Voyageur 148
Canada Puts $125M Into Brazil Ties, and Vancouver's World Cup Glow Gets a Receipt.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canada Puts $125M Into Brazil Ties
Canada is putting $125 million behind its love affair with Brazil, and it’s doing it with loans rather than aid.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was in Sao Paulo on Tuesday for meetings with Brazilian officials and businesses as Ottawa keeps working to hammer out a trade deal with Mercosur. FinDev Canada is lending about $82.3 million for a plant on Brazil's Atlantic coast that would turn fats and oils into lower-carbon jet fuel and diesel. Another $42.5 million is expected to be earmarked for electricity-grid upgrades in remote regions.
The trip also resulted in a public health science pact, a customs tax intended to combat fraud and smuggling, as well as a wildfire plan that could bring Brazilian firefighters to Canada this season. For Canadians in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, Ottawa is putting more weight behind a relationship that has, until now, often taken a back seat to some of the flashier files.
Read more: CityNews Ottawa / The Globe and Mail
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A photo from the old country:
Vancouver's World Cup Glow Gets a Receipt
Vancouver's World Cup looked good from afar, but up close, some businesses are eyeing the gap between the promise and the till. Looks like the till might be coming up a bit short.
Canada's National Observer talked to restaurant owners who staffed up, invested in screens and planned for match-day crowds that never got too much further than BC Place, Granville Street and official fan areas. One restaurant owner said revenue was down (!) about 20 percent compared with a normal summer stretch. Vancouver's public World Cup costs are expected to come in at around $700 million, with final costs and benefits totals finalized by next spring.
The image Canada sent abroad wasn’t just about money, of course, but Canadians abroad saw the party, and the cost is still being counted.
Read more: Canada's National Observer / The Tyee