{"id":7937,"date":"2014-08-27T17:39:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T21:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7937"},"modified":"2014-09-10T13:51:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T17:51:23","slug":"ottawa-report-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ottawa-report-36\/","title":{"rendered":"OTTAWA REPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lois Brown, MP
\nNewmarket-Aurora<\/em><\/p>\n

Breaking-down barriers to interprovincial trade<\/strong>
\nTrade is vital to Canada\u2019s economy and to the well-being of all of us.
\nTo support economic growth and Canadian prosperity, our government has committed to an ambitious international trade strategy and we have been very successful. However, progress on domestic trade has not always kept pace. We are also working here at home to eliminate domestic regulation that leads to increased and unnecessary costs for our businesses which, in turn, limits growth and job creation.
\nOne Canada, One National Economy: Modernizing Internal Trade in Canada is a plan that lays out a broad proposal to remove barriers to internal trade and guiding principles for modernizing the current Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). Eliminating internal trade barriers would create jobs, boost economic growth and strengthen Canada\u2019s internal market by helping to move goods and services more freely across Canada. As Canada signs on to more international agreements we must ensure that Canadian companies have the same opportunities here at home. Visit www.ic.gc.ca\/internaltrade to learn more.<\/p>\n

Improving Food Safety<\/strong>
\nHealth Minister Rona Ambrose has announced new labelling requirements for mechanically tenderized beef (MTB).
\nThe new labels will emphasize the importance of cooking MTB to a minimum internal temperature of 63\u00b0C (145\u00b0F) and turning over mechanically tenderized steaks at least twice during cooking to kill harmful bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Mechanical tenderization of meat is a common practice used by the food industry to improve the tenderness and flavour of beef by using needles or blades to break down muscle fibres. This regulatory change applies to all industry sectors selling uncooked MTB to other industry members or consumers. This includes, but is not limited to, grocery retailers, butcher shops, meat processors, and importers of MTB.
\nAs part of its commitment to promoting food safety, Health Canada also released new industry guidelines to improve safe cooking and handling information on packaged raw ground meat and raw ground poultry products sold in Canada. To be used by retailers, processors and importers who choose to include food safety information on their products, the guidelines provide standards on what information and symbols to include on the label to boost consumer recognition and uptake, and how the label should be formatted and placed on ground meat packages so that it can be easily seen by consumers.
\nThese changes are another step in our government\u2019s commitment to make certain that consumers have the food safety information they need.<\/p>\n

Consultation on the Future of TV<\/strong>
\nThe Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has launched an online discussion forum for Canadians to have their final say on the future of the television system. The forum will be open until September 19 \u2013 the final day of the public hearing on Let\u2019s Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians. To help focus comments, the CRTC has also published a working document for discussion that outlines some of the issues to be considered during the public hearing.
\nThe CRTC is seeking to ensure that the television system fosters choice and flexibility in the selection of channels, encourages the creation of compelling and diverse programs and empowers Canadians to make informed choices and have recourse in the case of disputes with their television service providers. To participate, visit http:\/\/consultation.crtc.gc.ca\/en\/consultation\/19\/help-shape-future-tv-canada. <\/p>\n

Fitch Reaffirms Canada\u2019s Triple-A Rating<\/strong>
\nFitch Ratings has reaffirmed its triple-A rating of Canada, with a stable outlook. The Canadian economy has posted one of the strongest job creation records in the Group of Seven (G-7) over the recovery, with more than 1.1 million jobs created since July 2009. Real gross domestic product is significantly above pre-recession levels\u2014the best performance in the G-7. According to KPMG, Canada\u2019s total business tax costs are the lowest in the G-7 and 46% lower than those in the United States.
\nCanada has weathered the economic storm well and the world has noticed:
\nBoth the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development expect Canada to be among the strongest growing economies in the G-7 over this year and next;
\nFor the sixth year in a row, the World Economic Forum rated Canada\u2019s banking system as the world\u2019s soundest; and
\nIn 2013, Canada leapt from sixth to second place in Bloomberg\u2019s ranking of the most attractive destinations for business.
\nThree credit rating agencies\u2014Moody\u2019s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor\u2019s\u2014have reaffirmed their top ratings for Canada, reminding us that Canada is an island of stability in an uncertain global economy. <\/p>\n

If you would like to contact me on any issue, please call 905-953-7515 or visit my website at www.loisbrown.ca. I look forward to hearing from you.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lois Brown, MP Newmarket-Aurora Breaking-down barriers to interprovincial trade Trade is vital to Canada\u2019s economy and to the well-being of all of us. To support economic growth and Canadian prosperity, our government has committed to an ambitious international trade strategy and we have been very successful. However, progress on domestic trade has not always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-241","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 16:38:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}