Roundup: PBO declares the cupboard bare

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The Parliamentary Budget Officer appeared before the Commons finance committee yesterday, and said that after the new sorta-income-splitting Family Tax Credit rollout that there won’t be any fiscal room for any further permanent tax cuts or spending measures. In other words, the cupboard is bare (and still reliant on further austerity to keep the budget in balance). Kevin Milligan gives a more detailed breakdown of what all of the family tax credits mean, while Stephen Gordon once again says what needs to be said, especially with what this means for the next election:

French president François Hollande addressed a joint session of Parliament yesterday, offering solidarity in the face of “terrorist-inspired” attacks, expressed support for trade deals and mobility agreements, but also tweaked at the government with the need for more robust measures to combat climate change. Hollande will be hosting a major climate conference in Paris in 2016, where a final agreement on climate change prevention is to be worked out between countries.

Dean Del Mastro has decided that even before the sentencing hearing, he will push to re-open his defence based on new evidence rather than trying to file an appeal. It’s a manoeuvre that has almost no chance of success, but could be seen as more of a tactical move to delay sentencing, later appeals, and potentially try to save himself from losing his seat in advance of the next election (where theoretically he shouldn’t be allowed to run again based on this conviction, but he may obstinately try anyway). Back in the Commons, the NDP are trying to advance the argument that if the Senate could suspend without pay those senators under investigation before charges were even laid, then they surely can do the same with Del Mastro now that he’s been convicted.

Over in the Senate, we get an answer that Wayne Easter has been asking for weeks – that the powers of preventative arrest have been used twice in this country – once before 2012, and once since. Was that so hard?

From Iraq, we’re getting a few more details of our first bombing missions in the area, from assurances that we hit a “large ISIS target” – five bulldozer and a large truck being used to construct berms and other obstacles. Of course, this confirmation comes from American sources, as the Canadian ones won’t comment until later today. It also sounds like we’re part of the effort to dislodge ISIS from Fallujah, which will help ease the pressure from their encroachment on Abu Ghraib and eventually Baghdad. The head of the RCAF tweeted a photo yesterday of the funeral of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and suggested that the bombing runs against ISIS were in revenge for the death, but the tweet was deleted later in the day.

The government plans on rolling out 250 replica LAV IIIs around the country to use as commemorations for the war in Afghanistan. There are questions as to whether this kind of programme may be too soon, given that some Afghanistan veterans are still traumatised by their experiences and seeing these vehicles constantly could exacerbate that.

The government has announced $30.5 million to shore up our own readiness to deal with Ebola should it reach our own shores, including public awareness campaigns to combat the fear and paranoia. The lion’s share of that money is for further vaccine research. More quarantine officers will also be station at six major airport around the country.

The government is investigating ways of pre-screening air cargo before it gets to airports in order to save time and money at the airport itself, and so as to leave the airline in charge of all screening. There are questions of course about how much self-regulation this will involve, given the wariness of such kinds of systems given the issues with rail safety in this country.

The courts have ruled that Russell Williams’ pension is off-limits for those seeking damages from him. The issue is the bigger picture about why pensions are off-limits to begin with, naturally, and it’s likely the Courts didn’t want to make an exception this once lest going after someone’s pension becomes a Thing.

Over in Manitoba, five senior cabinet minsters resigned en masse, citing that Premier Greg Selinger refuses to listen to them and is only concerned with his own political survival. They insist that they’ll remain NDP MLAs, but this is a rather alarming and almost unprecedented state of affairs. Andrew Coyne writes about the real motivations – abysmal polling numbers with Selinger in charge – and finds these ministers’ principles to be suspect, but notes that it comes back to the fact that the lack of explicit powers for caucus to hire and fire leaders in this country – the traditional Westminster model – this comes with the territory.

My column this week argues in favour of creating a parliamentary oversight committee for national security.

And Corporal Branden Stevenson, the other soldier at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the day of the shooting, writes about the loss of his best friend on that fateful day. He returned to guard duty yesterday.