Woe be Saskatchewan, apparently, with the collapse in global commodity prices, affecting both its oil and potash industries. Its premier, Brad Wall, is in full-on populist mode in advance of a provincial election, and when not goading Montreal mayor Denis Coderre over Energy East, he’s also demanding some kind of federal dollars should the Trudeau government decide to bail out Bombardier, as well as funds for his idea of a well-capping programme. To be fair, the well-capping idea is a good one, but Wall’s bombast is probably not helping, particularly when he makes comments about equalisation funding. The Conservatives have been all about equalisation in Question Period, with questions yesterday demanding “fairness” for Alberta and Saskatchewan after the territories were having their formulas adjusted, despite the explanation that the adjustments were because of changing Statistics Canada measurements. More egregious was when former Speaker Andrew Scheer decried that wealth was still being transferred to other provinces based on calculations from when Saskatchewan was benefitting from $100/barrel oil. And my head very nearly exploded when he asked that because it’s about as wrong – and frankly boneheaded – as one can get when discussing equalisation. Despite the common mythology, the federal equalisation is not a wealth transfer between provinces. “Have” provinces don’t write cheques to the federal government in order to pass them along to the “have not” provinces. It’s nothing like that at all. Every Canadian pays into equalisation by way of taxes, and the federal government will transfer some of its general revenue funds to provinces who need help in providing an equal level of service to its citizens. Now, provinces like to make all kinds of claims based on what their per-capita contributions to the programme are, but it’s not a bloody wealth transfer. I get why they like to claim that it is for political purposes, but it’s wrong and it just fuels these ridiculous regional conflicts (like the ones we’re seeing now between the west and Quebec based on nonsense rhetoric over Energy East) to no good end. So seriously, MPs and premiers – knock it off. You’re not helping anyone.

Good reads:

• It looks like CSE will be beefing up its activities as part of the doubling of our intelligence gathering in the ISIS mission.
• The government has restored refugee healthcare benefits, and is looking to help eliminate some roadblocks to citizenship.
• The government is also promising a full review of the temporary foreign workers programme.
• Senator Denise Batters has concerns about giving people with mental suffering access to doctor-assisted dying given her husband’s suicide from depression.
• The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner thinks her office should merge with the Lobbying Commissioner’s.
• The Liberal government has ended the fight against Omar Khadr’s bail application.
• The RCMP had a problem with an officer at the Canadian Police College involving nudity, unwanted touching and bullying. Because it needs more abuse scandals.
• Here’s a look at the government’s penchant for consulting about everything.
• The defence minister says he has no plans to cut the military’s size, despite the fact that it’s unsustainable at current funding levels.
• The federal government’s “integrity regime” blacklist is causing procurement problems for departments.
• Paul Wells looks at the man who ran Tony Blair’s Delivery Unit, who is also advising the Trudeau government.
• Neil Macdonald notes the Liberals’ reluctant support for the Conservatives’ motion against the BDS movement.
• Matt Gurney delves further into Senator Roméo Dallaire’s project on ending the use of child soldiers in the ISIS conflict.

Odds and ends:

Tristin Hopper explores the history of some of our banned unparliamentary phrases.

Here’s a look at the ethics screen being set up to keep Bill Morneau out of trouble with his family businesses.