Roundup: One-time benefits for seniors

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The day began much as Monday did, with a ministerial presser in Toronto, where Bill Morneau and Deb Schulte announced a one-time additional benefit for seniors who earn low-income supports. People may ask why this was necessary given that they haven’t lost incomes (like others have), and the theoretical justification is that they may be facing some increased costs around things like deliveries, taxis, or prescription fees. There is also a particular political justification in that this is a bit of a sop to the Bloc, who have been howling about this for weeks, and we all know that it’s because seniors vote.

Shortly thereafter, Justin Trudeau held his daily presser at a slightly earlier time because of the impending sitting of the Commons “virtual” special committee, and he reiterated much of what had been announced earlier, but somewhat more unusually, stated that this pandemic has revealed uncomfortable truths about how we treat seniors in this country, and that there are serious underlying challenges that they will help the provinces with in finding lasting solutions. This particular construction is pretty key, because this is explicitly a provincial issue, and the federal government can’t just write in long-term care to the Canada Health Act as certain people have been demanding. The Act doesn’t work like that, as they should very well know. During the Q&A, Trudeau stated that the government planned to be very careful when it comes to easing border restrictions, and that he wasn’t going to ask for Carolyn Bennett’s resignation over the dispute over the Wet’suwet’en MOU.

During the special committee meeting that followed, the Conservatives were hung up on the reporting that civil servants were instructed to ignore any potential cheating on CERB applications and process them anyway, with the goal to investigate and pursue repayment after this is all over. We’ll see if this concern over the government “ignoring fraud” carries over the next few days, or if this is an instance of the opposition chasing headlines.

Good reads:

  • The National Research Council is working with a Chinese company to develop its potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is already conducting human trials.
  • The federal government is allowing temporary foreign workers already in the country to take new jobs once their current ones are completed.
  • Steven Guilbeault says the government is examining the tools they have available to make web giants pay news producers for content they use.
  • Scott Moe is bristling, saying premiers weren’t consulted enough on measures, and saying he won’t stand for federal interference in long-term care or child care.
  • The Parliamentary Budget Officer says it’s conceivable that the total federal debt could reach $1 trillion after all of the emergency pandemic spending.
  • Statistics Canada is hoping to release some timelier statistics on “excess deaths” to try and help epidemiologists get a handle on the scope of the pandemic.
  • Here’s a look at misconduct by CBSA officers, while they still have no independent oversight (and no, the government’s bill on oversight won’t be independent).
  • Canadian sales of hydroxychloroquine soared after Trump touted it as a COVID-19 cure – but some of this may have been people who need it stockpiling.
  • The Procedure and House Affairs Committee is wrangling over the details on their report on how to proceed during the current pandemic period.
  • Here’s a look at how the two social conservative candidates in the Conservative leadership are running very different campaigns.
  • Kevin Carmichael explains the importance of the jobs data leak from last week, and the sure-fire way to prevent it from happening again.
  • Heather Scoffield looks further into the big business financial package that the government announced on Monday.
  • My column looks at how Justin Trudeau has slowly been trying to appropriate roles more suited to the GG, and how last week’s ramp ceremony was a prime example.

Odds and ends:

The National Post looks across the country at which cities’ cost of living will stretch your CERB payments the furthest.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: One-time benefits for seniors”

  1. Lewis and Sloan are proof that the CPC is still the repository of neo fascists. Sheer’s razor thin victory over his opponent whose name should perish from our memories showed that Canada is never far away from falling into the abyss of a chilling right wing morass. These two are dangerous and need to be watched well by fighters against their ideology.

    • Lewis won’t be elected for obvious reasons. The so-cons talk a good game about their “values” but the racists won’t abide those “values” being espoused by someone who isn’t “old stock.” GOP North really should just fold up the white-sheet tent and take the circus elsewhere.

  2. “The National Research Council is working with a Chinese company to develop its potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is already conducting human trials.”

    …and the conspiracy theorists are out in full force, peddling QAnonsense about Trudeau the Manchurian candidate getting regular doses of 5G adrenochrome from Bill Gates and Dr. Tam. The guest cottage at Harrington Lake is the MKUltra brainwashing facility where George Soros put Sophie through reeducation after she tried to escape Liberal Sea Org.

    This pandemic has really brought out the stupid in a lot of people.

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