Canada's upcoming parliamentary agenda all business

OTTAWA: Canada's governor general laid out an agenda for the 41st session of parliament on Friday focused on trade, continental security and opening up the Arctic.

In a throne speech, Governor General David Johnston said Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government would aim to complete negotiations on free trade agreements with the European Union by 2012, and with India by 2013.

Ottawa has signed free trade agreements with eight countries since 2006, and negotiations on another 50 are underway.

Johnston also said Harper would work with Washington to create a continental security perimeter around Canada and the United States "ensuring that people and goods can flow freely and safely between our two countries."

The two allies and Mexico formed the largest trading bloc in the world in 1994 by eliminating import tariffs on goods circulating among partners under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The new perimeter proposal goes a step further by integrating both security and trade.

Johnston said Ottawa would seek to establish a national securities regulator to replace a patchwork of provincial watchdogs, and complete construction of an Arctic highway linking Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk.

Construction of the so-called Dempster Highway was originally announced in 1958, amid an oil and gas exploration boom in the far north, but was later abandoned. It followed old dog sled trails through the outback, over ice roads and bridges.

Ottawa also plans to revive the plan for "connecting Canada by road from sea to sea to sea," Johnston said, as Arctic nations race to tap into resource riches believed hidden beneath the Arctic seabed.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011