Roundup: The AG’s report into ArriveCan

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The Auditor General released her report into ArriveCan yesterday, and it was suitably scathing, but in spite of Pierre Poilievre throwing arounds words like “corruption” and blaming the prime minister directly, the AG’s criticisms were squarely directed to the CBSA. It bears mentioning that CBSA is a federal agency, not a department, which means that it operates at arm’s length of government. Unlike a department, they don’t have direct political oversight, and while the president of CBSA reports to the public safety minister, and will accept broad political direction, the government does not direct operations (much like the CRA or RCMP).

So just what did she find? A complete lack of paperwork, of checks and balances, or of proper management or contracting practices, right up to the point of the outside contractor taking senior CBSA officials out to dinners and helping write the terms for when the contract would be put out to tender in a way that benefitted them. Once again, it’s hard to pin this on the government or Cabinet because they’re not involved in this level of decision-making. The Conservatives like to characterise this as “Liberal insiders” or “cronies” getting rich, but again, the report draws none of these conclusions. Meanwhile, those senor officials are now suspended, and there is an ongoing RCMP investigation, which is appropriate, while CBSA’s internal audit is ongoing.

There is an open question as to the reliance on outside contractors, which may be appropriate considering that CBSA wouldn’t have required the presence of app developers on their IT staff as a matter of course, and I’m not sure if this could have been contracted out to Shared Services Canada either (though given SSC’s history, I’m not sure I’d be confident in the quality of that product). And that’s fair enough. The problem becomes that they cut every corner and disregarded the rules in the process, whereas transparent contracting and proper paper trails and records of approval processes could have shown this to be a viable exercise, but we can’t know that because of how they ultimately behaved. So, while Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh insist that civil servants could have done the work, I’m not convinced, but that doesn’t mean that this still wasn’t handled in the worst way possible.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces attacked a power plant in Dnipro with missiles and drones, cutting off power and water supplies to some residents. Analysis shows that Russia used Zircon hypersonic missiles against targets in Kyiv on February 7th. Ukraine is looking to produce thousands of long-range drones this year. Ukrainian military intelligence suggests that Russia has been obtaining Starlink terminals through third countries.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1757040939929944128

Good reads:

  • Mélanie Joly says that she is trying to get answers from her Israeli counterpart about why Canadians were detained by Israeli troops in Gaza.
  • Bill Blair isn’t commenting on Donald Trump’s talk about treating NATO like a protection racket, as experts warn about the kind of arson Trump will enable.
  • The Parliamentary Budget Officer says that only four departments report that their service levels would be affected by the planned budget cuts.
  • ACTRA is looking for legislated protections of actors and musicians from generative AI, which they consider a threat to their industries.
  • Independent internet companies are asking the CRTC to ban exclusive deals between providers and condo developers.
  • A Canadian Russian woman pleaded guilty in a New York court for her role in trying to smuggle electronics to Russia for military purposes.
  • Plans for a royal tour in May are now officially on hold indefinitely while King Charles III undergoes cancer treatment.
  • The Federal Court denied Bell Canada a stay from the bulk internet purchasing rules that would force them to provide access to their network.
  • Conservatives are denying culpability for the $40 million in regulatory relief Bell received before their job cuts in spite of it being their amendment to Bill C-11.
  • Ontario says they will fully repeal their 2019 public sector wage cap legislation after the Ontario Court of Appeal deemed it unconstitutional.
  • Justin Ling talks Tucker Carlson, Vladimir Putin, and weaponizing history.
  • Susan Delacourt calls out Poilievre for being so thin-skinned in the face of media questions, especially if he wants to become prime minister.

Odds and Ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at Jagmeet Singh’s ultimatum on his pharmacare legislation deadline.

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