What’s that? Several premiers are taking exception to the federal factum on Senate reform that says that the government can make changes without provincial consent? You don’t say! It’s almost like we’re a federation and that the provinces have as much say in things relating to the constitution as the federal government does. What a novel concept that is!
Access to Information documents show that the government listened primarily to industry stakeholders when it made changes to the Fisheries Act around the protection of fish habitats – not that this should come as any great surprise.
At a funding announcement in Quebec City over the weekend, Stephen Harper showcased the face of his new Quebec team, with a new Quebec advisor in the PMO and Lebel now officially the Quebec lieutenant instead of Christian Paradis.
Two provinces, a federal department and two industry groups are teaming up on research for a “pan-Canadian” approach to improving the pipeline network.
After a scathing report from the Transportation Safety Board about preventing post-crash fires in planes, Transport Canada fired back to say that it’s not as simple as it sounds, and that they’ve been spending their time and energy preventing crashes period. Others wonder why seven year-old recommendations are still not being implemented.
The growth of China could make the Pacific a bigger priority for the Royal Canadian Navy – but it might now hurt if we came up with an overall plan for Canada’s role in the Pacific, period – the kinds of forward thinking that this government seems rather reluctant to do.
The government’s decision to drop out of two NATO surveillance programmes will have an impact on our aerospace industry contracts, apparently. This while the government was receiving reports highlighting the need to better leverage defence spending for the sake of the country’s industries.
VIA Rail is looking to ramp up their security following that foiled terror plot.
Our mission in Bangladesh is closed due to an al-Qaeda threat. This while a number of American embassies are closing because of terror threats in the Middle East and North Africa.
And despite suggestions that some of Chris Hadfield’s Twitter posts were ghost-written by government bureaucrats or the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield’s son – who was involved in Hadfield’s social media presence – denies that there was any ghost-writing going on.