Over the weekend, Andrew Scheer went to Calgary to further outline his “economic vision,” which included a short-term six-party plan which…does nothing about the economy. Those six parts are to scrap the federal carbon price, repeal Bill C-69, repeal Bill C-48 and end any tanker ban in northern BC, establish timelines for project approvals, end the “foreign interference” in project approvals, and invoke the constitutional authority to build major projects. Do you see a pattern here?

To be clear, these six proposals are all, well, hot air. Ending the federal carbon price won’t get energy projects built – most oil and gas companies are in favour of it. Repealing Bill C-69 won’t help because the 2012 environmental assessment legislation the Conservatives put into place just wound up in litigation, and that will continue if he reverts to it. Ending the tanker ban won’t have any measurable impact because there are no pipelines in the area, no plans for any, and if he thinks he can revive Northern Gateway then he didn’t pay attention to the reasons why the Federal Court revoked its approval. Establishing timelines for approvals? Again, nice in theory, but without a framework behind it (like Bill C-69 would ostensibly provide), it will likely mean yet more litigation. That “foreign interference” in project approvals is largely the conspiracy theories that the conservative movement is clinging to (ignoring the foreign funds that go into their own thinktanks like the Fraser Institute). And that “constitutional authority” is not a magic wand, and would only sow confusion because any project that crosses a provincial boundary is already a federally regulated project, so there’s nothing to invoke. So Scheer’s “six point plan” should perhaps better be called a “six point sham.”

Meanwhile, here’s some further analysis of Scheer’s decision to back away from his pledge to eliminate the deficit in two years, whether it’s because of Liberal warnings of austerity, the unpopularity of Doug Ford’s cuts playing out in Ontario, or the desire to try and deprive the Liberals of their talking points. But it does also take the wind out of Scheer’s own rhetoric about the evils of deficits, particularly those that are small and sustainable like the ones we’re seeing right now.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1131728209018380288

Good reads:

• The House of Commons is slated to start sitting until midnight Monday through Thursdays in the remaining weeks, in order to clear the Order Paper.
• While Pablo Rodriguez vows transparency for the media bailout fund, Andrew Scheer accuses him of trying to “stack the deck” in the election.
• CRA says that 97 percent of eligible Canadians did file for their climate incentive rebates this tax year.
• An international “grand committee” is meeting in Ottawa for three days this week to discuss best practices for dealing with web giants and privacy.
• Here’s a deeper dive into the steel and aluminium tariff deal with the Americans.
• Here’s a longread about Canada’s (and especially Winnipeg’s) contributions to building democracy in Ukraine.
• The UN wants Canada to take more Central American asylum seekers who are now in Mexico, and in particular women and LGBT claimants.
• Ontario Liberal MPs want to make a “soda tax” an election issue as a way of fighting obesity and funding things like school lunch programmes.
• More people are fleeing Maxime Bernier’s party, the more it gets into bed with the lunatic fringe.
• Incoming Green Party MP Paul Manly says he’s not a 9/11 truther after old interviews he did surfaced wherein he makes such claims.
• CBC says that Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott won’t be joining the Green Party during their announcements today.
• François Legault has announced plan to help electrify Quebec’s economy in order to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
• My weekend column ponders just how much senators should be invoking the defence of their regions in their deliberations.

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