've done a good job in putting a floor on the collapse of the individual, those individuals need jobs. They need employers to go back to. And we need to make sure that we make strategic investments and choices about some of these critical strike sectors that really define who a country is. Imagine a country without an airline or a country that doesn't have any tourism industry or so forth. It's a big part of who we are. So those are very critical questions. And then the other thing that we're seeing a couple of things that are very important to us. You know, it's been dubbed a she session that this is having a very big impact on women in the economy and in the workplace. And we come out calling support for childcare, for example, not that just a woman issues a man and woman issue, but it predominantly seems to impact the moms at home and we want to make sure that from a workforce perspective, we've got the opportunity to make sure that people are able to participate in the recovery of the economy. And that's, there's some good news underway here as well right I mean we have basically got back, you know, several million other jobs that we've lost. There's about 700 or so 720,000 or so positions that remain to be failed so we're heading in the right right direction, but it doesn't mean we're out of the woods just yet. Right 2021 early 2021 when these programs that the government has put in place maybe get pulled back, it may create a rise in unemployment and so we've got to, we've got to be ready and we've got to we've got to watch for that and the good news for Canadians and the esteemed guests I'm speaking with today know this, we're a trading nation, and we have a lot of stuff that people want, you know, and as long as we're able to get it to them and be reliable and our infrastructure and and our policies and so forth that demands for our products are going to be there. And also human resource economy as I mentioned and if you think about the importance of the climate, an issue important to all of us, where the solutions are going to require collaboration and innovation. Canada has an important role to play there, the digital economy, the digitization that's taken place I mean where are we today if we were dialing up for this phone call, you know this video call just wouldn't have worked as well as this has so we seen a really robust response on the part of Canadian businesses large and small and we worry a lot about our supply chains and the SMEs, but the response has been wartime like right people have adjusted. We've kept people employed. We've been donating to charitable causes we innovated to response to the PPE crisis that we faced. And so I think this has been a good moment in government business relationships as we go forward. So, what's your premier ask of government and has government been responsive. Look, Canada is a really difficult country to govern and I know that some of our ambassadors and others here experienced that firsthand and it might frustrate them. But we're not alone. There's a lot of federations that have challenges in working with the multi jurisdictional layers I think that's one of the issues that Canadians are experiencing marine is a sense of a need for clear directive clear leadership, you know, we're taping this just on the eve of Halloween where some say it's okay, some say it's not okay. They're both public health experts who do I follow. So I think we needed, we need to continue to do a better job in speaking to Canadians as clearly and consistently and with one voice. And I think that applies to all of your respective countries because human nature requires that in a crisis and so I think that's important. So that business and government as I mentioned have been very good at partnering on the issue of the PPEs. You know, you take a look at many of our members, you know, CAE, you know, magna linomar, you know, Canada goose, you know, and they convert it to making a tire for our hospital, you know, workers and nurses and doctors who are making ventilator some of the companies that I just mentioned. So that's been a really important opportunity to work with government where I think we can do better and where I think we can learn from some of the folks that are here listening today. And I have the, you know, the extreme privilege of visiting and or hosting. Many of the people I suspect that are that are on this call in this event today. We can learn from each other. How is it that other countries of different political stripes of different geographies of different sizes and scales. What have they done well, and what have they not done well and let's make sure that, because to me, COVID is actually a reminder of the importance of multi lateralism I'm sure we're going to talk about as well. It's a way to show people that this is this is how well it can work when we can actually figure out how to help each other through this crisis because there's no point me solving COVID for myself is no good if it's not going to help everybody else, you know, Well, I was going to touch on that because you speak regularly with Canada's business leaders and many of whom represent companies with offices around the world. They're in a slightly different situation than Canadian businesses that are just within our country. What's keeping those companies that have got offices around the world up at night. Well, it's a great question. You know, before the COVID I would have said it was largely about, you know, cybersecurity or talent. You know, the things that would have kept most of our CEOs awake at night. But now of course we have to deal with this pandemic and so the health emergency and the need to be able to provide safe working places at home or otherwise. And so what we've realized for our employees the experience for our customers is paramount to any CEO safety is always item number one. And so this is just exacerbated that that much more. And I think there's a lot of curiosity to want to learn from each other amongst Canadian businesses but also global businesses. You know what how well are they managing, you know, there is an acceleration taking place for many businesses now it's the word I hear the most things that might have been happening in Canada three, four or five years down the road have been brought forward, and they're happening now. And so that requires change and change management and CEOs are very busy. They're doing that on the health front. But of course, you know, businesses compete, and the pandemic doesn't be the say well let's lay down all our arms here but people are still very competitive and CEOs have a fiduciary duty, to make sure that they are doing everything that they can to make sure that their business is viable is growing. You know, many businesses are essential services that that have been able to to meet the needs of Canadians and global global partners throughout this pandemic. But but we've we've we've we've also had to recognize that things are changing. You know what we don't know is are they changing for the short term mid term or forever. And I think that's, you know, subject for an entire other discussion happened to be the subject of my master's thesis 30 years ago. I think we have to be very careful as to how much we think change is really happening. When we're talking about human beings. Given the pandemic. What recommendations you do you have for diplomats for engaging with Canadian business. Yeah, that's a, again, a great question. I mean, you know, your audience knows, you know, firsthand that Canada is a trading nation. There are three legs to the Canadian stool that cannot be removed or the whole thing stumbles trade being one of them. And there's a generation being another and investment being the other and those three things are really central to our Canadian economy. And it's for that reason, many of the CEOs I speak with who not only care about the domestic issues. As you noted, many of them are global's were quite concerned about the protectionist, the rise in protectionism, if you will. And our federal government from its time back in 2015, frankly, its predecessor who created a lot of trade deals from what was and what they what they left with really made diversification a critical strategy for Canada. And I think that this is the opportunity for, you know, representatives of other countries to talk about why you, why should in a world full of countries and options for businesses and for countries in which to do trade. What is your USP? What is your value proposition as a respective country? And I think businesses are, are frankly shopping around. You know, there is anxiety about the decoupling. There is anxiety about the US Canada situation. I'm sorry, the US, that was a previous life but still may come back who knows, but the US China situation. And Canada, frankly, being stuck in, in middle of all these are all things that are causing members anxiety. But what we're saying is we can lead Canada can lead and countries that are not superpowers can lead. And so I applaud the leadership of our government on the WTO reform process. We know businesses need rules. We need rule of law. We need rule of order. We need predictability stability as to where our investments are going to be going. And so I think that the more you're able to connect the priorities of the business community to your, your agenda for investment and growth in your respective countries. Governments will pay attention because the truth of the matter is, as you know, my old friend Jim Carr says, when he was the minister, you know, government's role was to build the bridge. That's been done. The trade agreements have been put in place. We frankly don't need more trade agreements. What we need to do is realize the benefits of the ones that we have. And so I think you're going to see Canadian businesses focusing on the CPTPP as well as CIDA and potentially, you know, the United Kingdom and a few others that the conversations are continuing with. And let's back hit ourselves. The United States is and will always be a very, very important trading partner for Canada, but irrespective of what happens in this election. We're not convinced that it's necessarily going to change for the for the better from a business investment in a business perspective time will tell. And last question, we're in a minority parliament. There's going to be more and more talk of snap elections being called we avoided one last week. What, how does that change the environment for you. Well, I mean, there's an old saying I grew up with, you know, don't take the politics out of politics. But if ever there was a time to take the politics out of something, it's during a pandemic. And I think any political party should be forewarned that the mood of Canadians is volatile at this time. I think there is high degree of anxiety. I think they are looking for their leaders to provide leadership. I think they're looking for clear direction, clear plan, clear guidance. Frankly, I think many Canadians are saying, tell me what you want me to do specifically. Exactly. And so don't don't recommend don't suggest I think this is a moment for leadership and I think this is a moment where ask those who are aspiring to run provinces or countries or cities can really stick out because people will gravitate to those that are providing clear, honest relations, you know, communications with their citizenry, because I think many recognize that there's a long road to go here. You know, I don't want to be the downer of the event, but the reality is know your history. It takes time to create vaccines. It takes time to produce the logistics with which to execute the vaccine successfully. There are going to be a number of people who are not even going to take the vaccine. Kids won't be able to take it for years due to the efficacy issues around vaccinating kids. So we need to prepare our people that there is a long road ahead, but we need to give them hope. We need to give them hope that we can get through this. Don't live in fear. We're going to have to coexist with COVID. And I think that the Canadian people are ready to be to be led in that direction. And we're going to need it because as I said, there's still a long road to go here. Thanks to Goldie Heider for that astute analysis. And we're now coming to one of the most highly regarded sessions of previous orientations. We have reassembled our panel of journalists and commentators. Colin Robertson will moderate this panel, a former diplomat, Colin served in New York, Hong Kong, as Consul General in Los Angeles, and is the founding head of the advocacy secretariat in Washington. He's a Carleton graduate and senior fellow of the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs. He's vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a frequent media commentator. You'll note from the program that Colin has written a brief. It's called personal reflections, what foreign diplomats need to know about Canada. It's on our website and the CGA website. Colin is joined by Susan Delacorte. Susan has covered politics on Parliament Hill for more than 30 years. She's a political columnist for the Toronto Star, an author of four books, and a frequent media commentator. She has taught both journalism and political communication at Carleton University. We're also going to be joined by Joel Denis Belivance. He's not on yet. I don't believe but he'll be coming. He is a Carleton Journalism School graduate. He's been covering Parliament and national affairs for the past 25 years. Since 2003, he has been bureau chief for La Presse, Quebec's leading newspaper. Colin, your panel, which right now is just Susan. Okay, thanks very much, Marine, and welcome Susan. Well, Susan, let me start with a question about the impact that the US election is having. A lot of the speakers this morning, you know, we do this against the backdrop of the election, which can take place a week from now. How has it affected Canadian politics? Oh, a huge and very good question. First of all, thank you for having me and welcome to Canada. All of you out there. I wish I was there in person to meet you all, but I'm sure someday things will be normal and we will meet again. So your question, as I said is very good one and very large one. There is an argument to be made that Justin Trudeau's first mandate was thrown completely off by the election of Donald Trump. Many of the things that Justin Trudeau believed he'd be doing in tandem with a Democratic president of the United States were thrown into chaos in January of 2017 after Donald Trump was inaugurated. And many of the mistakes you could say of this government's first term, when things got a little shaky, could be attributed to how all-consuming and chaotic that relationship was. So I think Justin Trudeau, a few, I guess it's now about a couple of months ago, ordered his cabinet ministers in caucus not to wade into this election in any way. Not even nice tweets about Kamala Harris. Some of the cabinet ministers had to take those down when she was nominated. So the idea is that stay quiet. I think it would be assumed that Joe Biden would be a more natural ally to Justin Trudeau. Maybe put this country back on a more progressive partnership course with the United States, but as Goldie was just saying, not all problems are going to be solved by Trump being gone. And the Canada-U.S. relationship is still going to be huge. And the Canada-China problem will still exist, too. Well, this government, Susan, has got a very ambitious agenda. And in the Throne speech, the government, I think, as all governments have done, put their first priority as dealing with COVID and then recovery from COVID. But there's also big elements of climate change that we talked about earlier. Catherine McKenna made this point, having been former minister of the environment. And then an infrastructure plan. And then, of course, there's dealing with social justice, inequality, Black Lives Matter, Me Too. This government that is, you pointed out, a progressive government. How in the time that remains in this parliament is the government going to be able to deal with these other items? What's the focus going to be simply on COVID and COVID recovery? Yeah, I would add one thing to that, too. I think there's going to be two focuses, or do you say foci, in the coming days. One is, I think, I'll just back up a bit. I think two months ago, you saw that the government thought that COVID was going to be a chance to build back better, which is, we hear this from Joe Biden as well. I think the second wave of COVID, the magnitude of it, the numbers you're seeing every day, the idea that it's not going away, has overtaken that discussion a little bit for now. You're seeing that we're not going to have a budget until next year. The second wave of COVID has definitely pushed a lot of the government's ambitions, I think, farther down the road. What is more immediate, and we're seeing it every day, and if you want a subtitle under every political news item you're watching at the moment, it is this government is still fighting for survival. I am not sure. I wrote a column last week saying, I am now trying to figure out which is going to last longer, the second wave of COVID or this government. Because I think we're going to see week by week, day by day, a struggle in this minority parliament to see whether it can survive into 2021. Because there is clearly hostility, there is between the two. We saw in by elections last night that should have been safe liberal writings. Justin Trudeau was given a run for his money by the Greens in one writing, conservatives in another. And I think that certainly conservatives are feeling emboldened and I think feeling that maybe the few months of collaboration didn't work out all that well. So I think we've got a very angry antagonistic parliament right now. I don't know how long it's going to last. We've got a second wave of COVID and I do think those are the top two priorities before they get down to how do they do the progressive agenda they wanted so much. That makes sense. Shuldini, have you been able to join us yet? Okay. I'm sure he'll join us in a moment. Shuldini. Yes. Can you hear me now? Perfect. Yes, I was just going to, we were, Susan and I were just talking about the government's priorities. The focus obviously being COVID and COVID recovery, but there is a progressive agenda. And Susan was saying, well, the focus has got to be for now on COVID and these other elements, well, they are important. It may be a while before they get them. What's your assessment? Well, exactly the same assessment. The government was hoping to be able to achieve a new norm, build better. That was their slogan when they were trying to figure out what to put in the speech from the throne that was table on September 23. They realized that trying to build better in a pandemic was not possible, that they had to write, first of all, that wave of COVID-19 pandemic and come back at their lucid date. So there's a lot of uncertainty around how much time this pandemic will last. And so the government was forced to go back to the drawing board and rewrite almost all the speech from the throne and bring it back to reality, which was, which is still, you know, the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic. So, but there are still ministers who would like to see a big push, trying to make sure that Canada can meet, for example, it's 2030 Paris, the gas emission, the side reduction. Carbon emissions, of course. Yes, carbon emissions. Thank you. And so they're trying to push that. And that was also written in the speech from the throne. The government wanted to show that it was able to walk and chew gum at the same time. But for now, I think it's more walking than chewing gum because of the reality of the pandemic, which is, you know, a crisis, a health crisis and economic crisis, which may take a long time to get over. Maybe some people are saying maybe three to four years to get over this crisis. So it will have to wait, I think, but it's still part of the priorities of the government. But it has to be relegated at the bottom of the priorities for now. Sheldonnie, one of the things that Susan said that, you know, this government is a minority government, and that certainly was stressed from the outset, the clerk and the speaker talking about managing this. Susan said, we're not, you know, this, this government could fall depending on for things. What's your sense? Remember, all the foreign diplomats have to write back their capitals. What's their sense of the longevity of this government? What's your sense? My sense is that this government will probably face defeat next spring after it tables a budget, but also after the ethics commissioner tables report on the Prime Minister ethical issues with the we charity controversy that was, you know, rocking the boat this summer for the government. And so my sense is the opposition parties will now join forces after that time in the spring of 2021 to try to defeat the government. If not, I'm convinced and by talking to liberal strategies, if the government is not defeated in the spring, Mr Trudeau himself will go see the governor general in September of next year to call an election asking for a clear mandate to to manage this crisis. So it's either in the spring of next year or the fall of next next next year. If not, if those scenarios do not happen, my expectation is that the government may last four years. This minority government may last a total mandate or regulated as though it was a majority government four years, which would bring us to 2023. Why? Because in 2022, there are two big elections in two of Canada's biggest provinces. In the spring of 2022, Ontario voters will go to the polls. So that takes out the calendar for any federal election. And in the fall of 2022, Quebecers will go to the polls, which again, takes out that electoral calendar for the federal for a federal election. So that means that leads to me that if it's not mixture, it will probably be in 2023 for the following reasons that I've just mentioned. I'm going to stay with you for a minute on this next question, because as you pointed out, we are a country of different provinces and different regions. And a year ago when we had this conversation, you had spent your summer touring Western Canada. At that time, there was a lot of concern that we were seeing once again, forces of division, forces, some advocating for separation. We've traditionally tended to look to Quebec, which you know very well, but you've gone to the West because of the Wexit movement. Is that still an issue or has COVID kind of covered that? The Prime Minister and the Premier's talk every Thursday night, in my view, is that that seems to have built at least a certain degree of camaraderie and shared goals to try and deal with this crisis on this was pointed out by Goldie. I mean, there has been a coming together, but I'm wondering your perspective on an issue that again, foreign diplomats have to cover. And that's the unity of this country. My sense is that it may not be boiling to the surface as it was last year, but it's close to. Yes, COVID-19 has brought the Premier's and the Prime Minister together to face this invisible enemy, which is COVID-19. But deep down, if you go to Alberta and even Saskatchewan, the COVID-19 has brought a double whammy crisis for Albertans and Saskatchewans. When I visited Calgary last year, for example, 25% of commercial offices were empty in downtown Calgary. I'm assuming that this has now doubled because of the crisis related to COVID-19. And so I would say that the people are getting desperate economically and they don't see any potential improvement in their life, day-to-day life situation in the future. Which brings me to the future, which is the U.S. elections. And that may amplify the separatist movement in Western Canada. If one of the pipelines that have been approved by President Donald Trump, the Keystone XL pipeline, is canceled as promised by Joe Biden if he wins the election. So Mr. Kenny, Jason Kenny, the Premier of Alberta has already let it known that he is not happy with that possibility. So in Alberta, in a very ironic way, when I was there, there were a lot of people who were actually hoping to see Donald Trump win the next election. And it's probably one of the rare provinces where you see more support for Donald Trump than anywhere else in Canada, surprisingly. Because they feel that if they can't make a deal with the rest of Canada and getting a new pipeline in the ground, they may have to turn to separation. And even some of who are talking about annexing Alberta with the United States. And one thing that is characterizing the debate, I think, and it's clear that we need to take that into account is that it's no longer a rational debate for some people. It's an emotional debate. And when emotions take over, rational decisions are not being made. It's a decision made on emotions. And you can't let emotions guide you when you take a decision as serious as the future of Canada. Susan, I couldn't help reflect that Premier Moe, who just won a re-election in his victory speech, basically took a shot at the federal government on what they weren't doing for Saskatchewan, even though he comes back with, here's to be an enhanced majority. What's your sense on the unity issue? We've talked a lot about the West. Prime Ministers have sort of always said that I've talked and they have three big issues. We've talked about the economy, national security, Canada-US relations, but national unity is always in the inbox for any Prime Minister. What are you seeing? It's funny because in what we now call the olden days, the pre-pandemic days, we thought the major issue in 2020 was going to be the unity of this country. There was a very fractious federal provincial scene. Many, many conservative Premiers and a liberal government. We actually thought that was going to be Justin Trudeau's biggest headache. Little did we know. A couple of interesting things have happened, though, on national unity, as JD was referencing. I think you are seeing Alberta and Saskatchewan starting to dig in again, despite, as you talked about, Colin, the camaraderie that's developed. But one interesting thing that has developed, and I speak from my home province of Ontario, is the relationship between the Premier Doug Ford and this liberal government. It is remarkable. No one ever would have predicted it a year ago. A year ago, Justin Trudeau was taking shots at Doug Ford every day on the campaign trail. Now they're doing events together. The Deputy Prime Minister, Christa Freeland, has forged much of this relationship, talks on the phone all the time to Doug Ford. Doug Ford has said he will not campaign with Aaron O'Toole, the Conservative leader in the next election. And Doug Ford is up to something interesting here. He is not being part of what was famously termed the provincial resistance. All those conservative Premiers. He's doing his own thing with the federal government. And that is a highly interesting development here in Canada when I'm watching really carefully. Doug Ford has, of all the people in this pandemic who's emerged as interesting, Doug Ford may be the biggest one. If I may say something just to add one point that I want to make about Jason Kenney, the Premier of Alberta. If he's trying to cool the temperature about, you know, separate sentiment in his own province by holding a referendum, maybe next year on the Equalization Program, federal Equalization Program. But he also wants to follow the steps of Quebec, which would lead him to open, I think, and that will interest our audience, opens more delegations, foreign delegations for the provinces. Of Alberta. Delegations in the United States, yes, but also more delegations, new delegations in Europe and Asia. Why? Because the province would like to pursue its own interests, like Quebec has done internationally. So you see some provinces following the steps of Quebec, which has some delegations in the United States and in Europe and Asia. So Jason Kenney is taking the same recipe as Quebec to get more leeway's powers from the federal government. So that's something to watch, opening up foreign delegations by the province of Alberta. And Nisholdini, you underlined a point that I would say to all the ambassadors and to their representatives. And that is to get out to the provinces. You can't, just as you can't decide what's happening in the United States within the Beltway and Canada, you really do have to get out and visit the premiers, because they really do have constitutionally a lot of power. The way we divided up our constitution in 1867 and since then, court rulings and things have given our provinces and premiers a lot of authority, particularly in the area of natural resources and trade, of course, has shared responsibility. Well, I think I may serve a last question, which I'm going to put, and I'll start with you, Susan, and that is making foreign policy. We have a foreign minister, but things are a little bit clouded. We also have a deputy prime minister who's responsible for the U.S. In terms of foreign policy making, a couple of ambassadors have said to me, so who really, who makes foreign policy in Canada? We know the organization chart, but you as a journalist, what's your observation? And then I'm going to ask Nisholdini to comment on this as to who are the players who actually make our foreign policy? I would suspect JD and I are going to say the same thing here. Do not discount. Christa Freeland, the deputy prime minister is now the minister of everything. She works inside the prime minister's office. Her office is there. She's the finance minister too. Christa Freeland has extensive experience. She's a former journalist who is a former foreign correspondent who has worked in journalism, knows what she's talking about, and the people around her that is a very tight circle. There's been some speculation that Justin Trudeau is sort of mailing it in, which I want to dispel right now. Justin Trudeau, what he has been doing has been consolidating power around him and making a very tight circle, and no one is tighter with him than Christa Freeland. And if you want to know how this government works, you've got to know Christa Freeland on anything. And one thing you've underlined there that is that Mr. Trudeau really is interested in being prime minister and will lead the party into the next election. Definitely. Nisholdini? I totally agree with Susan. Christa Freeland is the go-to person. She has a lot of influence, and she has also a lot of influence because of her roots and her experience as a reporter. She traveled the world, not as a tourist, but by working in capitals like Moscow, New York, and Washington, and London. So she knows the big issues of the day. And so if you want to have a clear picture of where the government stands on some big issues dealing with international relations, Christa Freeland is the one that will explain it to you very, very calmly and in a very substantive matter. In fact, if there's one reading I would recommend to ambassadors will be to read her speech she made a couple years ago in the House of Commons when she was foreign affairs minister. This was a very substantive speech, and she described her vision of the world seeing that the United States was withdrawing from international organization, multilateralism, and she was presenting, in Canada's case, in a very effective manner. And so this would be a good read to grasp where this government might be going in terms of foreign affairs relations. A very good speech, and I read it again recently and it was very, very thoughtful and very well balanced and very well presented. And it explained where Canada was coming from, but also where Canada wants to go. Now I would underline your recommendation and in the primer it's one of the ones that there's a hyperlink to. Well, look, my last question, and I'll start with you, Susan. And Jolton, he's kind of set this up by what he's been reading. If you had to read a book about Canada to recommend to somebody who's just arrived in Canada a foreign diplomat, what would you recommend? It's a novel, even your own books on Canadian politics. But what would you recommend, Susan? Please read all my books. You understand the Canadian political system. I would recommend that people read Justin Trudeau's own biography, at least the first few chapters, if you want to understand the man. I think that's an important thing to do. Oh, so many books I could give. Jolton, what would you recommend? Well, I wouldn't necessarily recommend books. I would recommend reading Susan Delacorte's column. I think they provide a good picture of where we are going. And also, Chantalier Bayer, one of my favorite columnists also with Susan at the Toronto Star. So you get a great view of Ontario. I would also recommend another columnist, Don Martin, who has a weekly column that still is being published on the website of CTV Newsnet. And in terms of Quebec, great columnists, I would say are Michel David from Le Devoir. He knows the Quebec files inside out. And also, in my own backyard, I would say Paul Journay, he's a new columnist at La Pice, and he presents this situation. Those would be the readings I would recommend before reading any books on Canada. Thank you very much. And so the virtual audience will join me in thanking Susan Delacorte of the Toronto Star, whose columns, as Joltony says, are indispensable reading, and Joltony Bellavance of La Presse, whose own work is certainly should be read. Thank you for joining me today in this discussion about Canadian politics. Thank you, Colin, and my apologies for being late. Welcome again to Canada. Thank you, Colin Robertson. Thank you. My thank you also to Susan Delacorte and Joltony Bellavance for your time, your advice and insights on the players, the provinces, the policy, and some recommendations for reading. So I appreciate that. We've talked about our parliamentary system with the speaker, clerk, members of parliament. We've heard about public opinion trends. We've heard from our panel. Our next session is engaging with the national capital region. And our next speaker is Toby Nussbaum, the CEO of the National Capital Commission. Toby was a diplomat and senior public servant before he ran for Ottawa City Council in 2014. He was reelected in 2018 and then resigned to lead the NCC. Toby's presentation starts with a short history and tour of the National Capital Region and ends with how you can engage with the NCC. Good morning. Bonjour, Quai. And thank you for inviting me to participate today at your session at the end of a long morning. And congratulations to the Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement for keeping this worthy traditional life for 10 years, even though this year, of course, we have more extraordinary circumstances. And for those of you who are newly posted here on behalf of the National Capital Commission, welcome to the National Capital Region en nom de la Commission de la Capitale Nationale. Je souhaite la bienvenue dans la région de la Capitale du Canada à ceux d'entre vous qui sont nouvellement affectés ici. We hope your time here is productive and rewarding. And having served Canada abroad myself, I know from personal experience that the diplomatic life can be busy professionally, but I hope you'll also find time to enjoy life in Canada and in our capital. And I invite all of you, newcomers and veterans, to find ways to participate in the life of the capital. Ottawa was chosen as Canada's capital city more than 150 years ago when it was a rough and tumble lumber town with a population of just a few thousand on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. Today, Canada's capital includes not just Ottawa, but also the city of Gatineau on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, along with several smaller municipalities. And it's home to over a million people. But it is actually still on the edge of the Canadian wilderness, which is one of its enduring charms and defining characteristics. Protecting and preserving the natural legacy of the capital region, along with the elegant beauty of its built heritage, is really the raison d'être of the organization I represent. Because the National Capital Commission is the chief planner and steward of the federal government's land and assets in the capital. If you're out enjoying what the capital has to offer, there's a good chance the NCC is involved. For example, we're responsible for Gatineau Park, where the capital's wild character is really on display. The park's extensive trails wind through some ruggedly beautiful landscapes and emerge onto breathtaking lookouts. It's a terrific place to hike or ski. And if you enjoy outdoor winter activities, you can also not just ski but snowshoe or try winter cycling. There's really a range of things to do in Gatineau Park in all seasons. Another quintessential Canadian and Canada's capital experience is skating on the Rideau Canal Skateway, the world's longest skating rink. And another great place to experience the Canadian outdoors in any season without even leaving the city is on the trails of the Green Belt. It's a ring of forests and wetlands and farms that encircles Ottawa's urban core. And woven, of course, throughout the entire capital on both sides of the river is one of the most extensive multi-use pathway networks in North America, much of it the NCC's responsibility. These outdoor assets and some of the amenities associated with them are open for use despite the coronavirus, subject, of course, to public health guidelines, such as physical distancing. And so I really encourage you to go and check them out, again, through all four seasons. However, the NCC is also responsible for many other elements in the capital that improve the quality of life of its residents, create great memories for the millions who visit every year and support its role as the heart of Canadian democracy. More than 100 kilometres of scenic parkways along the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal and throughout Gatineau Park, as I've mentioned. More than 100 bridges, including two of the inter-provincial bridges linking Ottawa and Gatineau. More than 1,000 buildings, including the official residences of the Governor General, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, who you heard from earlier this morning, and federal monuments and commemorations throughout the capital. But besides being the principal planner and steward of the capital, the NCC has a third role, that of creative partner. Collaboration is in our organisational DNA and we engage frequently with individuals and organisations who share our passion for building a better capital. An important part of this engagement has been rewarding partnerships with the diplomatic community. For example, in 2017, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands worked with us to promote the Canada 150 tulips, marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation. And last year to promote the Liberation 75 tulips, marking the anniversary of the Dutch royal family taking shelter in the capital and the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers. We've worked with the U.S. Embassy on restoring Mackenzie Avenue, where their embassy is located, including the installation of a new cycling lane. L'Ambassade de France nous a aidé à célébrer le 400e anniversaire de l'arrivée du Sémia de Jean Plein. Embassies, including those of France, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States have partnered with us to present session in the NCC's Urbanism Lab, where I am sitting right now, where normally members of the public meet on a monthly basis with experts to discuss the latest thinking in urban affairs. And the Embassy of Norway, I should mention, which shares Canada's passion for cross-country skiing and has hosted events related to that sport in past years with the NCC as a participant. And lastly, a number of embassies participated in the NCC's International Pavilion, another Canada 150 initiative. And if you partnered with us over the past, I thank you. And for those who haven't, I certainly invite all of you to get involved in future projects and initiatives. Je tiens à remercier ceux qui se sont associés à nous par le passé. Et je vous invite tous à vous impliquer dans les initiatives et des projets futurs. There will be many opportunities for engagement, especially once we put the coronavirus behind us. And I look forward to meeting those of you who are new to the capital and to many successful partnerships in the years to come. So again, welcome. Thank you for joining me this morning. And I look forward to meeting many of you in person soon. Thank you. Merci. And thank you, Tobi Nesbaum, for this look at where we live. We're coming to the end. We hope this webinar has been useful. It's been a new experience for us as well as for you. I'd like to take a moment to thank Esther, Maria Esther Coronado Martinez for her work on this webinar and to our excellent technical team at Carleton. I also wish to thank our 10 generous sponsors, Air Canada, CNN, Facebook, Forest Products Association of Canada Insurance Bureau of Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Nutrien, Suncor, TD, and Toyota. We will leave you with closing remarks from Carleton University's brand new Dean of Public Affairs, Dr. Brenda O'Neill, started October 1st as Dean and as a Professor of Political Science. I'm sure that many of you will get to know her during your posting. Dean O'Neill. Thanks very much, Maureen. First, I'd like to just thank all of today's presenters and to the diplomatic community for joining us for these thought-provoking discussions. Merci à tous ceux qui ont présenté ce matin et bienvenue à Ottawa. Merci d'avoir participé ce matin en discussion. I think we've been left with much to think about, public opinion trends, especially as they relate to the pandemic in government, ways of engaging with the gorgeous national capital region, its kilometers of pathways, which I'm just learning about and enjoying. The use of data for good decision-making, Canadian business trends, the global development of democracy, parliament during the pandemic, and we heard from a number of important individuals, including parliamentarians and journalists. I found today's discussions informative and engaging. I hope you did as well. But I also hope that they're the beginning of a close relationship between all of you and Carleton University. I know we're honored to partner with the Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement. Carleton is an excellent resource for information and advice for parliamentarians and for the diplomatic community. I'd like to speak a little bit about the Faculty of Public Affairs, in part because it's the only faculty of its kind in Canada and I think indeed around the world, because its focus is specifically on government and civil society. That means that we educate a large portion of Canada's diplomats and public servants. We also have a very close relationship with the diplomatic community, the federal government, and non-governmental organizations. Partnering with international representatives also serves to enrich our students' educational experience. Many of our students have the opportunity to serve as interns and employees in your offices. So I invite you to reach out and connect with our faculty and with us. Should you see any kind of possibility for these kinds of opportunities? And indeed I want to thank you for contributing to our mission in that way. Each year we look forward to this event as it draws on the close relationships between Carleton that it has developed with the members of parliament, senior public servants, and the diplomatic community. But I also really want to thank Maureen Boyd and the whole team for all of the tremendous work that went into organizing today's event. I think it's hard to overcome the importance of it, particularly under pandemic conditions. I trust you will find that this initiative provides an excellent introduction to working and living as a diplomat in Canada's capital. I also think it's wonderful that diplomats from consulates across Canada had an opportunity to participate this year because of the virtual format. For those of you that are in Ottawa, however, I look forward to seeing you on campus, hopefully at some point in the near future. In the meantime, I'd like to invite everyone to join the faculty for some of its online events, including author meets readers, which is going to take place on November 26, in which the author James Metacraft will be presenting his new book, excuse me, on the evolution of modern environmental policy. That's on November 26. You can visit Carleton.ca slash FPA for more information on this event and others. Again, thank you for joining us today. Merci. Have a wonderful afternoon. Thank you, Dean O'Neill. And I thank all of you for participating in this webinar. We wish you success in your posting, and of course your good health. We leave you with the look back at past orientations.