Roundup: A worrying bureaucratic bottleneck

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A lot has been written about this budget, and much of it falls under the usual narratives of Canadian media, such as wedging it into the box of election speculation (despite the fact that no party is suicidal enough to want an election in the middle of the third wave), of that it’s apparently still 1995 and will always be 1995, and that we are forever on the precipice of a debt crisis (we’re really not). And while there is certainly a bit of the latter in this piece, it nevertheless lays out some perfectly legitimate concerns that bureaucratic bottlenecks will imperil many of the plans laid out in this year’s budget, because there really is only so much capacity in the federal governmental machinery. As well, it noted that without clear priorities among the hundreds of items, it risks the very salient point that when everything is a priority, then nothing is.

Astute readers may recall that a couple of weeks ago, Paul Wells noted the very same thing coming out of the Liberals’ big virtual policy convention, where it was one big exercise in everyone agreeing to everything and nobody articulating any kinds of priorities for the items under discussion (and agreed to). This should raise alarm bells, because it signals that a government won’t be able to control its own agenda. To wit:

I never cease to be amazed by the weightlessness of Trudeau Liberalism. After a year that has often seemed to come quite literally from Hell, when every parent, worker, small business, youth and elderly Canadian had to make grinding choices several times a week, I’m not sure it’s entirely encouraging to behold a government for which every need is imperative, no cost exists, and no choice among priorities is ever necessary. There is, somewhere in it, the jarring sound of unchecked privilege.

I think he’s got a very good point, and it demonstrates that five years later, there are still moments where this government betrays a lack of seriousness to what it’s trying to do. There are files, particularly in justice, where they have managed to drag their feet for so long that courts have to push them. It’s worrying, especially because there are very important measures in that budget that will have a big impact on future economic growth and prosperity, but if they can’t ensure these particular measures get prioritized and through the bureaucratic process, then it will have a very big impact on this and the next generation of Canadians who have been stymied economically.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau announced that the government has contracted for booster shots from Pfizer for the next two years.
  • Dr. Theresa Tam says that some restrictions could start being lifted this summer once we reach 75 percent first doses, and 20 percent fully vaccinated.
  • NACI’s rolling advice is to now extend AstraZeneca shots to those under 30 (and their role has been poorly described, because advice is also about epidemiology).
  • At defence committee, a former PMO staffer said that he told the Prime Minister’s chief of staff about the Vance allegations, but never briefed the PM.
  • DND is apparently planning to create a new high-level chief of professional conduct and culture position to help change the military’s culture, to very mixed reviews.
  • An Ontario Superior Court judge has struck down the country’s current prostitution laws, which was not unexpected (and this government hasn’t moved as promised).
  • The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Indigenous rights still exist for those First Nations that moved to the United States post-contact.
  • NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq is questioning Liberal MP Yvonne Jones’ Inuk heritage.
  • A petition is circulating among UCP members in Alberta calling for Jason Kenney to resign, which shows you how well things are going.
  • My Xtra column looks through the budget for what funding there is for queer and trans communities, and the GBA+ homework the government put into the it.
  • My weekend column looks at the gong show that is the Order Paper thanks to procedural shenanigans, and wonders what the government can do before summer.

Odds and ends:

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