There was a lot of reaction to the announcement that prime minister Justin Trudeau was giving an additional $2 billion to the provinces to help schools restart safely – unbidden – and those reactions were interesting. Trudeau himself made a point of saying that this was as a result of listening to his backbench Liberal MPs and parents who continued to express concerns, and that it wasn’t requested by premiers, so that’s a political marker right there. It’s also a transfer that is largely without strings – it comes in two tranches, one now, one at the end of the year, and all the provinces need to do between them is to tell Ottawa how they spent the money, so again, it’s a bit of a political test for those premiers – and it’s also giving rise to speculation that this is a sign that Trudeau is in election mode.

Reaction was mixed. Doug Ford expressed gratitude (but also falsely claimed that Ontario’s restart plans were the safest in the country, which is patently absurd), but his education minister – and his opposition critic in the NDP – derided the funds as “late to the game.” Manitoba premier Brian Pallister, for example, was somewhat non-committal, and said he’d take the money, but praised his own government’s efforts. And, hilariously, Jagmeet Singh took credit for it, saying that he had called a press conference to “make an announcement” (read: demand) about more money for schools and lo and behold, the prime minister delivered before that press conference happened. Yeah, okay then.

The complicating factor in all of this is that this is an area of sole provincial jurisdiction and there should be zero expectation for federal dollars, which is why I find myself mystified by all of the people on Twitter (and the Ontario NDP education critic) bemoaning that these funds didn’t flow in June. But if you recall, in June, Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland were negotiating with the provinces for their “Safe Restart Plan,” with $14 billion on the table which included money for schools, so it’s not like it wasn’t being discussed – the provinces were recalcitrant because they didn’t want the strings attached that come with billions of dollars. Eventually, they came to an agreement and it turned into $19 billion, and this $2 billion is on top of that, so it’s not like the federal government has been completely silent. I would also suspect that there is a bit of an implicit rebuke in this new envelope of money because provinces have been dithering on their restart plans, giving confusing options to parents with no time to evaluate them, and more critically, have been unwilling to do the important work of reducing class sizes. One could easily interpret this money as Ottawa telling them – not in so many words – to get their acts together, and they’ll look fairly magnanimous while they’re at it.

https://twitter.com/StandingHannah/status/1298685195579723776

Good reads:

• The vaccine candidate that Canada helped develop with a Chinese company won’t get tested because China refuses to allow it to be shipped.
• While en route to Beirut, François-Philippe Champagne had a stopover in Rome where he met with his Chinese counterpart about issues plaguing our relationship.
• The government’s panel that was supposed to reform solitary confinement in prisons shut down because they couldn’t get the information they needed.
• Two-thirds of the federal commercial rent assistance is going untouched and provinces – who designed the programme – want Ottawa to change it. Hmm…
• The restaurant lobby says that half of eateries in the country could close in three months, and want the wage subsidy extended and rent assistance streamlined.
• Mark Carney has taken a job with Brookfield Asset Management, which should hopefully ensure he stays the hell out of electoral politics.
• Senator Lynn Beyak has been donating to Maxime Bernier’s vanity project, which should surprise nobody at all.
• The Star looks at the Conservative leadership data and questions Erin O’Toole’s assertion that he can win Ontario, given that he didn’t do very well there.
• O’Toole will soon face the test of how he manages his social conservative MPs as bills on assisted dying and banning conversion therapy get re-introduced.
• Here’s an interesting look at survey data on changing feelings of nationalism in Quebec among its younger demographics.
• Heather Scoffield posits that the prorogation is a betrayal of Trudeau’s feminism because it interrupted committee study on the effects the pandemic has on women.

Odds and ends:

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