In the news: Carney and cabinet meeting in Quebec City, China looking for fast action

By Canadian Press on January 22, 2026.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed …

Carney cabinet meeting in Quebec City today

Prime Minister Mark Carney is gathering his cabinet in Quebec City today for two days of meetings focused on the economy, affordability and security.

The cabinet retreat begins the day after Carney’s return from a nine-day overseas trip to drum up new investment for Canada. It also comes just ahead of the return of Parliament on Monday.

Experts say the retreat is an opportunity for the government to discuss internal issues — like interprovincial trade and major projects — though much like at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, U.S. President Donald Trump, tariffs and Greenland will likely dominate much of the discussion.

“What they should be focused on is what’s the game plan for getting Canadians ready for what’s going to be a very rough year, with the prospect of more tariffs, more pain and (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) negotiations that are clearly going to be taking place under the barrel of a tariff gun,” said Fen Osler Hampson, an international affairs professor at Carleton University.

Chinese ambassador urges fast action on new deals

China’s ambassador to Canada is urging the government to move fast and make progress on areas of collaboration both countries agreed to during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing last week.

“As long as both China and Canada have adequate sincerity, both sides will be able to translate the important outcomes into reality,” Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di told The Canadian Press, in his first interview since Carney’s Beijing visit.

“The most important task for both sides is to respond as soon as possible to the expectation of the two peoples and to move along the direction that has been pointed out by the leaders of our two countries.”

During that visit, President Xi Jinping and Carney agreed to resolve a tariff dispute that had Beijing put levies on agricultural goods from Canada in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on electrical vehicles from China.

Alberta pipeline deal makes no mention of water

Some First Nations chiefs are demanding answers from Ottawa after the federal government signed a pipeline agreement with Alberta that failed to make any mention of fresh water.

The memorandum of understanding — which opens a door to building a pipeline to transport bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast — does not touch on the high level of water consumption required to pull bitumen out of the oilsands. It also doesn’t mention the threat to fresh water sources posed by the tailings ponds oilsands operations leave behind.

In 2021, the federal government launched the Crown-Indigenous Working Group to develop options alongside affected First Nations and Métis communities to manage and remediate the heavily polluted tailings ponds.

The Privy Council Office did not respond directly when asked why water was not part of the agreement with Alberta, or whether the major projects office will require water quality standards and the treatment of effluent in Alberta’s proposal.

Failed recall a vote of confidence: Alberta MLA

Alberta’s education minister says an unsuccessful recall petition launched against him represents a new vote of confidence in the government and the direction he’s taking the file.

Demetrios Nicolaides, in a letter to constituents posted to social media, said the campaign’s result validates the government’s priorities and has him “energized by the opportunity to keep building on the progress we have made together.”

“I view this result as a strong vote of confidence from the people of Calgary-Bow in the direction our government is taking and a validation of the work we are doing to build a more prosperous and resilient Alberta,” Nicolaides wrote Wednesday.

Nicolaides was the first of more than two dozen members of Alberta’s legislature to be targeted by recall petitions in the final months of 2025.

Court won’t declare B.C. man ‘dangerous offender’

A British Columbia judge has rejected a bid by prosecutors to have a man who was convicted of attempted robbery jailed indefinitely as a dangerous offender, a designation typically reserved for violent criminals and sexual offenders.

Crown lawyers had argued that Christopher Prokopchuk, with a 30-year record of robbery, parole offences and assaults while in custody, deserved an indeterminate sentence after he pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery committed in Surrey, B.C., in 2021.

Justice Barbara Norrell’s ruling, posted online on Wednesday, describes Prokopchuk’s criminal history, including “purposely” leaving behind fingerprints at robbery scenes so he would be caught, and waiting for police to arrive after smashing a window.

She says prosecutors believed Prokopchuk’s issues were “intractable,” and the “only path forward to adequately protect the public” was for him to earn release under an indeterminate sentence.

Toys ‘R’ Us Canada facing unpaid rent suits: docs

Toys “R” Us Canada is facing at least seven lawsuits from landlords who say they’re collectively owed $31.3 million in unpaid rent and other damages from the struggling retailer.

Documents filed with an Ontario court last year claim the toy store chain failed to pay rent for several of the properties it occupied in 2024 and 2025, sparking lawsuits.

The spaces were owned by landlords as prominent as RioTrin Properties — part of the RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust empire — and Calloway Real Estate Investment Trust and include spaces in Saint John, N.B.; Belleville, Ont.; and Oakville, Ont.

Toys “R” Us Canada has since moved out of many of the locations at the heart of the lawsuits and shuttered dozens of other stores over the last few years, shrinking its footprint to just 40 stores by some counts.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2026

The Canadian Press

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