Prime minister Justin Trudeau wound up holding an irregular presser yesterday, mid-afternoon instead of late morning, and with a specific purpose in mind – to announce that the federal government had finally come to an agreement with the provinces over the Safe Restart Plan, now pegged at $19 billion rather than the $14 billion initially put on the table. What is noteworthy is that there were still federal strings attached for this money, though some premiers noted that the strings were not as tight as before. The money is to go toward municipalities, transit, contact tracing, personal protective equipment, childcare, and ten days of paid sick leave (so now Jagmeet Singh can pat himself on the back, even though this was BC premier John Horgan’s initiative), and is to last for the next six to eight months, at which point there will be a re-evaluation of where everyone is at. Trudeau also made it official that the Canada-US border will remain closed to non-essential travel until August 21^st.

During the Q&A that followed, Trudeau expressed optimism around the vaccine candidate being held up by Chinese customs, and said that in spite of the Russian hacking story, it was important to work with everyone to develop a vaccine and that they were working to get the balance right. When asked if he would appear before committee as invited around the WE Imbroglio, that his House leadership team was looking at the possibilities, but that he also looked forward to taking questions in the Commons next week during the scheduled special sitting day. Chrystia Freeland was asked about what she knew regarding the WE Imbroglio, and she gave a fairly lengthy response about how everyone accepts responsibility for what happened, and apologized, saying that “clearly we made a mistake and we’re going to learn from it,” adding that everyone knew that the PM was connected to WE but didn’t know of his family’s specific financial arrangements, and then added that she still supported the PM and that it was a privilege to serve in his Cabinet. When asked if Quebec had no problems with the strings attached to the billions on the table, Freeland said that they agreed to it like everyone else, and that it was actually a Really Big Deal to get all thirteen provinces and territories to sign onto a deal that includes the municipalities and covered several ministries, saying that it showed that Canadians have understood that we need to work together in this time of crisis.

Shortly after the presser ended, Bardish Chagger and her officials appeared before the Finance committee to discuss the WE Imbroglio. Chagger insisted that nobody in PMO directed her to make an arrangement with WE, but she kept deferring to her officials, which…isn’t really how ministerial responsibility works. There was also talk about how WE had sent an unsolicited proposal to several ministers about a youth programme before this was announced, which WE later came out and said was a youth entrepreneurship programme which had nothing to do with what became the Service Grant programme. This having been said, the senior bureaucrat on the file said that they had three weeks to come up with a programme, and that WE fit the bill for its requirements, which is why they were recommended – and pointed out that potential conflicts are for public office holders to deal with, not bureaucrats (which is true). Up today, the Ethics Committee will begin their own examination into the Imbroglio, so we’ll see if that goes any better.

Good reads:

• The Liberals are looking to recall the Commons next week to attempt to pass legislation regarding disability payments once again.
• The Federal Court has ruled that CSIS conducted illegal operations, and lied to the court in applying for warrants; the government vows it will take action to fix this.
• CSE is accusing a Russian group of hacking Canadian, UK and US research into a COVID-19 vaccine.
• The Ethics Commissioner says that he will indeed be looking at Bill Morneau’s lack of recusal on the WE Imbroglio.
• The department of finance is in talks with Lloyds of London about the possibility of “black swan” insurance to help protect against future pandemics or other disasters.
• The Royal Canadian Navy is looking to replace the term “seaman” as part of its rank structure, most likely with the more gender-neutral “sailor.”
• The Commissioner of Elections reported on a Quebec company that made illegal donations between 2004 and 2011, as well as violations by the UCP and Unifor.
• Paul Wells is getting cranky that a promised inquiry into the mass shooting in Nova Scotia still hasn’t been announced, when it was supposed to be “imminent.”
• Heather Scoffield wonders how badly the WE Imbroglio has compromised Bill Morneau and his ability to do his job right now.
• Chris Selley muses that in light of the WE Imbroglio – or as he terms it, the castastro-WE – whether there is anyone who might actually lead the Liberals if not Trudeau.
• Robert Hiltz boggles at how anyone could consider totally-not-a-cult WE for any government programme, let alone one of this magnitude. 

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