Roundup: Exploring a national emergency response agency

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Something that caught my eye over the weekend was an interview that Harjit Sajjan had with The Canadian Press over the weekend about building up some kind of national emergency response agency, so that we don’t have to constantly rely on the military for each event as we have been. It would likely be a network of local and regional agencies, but have some kind of federal coordinating role, but we do have some models domestically to draw on, such as the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The issue there is that it’s only geared toward one kind of event, whereas floods and hurricanes or tornadoes require different responses.

To that end, Sajjan is looking at different models and how different countries manage their agencies, so he’s not immediately jumping on an American FEMA model, but if there is one particular note of caution to sound it’s that we can’t rely on the premiers not ballsing this up or making ridiculous demands because none of them want to spend money on this kind of thing if they think they can get away with forcing the federal government to spend instead, while at the same time not willing to cede any jurisdictional sovereignty so that the federal government can actually do anything other than just give them money that they totally promise will be spent on this and not on tax cuts (really, we promise this time, for reals!)

There’s a reason we’ve come to rely on the military for this kind of work, which is that provinces don’t want to spend the money, and the federal government has so far refused to make provinces reimburse the Forces for doing the work (because they would be massacred in the headlines if they did), and provinces know that. It doesn’t help that the NDP think that this is really the only kind of thing that the military should be doing either. But something has to give, and let’s hope the federal government, of whichever stripe is in power if this gets off the ground, doesn’t simply roll over for the premiers’ usual nonsense on this.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians launched a massive drone attack on early Sunday aimed at the southern and western Ukraine, while Ukraine launched a drone attack against a Russian airbase in Russia’s Rostov province. As Russia presses to try and capture Avdiivka, Associated Press has seen drone footage in the area that shows at least 150 bodies in Russian uniforms littering the treeline.

Good reads:

  • Bob Rae says that Canada’s position on the ceasefire at the UN had to change considering the scale of devastation happening in Gaza.
  • Mélanie Joly believes there is more hope for a two-state solution in Israel now than before the current conflict began (which is…curious given the Netanyahu position).
  • Joly also says the government isn’t ruling out listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity, which is ridiculous because our law says that state militaries can’t be listed.
  • Bill Blair says that four Griffon helicopters will be sent to Latvia next year as part of our NATO deterrence operations there.
  • Government Sources™ say that new regulations will require all new vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2035.
  • The RCMP are warning about a rise in youth extremism, as five youth have been arrested on terror-related charges since June.
  • CSIS director David Vigneault gave a year-end interview to CBC over the weekend.
  • A CSIS report shows how climate change can make Canada vulnerable to outside influences, particularly if they take advantage of disruptions caused.
  • Here is a good look at the many, many problems with the age-verification legislation that has reached the House of Commons.
  • Airlines have been using NDAs so as not to disclose settlements in disputes, mostly to avoid raising expectations for other dispute cases.
  • Kevin Carmichael talks to the head of a “challenger bank” about what he sees as the places the economy needs to pick up, and about how broken politics doesn’t help.
  • Jason Markusoff discusses the rumours that Rachel Notley may finally bow out as Alberta NDP leader in the New Year (lest she become another Andrea Horwath).
  • My weekend column looks at the signals that Poilievre is sending with his Ukraine votes, and just who might be listening to them.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/adamgoldenberg/status/1736461426619744384

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