Freeland to attend in-person G7 finance ministers meeting in London

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will travel to London, England this week to take part in the only face-to-face ministerial level G7 meeting.

Too early to set a date on loosening travel restrictions, transport minister says

Freeland will meet with G7 finance ministers June 4-5 before G7 leaders gather at Carbis Bay, Cornwall on England’s southwest coast.

“The global COVID-19 recession has focused the world’s attention on many pressing challenges and it is important for Canada to be at the table with the world’s leading democracies as we lay out the plan for our recovery from the pandemic,” Freeland said in a media statement.

The talks in London will be led by Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey.

Canada’s finance minister and her counterparts will discuss the global economic recovery, tax challenges on the digital economy, efforts to reach net zero emissions targets and support for the vulnerable.

Freeland’s office said the deputy prime minister will follow strict public health protocols during her visit and while travelling, and that she will quarantine in a government-authorized hotel when she returns to Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be attending the meeting in person, a Downing Street spokesperson told CBC News.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the CBC last week that he is looking for leaders at the summit to come to an agreement on implementing vaccine passports and to start discussions on a global pandemic preparedness treaty.

Vaccine passport, economic recovery, climate change

“We need to have agreements on issues such as vaccine passports, COVID status certification and the rest,” Johnson told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in an exclusive Canadian interview that aired on Sunday.

“There has to be some sort of agreement then, at the G7 level, to start, on how travel and passports are going to work going forward.”

Johnson told Barton that working toward a pandemic preparedness treaty is critical because 2020 saw the world’s supply chains disrupted as countries hoarded personal protective equipment.

Johnson said countries around the world found it difficult to share medicines and vaccines, national approaches to quarantine and lockdowns varied greatly and global supply chains for essential goods were disrupted.

“We need to have rules so that there can be no interruptions of supplies across borders, so that we have secure supply chains for the things that we depend on in future,” Johnson said.

CBC