Roundup: Danielle Smith aspires to boss-level gatekeeping

Posted on by

Alberta premier Danielle Smith has decided to crank up grievance politics up to eleven, and has tabled a bill that would bar the federal government from entering into funding agreements with municipalities, but would require them to only do so with the province. This is similar to Quebec, but because this is Danielle Smith, her proposal goes much further and would include things like organizations or even post-secondary institutions getting research funding, because she’s concerned that they’re funding “ideological” projects, apparently not understanding how arm’s-length granting bodies operate. (There’s a good primer here).

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1778184559718506741

Aside from this being based on some false premises, Smith is being utterly dishonest about the effect this will have. It’s not going to make things easier, or a “one-stop-shop,” as she claims—as it stands, intergovernmental negotiations is incredibly complex, and she is just giving her bureaucrats even more work. (See Jared Wesley’s thread below about just what these negotiations entail—it’s a lot).

It’s also just virtue-signalling to her reactionary base, which likes to console itself with fairy tales of mean old Ottawa punishing Alberta because the province is just too great that everyone else is jealous, so they need to fight back and this is Smith “fighting back.” How much of this will survive implementation remains to be seen, but in the meantime, this is just more attempts to govern by vibes rather than reality, and it’s absolutely going to make things worse in the province, but they’re going to pretend once again that they’re being saviours, because of course they are.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Russian attack on the village of Lyptsi near the border hit a grocery store, killing a 14-year-old girl. Russian air strikes also damaged a power plant near Odesa. Ukraine’s parliament is debating a bill to let prisoners join the army to become eligible for parole.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau spent the afternoon giving testimony at the foreign interference inquiry. (Five takeaways here, and here is what the scene was like).
  • Several federal ministers warned that wildfire season is starting earlier and that the drought on the prairies is making things worse.
  • Mark Holland continues to downplay the concerns of dentists when it comes to signing up for the new dental care programme.
  • Arif Virani is pointing to sextortion cases with fatal outcomes as proof of why the online harms bill is needed, and why social media companies need to step up.
  • The unconstitutional private member’s bill to make the Oath to the King optional was defeated.
  • The Procedure and House Affairs committee tabled a report saying that China’s attempt to intimidate Michael Chong was “contempt of Parliament.” (Seriously?)
  • The Conservatives’ non-binding Supply Day motion on a meeting with the premier passed because the NDP are also playing populist nonsense about industrial pricing.
  • Kevin Carmichael parses the Bank of Canada’s decision to hold rates for another cycle (even though there was no chance they would cut them yet).
  • Justin Ling posts the transcript of his interview with Justin Trudeau as part of this feature story he did for The Walrus.

Odds and Ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.