Federal cabinet to hold retreat in Hamilton ahead of the parliament’s return

Starting Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet are set to spend the next three days in a post-holiday cabinet retreat at a Hamilton hotel.

The cabinet will reportedly plan out their political strategy at the retreat ahead of the parliament’s return, with PM Trudeau stating last week that the retreat is to “seize new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses.”

The retreat comes as Canada continues to face inflation for more than a year, with experts opining that Canadians will likely face a recession this year.

The state of financial pinch can, in part, be attributed to both the three years of unrest owing to the covid-19 pandemic as well as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war .

Braeden Caley, the executive director of the Canada 2020 think tank, asserted to media outlets that the PM has taken notice of the issue of affordability, stating, “A lot of the prime minister’s time in office has been defined by how he’s had to respond to a series of emerging crises, and Canadians are starting this year looking at several once again.”

Similar to the Hamilton retreat, affordability was also   a topic of discussion at the last federal cabinet retreat held in Vancouver, according to media outlets.

“I expect that they’ll be spending a fair amount of time in Hamilton next week doing a stock take of what they’ve been able to accomplish in a year and what they realistically expect to be able to accomplish during the remainder of the mandate,” stated Carlene Variyan, associate vice-president at Summa Strategies and a former senior staffer in several Liberal ministers’ offices, about the Hamiltion retreat.

“it’s always going to be policies that are very focused on workers and delivering direct support to families rather than trickle down measures,” she added.

“World events have changed a lot of dynamics, whether it’s trade or economic conditions, or obviously the war in Ukraine. So how have those priorities evolved or changed?” Variyan stated further.

PM Trudeau, who had been on a cross-country travel the past week, spent much of the week individually meeting most of his ministers.