QUÉBEC - Despite years of calling for Ottawa to cut the number of non-permanent residents in the province, Quebec now says the federal government is "playing a dangerous game" in its move to slash temporary immigration. 

Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge said Thursday the federal government's efforts to cut temporary foreign workers have left businesses in many regions of Quebec in a "deplorable" situation. 

"Ottawa is creating an emergency," he told reporters in Quebec City. "I don't understand what they're thinking."

His comments mark a change in tone for a government that has repeatedly demanded action from Ottawa to reduce temporary immigration to Quebec. Premier François Legault has said non-permanent residents are putting a strain on housing, health care, education and the French language. 

MONTREAL - A former researcher with Quebec's hydro utility who is facing economic espionage charges said Thursday he was applying for work at universities in China as a contingency plan because he was unhappy at Hydro-Québec.

Yuesheng Wang, 38, maintained under cross-examination that there was nothing nefarious about his interest in moving back to China. He explained that it was tied to Hydro-Québec's unwillingness to extend his work visa for more than year at a time and his experience at the institute around 2017 and 2018.

“At that time, my thinking was if I’m not happy at Hydro-Québec, going back to China to be a full professor was one of my options," Wang testified.

The Crown argued that Wang, while he was working at Hydro-Québec, applied to work at Chinese universities under the framework of the Thousand Talents program, a recruitment tool used by the Chinese government to attract foreign-trained scientists to return to work in China.

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal Leader Mark Carney are shifting their campaigns to Quebec.

Poilievre, who held a rally in Hamilton on Tuesday night with an estimated crowd of about 4,500 people, is expected at a news conference in Montmagny, Que., around noon and at a rally in Quebec City in the evening.

Carney, who spent the first few days of the campaign in Atlantic Canada, will be in Ontario today, scheduled for an announcement and a facility tour in Windsor, a facility tour in London and a rally in Kitchener.  

The Liberal leader is then set to travel back east, telling reporters Tuesday morning that he would be in Quebec in two days.

OTTAWA - A new poll suggests Canadians are divided about what the key issue is in the federal election. 

The survey, conducted by Leger for The Canadian Press, reports that 36 per cent of respondents say the important question in this election is who is best to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and aggressive U.S. trade actions. 

Another 33 per cent say the key question is who is best suited to change the direction Canada has taken over the last few years and improve life for Canadians.

Twenty-four per cent of respondents say the most important question is who is best to "strengthen and grow" Canada’s economy.

OTTAWA - Both the Liberal and Conservative parties have promised broad tax cuts as they work to win over voters in the early days of the federal election campaign.

Here's a closer look at how those proposals would operate — and who stands to benefit the most from them.

What are they promising?

The Liberals and Conservatives are both offering to reduce the lowest marginal tax rate in Canada, currently set at 15 per cent.

LA MALBAIE, Que. - Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday she's focused on working with Canada's peers to address global challenges as she welcomes her counterparts from the U.S., Europe and Japan to Quebec.

"We must meet the moment," Joly said as she opened the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting. "We should not be daunted by the task."

While she said in her opening remarks to the ministers that American tariffs would be the focus of her closed-door talks, Joly did not mention American economic coercion or U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for Canada's annexation.

Joly spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio individually before opening the G7 foreign ministers' meeting Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON - Canadian officials are set to meet with the U.S. commerce secretary in Washington Thursday — days after a dust-up with U.S. President Donald Trump that ended with Ontario pausing its surcharge on electricity exports to the United States.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are expected to meet with Howard Lutnick.

Ford has said his goal is to get a coherent sense of the Trump administration's plans for tariffs. Ford said he expects to talk about the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement, also called CUSMA, and hopes to speed up a mandatory review of the trade pact set for next year. 

"I want to find out where their bar is set," Ford told reporters Wednesday. "Rather than keep moving the goalpost, I want to find out how quickly you want to move forward and see what their requirements are."

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, fresh off a weekend visit with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, says if Ottawa uses an energy embargo to combat the incoming administration's promised tariffs, it would spark a "national unity crisis."

"Oil and gas is owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won't stand for that," Smith told reporters in a virtual news conference Monday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly hasn't ruled out an energy embargo in response to Trump's promise to impose punishing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products.

Smith said the federal government shouldn't be making "empty threats," and it's not Joly's call to make. She said cutting off pipeline supplies through Michigan would choke key supply to Ontario and Quebec.

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, fresh off a weekend visit with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, says if Ottawa uses an energy embargo to combat the incoming administration's promised tariffs, it would spark a "national unity crisis."

"Oil and gas is owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won't stand for that," Smith told reporters in a virtual news conference Monday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly hasn't ruled out an energy embargo in response to Trump's promise to impose punishing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products.

Smith said the federal government shouldn't be making "empty threats," and it's not Joly's call to make. She said cutting off pipeline supplies through Michigan would choke key supply to Ontario and Quebec.

MONTREAL - The Quebec Liberal leadership race kicked off on Monday with candidates picking up endorsements, as the provincial party tries to broaden its appeal after years in the political wilderness.

Four candidates have officially entered the race, including former federal Liberal cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez; ex-Liberal MP and former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre; Charles Milliard, the former head of the federation of Quebec chambers of commerce; and tax lawyer Marc Bélanger.

On Monday, a potential fifth candidate, sitting Quebec Liberal member Frédéric Beauchemin, announced he was withdrawing from the race to support Rodriguez, whom he said is the one candidate who can unite Quebecers.

Rodriguez, 57, is the likely front-runner, but he carries the baggage of spending nine years in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government. In September he resigned as transport minister and from the Liberal caucus to sit as an Independent in Parliament until the start of the provincial leadership campaign.