Roundup: A promise weaselled out on

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A very important bill has been introduced in the Senate, that has been attempted on more than a few occasions now, and it’s a sign of a promise that the Liberals weaselled out on in the past. The bill? To restore Parliament’s ability to control government borrowing by way of votes – you know, like Parliament is supposed to do as part of their job of holding government to account by means of controlling the public purse. You see, back in the Harper era, they hid the change in one of their massive omnibus budget bills that stripped Parliament of the ability to vote on new borrowing, and instead turned it over to Cabinet. Senators caught it too late, and the bill passed, and whoops, no more ability for Parliament to hold government to account for it any longer. Senator Wilfred Moore introduced a bill to revert this practice on a couple of occasions, and Senator Joseph Day carried on with it in the previous Parliament, and has just reintroduced it in this one.

https://twitter.com/SenDayNB/status/1204502292076154880

The Liberals were all in favour of this back when they were in opposition, and made a big show about promising to restore this to Parliament – and then they weaselled out on it. What they did instead was introduced a debt ceiling of $1.168 trillion, after which Parliament would need to vote to extend it, and said that Cabinet only needed to report to Parliament every three years about the money it has borrowed, starting in 2020. Let me reiterate – they weaselled out of this promise, and at least there are senators who are alive to why this is important for Parliament.

These are principles that go back to Runnymede, and the Magna Carta in 1215, and made more explicit in 1688 when the king wasn’t able to borrow money without Parliament’s consent. The Conservatives broke this important principle of Parliament for their convenience. That the Liberals have refused to act on their promise to restore it is a black mark against them.

Good reads:

  • The government has survived its first confidence vote, but lost on the Supply Day motion to create a special committee on China, which will compel the PM to appear.
  • Chrystia Freeland has signed the New NAFTA deal after the American Democrats agreed to changes with Mexico.
  • While American published documents suggest they considered the Afghan war unwinnable, Harjit Sajjan insists Canadian contributions made a difference.
  • Documents from CSE show how foreign governments have been targeting Chrystia Freeland and Harjit Sajjan.
  • The Privacy Commissioner’s annual report reviewed the StatsCan plan to harvest banking information, as well as recommended changes to privacy laws.
  • The Taxpayers Ombudsman is doing a review of how the too-stringent rules around the Canada Child Benefit are preventing some vulnerable families from claiming it.
  • The fact that two of our VIP aircraft are inoperative could mean an accelerated timeline on their replacement, but worries are about optics – of course.
  • RBC is offering financial literacy training for those who are due to get compensation for First Nations children being apprehended by the state.
  • After a year in captivity, the two detained Canadians in China are moving ahead with prosecution on national security charges.
  • The Organization of American States’ audit of the Bolivian election (in partnership with Canada) found widespread fraud in the last election.
  • The Senate’s Ethics committee is considering stripping former senator Don Meredith of his ability to use the honorific “The Honourable” going forward.
  • Jason Kenney had his meeting with Trudeau – in part to campaign for a new oil sands mine – and says he’s coming away feeling “realistic.”
  • My column looks at why Samara’s latest proposals for tweaking the Standing Orders in Parliament won’t actually do anything to promote cooperation or collaboration.

Odds and ends:

This interview with Jason Kenney has him pretend he has a more nuanced conservatism – except for all of the evidence to the contrary.

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One thought on “Roundup: A promise weaselled out on”

  1. What’s the point of having Trudeau testify — on camera at that — before the “special committee” other than to portray him as having done something wrong? What exactly do they figure poking the dragon will achieve? The entire reason those two men are being held hostage is because Trump ordered Meng extradited as leverage in his dumb trade war. This is on Trump, not Trudeau, who the CPC wanted Trudeau to appease and cave to on NAFTA and apologize to for his supposedly “offensive” comments at NATO. Now they want a show trial to smear Trudeau as “weak” after they spent nearly half of this past year attacking him for “interfering with the rule of law.” If it’s purportedly “non-partisan,” then I hope the Liberals decide that two can play at this game. Singh needs to get off TikTok and O’Toole needs to answer for why his former boss rammed FIPA through and hung that damn pipeline as an albatross around Trudeau’s neck!

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