Federal cabinet ministers including Navdeep Bains and Jody Wilson-Raybould will be taking part in meetings today, Aug. 22, at Nanaimo’s Vancouver Island Conference Centre. NICHOLAS PESCOD/The News Bulletin

Federal cabinet ministers including Navdeep Bains and Jody Wilson-Raybould will be taking part in meetings today, Aug. 22, at Nanaimo’s Vancouver Island Conference Centre. NICHOLAS PESCOD/The News Bulletin

Meetings, protests planned at government’s cabinet retreat in Nanaimo

Prime minister and cabinet ministers will be at conference centre all day

  • Aug. 22, 2018 12:00 a.m.

A cabinet retreat in Nanaimo continues with a full day of meetings today, Aug. 22.

Federal Liberal government ministers filtered into the Harbour City on Monday and Tuesday and today they will sit down to business together at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre.

Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan held a meeting there.

To read more, click here.

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Also yesterday, ministers took care of other business in the region.

Jane Philpott, minister of indigenous services, announced in Nanaimo on Tuesday, Aug. 21 that the federal government will be providing $4.2 million in funding to support the Huu-ay-aht First Nations Social Services Project.

To read that article, click here.

On Monday, Seniors Minister Filomena Tassi toured Vancouver Island, stopping at Cowichan Community Policing, Central Saanich Senior Citizens Association, Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary, Victoria West Lawn Bowling Club, and Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society Welcome Gardens. The idea was to see what has been done with grant money from her ministry that has been given to a variety of organizations on the Island.

To read that article, click here.

Also Monday, Navdeep Bains, federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, was at the conference centre in Nanaimo to talk to tech company representatives about ways Canada can be a leader in a digital and data-driven economy.

For more, click here.

Today’s meetings at the conference centre will take place as protests happen outside. There will be a pipeline protest rally at 11:30 a.m. which, according to a press release, will be hosted by the Wilderness Committee, Coast Protectors, Sierra Club B.C. and Rise and Resist.

“Indigenous leaders, environmental activists and citizens will hold a loud demonstration outside today’s federal cabinet meeting in Nanaimo to highlight opposition to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s intended buyout of the Trans Mountain pipeline project,” notes the release.

Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Sheila Malcolmson is listed as a guest speaker at the rally.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, meanwhile, will hold a rally and march starting at noon, according to a press release, starting at Dallas Square.

For coverage of the cabinet meetings and the protests, follow @npescod on Twitter.


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