OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will accompany German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a brief visit to Canada later this month that will include stops in Montreal, Toronto and Stephenville in western Newfoundland, his office announced Saturday.
Details of the visit were outlined in a statement shared by the PMO, which said the August 21-23 visit begins in Montreal, where meetings with German and Canadian business leaders will take place. A tour at a local artificial intelligence institute is also scheduled.
Trudeau and his government have faced criticism for a decision earlier this year to grant a permit that exempts Siemens Canada from sanctions against Russia that allows it to return a turbine for use in a pipeline supplying natural gas to Germany.
The turbine was repaired at a Siemens facility in Montreal and the government defended the move as necessary to secure gas supplies for Europe.
The statement announcing Scholz’s tour notes that the two leaders’ visit to Montreal will promote shared priorities between Canada and Germany, “including our unwavering support for Ukraine, the protection of peace and security in Europe and around the world.” , and illegal and unjustifiable addressing the broader global impacts of Russia. invasion.”
The leaders will also continue to collaborate on ways the two countries can work together to safeguard energy security and accelerate the global transition to clean energy, including through secure access to key resources like clean hydrogen and critical minerals. read in the statement.
The two leaders will then head to Toronto, where Trudeau will participate in the virtual summit on Russia’s annexation of Crimea, followed by an appearance at the Canada-Germany Business Forum.
The trip will conclude with a stop in Stephenville, NL, where Trudeau and Scholz will attend a hydrogen trade show. The statement said the two countries also intend to “formally deepen” a shared goal of promoting a clean economy, but offered no other details.
“Germany and Canada are close friends on the world stage. We are bound by our shared commitments to democracy, peace and security, including our support for Ukraine, a clean and healthy future, and an economy that works for people,” Trudeau said in the statement.
The statement says the two men will also speak about the automotive sector and climate change.
The prime minister and chancellor last met in June at the G7 Summit in Germany.
While the government’s initial explanation for returning the turbine to Russian energy giant Gazprom was about gas supply, a recently released document prepared by Global Affairs Canada for Foreign Minister Melanie Joly suggests that jobs and inflation global were also considerations.
The government filed the “action memorandum” and the permit itself in Federal Court in response to a legal challenge to the turbine decision by the Ukrainian World Congress.
The memo noted that the specialized facility in Montreal that works on the turbine employs more than 400 “highly skilled” employees and is the only one in the world certified to perform maintenance on the equipment.
He also warned that not returning the turbine could ultimately weaken support for Western allies’ strong stance on Russia. He said that without the turbine, Russia could blame Western sanctions for limiting the Nord pipeline’s operating capacity, and that would likely further increase world energy prices and global inflation.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 13, 2022.