Roundup: More flexibility, no candour

Posted on by

For his daily presser, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced that they were making their wage subsidy more flexible so that more employers can benefit, and that they were making changes to the Canada Summer Jobs Programme so that they will extend the work period to the end of February 2021 and subsidise the full wage. He also said that he was going to be attending Cabinet in person, his period of self-isolation now over, but that he would still continue to work from home most of the time. During the Q&A portion, the question came up for him a couple of times, and again during the ministerial presser, about why the government didn’t go with the “send cheques to everyone” model, and both Trudeau and Jean-Yves Duclos gave lousy responses. Trudeau said that they looked at different designs, and figured that the CERB was the best way to reach the largest number of affected workers, while the wage subsidy would keep people connected to their jobs, and with those in place, they could look at filling the gaps that people still fell through. Duclos acknowledged “holes” in the social security system that they were working to address and hoped that they would have a better understanding of those coming out of the crisis.

The problem with these responses is that they aren’t what is needed. They’re talking points that stick to happy and good news elements but they don’t offer the kind of candour that is needed around capacity issues and the fact that there is no magic database that has everyone’s SIN and address. You literally cannot just send money to everyone, and cutting cheques to the whole country would literally take months. (More from professor Jennifer Robson on those challenges here). And this lack of candour is a problem – a big problem that they keep shooting themselves in the foot over, and why I wrote my column on this over the weekend. But this government’s penchant for self-inflicted wounds is something to behold, because they are completely incapable of communicating their way out of a wet paper bag.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1247917002296971271

Meanwhile, it sounds like the hold-up for the recall of Parliament to pass the wage subsidy legislation is that the Liberals want it to be done “virtually” (even though the Speaker says it could be weeks before that could even be feasible – though I would argue it’s not constitutional) while the Conservatives want the House to come back for regular sittings in a reduced capacity (which is what I’ve been arguing for weeks). Parliament is an essential service. The Liberals are being unreasonable on this one.

Good reads:

  • Apparently the CERB application process is going smoothly, and it’s three boxes people need to tick and they’re done.
  • The government is signalling the penalties that could be levied if people try to double-dip with the CERB.
  • The government is facing pressure from all sides on providing foreign aid related to the pandemic – especially as Conservatives demand Canadians be helped first.
  • 23 Canadians are currently being held in federal quarantine sites.
  • Her Excellency Julie Payette says that the pandemic will change our society, and hopefully for the better.
  • Alberta released more modelling of its COVID-19 projections, which may not be as severe with a death toll, but the economic damage could be worse.
  • Conservative MPs Michael Chong and John Williamson call for Parliament to remain open to provide better scrutiny of emergency legislation.
  • Colby Cosh remarks on the return of the plastic bag in the era of the pandemic.
  • Heather Scoffield looks at how our open borders and supply chains have fared in the wake of the pandemic, particularly given the US-China trade war leading into it.
  • Scoffield also wonders about today’s jobless figures and how the government will manage to restart the economy in a slow and measured way when the time comes.
  • Justin Ling points out how Correctional Services have been punishing prisoners who are blowing the whistle on how ill-prepared prisons are for COVID-19.
  • Robert Hiltz makes the case that in times like this, we shouldn’t have to settle for governments that are simply good enough.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

One thought on “Roundup: More flexibility, no candour”

  1. Asking why couldn’t they just cut everyone a cheque is not the question I’m asking, and it’s frustrating that journalists focus on that one. I wonder how CERB went from helping everyone to making it a requirement that you’re not making any money, especially when it was first described as being something that self-employed people would be able to access. That and other eligibility requirements that leave a lot of people out.The Herle Burly podcast discussion offered a plausible scenario for how that came about, but economists have ignored that aspect. I am willing to accept that the circumstances are such that the solutions aren’t perfect, but there is something so deliberate about the exclusions that I would be interested in the economists’ point of view. But it’s not something they seem interested in.

    As for clawbacks not being that easy, it’s easy enough for Revenue Canada, even though they may not be be totally accurate. They could be causing problems down the road for these applicants who were automatically approved. Revenue Canada doesn’t need to be precise. That’s not to say that they would be unfair, but they could be arbitrary, and leave people in the position of appealing after the fact.

    I know you have strong feelings about the virtual Parliament and while normally I would probably agree, I really hate the idea of cabinet ministers getting the virus as they fly back and forth. I wouldn’t want to see it become the norm, but I think that’s a compelling factor in this case. And I think Trudeau has a point about it shouldn’t only be MPs within driving distance.

Comments are closed.