The NDP spent the day yesterday trying to make hay of their private members’ bill, which purports to create a national pharmacare programme. Unless the party has been secretly negotiating with the provinces, it will do no such thing, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that the bill is unconstitutional, both on the grounds that it delves into areas of provincial jurisdiction and the fact that it is inherently a money bill, which would require a Royal Recommendation – which they’re not going to get. Beyond that, this is performative grandstanding that seeks to short-circuit the actual work of implementing a national pharmacare programme that the government is already doing.

Because seriously – I was inundated with replies over Twitter about how the Liberals also promised pharmacare, so how was this different? It’s different because the Liberals a) promised negotiations with the provinces, and b) already have a roadmap to implementation through the Hoskins report, whose steps they are following and have invested money toward. I was also reminded constantly that this bill was modelled after the Canada Health Act, so everything should be fine – err, except that the CHA was the end-product of federal-provincial negotiations, not the starting point to be lorded over the provinces, nor does this address the fact that it is inherently a money bill, which Private Members’ Bills are forbidden from being.

I am also somewhat tickled by the fact that the NDP are considering this bill to be some kind of fait accompli, and in a press release, they claimed that this bill would “guarantee” coverage for Canadians. But that’s a lie,  because none of it can happen if provinces don’t come to the table, and several of them are balking at it because it’s expensive (and the expected savings over the longer term won’t be realised right away), and we are already going through the usual hoops of Quebec saying their provincial plan is good enough and if the federal government wants to go ahead with a national plan then they should be able to opt out with full compensation – and you can bet that Alberta will make the same demand if Quebec is. This bill will not be a shortcut to those negotiations, as much as they might like it to be. The government is moving ahead with the Hoskins Report, which may be slower, but that’s how things get done. Trying to claim they’re not living up to their commitments is one more falsehood that the NDP have become adept in promulgating in order to score political points.

Good reads:

• Top public health officials admit that their models didn’t take COVID fatigue or other behavioural factors into account, which have accelerated the second wave.
• Surprising nobody, the Canada-US border will remain closed for yet another 30 days.
• While the US has approved the Boeing 737 Max to resume flights, Marc Garneau says that Canada is not going to follow suit right away.
• The federal government is considering setting national standards as part of their funding model for a national childcare system (because provincial jurisdiction).
• CSE released their report on cyber-threats to the country, naming four major state actors and of potential attacks on critical infrastructure like power grids.
• A former MMIW Inquiry commissioner says that the RCMP needs structural changes to address its inherent racism. (You think?)
• While there are accusations that Canada is “hoarding vaccines,” this ignores that Canada is the second largest donor to the program distributing them globally.
• Conservative deputy leader Candice Bergen sees no problem with MPs hiring their in-laws, but others in the party want the rules tightened.
• The Bloc plan to table a bill to require anyone applying for citizenship in Quebec to demonstrate capability in French.
• Ontario and Alberta have been talking about how many vaccine doses they’ll receive – but the federal government hasn’t made any decisions about them yet.
• BC premier John Horgan wants a national travel policy to restrict non-essential travel in order to halt COVID spread.
• Kevin Carmichael makes the case for the federal and Ontario governments to buy up BlackBerry’s patents, should they be put on for sale as the rumour mill has it.
• Robert Hiltz calls out the premiers for letting people die of COVID because they’re too gutless to make any decisions that would actually save lives.

Odds and ends:

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