Q & A

Operator:

Thank you. Merci. [no interpretation][voice of interpreter]

Reporter:

Thank you, good morning, Prime Minister. With respect to the demonstrations against racism, you say this is unacceptable. But what do you see as a potential solution to that challenge? now there was total havoc in Montreal, and things seemed to be degenerating here.

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Well, I can tell you that for some time now Canadians have realized we have a lot of work to do to counter racism and to make sure that all families feel respected in this country. This is not just something for somewhere else. It’s for here as well, and that’s why for five years now our government has been investing a lot of money in various ways to help organizations, black community organizations, so that we’ve invested in statistics Canada as well in order to collect more data and develop a truly Canadian strategy against racism. But we know there’s more to be done, and we will continue to domore, hand in hand, with the communities that are hard hit by discrimination and racism. We have an obligation to be the allies of those communities and all of those people, and all Canadians. Now with respect to the demonstrators, or rather with respect to the people who disrupted the demonstration and caused havoc, we condemn them. We need to protect the right of all Canadians to peacefully demonstrate in Canada, and it is absolutely essential that be the case in our country. [ end of interpretation ]we need to do better in Canada. We need to continue to know thateven though we have made stridesforward in the fight against racism and discrimination, racism still exists in Canada. Anti-black racism, systemic discrimination, unconscious bias are lived realities every day for millions of Canadians. We need to stand beside them. We need to be allies. We need to work in our daily lives to counter discrimination, racism and intolerance. As a government, we’ve made many investments over the past five years, whether it’s on community programs run by racialized communities, whether it’s on statistics Canada doing a better job at collecting dis aggregated data, whether it’s investments in anti-black racism strategies or anti-racism strategies in general, but there is always more to do, and ultimately we need to do it together as Canadians and be better allies. As for those who took advantage of these peaceful protests to dosignificant damage to communities and stores, as we saw in montreal, we have to condemn those actions strongly. They do not represent the peaceful protesters who were standing up for very real issues in Canada. We need to continue to make surethat peaceful protest is always able to happen in Canada. [voice of interpreter]

Follow-up?

Reporter:

With respect to the money for municipalities, this is not new money. It’s just an early payment under the fund. But they are asking for at least$10 billion in order to fund direct services to the population that they have to deliver now. Will they get the money or will they have to increase their property taxes in order to provide those services?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We are advancing money that would have been given to them in any case six months from now, but we recognize there is a need now for them to have that money. and the fact is we need to do more and we will do more, but in order to do more, we have to work with the provinces because the municipalities fall within their jurisdiction. We will be there to invest, but it has to be done while respecting their jurisdiction and working with the provinces across the country. [ end of interpretation ]we know that this is just a – an initial measure that brings forward money that the cities were going to get six months from now anyway, but there is a need right now for liquidity, for support as they deal with this COVID-19 crisis. But yes, we need to do more and we will do more. But doing more needs to happen hand in hand with the provinces who have jurisdiction over the municipalities, but I can assureyou in My conversations with thepremiers and in our conversations going forward the federal government will be thereto work with the provinces to support the towns and cities that we all live in.

Operator:

Thank you, Merci. next question, Janice Dixon, “the globe and mail”. line open.

Reporter:

Hi, Prime Minister. I’m wondering when will your government mandate the collection of race-based data inconnection to COVID-19 specifically, and more broadly across canadian society.

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We invested millions of dollars over the past years so that statistics Canada can do a better job of collecting dis aggregated data. It is extremely important to be able to see the clearer details on who is most vulnerable, who is being affected by various things in society. So that’s something that we know, and it’s been – it’s traditionally been something difficult to do, so we are moving forward on that. In regards to COVID-19 data, we have been working with the provinces from the beginning to try and get better granularity, better details around the data, whether it’s as simple as age and gender or much more complex data, we need to pull that together and a data strategy has been part of what we have been talking on with the provinces because we need to be able to compare what’s happening in one province to what’s happening next and making sure that we’re all collecting data the same way and in as much detail as possible. It’s going to be an important part of the path forward. [voice of interpreter]for a number of years now we have been investing in data collection by statistics Canada in order to better determine thedifferences and in order to better respond to the challengesthe number of communities are facing. Now with respect to COVID-19, for a number of weeks we’ve alsobeen working with the provinces so that we can develop a data collection strategy so that we can better compare data from various regions of the country with Canadians starting to travel. That will be important. But also more data on the communities that are more affected by COVID-19. [ end of interpretation ]

Reporter:

Yes, and on the g7 meeting, Donald trump has said it will be postponed to the fall. Are you planning on attending? and do you support the United States proposal to expand the group to include Russia?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We have – you know, we’ve always been working with the United States to coordinate when we can hold this important g7 meeting. It’s really important to keep holding these meetings and making sure that we are coordinating internationally in this time of crisis. Russia was excluded from the g7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the g7and will continue to remain out. [voice of interpreter]it’s important to have opportunities to get together ascountries and as world leaders to talk about the health care crisis and the economic crisis and to work together, and we will continue to work with the americans on the details of the g7 meeting, but russia was excluded from the g7 because of its invasion of ukraine, and russia continues to completely flaunt international standards and norms, so it would not be acceptable for russia to get back into the g7. [no interpretation][voice of interpreter]

Reporter:

Good morning, Prime Minister, with respect to the letters to the municipalities, you have said that you are giving them $2.2 billion, but the federation of Canadian municipalities has asked for $10billion, so do you think that they will see that as being adequate?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Well, we respect provincial jurisdiction as set out in our constitution. We are working with the provinces to figure out the best way of helping municipalities, but even though it doesn’t fall within our jurisdiction, we have money to help the municipalities. We are now giving them that liquidity, and it won’t be enough. There will be more needed, and we are waiting to hear from the municipalities, and we will be working with the provinces and hope that the provinces will be good partners with the municipalities and the federal government.

Reporter:

Now what about the requests being made by the provinces? you say that this is just a first step. What form could the next types of support take? what are you looking at specifically?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Well, we will be talking to the provinces about the best way to help the municipalities. We know very well that there area number of municipalities that are having major problems with transit. They need to add more buses and more cars because people have to keep a proper distance from others, and this is because of COVID-19, of course. They are in a cash crunch right now, and that’s why we’re looking at this with the provinces and we will all be working together on this. [ end of interpretation ]

One more question on the phone. Operator?

Operator:

Thank you. Next question, the Canadian press. Line open.

Reporter:

Good morning, Prime Minister. You have already touched on this, but a month ago municipalities’ transit revenue shad dropped drastically, draining their coffers. Basic services such as policing and garbage collection are at risk. Why is this taking so long to remedy?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We have been a great partner to municipalities, as best as we could, over the past years in various situations, in various crises, including through the gas tax transfer. We know how important our cities and towns are to the success of Canadians, the success of our country’s economy. That’s why we are working with the provinces on figuring out ways that municipalities can be helped. We respect the constitution that says that it is to provinces to manage and fund municipalities, but at the same time we’ve looked for ways where we can make direct contributions to themunicipalities, including through the gas tax transfer. That is something that we’ve moved forward today so we can give more money more quickly to the cities, but we need to do more, and on that, we will continue to work with the provinces and encourage the provinces to step up in helping cities.

Follow-up, jim?

Reporter:

In Canada, the legacy of racism against indigenous peoples weighs heavily, as you know. and now the pandemic has delayed federal responses to important recommendations in that area. is there a danger that some of these federal responses will simply slip away given other pressures and priorities now?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

No relationship is more important to My government than the one with indigenous peoples. We have taken significant steps towards reconciliation over these past five years, but there is much more to do. We are working in partnership with indigenous leadership, with indigenous communities, with indigenous peoples across this country. Right now in this challenge around COVID-19 many of our partner organizations are very much focused on supporting their communities. We continue to work on the strategy to fight gender-based violence and respond to the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry, but thework is affected because of COVID-19, but it remains a priority not just for us but forall Canadians that we will continue to work on.

Reporter:

Good morning, sir, “national post”. you’ve acknowledged this morning that the money you’re giving to municipalities is effectively anadvance. It falls well short of their needs. We’re seeing cities cut transit service. We’re seeing them lay people off. I’m wondering if you’re concerned that going forward we’re going to have less services in cities, especially for low-income people who need it to get to work at grocery stores and long-term care centres.

Prime Minister Trudeau:

I’m very concerned about the funding level for cities, about the services that cities offer to people, to Canadians, essential services, whether it’s obviously police and fire, but also, you know, front-line community workers, daycare workers, community centre assistants, health workers. There’s a range of services offered by cities that are at danger of disappearing. That’s why we are doing what we can unilaterally in advancing the money forward, but we need to work with the provinces on this. Cities are the responsibility ofthe provinces. The federal government will be there to work with the provinces, to support, to help flow money, but the provinces need to step up as well, and that’s what we’re discussing right now. [voice of interpreter]we know that there’s a major concern in terms of services forcanadians provided by municipalities and towns, and we’re not just talking about fire services or police, but community services, child care services, a presence on the ground, and often it’s the townsand cities that are threatened without enough money. So we will do everything we can to ensure that we flow that money to them. We have advanced the payment now, but we have an obligation to work respectfully with the provinces, and we will do that. But we need the provinces to be there with us as well to help the municipalities. [ end of interpretation ]

Reporter:

– several times this morning, and the province did provincial premiers on your call last Thursday object to thenotion of you giving money directly to cities?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We have always respected the constitution in this country. I think premiers and the federal government have always understood we can work together on lots of areas that cross jurisdictions, and we will always do that in a respectful way, working in partnership for the Canadians who regardless of the order of government we all collectively serve. [voice of interpreter]

Reporter:

Radio-Canada. You have talked about the work carried out by the provinces. Can you tell us where the blockage is? is it the provinces that are dragging their feet, and can yoube yore specific? do they not want you to be imposing conditions on them? but they’ve made that request a long time ago, over a month and a half ago.

Prime Minister Trudeau:

We’recontinuing to work with the provinces on this. There are a number of provinces that are dealing with various challenges associated with COVID-19, and there are different perspectives on the federal government intervening in their area of jurisdiction, but we are respectful of their responsibilities, and we understand that the federal government has a bit more fiscal latitude than the provinces, and thus we think it’s important that we be there to provide support so that our economy can reopen safely in the cities and towns of this country.

Reporter:

Now with respect to the tensions in the United States, we’re seeing that president trump’s comments have not eased people’s anxiety. Quite the opposite since this began. Are you concerned that this will simply exacerbate the situation? and how should a world leader intervene or respond in a situation such as that?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Well, I can’t speak for other countries, but in Canada we must come together, and whether we’retalking about federal or municipal or provincial leaders, we have to be there to listen and understand that even though we have made progress in recent years, in recent decades, there’s still a lot that needs to be done. and we must be the allies of minority communities, so we will be there for them. That’s My responsibility as the Prime Minister of the country, to ensure that we all can work together. [ end of interpretation ]

Reporter:

Tom Perry with CBC. You’re talking to black Canadians today. You have apologized for this many times, but you did wear black face as a younger man. Do you think that in any way diminishes your ability to provide moral leadership on this issue or do you think we’re still carrying that baggage?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

I think we all have a role to play. We’ve all seen things in our lives or done things in our lives that we need to learn from and do significantly better from. I have spoken many times about how deeply I regret My actions that hurt many, many people. But at the same time, we need to focus on doing better every single day, regardless of what we did or hadn’t done in our past. We need to work together throughthis. We need to keep standing up for each other. We need to be there to say that every day we can do better as a country, as a world, and I will be part of that. I will continue to be an ally to minority communities, to racialized communities across this country and around the world. [voice of interpreter]we have a duty to all try and make a positive contribution to the world, and I regret the choices I made a long time ago, and I have expressed deep concern about that and apologized for it. But the fact is that every single day we have to act to ensure that things get better. That’s what I’m doing. That’s what our government is doing, and that’s what all Canadians want to do to create abetter world for their children and grandchildren. [ end of interpretation ]

Reporter:

Just so I’m clear, if Vladimir Putin is invited to this meeting, will you take part?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

There are still many discussions to be had on what, where, how this meeting is going to go on. We look forward to opportunities to gather together with various world leaders. You know, the g20 is a forum in which we regularly have exchanges across various countries that we don’t necessarily have great relationswith, but the g7 has always been place for frank conversations amongst allies and friends who share so much, and that’s certainly what I’m hoping to continue to see.

Reporter:

Brian Mullen, global news. Prime Minister, a follow-up on collecting national data about how COVID-19 is impacting peoplealong socio-demographic lines. Do you have an idea when this national data might be available, and explain how significant social determinants like race are on a person’s vulnerability during this outbreak.

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Well, to use a very clear example, on the closing in on 100, 000 cases of COVID-19 we’ve had in this country to date, we don’t even have age data for a large portion of that. Certainly in the early days collection of data was done in Avery disparate way across the country, and collating all that data while people were trying to ramp up to this crisis was extremely difficult. We need to do much better than that, and that’s why we’re working together with the provinces to establish a strategy on data collecting that will look at dis aggregated data, will do a better way of bringing together data that can be compared and collated across jurisdictions so that we have a better picture of what’s going on. These are things we need to know, because we do know that COVID-19 doesn’t hit everyone the same way. Obviously age ranges are real, but racialized communities are living this very differently than others. People who are already vulnerable for different reason scan become more vulnerable to COVID-19. That’s why having accurate pictures of how people are being affected by this and therefore how we can and should help them is going to be really important for going forward. [voice of interpreter]from the very beginning public health agencies have been working very hard to try and respond to this crisis, and initially it was very difficult to get comprehensive data because people were working veryquickly to address the immediatesituation. For example, there are tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases in thiscountry, and yet we are not aware of the ages of the people in many cases. and that is a data element that is very simple to collect. Now for more complex data elements, we need to coordinate our efforts as levels of government so that we can establish proper comparisons andsee who is more affected. Minority communities that are already vulnerable are more affected by COVID-19. We know that anecdotally. But we need to have concrete data in order to better understand and provide better support. [ end of interpretation ]CTV national news. Prime Minister, today you’ve talked about the potential of more financial help or other assistance for municipalities, in addition to today’s announcement. But I’m wondering why not just bring forward some of those suggestions now. There are many mayors that are very pre-occupied with the future of their fiscal situation, they are considering cutting essential services. Why not deliver them some certainty today with these otherannouncements you’re teasing forlater in the week or next week?

Prime Minister Trudeau:

Because further announcements will require a cooperation/partnership with theprovinces who have jurisdiction over municipal funding. We need to work with the provinces on this, which is something we are doing and have been doing for a number of days now. Merci.beaucoup.