If the Auditor General releases a report and nobody reports on it, does it make a sound? I suspect we’re not far away from finding out, as once again, AG reports were released yesterday, and got the absolute bare minimum of coverage—two wire stories from The Canadian Press (combining two reports in one story, the third report as a standalone), that were picked up across several legacy media outlets, including major chains, and one CBC story that covered all three reports in the same piece. That was it. And in Question Period, the NDP raised one of those reports in Jagmeet Singh’s lead question, but in the most generic terms possible, and that was it.
To recap the reports:
- There hasn’t been a measurable change in the situation of First Nations housing in four audit cycles, and the process of devolving this responsibility to individual First Nations is not proceeding very quickly. (The government points out that there has been an 1100 percent increase in spending on First Nations housing, and that they are consulting on projects going forward).
- Indigenous policing agreements are not being lived up to by the RCMP or Public Safety, whether it’s with under-investment, under-spending of allocated funds, or the RCMP not being able to staff positions as they’re supposed to.
- The National Trade Corridors programme got off to a good start in the design phase, but the department isn’t tracking implementation or results very effectively, and that’s its own particular breed of problem.
It’s incredibly hard to hold a government to account if you’re not paying attention to the very reports designed to do just that, even if this isn’t one of the “sexy” special reports like on ArriveCan. Auditor General lock-up days used to be a packed affair, and now only two English-language outlets released stories. That’s a very bad sign about the state of journalism, and of the attention span within politics for these kinds of things when they don’t fit into the slogan of the day.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Both Ukraine and Russia each claim to have repelled numerous air attacks overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Russians say that they have captured the village of Orlivka in the Donetsk region, near Avdiivka. A new head of the Navy was named in Russia following so much damage and loss of their Black Sea fleet. Ukraine is hoping to have enough ammunition by April as the Czech-brokered deal gets closer to being fulfilled..
The 20th Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting: representatives of the coalition of partner countries held a fruitful meeting.
The main topics of #Ramstein were:
*Ammunition
*Air Defense
*F-16
*DronesAt the meeting, considerable attention was paid to the work of eight… pic.twitter.com/RzsFWLiFgx
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 19, 2024
⚡️ Prosecutor's Office: Russian attack on Kupiansk wounds policeman.
A Russian attack on Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast injured a policeman, the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office reported on March 19.https://t.co/QXJWNN5e4Z
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 19, 2024
Good reads:
- Mélanie Joly says that Canada will stop sending arms to Israel as part of the motion on Monday, but they are still working out details as to how far it extends.
- Here is a look at how Joly was personally negotiating with the NDP on amending their motion on Monday.
- Bill Blair says that Canada is sending $40 million to the Czech-led plan to buy a million rounds of artillery, plus $7.5 million in night-vision equipment.
- The federal government still hasn’t announced how it’ll distribute promised carbon rebates to small businesses and Indigenous communities.
- The federal government is planning a forensic audit of a group representing 74 Saskatchewan First Nations after allegations of misuse of public funds.
- FINTRAC’s systems are still offline after a cyber-security breach, and it appears two employees were walked out by security weeks ago (which may be unrelated).
- Here are some scenes from Mulroney’s lying-in-state, including how his former RCMP bodyguard was one of those paying tribute.
- The Canada-Ukraine enhanced trade agreement passed the Senate without support from the Conservatives there, and has now received royal assent.
- Former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick was at committee to talk SNC-Lavalin (again) and said he was never interviewed by the RCMP (because seriously).
- Another ArriveCan contractor appeared at committee and was contradicting himself about his time in the civil service while working for his consulting firm.
- Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says he is “reflecting” on his place in the party after the vote on the Palestinian motion and the applause for the NDP MP who moved it.
- Quebec has finally reached a deal (in principle) with the federal government over the new health transfers.
- Justin Ling recounts his trip to Kyiv, where he is doing some reporting.
- Susan Delacourt delves into what Trudeau and Poilievre revealed about themselves in their tributes to Mulroney.
- My column looks at the premiers whinging that “now isn’t the time” for the carbon levy, and notes that it won’t get any cheaper the longer we delay meaningful action.
Odds and Ends:
I can’t wait for this to sit at First Reading in the House of Commons to never see the light of day.
But maybe I’m getting cynical. https://t.co/gyeCNhfTRb— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 19, 2024
Evergreen #cdnpoli mood. https://t.co/n6lX3zv9aJ
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 19, 2024
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