Liberals get ready for busy fall in Ottawa

SAGUENAY, Que. – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived Thursday in Saguenay, Que., to hunker down with his Liberal caucus and hammer out the government’s agenda before returning to Parliament Hill next month.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, all together,” Trudeau said as he headed into the national caucus meeting.

“Committees will be very, very busy and I’m looking forward to hearing how all the various town halls and citizen engagements that our MPs are involved in across the country went.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about.”

Electoral reform, national security and the fight against climate change —including plans for a price on carbon, to be put to premiers this fall — are all expected to be discussed during the closed-door meetings.

Cabinet ministers are updating their Liberal colleagues on their legislative plans for the fall, while backbenchers will also get a chance to air any grievances and make their pitches for pet projects and policies.

Liberal MPs are being encouraged to spend their free time getting to know this region 210 kilometres north of Quebec City, with a boat tour of the Saguenay fjord before mingling with locals tonight at a community event.

In last year’s federal election, Liberal MP Denis Lemieux took the riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord from New Democrat incumbent candidate Dany Morin, who had in turn defeated the Bloc Quebecois in 2011.

A Liberal has not represented the area since 2000, and Trudeau said holding the summer caucus retreat here was intended to show people the party has grown nationwide.

“(The) Liberal party is learning and growing right across the country (and) bringing people from every corner of the country here to understand just how wonderful it is,” Trudeau said.

Not everyone was greeting the Liberal MPs warmly.

Dairy farmers showed up with their tractors outside the hotel Thursday morning to protest the Liberal government not stopping imports of U.S. diafiltered milk proteins.

“We don’t want any subsidies,” said Simon Boily, who said he was speaking on behalf of the dairy producers north of Lac Saint-Jean, Que.

“We just want the rules to be applied.”