Roundup: Economists endorse carbon pricing, not the Liberal plan

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Yesterday, a group of leading Canadian economists published an open letter about the facts about carbon pricing and the rebates, and debunked several claims that conservatives around the country have been making. It was a good and necessary corrective, but of course, legacy media headlined it as them defending the Liberal plan, which they weren’t doing, particularly because while the Liberal plan includes the carbon levy and rebates, it also is full of regulation and subsidies, which these economics are explicitly not in favour of. But legacy media loves to make this a partisan fight where they have to be on one side or the other. Liberal Party comms didn’t do themselves any favours either on this one.

To that end, here is energy economist Andrew Leach on carbon pricing, and throwing some shade at the PBO’s rather shite report once more.

Meanwhile, a number of premiers demanded to be heard at the House of Commons’ finance committee about the carbon levy, because they think that’ll do them any good, but instead, the Conservative chair of the Government Operations Committee invited them to testify today. The Government Operations Committee has fuck all to do with this file, but apparently, we no longer care about things like committee mandates anymore, so long as you can put on a dog and pony show, and gather clips for social media shitpost videos, that’s all that matters. This shouldn’t be allowed, but this is the state to which our Parliament has now debased itself. Ours is no longer a serious institution for doing serious work. It’s only about content creation, and I cannot stress enough about how absolutely terrifying this is for the future of democracy.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Ukrainian missile attack struck a Russian naval reconnaissance vessel as well as a large landing warship. Ukraine’s navy says that they have destroyed or disabled a third of the Russian Black Sea fleet over the past two years. Here’s a look at how Ukraine’s burgeoning domestic defence industry is ramping up to provide necessary ammunition for the war. Here’s a great explanation of Ukraine’s use of drone warfare with some excellent infographics.

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1772541600591147503

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau wrote back to the complaining premiers and reminded them that they chose to be on the federal carbon backstop and could design their own systems.
  • Mélanie Joly says that two airlifts of Canadians are now complete after weather delays earlier in the week.
  • Ahmed Hussen says that the US was asking Canada to reinstate funding to UNRWA behind the scenes, even though they pulled their own funding.
  • CRA says that 232 employees have now been fired for falsely claiming CERB.
  • Bridge corporations and transport ministries around the country were sending out reassurances about the safety of our bridges following the Baltimore collapse.
  • The CRA is running behind on the promise for automatic filing for low-income Canadians, and still requiring an opt-in system (which defeats the purpose).
  • CSE has confirmed that Canada was also targeted by the APT31 hackers who were linked to the Chinese regime.
  • Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers sounded the alarm about our flagging productivity levels at a speech in Halifax.
  • CBSA officials told committee that ArriveCan still saved government money, even if “mistakes were made” in contracting out the work.
  • The Canada-China committee will hear testimony on the Winnipeg Lab documents (even though it should properly be the health committee that does).
  • It seems that Poilievre’s “axe the tax” slogan has found its target in a bunch of willing dupes who read all kinds of nonsense into the message.
  • New Brunswick has signed their health care transfer agreement with the federal government after much delay, leaving only Quebec remaining.
  • Doug Ford released a budget with a $9 billion deficit (made to look higher with a nonsense “contingency”) that keeps health and education below inflation (so cuts).
  • Matt Gurney sees the mathematics of the lack of primary care physicians in Ontario not filling residencies, and it’s not good.
  • Susan Delacourt worries about the increase in threats against politicians as the tone of our politics continues to get nastier and more personal.
  • Paul Wells heads to Finland on the anniversary of their assession to NATO.
  • My column looks at how Sean Fraser is putting provinces like Ontario on notice for not living up to their agreements on affordable housing targets.

Odds and Ends:

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