Trudeau’s remaining weeks strike steadiness between cementing his legacy and managing a disaster

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau works by means of what’s more likely to be his final week in workplace, he and his authorities seem like shifting to cement his political legacy. 

Trudeau and his ministers have been making important bulletins on infrastructure, social applications and reconciliation.

Trudeau has additionally made current worldwide journeys to the UK and Ukraine to debate and reveal Canada’s ongoing help for Ukraine and future position in world safety.

All this has come in opposition to a backdrop of main the nation by means of an financial, safety and existential disaster instigated by the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Randy Besco, a political science professor on the College of Toronto, says that making bulletins in your manner out the door is frequent for outgoing prime ministers, as is tying up unfastened ends.

“A method to have a look at it’s: they’re attempting to cement a legacy. One other manner to have a look at it’s: they could lose so they’re attempting to get a variety of stuff accomplished. And that is additionally a fairly customary factor,” he instructed CBC Information.

Listed below are a few of the main steps the Trudeau authorities has taken in current weeks to shore up signature coverage strikes made over the past decade. 

Indigenous reconciliation

Trudeau has repeatedly mentioned that there is no relationship “extra vital to Canada than the connection with Indigenous Peoples.”

During the last decade he is made important, though not excellent, progress towards his promise to resume that relationship, and additional reconciliation.

These efforts noticed Trudeau ship apologies for the federal authorities’s previous baby welfare and residential colleges insurance policies, in addition to elevate 147 long-term consuming water advisories in Indigenous communities. 

In his remaining weeks in workplace, Trudeau and the Haida Nation reminded the nation of that mission by signing an settlement recognizing Aboriginal title over the archipelago of Haida Gwaii off British Columbia’s northern coast.

Per week later, Trudeau introduced that he’d struck a $270-million settlement to help jobs and conservation initiatives within the Qikiqtani area of Nunavut.

“Once we make investments to guard [and] safeguard biodiversity, we defend those that defend us, the environment and our livelihoods,” Trudeau instructed reporters.

On Thursday, the federal government introduced a settlement settlement for survivors of federally run Indian hospitals the place claimants are eligible for as much as $200,000.

Ukraine

Whereas the difficulty of find out how to proceed help for Ukraine will fall into the lap of Canada’s subsequent prime minister, Trudeau reminded the world in current weeks that he’s nonetheless entrance and centre to voice Canada’s help for the nation.  

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the federal authorities says it has supplied virtually $20 billion in army and humanitarian help to the European nation.

Canada has additionally supplied sturdy political and diplomatic help, sanctioning greater than 3,000 folks and entities, and one other 109 naval vessels that it says are indirectly collaborating within the invasion of Ukraine. 

Trudeau has bolstered this monetary and political help by visiting the nation 4 instances because the invasion started, together with his newest journey on the three-year anniversary of the invasion. 

Trudeau attended a summit in Kyiv final month, through which he publicly praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “outstanding private bravery, resilience and resolve.” 

Earlier this month, Trudeau went to the UK the place he and different European leaders met in London to debate their ongoing help for the nation.

Little one care

In 2021, the federal authorities introduced a $30-billion, five-year child-care plan to create 250,000 new inexpensive areas throughout the nation. About 150,000 areas have been created or funded thus far. 

Within the 2021 price range, the federal government mentioned that of the $30 billion promised, $27.2 billion can be used to “deliver the federal authorities to a 50/50 share of child-care prices with provincial and territorial governments.”

In time, the entire provinces and territories signed on to the deal, which was funded till 2026.

This week, Trudeau introduced one other five-year settlement to increase this system till March 2031. 

Trudeau mentioned the $37-billion cope with 11 provinces and territories (Alberta and Saskatchewan have but to signal on) will assist the provinces create one other 100,000 areas by this time subsequent yr.

The bottom funding can be being elevated by three per cent, per yr, for 4 years beginning in 2027-28 with a purpose to ensure this system can maintain tempo with rising prices.

Trudeau mentioned the offers “will permit this to lock in, to develop into one thing that no authorities, a yr from now, 5 years from now, 20 years from now, might ever return on.”

Pharmacare

A yr in the past, Well being Minister Mark Holland launched the main points of the Liberal authorities’s pharmacare plan that he mentioned would begin out by masking the prices of some diabetes therapies. 

Delivering this system was a situation of the Liberal and NDP supply-and-confidence settlement. 

The Liberal authorities mentioned the plan additionally offers the 9 million Canadians of reproductive age higher entry to contraception to make sure “reproductive autonomy, lowering the danger of unintended pregnancies and enhancing their means to plan for the long run.”

The Pharmacare Act handed by means of Parliament and obtained royal assent in October. Though it began offering solely restricted protection, the plan is to finally increase it right into a complete nationwide pharmacare program. 

Whereas the enabling laws is in power, this system wants provinces to signal on.

Late final month, Holland introduced that Manitoba was the primary province to make a deal. The federal authorities will present the province with $219 million in funding over 4 years. 

On Thursday, B.C. grew to become the second province to signal on, inking a cope with the Liberal authorities price $670 million over 4 years.

That was swiftly adopted by Prince Edward Island, which signed a $30-million deal on Friday.

College meals program

Canada is the one G7 nation that doesn’t have a nationwide college meals program, in accordance with the Breakfast Membership of Canada. 

Final April, the Liberal authorities introduced it might spend $1 billion over 5 years to launch such a program that it mentioned would ship 400,000 meals for kids yearly. 

Final yr, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island signed offers with the federal authorities to take part in this system.  

New Brunswick, Nunavut and Nova Scotia signed their offers final month, and simply this week Quebec, B.C. and the Northwest Territories signed on as properly. 

Excessive-speed rail

Trudeau launched a six-year, $3.9-billion design and improvement plan final month that he mentioned would finally join Quebec Metropolis and Toronto through a high-speed rail line.

Trudeau mentioned the brand new rail community will run all-electric trains alongside 1,000 kilometres of monitor, reaching speeds of as much as 300 km/hour, with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières and Quebec Metropolis.

Transport Canada initially estimated that the price of such a undertaking might be as excessive as $80 billion.

A number of provincial and federal governments have mused about constructing high-speed rail, however Canada continues to be the one G7 nation with out some type of excessive velocity rail both in operation or underneath improvement. 

Requested why he was launching a multi-year infrastructure undertaking on the eve of his departure from workplace, Trudeau mentioned a undertaking that enormous would all the time must “cowl a number of governments … from municipal to provincial to federal.”

“Clearly, future governments will make their determinations about how they make investments. However this funding in Canadians, which begins proper now, goes to be very tough to show again on,” Trudeau mentioned.