Roundup: A rosier fiscal update

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There was some drama around the delivery of yesterday afternoon’s fiscal update, as two members of Chrystia Freeland’s staff tested positive for COVID, and while she had not been around them recently, she decided that the prudent course of action was to stay isolated and deliver it virtually rather than in the Chamber. She also made it clear that this was not a budget or a mini-budget, but rather a look at where the nation’s books are, and it was a rosier picture than was anticipated in the spring’s budget.

There are no significant new spending promises in this document, aside from more money being set aside for COVID supports as the omicron variant bears down on us (which includes buying millions more rapid tests for the provinces to deliver—not that most have been good at it so far), as well as the $40 billion being set aside for compensation for Indigenous children in care and to fix the system going forward, and some money to help BC recover from their recent spate of natural disasters, and to reimburse seniors faced with GIS clawbacks. There are also some dollars being put toward reducing immigration backlogs, and helping ports deal with supply-chain snarls. But otherwise, it held the line, surprising some observers who like to chide this government’s profligacy. There was a gender section that laid out in stark terms how the pandemic affected women disproportionately.

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As for opposition reaction, the Conservatives complain there’s nothing in there about inflation…which is the Bank of Canada’s job, and the only thing the federal government could do are wage and price controls. The NDP say there isn’t enough about the clawbacks in there, or not enough other support measures, but with the Bloc pretty much guaranteed to support it, they can afford to look tough in spite of being paper tigers.

Good reads:

  • Expect new COVID measures including tightened borders to be announced today following last night’s hastily-convened First Ministers’ meeting.
  • Anita Anand says she is preparing for rapid implementation of former justice Louise Arbour’s recommendations to combat sexual misconduct in the military.
  • The RCMP have charged an engineer at the Canadian Space Agency for breach of trust, citing an alleged negotiation on behalf of a Chinese company.
  • With omicron looming, the Liberals are planning to reduce their numbers in the Chamber, and that it’ll mostly be ministers distanced two metres apart.
  • Jagmeet Singh says he would support a federal court intervention around Bill 21—but there’s nothing for the federal government to intervene around right now.
  • The BC, Alberta and Quebec privacy commissioners have all ordered Clearview AI to stop collecting, using and disclosing facial recognition.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at the signals being sent by the fiscal update, and how it interfaces with the Bank of Canada’s mandate and hints of more action to come.
  • Heather Scoffield sees the symbolism in Freeland needing to deliver her speech virtually as a sign of the preoccupation of what was in the document.
  • Part one of Susan Delacourt’s year-ender interview with Justin Trudeau has him talking about how Joe Biden is still one of the “good guys,” trade tensions aside.
  • My column reviews the Bank of Canada’s mandate renewal, and why that isn’t going to do much about the Conservative disinformation on inflation.

Odds and ends:

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