Canada becomes Donald Trump's latest trade target

The chair of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations is telling the Trump administration to get going on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau says the uncertainty caused by Donald Trump's anti-NAFTA rhetoric is hurting business on both sides of the border

"I hope we will get this under way fairly quickly because in the United States and in Canada those who are interested in trading and investing are living with a certain amount of uncertainty," Garneau told CBC Radio's The House.

• Dairy protected 'for good reason,' Trudeau says; Trump calls Canada a 'disgrace'
• Wynne declares win after N.Y. drops Buy American policy, turns to NAFTA

"The sooner we can discuss the specifics, the better."

Garneaumade the comments following Donald Trump's switch to an aggressive tone towards Canada when it comes to trade.

Two days after openly criticizing Canada's dairy industry during a speech in Wisconsin, Trump took doubled down, and added more sectors to his list.

"I wasn't going to do this," Trump said. "I was in Wisconsin the other day, and I want to end and add by saying that Canada what they've done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. It's a disgrace."

"We can't let Canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers. And again I want to also just mention: included in there is lumber, timber and energy," he went on to say.

Garneautold The House he has no idea what the president meant by those remarks.

"We need to wait for the details on this,"

He added that it's up to the U.S. to come up with demands first.

"It is the United States that is proposing to renegotiateNAFTA, it wasn't us," he said.

"We'll be ready."

If a province does billions of dollars worth of trade with U.S. states every year, what's the formulatocombat a U.S. president sharpening his attackson the North American Free Trade Agreement?

For Quebec, it's teamwork.

"When we go to the different states and we are Ontario and Quebec together, we're stronger," Quebec's Economy MinisterDominique Anglade told The House.

She recently teamed up with her neighbours in Ontario to lobbyNew York lawmakers and businesses to opposeplans by the state to impose "Buy American" provisions on large public contracts. Governor Andrew Cuomo eventually dropped the proposal from hisstate's budget earlier this month.

The state is one of Quebec's largest trading partners.According to provincial figures, commercial exchange between Quebec and New York reached $8 billion in 2014.

And the two provinces are ready to team up again if needed. Anglade said the subnational strategy is essential going forward under an unpredictable U.S. president.

"They are fundamental to our economy," she said.

On Tuesday, Trump used a speech in Wisconsin to attack the unfairness of recent pricing changes for dairy ingredients in Canada that make American imports less competitive.

"Canada ... what they've done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. It's a disgrace," he said.

"Rules, regulations, different things have changed, and our farmers in Wisconsin and New York state are being put out of business."

As the week wore on he didn't stop, adding "what's happening along our northern border states with Canada, having to do with lumber and timber."

"I'm not totally surprised to tell you the truth," Anglade said of Trump's sharpened words on the supply management system, adding the problems U.S. farmers face isn't Canada's fault.

"We have a system, they have their system and I don't think you can say that our system is responsible for what's going on," she said. "Over supply in the United States has nothing to do with Canada."

"At the end of the day I was always telling the team we need to be prepared because we don't know what will come out of this. And we need to be extremely well organized. We've been preparing ourselves for months now."

Pot legislation questions still hanging in the air

Health Minister Jane Philpott isn't using her spot in cabinet as a bully pulpit to tell the provinces where they should sell legalized marijuana in 2018, but suggests not selling the drug where alcohol is sold might be the way to go.

• Highlights from the federal marijuana task force report

Last week, the Liberal government tabled legislation to end the prohibition on pot, checking off a majorpromise from the 2015 campaign.

"Where I would point people is to have a look at the work of the task force," she told host Chris Hall, referring to the government appointed panel tasked with studying how marijuana could be legalized and regulated in Canada. It offered over 80 recommendations in its December 2016 report.

"In their view, on the biases of studying, that they did not feel that the sale of a cannabis product should be co-located with the sale of alcohol and they gave their reasoning behind that."

"Obviously the provinces and territories will take those views into consideration as they make decisions."

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has said it "makes a lot of sense" to use the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) to sell marijuana after the federal government legalizes sale of the drug.

Jordan ruling:the defencemakes its case

AprominentOttawa-baseddefence lawyer says Crown prosecutor offices across Canadaneedto do away with zero tolerance policies to help unclog Canada's justice system in light of a controversial Supreme Court ruling last summeraimed at limiting trial delays.

"There's zero tolerance on domestic assaults, there are zero toleranceon sexual assaults, there's zero tolerance on impaired. These are the kinds of cases taking up vast majority of court resources," Lawrence Greenspon, a past president of theDefenceCounselAssociationofOttawa, told The House.

"Maybe they shouldn't be laying charges in the first place. The police officers on the street and at the police station have very little in the way of discretion, if any, when it comes to a domestic assault. They're called in, they arrive on the scene, their instructions are charge the man, take him away. When it comes to impaired driving, it's the same thing. The whole notion of working out some kind of a deal, you refereed to it as a plea, that's gone and it's been gone for 20 years."

The federal government ismeeting Canada's justice ministers next week to discuss how to deal with fallout caused by last year's Supreme Court ruling aimed at limitingtrial delays.

• IN DEPTH - Criminal courts scramble to meet Supreme Court's new trial timelines

• Ottawa calls meeting of justice ministers to deal with Jordan ruling fallout

• Justice minister says upcoming court delay meeting 'not about appointing blame'

"It's nice that the feds and the provinces are doing the typical Canadian jurisdictional dance but in the meantime Rome is burning. It's burning not because a lack of resources, although certainly more judges, more Crowns, more court staff would be helpful, but there really needs to be a change in the approach to prosecution of criminal cases of Canada."

Greenspon said money would be well spent funding programs that keeplesser charges from trying up the court system.

"Instead of having to do bake sales to fund collaborative justice programs across the country what about getting some proper funding for those?" he said.

Wilson-Raybouldsaid she's hoping the provinces and territories can learn from each other when they sit down at the end of next week.

"This isn't about appointing blame in my view. This is about us as attorneysgeneralworking collaboratively to ensure we do everything we can to change the culture in our courts," federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-RaybouldtoldThe House last week.

"Administration of justice is a shared responsibility. Ninety-nine per cent of the criminal cases are before provincial judges."

In House panel: How to deal with Trump's new trade rhetoric?

Trump has been accused of playing to the hometown crowd when he told a Wisconsin audience he has Canada'sdairy industry in his cross hairs, but how worriedshould the Canadian government be heading into NAFTA renegotiations?

"I think president Trump met with some farmers from Wisconsinand they bent his ear and he doesn't have the largest attention span, from what we've seen," said Globe and Mail reporter Laura Stone.

That being said, Stone said the U.S. president will likely play hardball in trade talks.

• ANALYSIS - Can Trudeau talk Trump out of trade fight? Maybe he won't have to

"It looks like a scatter gun approach from the president. He feels like NAFTAis coming up, he's had some domestic loses, he meets with some farmers, he wants to sound tough so he throws out a bunch of lines about softwood lumber," said Macleans's Ottawa bureau chief John Geddes.

"I think the Trudeaugovernment is feeling confident because they've done their groundwork," added Stone.