Stephen Harper News

Canada will provide aid to developing countries to combat climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday ahead of talks on global warming, which he has promised will show the country is serious about tackling the issue. Canada will give C$2.65 billion ($1.98 billion) over the next five years, the newly elected Trudeau announced during a trip to Malta, where he was meeting the heads of Commonwealth countries. The funding will help support the transition to low-carbon economies and will target the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The contribution is part of an agreement Canada made in 2009 to work with developed countries to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 from various sources.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino, in remarks that follow Chinese warnings against Philippine flights over the South China Sea, said on Friday it was important to uphold the right to fly in that area. "It is in our interest to uphold the freedom of navigation and overflight in South China Sea, a region that is of vital importance not only to Southeast Asia but also to the rest of the global community," Aquino, who was visiting Canada, said during a joint news conference with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A day earlier, a Philippine military commander said in Manila that China had warned Philippine air force and navy planes at least six times to leave areas around the disputed South China Sea.

Canada declined a U.S. invitation last week to jointly announce climate policy cooperation with Mexico, with Ottawa saying it has not yet finalized its own domestic strategy, sources from both countries familiar with the discussions said on Thursday. On March 24, three days before the United States and Mexico announced they would partner on a high-level bilateral clean energy and climate policy task force, U.S. officials approached Canadian counterparts asking them to join the effort, three sources said. One source said that while Canadian officials said they were supportive of North American harmonization of climate policy they were not yet prepared to join the continental partners.

Canada's military has again delayed the opening of a major new Arctic port, a sign the government is struggling to assert sovereignty over a remote resource-rich region. The planned deep water naval facility at Nanisivik - some 3,100 km (1,900 miles) north of Ottawa - is one of the key components of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "use it or lose it" approach to the Arctic. The port, initially due to open in 2012, will now not be operational until 2018. Nanisivik lies at the entrance to the Northwest Passage, which could become a shortcut for shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as global warming gradually opens up ice-clogged waterways. Canada claims sovereignty over the passage and the port at Nanisivik would help to maintain a presence in the region.

Canada’s Shea announces a $1.8 million contract for Tignish Harbor; contract awarded to Gaudette's Transit Mix Ltd. The Government of Canada has awarded a $1.8 million contract through a public tendering process to Gaudette’s Transit Mix Ltd. for a major harbor infrastructure project that will be carried out over two years at Tignish Harbor, Prince Edward Island, The Honorable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Regional Minister for PEI and MP for Egmont, announced. The work follows key recommendations resulting from a coastal study and structural assessments that examined various technical solutions to address safety and operational needs of harbor users at Tignish and Judes Point.

The Franklin Expedition ship discovered in early September by the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition is Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Erebus. Sir John Franklin, who was in command of the Franklin Expedition, sailed on HMS Erebus, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday. On May 19, 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror of the Royal Navy departed Greenhithe, England, on a much-heralded Arctic expedition in search of a Northwest Passage. Under the command of Sir John Franklin…

After more than 169 years, Canadian researchers discovered one of the two ships from the doomed Arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin, cracking one of the largest mysteries in sea exploration. The wreck was found some 11 meters below the surface using a ROV recently acquired by Parks Canada. It is unknown whether the ship is HMS Erebus or HMS Terror, though researches expect to determine its identity within several days. "Franklin's ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expedition…

After more than 160 years of searching to understand the fate of English explorer Sir John Franklin’s fabled arctic voyage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a Canadian team has located one of Franklin’s historic ships and solved one of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries, informs Parks Canada. Sir John Franklin led the two ships and 129 men in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition's disappearance shortly after became one of the great mysteries of the age of Victorian exploration. Expedition sonar images from the waters of Victoria Strait, just off King William Island, clearly show the wreckage of a ship on the ocean floor.

NATO is sending part of its naval rapid reaction force to the Baltic Sea as part of a drive to step up the defence of eastern European allies in response to the crisis in Ukraine, the military alliance said on Thursday. Separately, Canada said it had offered six CF-18 fighter planes as its contribution to NATO efforts to beef up its presence in eastern Europe and reassure nervous allies there that NATO would protect them in the event of any Russian aggression. The Pentagon said it would extend its own deployment of F-16 fighter jets to Poland through the end of the year, and encouraged other NATO allies to contribute to the detachment.

Canadian Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq stated that a principled stand had been taken by Ottawa against Moscow's intervention in events in Ukraine, reports Russian official news agency Arctic-Info. A statement from the Minister stated that Canada will not be attending working-group level meetings in Moscow this week, but will continue to support the important work of the Arctic Council. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had previously ordered the suspension of all bilateral contacts between the Canadian armed forces and the Russian military.

Opponents of Canada's Northern Gateway pipeline, bolstered by a coastal town's vote against the project, said on Monday they will now push harder for a provincial referendum they hope would kill Enbridge Inc's plan to move oil sands crude to Asian markets. Residents of Kitimat, located in British Columbia's remote northwest, voted against the proposed project on Saturday, with 58.4 percent of residents opposed in the non-binding poll. The small town is where the terminal facilities for the C$7.9 billion ($7.21 billion) pipeline would be built. The victory has fueled calls for a vote to determine if there is public support in the rest of the West Coast province of British Columbia, which would host more than half of the pipeline and all the marine transport facilities.

Canadian Minister of Industry, the Honorable James Moore, visited the KOTUG’s Headquarters and sailed on board of the hybrid Rotortug RT Adriaan, the so-called E-KOTUG, in the Port of Rotterdam. The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper and the Minister of Industry, James Moore of the Government of Canada combined the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague with a working trip to the Port of Rotterdam. The visit to Rotterdam was focused on highlighting the trade and business relations between Canada and Europe.

Reuters - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Wednesday it was "not acceptable" for striking truck drivers to block shipments at Canada's largest port in Vancouver and that Ottawa was concerned about the labor dispute. "It is not acceptable to have relatively small numbers of people blocking what is important trade for a range of British Columbian and Canadian businesses," Harper told a business audience in Vancouver when asked about the truck driver strike. Unionized container truck drivers set up picket lines at the Vancouver port on Monday, joining hundreds of nonunion workers who walked off the job last month in a dispute over pay and services.

A year after Irving Shipbuilding Inc.’s successful bid to build $25B worth of combat vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy and ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, the largest procurement contract ever awarded in Canada, a positive economic buzz continues to grow across the province and throughout the Atlantic region. It’s an optimism not generated by any other project in many years. The multi-billion dollar package provided through the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS)…

The cruise-ship industry, wants an emissions-averaging plan that would allow it to burn the same heavy fuel it always has used in some areas, and it's lobbying Congress for help, according to a report in the Merced Sun-Star. Cruise Lines International Association has proposed a complicated emissions-averaging plan that would allow ships to continue to burn high-sulfur fuel sometimes. The industry's lobby group in Washington has gotten Democratic and Republican lawmakers to press the Environmental Protection Agency to look favorably on the industry's averaging plan. The EPA is pushing back, saying the industry's plan would lead to an increase in emissions. For now, the EPA is unyielding, but pressure is building.

One of Canada’s most storied naval architecture firms, Robert Allan Ltd., and Canada’s leading arctic and offshore engineering firm, Ausenco Sandwell, formed a joint venture -— Canada’s Arctic SAGE Team -— to bid for the design of  the Canadian Coast Guard’s new flagship icebreaker. “Canada’s Arctic SAGE Team brings together the most experienced, skilled and talented team in the world on ice breaker technology,” says Robert Allan Ltd.’s Executive Chairman, Rob Allan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the new icebreaker project in August of 2008. The ship, to be named CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, will replace CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. It is expected to take eight to 10 years to design and build at a total cost of $720 million. To create Canada’s Arctic SAGE Team, Robert Allan Ltd.

According to a report from The Globe and Mail, Stephen Harper is poised to kick off the greatest round of government shipbuilding in Canada since the Second World War. Pegged at $35b, the sums involved easily dwarf the funds committed for the Conservatives' controversial plan to buy $9b worth of F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. The report said this will ultimately pit three regions of Canada against each other and force a difficult choice upon Harper. He'll have to decide which region to leave out in an election year: the East, the West or Quebec. (Source: The Globe and Mail)

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) hosted Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today, during his first official visit to the Republic of Panama. Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, Panamanian Vice President Juan Carlos Varela, ACP Board Chairman and Minister for Canal Affairs Romulo Roux, along with ACP Administrator/CEO Alberto Alemán Zubieta, greeted the Prime Minister and briefed him on the latest developments surrounding the waterway’s historic Expansion Program – which continues to progress on-time and on-budget, to-date.

The was joined by two of its rail partners in dedicating the Napoleon Intermodal Rail Yard, a new facility permitting efficient ship to rail transfer of cargo containers at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal. The rail yard provides a new link for NAFTA commerce. Its dedication was announced as U.S. President George Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon meet in for the annual North American Leadership Summit. CN, with a rail network spanning the U.S. Midwest and , is the first Class 1 railroad to serve the new rail yard via its switching agent, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. CN is currently hauling about 350 to 400 containers per week using the facility…

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a series of scientific and infrastructure projects to help bolster Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. At a scientific research and education facility in Churchill, Manitoba, Prime Minister Harper unveiled the final 26 projects selected by the Government of Canada as part of its $150m commitment to International Polar Year (IPY). Launched in March 2007, IPY is bringing together thousands of scientists and researchers from more than 60 nations to conduct scientific research focused on the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In total, 43 Canadian-projects are already underway. Topics to be studied include: how polar bears…

Proponents of a controversial liquefied natural gas plant in Maine say a study ordered by the Canadian government has found there is no reason to ban supertankers from the Bay of Fundy, as Ottawa has threatened to do if the U.S. approves the project. Downeast LNG said the environmental study found there were no immediate risks of having LNG supertankers go through the Bay of Fundy, part of which is split by the New Brunswick-Maine border, to the proposed plant. Dean Girdis, the Washing-ton-based president of Downeast LNG, said the long-awaited review, done by Ottawa-based Senes Consultants Ltd., found there was no immediate danger of having the 283-metre long ships go through a narrow passage in Canadian waters called Head Harbour if precautions were taken.

Sea traffic in the famed Northwest Passage will soon be monitored by underwater listening devices to be installed by Canada to bolster its disputed claim over the Arctic. Canada's military will start keeping tabs on trespassers -- ships and submarines -- in the region as early as mid-2008, said public broadcaster CBC. The detection technology is to be installed at Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island, near one of the main arteries of the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the CBC said, citing unnamed sources. Canada is at odds with Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States over 460,000 square miles of Arctic seabed. Each nation is claiming overlapping sections of the sea floor, believed to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.

The Canadian Press reported that federal politicians say Canada is considering regulations to ban liquefied natural gas supertankers from a sensitive waterway in the Bay of Fundy, risking renewed territorial tensions with the United States. Maxime Bernier, Canada's new minister of foreign affairs, assured a citizens' group on Sunday that Canada is opposed to the prospect of LNG supertankers navigating the treacherous waters that lead into Passamaquoddy Bay between Maine and New Brunswick. Passamaquoddy Bay lies between Maine and New Brunswick and any supertanker traffic would have to cross through Head Harbour Passage, a narrow waterway that Canada considers internal waters. While the U.S.