Trudeau puts cash behind Indo-Pacific pledges during visit to Southeast Asia summit
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a slew of funding announcements in Cambodia on Saturday aimed at deepening economic and academic ties with Southeast Asia, after decades of sporadic engagement with the region.
"This is a generational shift," Trudeau told leaders gathered in Phnom Penh for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"I am announcing concrete investments that are part of our commitment to this relationship," he said, before listing $333 million in new funding.
He was speaking at an event commemorating Canada's 45 years of relations with ASEAN, which comes as the group negotiates a free-trade agreement with Canada.
The bloc of 10 countries includes some of the world's fastest-growing economies, and the Liberals say they want to shift trade away from China over concerns that span human rights to intellectual property.
"There are no surprises; the cards are on the table and our goal is to be present in the region," Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in French.
Trudeau unveiled funding for closer ties in Southeast Asia, spread over the course of five years.
The largest chunk, $133 million, will involve feminist-focused development aid in ASEAN countries, a quarter of which will be earmarked for Canadian civil-society groups.
Ottawa will also spend $84.3 million for a new Shared Ocean Fund aimed at cracking down on illicit fishing in the region, and $40 million for an engagement fund that will help public servants as well as civil society do research on the Indo-Pacific region.
The Liberals are allocating $24 million for a private-sector centre to inform businesses of opportunities in Asia, and the same amount for the Asia-Pacific Foundation to operate an office on the continent. There is also funding to run educational exchanges and to help ASEAN counties partake in trade-deal negotiations with Canada.
Meanwhile, Trudeau's office said ASEAN granted Canada status as a comprehensive strategic partnership, which is the highest tier of recognition for non-member countries. The U.S. and India were also granted this status Saturday, placing them alongside previously recognized partners Australia and China.
ASEAN as a bloc already makes up Canada's sixth largest trading partner.
The majority of the population in ASEAN member countries is under 30, a demographic shift that's shaping economic opportunities in the region. A rising middle class is boosting countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, while the prospect of cheap labour has companies relocating jobs from China to places like Vietnam and the Philippines.
As for Cambodia, Canada is one of its top trading partners, with bilateral trade amounting to $1.82 billion last year. Some 98 per cent of that involved goods Cambodia sold to Canada, such as garments and footwear, in exchange for just $38.5 million in Canadian goods like vehicle parts and artificial fur.
Trade between the two countries has ballooned despite a limited diplomatic presence. In 2009, the government of then prime minister Stephen Harper closed Canada's embassy in Phnom Penh, downgrading it to a consular office. At the time, Ottawa cited a "serious examination of Canada's current diplomatic representation abroad," but many chalked the move up to budget cuts.
Trudeau met Saturday with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen but made no mention of re-opening an embassy, and Joly was vague on the idea.
"Our goal is to be more present in the region," she said in English, noting the Liberals have opened embassies in Africa after their Conservative predecessors had closed them.
Wayne Farmer, head of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, said Ottawa is falling behind the U.S., Australia, Britain and France in establishing strong trade ties with the region.
"It is the farthest part of the world from Canada; it's farther than Africa, it's farther than North Asia and farther than Europe. It's not that surprising that we would be latecomers," said Farmer.
"But in the world of today with communication and transportation as they are, that's also not as much of an excuse."
Farmer said Canada used to have a large presence in ASEAN countries decades ago, in the post-colonial period of the 1960s, as a major aid partner.
Canada is still renowned in the region for taking a leading role in a global effort in the 1990s to clean up landmines.
And yet, Canada pulled back from the region just as some of the countries had crossed the threshold into being considered developed and started to become economic heavyweights.
"We did have a reputation as the end of being in-and-out of the markets, as fairweather friends, and doing some strange things," said Farmer, who is based in Singapore.
"It would have been the natural transition to go from assistance with development to then developing business."
Still, Canada's private sector has a growing presence in the area, with Canadian pension funds investing across the region. Insurance companies like Manulife and Sun Life are household names in ASEAN countries like the Philippines. One of Cambodia's largest banks, ABA, is owned by Montreal-based National Bank.
Farmer argues Ottawa has made it harder to build on these ties. Canada requires a visa for business travellers from each ASEAN country, and upheld some of the strictest COVID-19 travel rules.
Immigration processing backlogs have delayed student visas, including for some who were halfway through their degree in Canada, and Farmer says Ottawa risks losing students to places like Australia.
Jeffrey Reeves, research director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said the West also hurt its reputation by doing little to allow developing countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines, such as through waving patents.
"China provided most of Asia with vaccines while the global West hoarded supplies and prevented technology transfers in overseas production," he noted at a Nov. 1 panel.
"Those sort of things don't honestly go unnoticed and they are not easily forgotten."
Reeves added that Canada's constant rhetoric about a rules-based international order does not resonate in Southeast Asia, where polling suggests many have a favourable view of China and Russia.
"Not only are these priorities out of tune with one another, but they can actually be oppositional," he said, arguing Canada is wanted for its commodities but not for "unwanted interference" in geopolitics.
Stephanie Martel, a Queen's University international-relations professor and leading expert on ASEAN, says Canada could instead play a role in building consensus on various issues.
She said Canada can build relationships with Southeast Asian countries by focusing on their individual trajectories, instead of painting them as under the thumb of China or the United States.
Martel says that comes down to "recognizing and respecting the fact that a lot of these countries do not fit neatly in these democratic versus authoritarian categories."
In Cambodia, for example, Sen has reigned since 1985, and Human Rights Watch accuses his party of persecuting its political opposition.
The country is beset by corruption, limits on press freedom and human trafficking. China is helping upgrade Cambodia's main naval base, which the U.S. sees as a threat to regional stability.
The ASEAN bloc is also dealing with an alarming human-rights situation in Myanmar, one of its 10 member states, where chaos has reigned since a February 2021 coup d'etat by that country's military.
The bloc has isolated Myanmar's leadership, but failed to reach consensus Friday on how to implement a peace plan developed months ago.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2022.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
Expert warns of food consumption habits amid rising prices
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
Ex-tabloid publisher testifies he scooped up possibly damaging tales to shield his old friend Trump
As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye.
Here's why provinces aren't following Saskatchewan's lead on the carbon tax home heating fight
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye make it four NFL drafts with quarterbacks going 1-3
Caleb Williams is heading to the Windy City, aiming to become the franchise quarterback Chicago has sought for decades.
Local Spotlight
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Fergus, Ont. man feels nickel-and-dimed for $0.05 property tax bill
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
Twins from Toronto were Canada's top two female finishers at this year's Boston Marathon
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
Mystery surrounds giant custom Canucks jerseys worn by Lions Gate Bridge statues
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
'I'm committed': Oilers fan won't cut hair until Stanley Cup comes to Edmonton
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
'It's not my father's body!' Wrong man sent home after death on family vacation in Cuba
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
'Once is too many times': Education assistants facing rising violence in classrooms
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
What is capital gains tax? How is it going to affect the economy and the younger generations?
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
UBC football star turning heads in lead up to NFL draft
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.