Roundup: Nothing to opt out of

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Breaking through the endless wank-a-thon of the pundit class declaring that Justin Trudeau needs to go was a story where Danielle Smith had sent a letter to Trudeau declaring that Alberta will “opt out” of the dental care plan, and that they want to negotiate “compensation” that they would apply to their own provincial low-income dental assistance programme, but this seems to completely misunderstand how the programme works. It is very literally an insurance programme. Dental offices bill Sun Life through a portal, and the federal government then reimburses Sun Life. Yes, the rollout was poor and confused (because the whole implementation of this programme has been a bit of a gong show, thanks entirely to the NDP), but this is not a federal transfer programme. There is nothing to compensate the province for because this is a 100 percent federal insurance scheme.

The reason it’s structured this way is because the NDP demanded, as part of the Supply and Confidence Agreement, that this needed to be a fully federal programme, and not cost-shared like early learning and child care, and because dental care is ostensibly provincial jurisdiction, it had to be structured as insurance, and the model they would up choosing was to get Sun Life to do it, and they just pay Sun Life, rather than stand up a federal bureaucracy to administer this. This should have been a federal-provincial transfer so that provinces could bolster their existing dental programmes to federal guidelines, but no. As a result, I don’t see just what Smith can “opt out” of, let alone be compensated for.

Of course, federal health minister Mark Holland didn’t help matters by going on Power & Politics and not explaining how the programme works, and instead suggested that she could opt out if she could guarantee the same or better coverage, but again, opt out of what? The province isn’t billing Sun Life. They are out of the equation entirely, and Holland should have pointed this out, rather than just trying to sound conciliatory and saying he doesn’t want a fight, and repeating the same lines about how many tens of thousands of seniors have availed themselves of the programme to date. Smith doesn’t appear to understand how the programme works, and has created a strawman around it to make it look like she’s standing up to Trudeau (at the expense of her population), and claiming they already have a great dental care programme and that this is duplicative (it’s not—the Alberta programme covers very few people and is a burden to administer).

There is an added issue here with how the media have covered this. CBC, CTV, The Canadian Press, all ignore the programme structure and just retype Smith’s letter, and then get comments from the provincial dental association about either their disagreement on the federal programme or some minor pushback about Smith’s comments about the existing provincial programme, but the fact that this is an insurance company where the dentists bill Sun Life and the province has no involvement at all is a pretty crucial part of the story, which nobody mentions. This should not be rocket science, and this would show that Smith is engaging in bad theatre, but of course they don’t do that, and readers are being given a disservice as a result.

Ukraine Dispatch

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops on the front lines in the eastern Donetsk region. Zelenskyy is expected to sign a security agreement with the EU later today.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in BC to mark the tenth anniversary of the Tsilhqot’in Decision.
  • Successive ministers all asserted that they stand by Trudeau in the next election.
  • Making an announcement in Montreal, Marc Miller said Liberals need to “give their heads a shake,” and called Poilievre a “fake” and an “Eighties wrestling manager.”
  • The federal government has ended the cod fishery moratorium after 32 years, and will allow a small quota in the upcoming season (which may be too soon).
  • A change-of-command ceremony date has been set for the new Chief of Defence Staff, but the outgoing General Eyre has no idea who his replacement will be.
  • Here’s a look at how shell companies and front companies use “supplier addresses” in Canada to help evade sanctions on importing electronics into Russia.
  • Here’s a dive into the long-standing problem of commercialising “AI” in Canada.
  • Lawyers with a handful of firms are looking for veterans who are owed compensation thanks to a class-action lawsuit settlement.
  • Shell Canada says they are moving ahead with a carbon capture and storage project thanks to the new tax credits in the federal budget.
  • A TC Energy executive has resigned after a video of him surfaced wherein he explains how they covertly try to push the government to approve LNG projects.
  • Research shows that the Trump Effect has eroded confidence in mail-in ballots on this side of the border.
  • There is a bunch of handwringing about how the Jewish vote may have influenced the Toronto—St. Paul’s results (but people don’t want room for nuance).
  • Hilariously, former one-term Liberal MP Frank Baylis says he’s being encouraged to run for the leadership (the contest of which isn’t happening anytime soon).
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at the broader range of economic factors and suspects that even though inflation ticked up last month that another rate cut  may come in July.

Odds and ends:

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