Meeting at Meech: Cabinet talks about jobs

The federal cabinet's Priority and Planning Committee — the inner cabinet, if you will, and which is the only one of five cabinet committees that Prime Minister Harper chairs — met today at Wilson House at Meech Lake, Que., just north of Ottawa. Your correspondent was there to snap some pics and cover the event. Here's the pics (Click on any one pic to see a bigger version) NOTE: If you can't see the thumbnails, scroll down! I've got a formatting problem here that I'm trying to solve…:

Cannon
Cannon
Moore
Moore
LeBreton
LeBreton
Wouters
Wouters
Harper
Harper
Paradis
Paradis
Finley
Finley
Van Loan
Van Loan
Nicholson
Nicholson
Strahl
Strahl
Prentice
Prentice
Toews
Toews
Verner
Verner
Baird
Baird
Akin
Akin
Flaherty
Flaherty
Reporters
Reporters
Meech View
Meech View
Wilson House
Wilson House

These and other ministers gathered at Meech Lake for a two-day retreat to talk about next month's budget and Speech from the Throne. Industry Minister Tony Clement would later emerge from this meeting to travel to Ottawa for an update with reporters in the National Press Theatre. Clement laid out what had been going on back at Meech:

  • Finance Minister Jim Flaherty “provided us with an overview of his pre-budget consultations, an update on planning for the budget and the latest projections for economic growth,” Clement said.
  • Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, Trade Minister Peter Van Loan, and Clement “will discuss policies and proposals to lead Canada into the economy of tomorrow to ensure that we excel against foreign competitors, assure our place on the world stage and capture the jobs that come with that.”
  • Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and Environment Minister Jim Prentice “will build on that discussion by presenting an assessment of how we can continue to create jobs by adapting new clean technologies to green energy opportunities.”
  • Then it was back to Finley who was to “present fiscally responsible proposals to tackle unemployment and prepare Canadians for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Clement also said: “While there have been a number of positive economic indicators such as recent GDP growth, there is one statistic that is still too high: unemployment. The number of Canadians looking for work is still unacceptable. The economy, specifically creating jobs remains the top priority of the federal government.”

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