As it happens, charities like World Vision and Engineers Without Borders have been using their funds to send MPs on trips to regions that they’re assisting. Rather than, you know, spending those thousands of dollars on their projects to help the poor and needy in developing countries. This isn’t to say that the MPs are being improper, or that they’re using the trips as some kind of vacation because let’s face it – nobody could argue that case at all. But it does remind us that there are reasons why we should give MPs travel budgets so that they can do trips like this in the service of their duties, rather than forcing charities to pay for it, or for them to take trips from foreign or corporate interests. Of course, any travel that does happen gets people like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in a big twist because OMG taxpayers’ hard earned dollars are supporting MPs on foreign travel isn’t that just horrible and awful! Erm, except that if we expect them to learn about their files and the policies they’re legislating on – and that can mean more than just the MPs on the foreign affairs committee – then we should also realise that we should be able to pay for it too.
Tag Archives: Census
QP: The projections are on track
The House was a bit sleepy today, where Thomas Mulcair started off by reading out a pair of questions on the rules around foreign takeovers, the English one of which using the phrase “like a thief in the night.” John Baird, acting as the back-up PM du jour, thanked him for raising the tone of debate before proceeding to remind him how much the government supported foreign investment and that the minister was reviewing it. For his last question, Mulcair asked about the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s lowered growth projections, but Baird offered up some bland talking points about growth! And jobs! And warnings against the fictional NDP carbon tax! Megan Leslie followed up with a pair of English questions on the very same topic, for which Ted Menzies assured her that we are in a period of slow global recovery, and that the projections were on track. Bob Rae was then up and asked a pair of questions about the cancelled EI programme that offered five additional weeks of benefits in hard-hit areas, to which Baird responded that the measures were always meant to be temporary. For his final question, Rae wondered why Peter Penashue was still sitting in cabinet after his campaign overspent in the last election – along with additional allegations of improper donations. Baird assured him that the new Official Agent was working with Elections Canada, before launching into an angry rant about how the Liberals needed to get their own house in order before casting aspersions elsewhere.
Roundup: Discovering the domain of private members’ bills
Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti has a private member’s bill up for debate that proposes a tax credit for domestic travel that crosses three provinces – in order to help Canadians discover their own country instead of always travelling south. He calls it the “Discover Your Canada Act,” and it is a laudable goal, as domestic travel is ridiculously expensive in this country but – and this is a very, very big but – it’s not the domain of a private member’s bill. In fact, it is so far outside of the domain of private members’ business that it demands expenditure – which tax credits are in effect – and expenditure requires a Royal Recommendation if it’s not government legislation. And this is not government legislation, nor will the government endorse this because we’re living in an era of “fiscal austerity,” and it’s not a boutique tax credit that will appeal enough to the supposed Tim Horton’s crowd. But seriously – MPs really need to knock off this foolishness of trying to make government policy from the opposition benches. Private members’ business has its place, but these kinds of stunts, while trying to capture the populist imagination, just end up looking ridiculous.
Update: I’m reliably informed that tax credits are a way of getting around the requirement for a Royal Recommendation – but that kind of technicality doesn’t mean that this is still the domain of private members’ business. My criticism of this kind of stunt stands.
Roundup: Robo-calling on notice
The Chief Electoral Officer says he’ll recommend changes to the Elections Act in light of the whole robo-call mess. Campaigns are relying more and more on this kind of technology for voter outreach, and it looks like it might soon be reigned in.
Paul Wells picks apart the whole “Commonwealth super-embassies” speculation and takes note of the realities of diplomatic office sharing amongst European countries even with the UK in places. But what about the NDP Great British Menace™ talking point?
The low response rate to the voluntary household survey (ie – the replacement for the long-form census) is concerning to Statistics Canada, especially because the low-return rates are from rural and small towns, where that data is necessary for government planning.
Roundup: Framing the faux-debate
As the whole carbon tax faux-debate continues to rage unabated, it turns out that the Conservatives’ sector-by-sector regulatory approach has a lot of hidden costs to it. Bruce Cheadle delves into how the faux-debate is all about framing the issue, no matter how true or false it actually may be.
Changes to MP pensions may mean lifting the freeze on their salaries. The Liberals are demanding that the changes be in a separate bill, so that they can support it. Of course, the likely calculation is that the changes will be put into an otherwise unpalatable omnibus bill so that the Conservatives can accuse them of trying to protect their pensions.
Plans to allow American law enforcement agents to pursue suspects across land borders are “on hold” while they sort out legal issues.
Roundup: Hiding “Angry Tom”
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair talks to PostMedia about the upcoming fall sitting, and promises more “proposition” on the way. Um, except that under our system of Responsible Government, that’s not his job. His job is to oppose. Not to legislate, not to propose laws, but to hold the government to account, and you do that by opposing things. Perhaps he needs to look that up. He also says that he’s pushing past the “Angry Tom” label. Um, you have seen Question Period right, when the Conservatives pick at him and he goes completely unhinged? He’s still got a ways to go before he puts “Angry Tom” behind him, and perhaps the progress he has made is because there hasn’t been QP for the past few months. Just a thought.
Seeing as central registries and mandatory ID cards are not going to fly in this country, it looks like we’re stuck with the traditional mandatory short-form census. That said, it looks like they may need to add some new questions to capture missing data now that the long-form census is no more.
QP: Doing the most in the Dominion
With Stephen Harper off in London to celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee this week, it was up to Jason Kenney to hold the fort in the Commons today as designated back-up PM du jour, a post that will rotate through the front bench all week. Thomas Mulcair, back from his Alberta adventure, was up first in Question Period, and asked why the government was outsourcing its smokestack monitoring to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Kenney replied that they were doing more about air quality “than any other government in the Dominion,” and wondered why the NDP hated Barack Obama. (In the Dominion? Don’t let the Vorta hear that, or they’ll send the Jem’Hadar after you. Oh, I kid). When Mulcair made a dig about Conservative caucus members believing that volcanoes caused climate change, Kenney retorted that the only thing volcanic was Mulcair’s temper. Megan Leslie was up next asking about scrutiny of environmental changes in the omnibus budget bill, but Peter Kent worried that she wasn’t paying attention to all of the great things his government was doing for the environment, like regulations and national parks. Bob Rae was up and gave mention to the “Blackout, speak out” event on the Internet today, and worried about the government’s culture of intimidation. Kenney, in turn, implied that Rae was somehow intimidating his own party. As a final question, Rae extended the culture of intimidation question to the calls being made in Etobicoke Centre over the weekend and the attack on the judicial process therein. Kenney declared that Borys Wrzesnewskyj had no shame, as he was busy fundraising, and then brought up AdScam. Seriously.
Roundup: Gruesome deliveries
It was a grisly day in Ottawa as a severed human foot was delivered to Conservative Party headquarters, and a severed hand found in a package a few hours later at a Canada Post depot. Yikes. No explanations yet, but you can be sure that everyone is pretty creeped out about this. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a torso was discovered in a suitcase in a garbage pile in Montreal, which may or may not be related.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer says that he’s still having difficulty getting numbers on the cuts, but suspects they may be deeper than advertised.
The government has decided not to appeal the court decision on veterans benefits clawbacks. This means that the government now has hundreds of millions of dollars in pension repayments to sort out.