News from the Canadian Embassy

Canada’s New Government and Gates Foundation announce support for HIV/AIDS vaccine research

Ottawa, Ontario, February 20, 2007 — Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today that Canada’s New Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have committed major new funding to support the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, a new effort to accelerate the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine and address critical research gaps identified by the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.

Canada’s New Government is committing up to $111 million to the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, and the Gates Foundation will provide up to $28 million. The initiative will support Canadian researchers and institutions to work with collaborators around the world, including in developing countries, on a range of HIV vaccine research activities.

News Release

Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) Website

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is an initiative to improve the safety, enhance the prosperity and increase the quality of life of the citizens of Canada, the United States and Mexico. This partnership supports the three countries working together in areas as diverse as transportation, the environment and public health.
Upcoming meeting: February 23, 2007 (Ottawa)

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Demystifying the Northern Lights

Longueuil, Quebec, February 18, 2007 — A key phase in a project to better understand the northern lights got off the ground last night. Five NASA satellites, launched yesterday from Cape Canaveral, will soon align to form a constellation over northern Canada every four days to gather scientific data about the aurora borealis. A network of 20 observatories will record the same phenomenon from the ground. The Canadian Space Agency is supporting THEMIS ground operations in Canada. THEMIS is a NASA-funded mission led by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and involves scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The mission will investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting streaks of colour.(Photo: Hubble Space Telescope)

News Release

Canadians Choose More Eco-Friendly Vehicles

Ottawa, Ontario, February 14, 2007 — "Road vehicles are a major contributor to domestic air pollution and the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada," said Minister Cannon." The goal of the ecoTechnology for Vehicles Program is to test the effectiveness and safety of advanced environmental technologies for vehicles, share our results with Canadians and help them make informed decisions about the cars they buy."

Minister Cannon, on behalf the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, also announced $21 million for ecoENERGY for Personal Vehicles. This program will provide fuel consumption information and decision-making tools such as vehicle labels, guides and interactive websites, to encourage consumers to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles that are currently available in the market.

News Release • List of Fuel-Efficient Vehicles for 2007 • ecoMobility program

NEXUS takes off at Toronto Pearson International Airport

Toronto, Ontario, February 12, 2007 — The Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Stockwell Day, announced today that the NEXUS Enrolment Centre and automated self-serve kiosks are now operational at Toronto Pearson International Airport and that NEXUS will expand to six more airports across Canada. The expansion to Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax will be completed soon.

News Release

Canada Contributes to the Global Effort to Develop and Produce Vaccines for Diseases in Developing Countries

Rome, Italy, February 9, 2007 — The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today announced that Canada’s New Government is contributing US$200 million for the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to create a pneumococcal vaccine. This initiative is part of a global effort to develop vaccines that will benefit the world’s poorest nations.

News Release

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay Speaks to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico, February 8, 2007 — "Closer to home and to our most pivotal interests, we have constructed a new framework for cooperation with our mutual top partner, the United States, through the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America.

"Complementary to NAFTA and to our various bilateral arrangements, the SPP is a means for the three North American partners to better manage this increasingly integrated and interdependent continent that we share, with the common objectives of enhancing the competitiveness, security and quality of life of our countries and citizens. Canada is very pleased to be hosting the Mexican and American SPP ministers in Ottawa later this month..."

Speech

Prime Minister Harper outlines agenda for a stronger, safer, better Canada

Ottawa, Ontario, February 2, 2007 — "But our neighbourhood doesn’t end at the 49th parallel – and neither do our interests... That’s why we will seek to re-engage relationships throughout the Americas, with our partners in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America."

Speech

New Funding for a Cure for Spinal Cord Injuries

Ottawa, Ontario, February 2, 2007 — Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Canada’s New Government intends to provide $30 million in funding over five years for the Spinal Cord Injury Translational Research Network (SCI-TRN), established by the Rick Hansen Foundation.

Building upon previous federal and provincial investments, the SCI-TRN is working to create a national network to accelerate the translation of innovative research discoveries into practical benefits for Canadians with spinal cord injuries, generate savings in health and social services and accelerate scientific advances towards a cure.

News Release

New Revolutionary Protective Combat Gear

February 2007 — A group of Defence R&D; Canada (DRDC) researchers is developing a combat uniform prototype, called the CBplus uniform that provides protection against chemical and biological agents. This uniform would protect Canadian Forces (CF) personnel against chemical and biological (CB) agents and provide some protection against toxic industrial hazards (plus) -- hence its name -- while offering similar comfort and weight to the current CF daily combat uniform.

The CBplus uniform is also expected to offer response communities with a possible uniform to meet civilian protection requirements against chemical, biological and toxic chemical hazards.

News Release

Canadian-U.S. Science Pact to Improve Monitoring of Land Cover, Biodiversity and Climate Change

Ottawa, Ontario, January 31, 2007 — Natural Resources Canada and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Geological Survey have launched a high-tech satellite mapping initiative that can better monitor changes in the combined land cover of two of the world's largest nations.

News Release

First Anniversary of the Afghanistan Compact

Ottawa, Ontario, January 31, 2007 — "Rebuilding Afghanistan after decades of war and oppression takes time. We must remember that development cannot occur in the absence of stability and security. Our brave men and women of the Canadian Forces are working alongside our development workers and diplomats to ensure that progress can continue.

"The results of our efforts thus far are very encouraging and demonstrate a tremendous commitment by the people of Afghanistan and the international community to succeed. On this important one-year anniversary we reaffirm our commitment to the people of Afghanistan and stand proud of our achievements to date." — Prime Minister Stephen Harper
(Photo: Roger Lemoyne/CIDA)

Statement

The Economy in Brief: January 2007

• In the third quarter of 2006 real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.7% following a 2.0% gain in the second quarter.
• Real final domestic demand growth slowed to 2.8% in the third quarter from 3.6% in the second quarter. Residential investment declined 8.2%. Growth in government spending on goods and services slowed, mainly reflecting a winding down of census-related expenditures. Also, business inventory accumulation weakened.
• Real exports increased after two consecutive quarterly declines while import growth slowed. As a result, international trade had only a marginally negative impact on growth. The current account surplus edged up $1.6 billion from $18.7 billion in the second quarter. At 1.4% of nominal GDP, this was the 29th consecutive quarterly surplus.
• Employment grew 0.4% in the third quarter, a much slower rate than the 3.1% pace in the second quarter. The unemployment rate inched up from 6.2% in October to 6.3% in November.

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