Canada, U.S. still talking despite Trump ending trade negotiations: envoy
Global News
Kirsten Hillman, who also serves as Canada's top negotiator with the U.S., said her people have spoken with officials in the White House and other departments since last week.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States said her team in Washington has continued to communicate with American officials since U.S. President Donald Trump said he was terminating trade talks.
“I have had exchanges here with a number of my contacts in the administration. My team has also been having contacts,” said Kirsten Hillman, who appeared by video in front of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa Wednesday.
Hillman, who also serves as Canada’s top negotiator with the U.S., said over the past five days her people have been in touch with officials in the White House, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The conversations are not expressly on the trade negotiations, she added, because people have been advised by their leader that’s “on pause right now.”
Trump said he was calling off trade negotiations with Canada last week over an ad paid for by the Ontario government that used clips of former president Ronald Reagan saying tariffs damage economies. Trump also threatened to add an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian goods — although it remains unclear if or how those duties would go ahead.
The president and Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared cordial as they sat down to dinner together in South Korea on Wednesday after Trump had said he wasn’t looking to meet with the Canadian leader as they both attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit this week.
Hillman said Trump and Carney had exchanges while in Asia, demonstrating that communication channels were still open at the highest level.
Trump heaped praise on Carney during a visit to the White House earlier this month and said the prime minister would leave the meeting happy. While a deal never materialized, Hillman said trade negotiations became more productive.
Conservation officers in B.C. say they've captured four more grizzly bears that are being tested to determine if they were involved in an attack on a school group last month.
Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was "incredible," the largest he'd ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.
Canadians could face grocery bills up to $1,000 higher in 2026 as food prices rise 4-6 per cent, with restaurants and meat seeing the biggest jumps.
Despite a growing homelessness problem in the South Okanagan city, council voted 4-2 against the project and the millions of provincial dollars that would come along with it.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a House of Commons committee the updated strategy will come next year, after saying in the fall it would come this year.
Reports emerged this week of U.S. government procurement plans to order 20 Senator vehicles for its ICE officers, a move worth roughly $10 million.
The 16-year-old was arrested in April after police said a credible threat was made against students at Citadel High School.
A committee meeting also heard an extra $194 million is needed to pay for carbon price fuel charges that the provincial government didn't collect.
The premier of Nova Scotia is calling for an investigation into how a major power utility has handled a cyberattack.
Toronto's fire chief says work on extinguishing a fire at two highrise buildings will continue 'into next week,' meaning those evacuated won't be returning home yet.
The outbreak of salmonella linked to pistachio and pistachio-containing products continues with more than 150 confirmed illnesses now reported.
The 50-unit tiny home community would have been built on a city-owned parcel of land near Dartmouth Road and Dartmouth Drive and funded by the provincial government.
The steel giant announced Monday it would lay off roughly 1,000 workers as a Sault Ste. Marie plant closure is being made to adapt to a “fundamentally altered” landscape.