Roundup: Points for process

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From all accounts, the First Ministers meeting in Vancouver got off to a terse start. Premiers were unhappy over the regional bickering over Energy East and discussions of carbon pricing, while Indigenous groups were grousing that they should also have been at that table when it comes to coming up with a plan on combating climate change. By lunch, word around the place was that Trudeau was digging in his heels and was ready to impose a national carbon price on the provinces if they continued to balk and not work together to come to some kind of framework. And, by those same accounts, something changed after lunch and they struck a more conciliatory tone, and even though the meeting ran overtime, they came up with the Vancouver Declaration on Clean Growth and Climate Change, which was essentially an agreement on process. They have six months now to form four working groups and when they meet again in September, the expectation is that there will be more concrete plans, but carbon pricing mechanisms will be part of it – though there seems to be some indication that somehow carbon capture and storage will be seen as some kind of mechanism related to climate mitigation, despite the fact that thus far it’s been an expensive failure of a concept (but hey, Brad Wall is fully committed to it). And then even more grousing happened from the opposition, where the Conservatives complained that there was too much uncertainty for market investment (though not really if you consider that carbon pricing is coming, which the energy sector has actually been demanding and building into their projections), and the NDP moaning that there are still no targets or timelines (to which one wonders if they would have simply imposed them and told the provinces to deal with it if they were in charge, as with their vaunted plans for a cap-and-trade system despite the fact that BC has a successful carbon tax). So if nobody goes away happy, does that mean it was some measure of success? Perhaps, but one shouldn’t diminish the fact that there was a victory for process, because (and it can’t be stated enough) process matters. Democracy is process. So if you have a process laid out, it means that you can move ahead in a coordinated fashion with a plan and a road map and go from there. That may be an understated ending to the conference, but we’ll have to see what the next six months bring.

Good reads:

  • Trudeau is trying to encourage other world leaders to spend rather than rely on austerity and monetary policy to stimulate the economy.
  • Trudeau had praise for Bombardier’s CSeries jets, but still won’t come to a decision about giving them federal dollars under their current structure.
  • The government is analyzing recommendations by international election monitors regarding the changes brought about by the Fair Elections Act.
  • The group representing “lost Canadians” wants the government to fix the Citizenship Act to finally include them.
  • The government is considering scrapping the resettlement loans for Syrian refugees, but there remain concerns that would mean a two-tiered system for other refugees.
  • A lawyer working on refugee cases had had no contact from the government despite trying to make it easier for refugees to have hearings.
  • Jean Charest tried to set up a meeting with the PMO and TransCanada about Energy East, but the government said no because Charest is not a registered lobbyist
  • Gay and lesbian MPs talk about the work left to do as the government plans pardons for old convictions related to homosexuality.
  • Kady O’Malley previews the upcoming raft of private members’ bills, and yes, there are plenty calling for tax credits or rate reductions.

Odds and ends:

While in Calgary, Thomas Mulcair refused to say whether he supported Energy East.

The country’s first Black naval commander is being posted to Halifax aboard HMCS Summerside.

PS: Lots of response to my post yesterday, which touched off more debate on PR over the Twitter Machine.

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/705558133595357184