The Globe and Mail - 11.03.2020

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said on Tuesday he would not
stop migrants trying to cross Tur-
key’s border into Greece despite
EU pressure to do so, but he also
announced a summit next week
in Istanbul with European leaders
to seek a solution to the crisis.
Tens of thousands of migrants
have been trying to get into
Greece, a European Union mem-
ber state, since Turkey said on

Feb. 28 it would no longer keep

them on its territory as part of a

2016 deal with Brussels in return

for EU aid for the refugees.

Greece has sent troops to the

border area and used tear gas and

water cannons against the mi-

grants, but the pressure has con-

tinued. Greece said it stopped 963

illegal migrants in the 24 hours to

6 a.m. on Tuesday and arrested 52.

Mr. Erdogan, speaking to re-

porters on his plane back to Tur-

key after discussing the migrant

crisis on Monday in Brussels with

top EU officials, repeated his call

on Greece to change tack.

“We are not thinking of closing

these gates. Our proposal to

Greece is to open the gates. These

people won’t stay in Greece. Let

them cross from Greece into oth-

er European countries,” he said,

calling for a “just, humane shar-

ing” of the burden.

His comments will revive me-

mories of the 2015-16 migrant cri-

sis, when more than one million

people, mostly fleeing war and

poverty in the Middle East and

Asia, reached the EU via Turkey

and Greece, boosting support for

far-right parties.

Greek military vehicles and

soldiers on foot continued on

Tuesday to patrol along the wire

and steel fence that separates the

%astanies crossing from Turkey’s

border post at Pazarkule.

Greek officials said the 52 mi-

grants arrested from Monday to

Tuesday included Syrians, Af-

ghans and Iranians.

Ankara says Greece’s stance vi-

olates the migrants’ human

rights. It has also accused Greek

forces of shooting dead four mi-

grants on the border, a claim Ath-

ens strongly denies.

On Tuesday Turkey’s migration

authority said it had filed two ap-

plications to the European Court

of Human Rights regarding one

migrant it says was killed by

Greek forces and a family it said

was pushed back from the border.

More lawsuits are being pre-

pared on behalf of migrants

whose rights have been violated,

it said.

Mr. Erdogan said he would con-

vene a summit in Istanbul on

March 17 on the migrant issue

with German Chancellor Angela

Merkel, French President Emma-

nuel Macron and possibly British

Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He said he had stressed in the

Brussels talks the need to update

both the 2016 migration deal be-

tween Ankara and the EU and

Turkey’s customs union with the

bloc, and also to revive Turkey’s

stalled EU accession process.

“The EU leaders accepted that

Turkey had fulfilled its responsib-

ilities under the March 18 [2016]

agreement and that the EU had

acted slowly,” Mr. Erdogan said,

adding that technical and politi-

cal teams would now produce a

road map.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mev-

lut Cavusoglu and Josep Borrell,

the EU’s foreign policy chief, will

conduct this process and try to

come up with proposals in time

for a summit of EU leaders on

March 26, Mr. Erdogan said.

Ankara says the EU has so far

handed over only about half of

the 6-billion (about $9.3-bil-

lion) initially promised to help

house, feed, educate and care for

the 3.6 million refugees living in

Turkey.

Turkey also wants more Eu-

ropean support over the war in

neighbouring Syria, where Turk-

ish troops face off against Rus-

sian-backedSyrian government

forces.

REUTERS

TurkeydefiesEUpressureovermigrants

Erdoganmaintainsthat

hewon’tstopthousands

fromenteringGreece,

butsetssummitwith

leadersfornextweek

toaddressissue

TUVAN GUMRUKCU
ECE TOKSABAYANKARA

“There are going to be significant
economic impacts for Canadians,
for workers, for businesses,” Mr.
Trudeau said. “And that’s why
we’re going to be talking very
soon about measures that Cana-
da’s going to put forward to sup-
port people on the economic
side.” The Prime Minister is
scheduled to deliver remarks on
the coronavirus situation early
Wednesday morning.
Two other seniorgovernment
officials told The Globe and Mail
that Wednesday’s announcement
will be targeted at workers and af-
fected industries. The officials,
whose names The Globe is keep-
ing confidential because they
were not authorized to speak to
the media, said some measures
will be announced this week. Oth-
ers will come in the budget and
additional moves could be an-
nounced later in the year, they
said.
Various federal ministers hint-
ed Tuesday that in the longer
term, other options under con-
sideration include increased
spending on infrastructure, sup-
port for Canada’s tourism sector
and stimulating the economy by
following through on campaign
pledges to support clean technol-
ogy.
With interest rates near record
lows, the Bank of Canada has lit-
tle ammunition to shore up the
economy with monetary-policy
interventions. Both the U.S. Fed-
eral Reserve and the Bank of Can-
ada cut their key overnight bor-
rowing rates by half a percentage
point last week, and more cuts
are expected in the coming
months. However, there are ques-
tions about the effectiveness of
rate cuts alone, as the virus hits
both supply and demand, dis-
rupting supply chains and raising
the spectre of widespread quar-
antines.

“I don’t think purely monetary

rate cuts are going to satisfy the

disruption that’s coming at cor-

porate cash flows and consumer

cash flows,” RBC’s Mr. Mc%ay said

on Tuesday, speaking at a capital-

markets conference, which is tak-

ing place online after the in-per-

son event was cancelled owing to

coronavirus concerns.

“We’re having an ongoing dia-

logue withgovernments around

the world around co-ordinated

and effective and targeted fiscal

stimulus, whether that’s payroll-

tax cuts or whatever mechanism

has to be used to inject cash flow

into the economy,” Mr. Mc%ay

said.

In the United States, President

Donald Trump told reporters on

Monday that hisgovernment was

considering “very substantial”

fiscal measures including a possi-

ble payroll-tax cut.

“We’re also going to be talking

about hourly wage earners get-

ting help so they can be in a posi-

tion where they’re not ever going

to miss a paycheque,” Mr. Trump

said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrys-

tia Freeland said on Tuesday that

she has spoken with U.S. Secreta-

ry of State Mike Pompeo about a

range of issues, including the en-

ergy sector.

“We talked about how the

North American oil and gas sector

needs to be supported by our

countries, which it is. So we are

very mindful of what is happen-

ing right now with the oil and gas

sector, the consequences for oil

and gas workers, and that is

something that we are definitely

focused on,” Ms. Freeland said.

Alberta Premier Jason %enney

is calling on Ottawa to support

the province’s energy sector with

accelerated infrastructure spend-

ing, payroll-tax cuts and an ex-

pansion of flow-through share ar-

rangements. These arrangements

allow companies to pass specific

expenses to their shareholders,

who then deduct them from their

incomeÝ in this case, it would be

applied to cleaning up inactive oil

and gas wells.

“The challenge posed to this

province and to Canada could not

be more serious,” Mr. %enney said

on Monday evening, adding that

“all options were on the table.”

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya

Savage said on Tuesday that

“there will be a package” of some

kind from Ottawa to support the

oil and gas industry, which could

include “an injection of liquidity

into the market to help with ex-

penses.”

Jack Mintz, a prominent econ-

omist who was appointed this

week to lead an Albertagovern-

ment panel on the growing crisis,

said when it comes to payroll tax-

es, the federalgovernment could

provide relief through Employ-

ment Insurance premiums.

“A lot of that [tax burden] falls

on individuals and particularly

lower- or middle-income individ-

uals, so if they got the tax cut, that

would have some impact on their

buying activities,” said Dr. Mintz,

a fellow at the University of Cal-

gary’s School of Public Policy.

“For Alberta, that would be a

big gain, because Albertans tend

to contribute more to Employ-

ment Insurance than they get

from benefits.”

Dr. Mintz said other potential

tax measures could include a

temporary cut to the GST, which

he said would have an immediate

effect in stimulating consumer

spending across the country. That

would affect everyone, including

people who aren’t working or re-

tired, who wouldn’t benefit from

payroll-tax changes. The federal

government could also leave con-

sumers with more money with

cuts to various excise taxes such

as on fuel or alcohol, he said.

WithreportsfromEmmaGraney

People walk through downtown Toronto after the S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged 10.27 per cent on
Monday. The index rebounded slightly Tuesday, rising by 3 per cent.COLEBURSTON/THECANADIANPRESS

Economy:BoChaslimitedoptionsforintervention

FROM A

In a brief speech, he said that as President he was “the guar-

antor of the country’s security, domestic stability and ... evo-

lutionary development – I repeat, evolutionary develop-

ment, because we have had enough revolutions.”

Without naming them, he pointed to “neighbours” that

had removed their presidential term limits, a reference that

could have applied to China, where the Communist Party has

cleared the way for President Xi Jinping to remain in office

beyond the end of his term in 2023, or former Soviet republics

such as Belarus, %azakhstan and Azerbaijan.

In 2008, at the end of his first two terms as president, Mr.

Putin flipped jobs with his ally Dmitry Medvedev, becoming

prime minister while Mr. Medvedev assumed the presidency.

Mr. Putin reportedly chafed at his

reduced power and seems unwill-

ing to repeat the experiment.

Sergey Utkin, the head of stra-

tegic assessment at the Primakov

Institute of World Economy and

International Relations, said

Tuesday’s changes did not mean

Mr. Putin intended to run again

for president in 2024 – only that

he was giving himself the option

of doing so.

“People [have] started speak-

ing about Putin till 2036, but he

himself ... doesn’t know the cir-

cumstances – including his

health condition – years into the

future,” Mr. Utkin said. “His pri-

mary concern probably was to

avoid him becoming the lame

duck constrained by the constitu-

tion in the next few years.”

Sergey Markov, a %remlin-con-

nected political analyst who pre-

viously served as a United Russia

MP, told The Globe and Mail that

Mr. Putin wasn’t planning to re-

tain power for life – but did intend

to remain in power until the end

of Russia’s conflict with the West.

“If the U.S. and EU stop the war against Russia, Putin will

leave the post,” Mr. Markov said, referring to the economic

sanctions imposed on the country to punish it for its annexa-

tion of Crimea in 2014.

Others, however, said they could clearly see the writing on

the wall. “All is clear,” Alexey Navalny, Russia’s top opposi-

tion figure, posted on his Twitter account. “Putin will be pres-

ident for life.”

Mr. Navalny predicted the %remlin will prevent mass dem-

onstrations around the April 22 referendum by using the

threat of the coronavirus to ban public gatherings – even

though there have only been 17 confirmed cases so far in

Russia.

Putin:Presidentreferences

unspecified‘neighbours’

thathaveendedtermlimits

FROM A

A woman in Moscow holds a sign reading ‘No’ on Tuesday

at a protest against Vladimir Putin’s bid to extend his tenure

as President of Russia.DIMITARDILKOFF/AFPVIAGETTYIMAGES

People[have]

startedspeaking

aboutPutintill2036,

buthehimself...

doesn’tknowthe

circumstances–

includinghishealth

condition–years

intothefuture.

Hisprimaryconcern

probablywasto

avoidhimbecoming

thelameduck

constrainedbythe

constitutioninthe

nextfewyears.

SERGEY UTKIN

HEADOFSTRATEGIC

ASSESSMENTATTHE

PRIMAKOVINSTITUTEOF

WORLDECONOMYAND

INTERNATIONALRELATIONS

OTTAWAThe federal Ethics Com-
missioner says there is no rea-
son to believe former Privy
Council clerk Michael Wernick
broke the conflict-of-interest law
during the SNC-Lavalin affair.
In a report Tuesday, commis-
sioner Mario Dion said he would
therefore not undertake a full
examination of the allegation
and considers the matter closed.
In late September, Joe Friday,
the Public Sector Integrity Com-
missioner, referred to Mr. Dion
an accusation of conflict of

interest against Mr. Wernick

concerning his actions while he

was the top public servant.

Such referrals require the

ethics watchdog to take an

initial look at the matter and

issue a report.

An unidentified individual

alleged to Mr. Friday that Mr.

Wernick had inappropriately put

pressure on Jody Wilson-Ray-

bould, when she was justice

minister and attorney-general,

to pursue negotiations with

Montreal-based company SNC-

Lavalin toward an agreement

that would avoid criminal prose-

cution for corruption and fraud.

SNC-Lavalin Group and two of

its affiliates, SNC-Lavalin Con-

struction and SNC-Lavalin In-

ternational, faced charges of

corruption of a foreign public

official and fraud stemming

from business dealings in Libya.

The company had unsuccess-

fully pressed the director of

public prosecutions to negotiate

a special settlement – known as

a remediation agreement – out

of concern the company could

be barred from federal contracts

for a decade if convicted of

criminal charges.

After The Globe and Mail

reported in February, 2019, that

prime ministerial aides leaned

on Ms. Wilson-Raybould to

ensure a remediation deal hap-

pened, she resigned from cabi-

net and was subsequently oust-

ed from the Liberal caucus. The

Conflict of Interest Act prohibits

public office holders from using

their position to influence a

decision of another person.

During a December, 2018,

phone call, Mr. Wernick told Ms.

Wilson-Raybould she was on a

collision course with Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau, who

wanted to get a deal done. Ms.

Wilson-Raybould said that if she

intervened, it would be viewed

as political interference, adding

she wanted to protect the Prime

Minister from such a perception.

Mr. Wernick stepped down as

Privy Council clerk last April.

THECANADIANPRESS

ETHICSWATCHDOGDISMISSESCONFLICT-OF-INTERESTALLEGATIONAGAINSTEX-PRIVYCOUNCILCLERKWERNICK