Tag Archives: Budget 2023

QP: Self-contradicting economic demands

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The prime minister was off in Toronto making housing announcements, and his deputy was on the West Coast for her own announcement. Most of the other leaders were also absent, but not Pierre Poilievre. He led off in French, as he so often does, and he accused the prime minister of replacing the joy of Christmas with poverty, according to Operation Santa Claus letters, and he blamed deficit spending. Anita Anand praised the Canada Child Benefit for lifting families out of poverty, and encouraged the Conservatives to vote for their bill to “stabilise grocery prices” (well, indirectly anyway). Poilievre then called the government hypocrites at for how much they fly, to which François-Philippe Champagne said that people can see who the real hypocrisy are because the opposition leader only opposes investment in the green economy. Poilievre switched to English to decry “stagflation” in the last quarter, blaming high deficits, taxes, and red tape, while the American economy was roaring. Anand wanted to remind everyone that they have an economic plan, and recited good news economic talking points to prove their plan was working. Poilievre returned to the accusation of hypocrisy for how much the environment minister has flown before demanding that they cut the carbon price, for which Champagne patted himself on the back for attracting foreign investment in the green economy. Poilievre then raised the court challenge from Ontario First Nations about the carbon price. Patty Hajdu noted that these nations are independent, decried the Conservatives’ colonial attitudes, and listed the investments they have made to those communities.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded the federal government transfer $460 million to Quebec for asylum seekers, insisting they were solely a federal problem (which is not true—they are only federal once their claims re accepted). Don Vandal said that asylum seekers are a shared jurisdiction and they continue to converse with the province. Therrien made another demand, and this time Pablo Rodriguez says there is no fight, just that the Bloc is trying to pick one.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and worried about the revelations from the US about assassination plots from India. Dominic LeBlanc said that the RCMP and policing partners across the country are taking this seriously, and cooperating with American law enforcement. Singh switch to French to repeat the concerns from Operation Santa Claus in Quebec, to which Anand plugged the bill they tabled to help build the economy.

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QP: Starting the Christmas brawling in November

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The prime minister was present while his deputy wasn’t, as news was breaking both about an indictment around Indian-sponsored assassination plots and a deal from Google on online news. Most of the other leaders were present, but there was also the promise that the one who wasn’t physically present was there virtually. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, claiming that the prime minister was ashamed of his fiscal record and launched into a rant about debt-servicing charges. Justin Trudeau responded by pointing out that the Conservatives opposed their health funding agreement with the provinces and would prefer austerity to the “responsible” record of the government. Poilievre trotted out his line about people already experiencing austerity and blamed government deficits. Trudeau said that Poilievre’s logic was faulty, as government austerity would not help those people. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, and returned to misquoting that Scotiabank report before demanding that he “get control of his spending,” to which Trudeau said that the media didn’t cover the fall economic update much as they would have liked because they were too busy covering Poilievre’s terrible week. Poilievre suggested he give the media even more money to cover what he likes, before he recited lines about carbon pricing, to which Trudeau patted himself on the back for the deal with Google to help fund local journalism. Poilievre then moved to a juvenile “debate me!” cries, before demanding the carbon price be axed. Trudeau said that farmers are seeing the impacts of climate change, which is glaringly obvious to every except for certain MAGA Conservatives.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he demanded a call for tenders for surveillance aircraft that included Bombardier’s vapourware. Trudeau said that they were concerned that the armed forces gets what they need while keeping the aerospace sector in Quebec strong, and that minsters would making decisions in due course. Blanchet tried to insist this was some kind of slight against Quebec, but Trudeau reiterated his same response.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and in English, he demanded to know where the online harms bill was after a sextortion case wound up in a suicide. Trudeau said that they all want to protect kids, and were moving forward in the right way, and that they need to ensure that they get this legislation right. Singh demanded action, before switching to French to decry that the president of COP28 was trying to make oil deals in Canada, but Trudeau kept going on about the forthcoming online harms bill, and said it was inappropriate to make accusations about actions or inactions.

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Roundup: Doubling down on the lies about the Ukraine trade deal

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As the Conservatives flail about their voting against the Ukraine trade agreement, they are throwing out a number of excuses in order to double down on a stupid position that is backed by the lie that the agreement imposes a carbon price on Ukraine. It doesn’t, they’ve had a carbon price since 2011, but that doesn’t seem to matter. They insist that nothing they’re doing jeopardises the agreement, which is true—it’s already signed, and every other party is voting for this enabling legislation, but what the Conservatives seem to be forgetting is that all of this performance they’re doing for their domestic audience is being noticed aboard, and in particular by the Ukrainian government, and it’s not leaving a good impression.

To that end, they kept moving amendments at committee to include language about weapons sales, which is stupid because nothing precludes them currently, but that kept being out of order—again, because the deal is already signed. This is enabling legislation. And they kept trying to either remove the carbon price references or delay the bill until they could force the government to remove it, but they lost that gambit as well. But again, they’re sending signals to the people paying attention that they are deeply unserious and are going to be untrustworthy allies, and that’s going to do more damage in the long run, all for the sake of trying to score some cheap domestic points right now.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The death toll from the severe  snow storm in southern Ukraine has reached ten, with more injured as a result of accidents and power loss. During this, Russians struck a residential building and a coal mine in Nikopol, killing four and injuring ten others. The wife of Ukraine’s head of military intelligence is being treated for heavy metals poisoning, but no one will say if he was the intended target. Some in Ukraine are calling for defined ends to deployments, which are currently open-ended (as though the country were not in an existential war for its survival).

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QP: The lie that C-234 is supposedly a money bill

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The prime minister and his deputy were both present today, which was nice to see, but not every other leader was in the Chamber. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he complained about the debt servicing costs, claiming the prime minister is spending “more for bankers than nurses,” never mind that healthcare is a provincial responsibility and government bonds aren’t lit on fire. Justin Trudeau responded that since last week, more Canadians are having harder believing Poilievre, and rattled off the talking points about Canada having the lowest debt and deficit in the G7, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio, and that inflation is coming down, while Poilievre would only cut benefits. Poilievre cited food bank stats in Quebec and blamed deficit spending and carbon pricing for it, and demanded the government end both. Trudeau patted himself on the back for their responsible fiscal approach. Poilievre switched to English to turn to the Stellantis plant and the possibility of 900 temporary foreign workers, which he misleadingly called “replacement” workers. Trudeau read that there would be 2300 local workers to build the plant and 2500 local workers when the plant is in operation, and that Poilievre’s need to politicise everything wasn’t helping, while he only wants to cut. Poilievre said that the prime minister was to blame for people’s self-imposed austerity, and demanded he “stop obstructing” Bill C-234 in the Senate, which is of course nonsense as he has no such powers—but this was also the subject of the Conservatives’ Supply Day motion. Trudeau pointed out that there are plenty of reasons for global food price inflation, not the least of which was Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, and took a dig at the Conservatives for voting against the trade agreement. Poilievre full-on flailed about Trudeau trying to change the channel from the misery he caused. Trudeau said that Poilievre was so desperate to score political points that he was standing against things that Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and noted the rise in antisemitic incidents, and blamed them on the “loophole” in the Criminal Code around religious speech, and wanted support for his bill to remove that loophole (which is a hugely complex issue). Trudeau called out the rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism, and said he would study the bill. Blanchet insisted the bill was straightforward and wanted it passed immediately. Trudeau read a script that hate speech is already criminal, and that they would take a “close look” at the bill.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, he demanded the “anti-scab” legislation be passed immediately. Trudeau took a bit of a jab at the NDP, saying that while they like to paint themselves as the party of workers the government has proved themselves to be, and that he was glad they worked together on this bill. Matthew Green took over in English and took credit for the bill, and demanded the bill be implemented sooner than the 18-month period in the bill. Trudeau repeated his same points in English.

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Roundup: Clawing back disability benefits

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Because the provinces continue to be the absolute worst level of government in the country, we see from the briefing binder of Ontario’s social services minister that the province is looking at ways to “mitigate costs” by clawing back provincial disability support payments once the federal Canadian Disability Benefit gets underway. As you might have guessed, this is entirely the outcome that the federal government has been trying to avoid, and why Carla Qualtrough spent months trying to negotiate with provinces in the lead-up to the framework legislation being passed.

This happened a lot during the height of the pandemic, when certain provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan clawed back any kind of social supports when people accessed CERB, because of course they did. It’s kind of perverse the way that provinces are in the business of literally legislating poverty for vulnerable groups like people with disabilities who generally cannot work (which I should point out is not the same as the programme in the US, where “disability” tends to have a different connotation than in Canada). There is a kind of meanness to it that goes beyond the judgmental protestant work ethic that this seems to stem from.

We’ll see what kinds of safeguards the federal government tries to build into the system as the regulations for these payments—which they point out are intended as an income supplement and not a replacement programme—are rolled out (eventually). But because of the division of powers, there may not be any legislative or regulatory mechanism they could use to protect these payments from clawbacks, and it may rely on negotiations and signed agreements, which is probably easier said than done (particularly as many of these premiers are the absolute worst).

Ukraine Dispatch:

Five people were wounded as part of the largest attack on Kyiv since the start of the war, timed for the commemoration of the Holodomor. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told an international food security conference that Ukraine needs more air defences in order to protect its grain exports, as Russia has been targeting them in recent months.

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1728719618317910451

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Roundup: Trying to falsely blame CTV

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At his media availability yesterday, Pierre Poilievre was asked if it was responsible for him to declare the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls to be “terrorism” before anything was confirmed. And what did Poilievre do? True to form, he attacked the Canadian Press reporter asking the question (including lying about the substance of the corrections that a recent CP story made to a story about comments he had made), then lied about why he said “terrorism.” Poilievre claimed this was from CTV reports, and tried to get the CP reporter to try and denounce CTV. The problem was that CTV didn’t publish anything before Poilievre began his questions in QP. And what we do know is that Fox News was definitively calling it terrorism, as were several disinformation merchants who pose as journalists over Twitter. But rather than admit that these were his sources, Poilievre lied, continued to lie, and then post the video of him attacking the CP reporter to his followers, because right-wing populism has a huge hard-on/wide-on for putting people in their place (particularly if they’re vulnerable minorities or someone they suffer no repercussions for attacking, like media).

And then things got stupid online, as Poilievre’s fans and apologists kept trying to “prove” that CTV was still the source, really, relying on screenshots that came from a different time zone. And at least two MPs shared these screenshots before they were called out and deleted them.

I will say that between these lies, and the ones he has been telling about the Canada-Ukraine trade deal legislation, it seems to finally shaking up some legacy media outlets to actually start calling him out on them. Somewhat. Some outlets are still egregiously both-sidesing the lies, as they always do, but you had Power & Politics host David Cochrane finally interjecting in places saying “That wasn’t true,” or walking through the timeline of lies in the case of yesterday’s attempt to blame CTV. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a start, but we’ll see how long it can actually last.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A daytime cluster bomb attack in a suburb of Kherson in the south killed three people. Ukraine’s farmers are hoping that the Black Sea trade corridor will help them get exports to market so that they can survive.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1727681997076644088

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QP: Goading the Conservatives on Ukraine

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The prime minister was off to meet EU leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador, while his deputy was doing photo ops in Toronto. Even Pierre Poilievre was away today, as were every other leader. Andrew Scheer led off, and after giving the new “time’s up” slogan, he misquoted the Scotiabank report and demanded the government balance the budget. Randy Boissonnault got up to denounce the Conservatives for the voting against the Ukraine trade deal. Scheer repeated the lie that the government is forcing a carbon price on Ukraine, before repeating his demand for a balanced budget. Karina Gould pointed out that there was no carbon price in the trade deal, and brought up that Poilievre falsely called yesterday’s Rainbow Bridge incident a terror incident. Scheer demanded the government support their amendment to send more weapons and energy to Ukraine before rambling about the so-called “replacement” temporary foreign workers at the Stellantis plant, which again, has been debunked. Bill Blair got up to pat himsefl con the back for the billions in military aid sent to Ukraine. Gérard Deltell got up to repeat the demand for a balanced budget in French, to which François-Philippe Champagne praised the government’s efforts. Deltell railed that the government would force our great-grandchildren to pay the price for their mistakes, and Champagne implored for them to pass their affordability bill.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the plan for interprovincial labour mobility for healthcare workers, and railed that this would disadvantage Quebec. Boissonnault pointed pivot that the federal government transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to Quebec to help francisise immigrants. Therrien insisted that all the federal government needed to do was increase transfers so that Quebec could hire more doctors on their own, to which Pablo Rodriguez said that Canadians can work together, whether the Bloc likes it or not.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he accused the industry minister of not doing anything about the grocery CEOs. Champagne insisted that he stared down those CEOs and he forced them to stabilise prices, before imploring them to pass the affordability bill. Alistair MacGregor gave the English version of the same question, and Champagne accused the NDP of not doing anything for consumers and again implored them to pass that bill.

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Roundup: More reactions to the economic update

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Reactions to the Fall Economic Statement continue to roll in, so I figured I would highlight a couple of them. On the subject of housing, pretty much everyone is unhappy with what was on offer, in spite of the fact that the federal government didn’t have a lot of room to manoeuvre as they try to avoid juicing economic growth too much, which would put upward pressure on inflation (and the provinces are already doing just that).

To that effect, here’s a thread from Mike Moffatt on things the federal government could have done that won’t impact the inflation situation.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1727301177833132254

Kevin Milligan delves into the debt and deficit figures in this thread, and provides a dose of perspective sauce for all of the hyperventilating that is coming from certain quarters and voices, particularly as debt servicing charges have risen. As well, I’m highlighting this one tweet about just how big the increase is in relative and historical terms, because again, perspective.

As well, Lindsay Tedds explains in this thread why she thinks the government’s plans to limit short-term rentals is going to be far easier said than actually done (and that they may not have thought it through).

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1727491807834177690

Ukraine Dispatch:

The death toll from the Russian strike on the hospital in Selydove has risen to three. The Russians are reported to be sending fewer troops and less equipment to Avdiivka after failing to capture it in a major assault. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of a “difficult defence” on the eastern front as the winter cold sets in. Ukraine’s coal industry has had to start hiring women and overturning policies that barred them from working underground because of the war.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1727376980851486836

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QP: Outright lying about the Ukraine trade deal

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The prime minister was present while his deputy was not. All other leaders were in the Chamber, so it was going to be a spectacle. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and asked for an update about the incident in Niagara Falls, which he attributed to a terrorist event (which was far too early to determine at the time, which seem to have been disproven), to which Justin Trudeau stated that a vehicle blew up on the Rainbow Bridge, and they were still gathering information, but that the border has been closed at additional locations. Poilievre repeated the request in English, but slipped in a “bring home” slogan in there, and got the same response, and then excused himself to go get further updates. Poilievre returned to French to decry that the $20 billion in new spending from the economic update would keep fuelling inflation. Randy Boissonneault insisted that the update would be good news. Poilievre got back up and asked “what’s up?”, paused, then listed things that he insisted were up before declaring “time’s up” for the government, and decried that $20 billion in English. Boissonnault repeated his good news points before lambasting the Conservatives for failing to vote for the legislation on the trade deal with Ukraine. Poilievre declared that the federal government “betrayed Ukraine” with a list of mostly falsehoods, but didn’t actually ask a question. Gould noted that if that were true, they would have voted for the bill, but they didn’t because of a red herring.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, hoped that the situation at the border would be as un-dramatic as possible, before decrying the empty box that was the economic update. Boissonnault gave his own well wishes for the situation the borders before deploying his good-news talking points. Blanchet then demanded that the government stop intruding in provincial jurisdiction around housing, to which Sean Fraser praised the deal with the Quebec government.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and asked for his own update on the border situation, to which Karina Gould gave some fairly bland assurances as there were no further details. Singh switched to French to decry that the housing funds in the fiscal update were backloaded two years. Marci Ien got up to praise the tax-free housing savings plan, insisting that it was working for young people.

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Roundup: A relatively restrained update

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And so, the government tabled their Fall Economic Statement, and lo, it was relatively restrained. There was very little spending, most of it very targeted, nothing about booking particular promised but not yet delivered spending programmes (such as the disability benefit), and most of that spending was geared toward either housing, or some targeted tax breaks. Critics will point out that what is offered for housing is very little given the scale of the crisis, but we also have to remember that the federal government needs to be restrained in its spending so as not to juice growth too much and keep inflation high—several provinces are already doing that, which makes the Bank of Canada’s job much harder, and Freeland seems to be making the effort to do her part not to make things worse.

With this in mind, here are some of the stories that emerged:

  • A overall look, including the deficit situation.
  • Further promising changes to competition law.
  • Using part of the growth fund to guarantee carbon prices for major emitters (as insurance for investments against future government actions).
  • There’s a new voluntary “Mortgage Charter,” and measures to help CHMC revive projects that may have been shelved because of interest rates.
  • Debt-servicing charges are increasing mostly because of how much they needed to take on during the pandemic.
  • Enriching the payroll tax credit for media organizations.
  • The Canadian Press has a list of highlights and five key affordability measures in the update.

Meanwhile, here is some added reaction:

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians hit a hospital in Selydove in the east, as well as a coal mine, as well as killing one while shelling Kharkiv. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion. The Russians claim to have scuppered more Ukrainian attempts to get footholds on the eastern banks of the Dnipro river. Two Ukrainian lawmakers are under investigation for trying to bribe reconstruction officials, one of them with Bitcoin.

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