Roundup: Return of the fiscal imbalance

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Well, the premiers have met and have spoken and they think the federal government should pony up some more money – try to act surprised, everyone! Not only that, but they’re trying to revive the term “fiscal imbalance,” because it seemed to work the last time. In particular, they want more money for health to deal with an aging population (despite being guaranteed increases for the next decade) and reliable infrastructure funding (which is a bit more of a legitimate gripe considering the way the government back-loaded the Building Canada Fund). There was some talk about trade and labour mobility agreements, but nothing earth shattering on the interprovincial trade barrier file. Christy Clark noted that the topic of the constitution was not up for discussion – not even to bring Quebec into the fold at long last. Getting in his two cents, New Brunswick premier David Alward (who may not be premier for much longer, as his province is in an election) took the opportunity to lash out at Justin Trudeau for his saying that they should put a hold on more fracking until more studies of its impacts can be done. Alward says that New Brunswick can’t wait because it needs the jobs now.

Ruh-roh! It seems that an “administrative error” sent the wrong version of a Conservative private member’s crime bill off to the Senate, which was then debated and sent to committee. It was a retired director general from Public Safety who noticed the discrepancy, and likely an error by the table officers – clerks in both Houses – but it’s unclear how the problem will be fixed procedurally. One presumes that a unanimous vote by the Senate as a whole would do it – that generally is the fix for everything – but it’s still embarrassing for the table staff, for the MP (who should have checked up on it as it’s his bill), and for Parliament as a whole.

Reuters is reporting that the Investor-State Dispute Settlement portion of the Canada-EU trade agreement may yet sink the whole deal, as environmental and consumer groups across Europe are agitating against its adoption, and that they have sympathetic ears given the rise of more nationalistic parties in the European Parliament.

With public health offices around the country in need of information that they can’t get from Statistics Canada any longer, thanks to the demise of the long-form census, more municipalities have to shell out to get that information on their own by other means. It’s almost like it was planned that way from the start.

Thanks to incoming FATCA requirements for US citizens to file US taxes no matter if they’ve never actually lived or worked in the country, there’s been an increase in people looking to renounce that citizenship. Well, now the American government has more than quadrupled the fee to do so, claiming “cost recovery,” though there seems to be some doubt that it costs that much for the minimal paperwork involved.

Two public servants had their personal information lost twice by the government – once during the loss of that student loan information, and again when a laptop was stolen from Environment Canada that had their personal information on it when the department was set to hire them. Oops.

The Public Service Integrity Commissioner is stepping down from his job early, citing “personal reasons.” Mario Dion had come out of retirement to take the job after the disaster that was the first Commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, imploded on the job.

Here’s a look at what an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women may entail.

The report into how Statistics Canada screwed up those July job numbers is out, and it says it was a case of human error, where staff wasn’t properly trained on new systems. The report makes five recommendations to avoid similar future situations.

Our CF-18s in Europe as part of the NATO response to the unfolding Ukraine situation are moving closer to the Russian border.

Two Canadian icebreakers have reached the North Pole, twenty years after the first time a Canadian icebreaker did so. They report a visit from Santa and played a hockey game.

The Wildrose Party in Alberta is distancing itself from robocalls made by Rob Anders’ new nomination campaign in Bow Valley, which featured the voice of the party’s former leader. This kind of disavowal can’t be good for his reputation.

Alheli Picazo finds some interesting commentary around the Peter MacKay gun t-shirt picture from those who orchestrated it.

Paul Wells writes about the visceral loathing that the Conservatives seem to have for Justin Trudeau.

Aaron Wherry adds his own musings about Jim Prentice’s term limits proposal after talking with Prentice about it, and agrees that it’s a terrible idea.

Andrew Leach responds to the critics of his piece on un-muzzling federal scientists, which is worth a read.

A Manitoba NDP MLA has been exposed as a particularly obnoxious partisan troll. Try to look surprised everyone!

And the premiers all posed like it was the Charlottetown Conference of 1864. Just because.