It’s an awful, wet day out in the Nation’s Capital, the precipitation an ugly mix of fluffy wet snow and needle-like ice pellets. Inside the Commons, QP kicked off with Thomas Mulcair reading a question about cuts to services for First Nations including policing. Harper responded that there were no cuts, and that new funds would be announced in due course. Mulcair’s second question was about Flaherty’s letter to the CRTC, to which Harper reminded him that he already answered the question the day before. Mulcair then asked a question about those Senators who have not yet responded to the CBC about their residency. Harper assured him that all Senators respect their residency requirement (though I suppose that remains to be seen). Nycole Turmel was up next to ask a pair of EI “quota” questions, speciously tying in the Senate, to which Diane Finley assured her that there were no quotas or bonuses for achieving cuts. Rae pressed on the issue of bonuses for cuts, to which Harper talked about how they wanted to ensure that EI funds were there for those who paid into them. Rae carried on about how this move was simply downshifting the unemployed onto provincial welfare rolls, but Harper insisted there was no such plan.
Tag Archives: Estimates
QP: Getting Harper on the record, scattershot style
With all leaders on deck on a lovely Tuesday afternoon in the Nation’s Capital, QP got underway with Thomas Mulcair reading a question on why John Duncan was dropped from cabinet over an improper letter, but not Jim Flaherty. Harper responded that in Flaherty’s case, it was an administrative error. Mulcair moved on to the topic of EI “quotas,” to which Harper insisted that they were merely performance audit. Mulcair then moved onto the “scandals” in the Senate, to which Harper somehow turned it into a paean for an elected Senate — not that it would actually address the current issues. For his final question, Mulcair demanded that Harper stay away from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka, and Harper started off by carrying on his elected Senate paean before saying that he would not attend the meeting. For the Liberals, Bob Rae asked about the house calls that EI recipients are receiving as part of the effort to stamp out fraud. Harper responded by saying that EI was paid into by honest Canadians and they want to ensure that the money is there for honest recipients. For his final question, Rae asked about the Estimates tabled yesterday and the increase in advertising budgets while front-line services are being cut. Harper insisted that said front-line services were not being cut.
Roundup: The unravelling cases of Senators Wallin and Duffy
In the past couple of days of Senate revelations, we find that Senator Pamela Wallin has an Ontario health card and not a Saskatchewan one, which raises the question about her residency – no matter that she spent 168 days in Saskatchewan last year. Wallin also apparently repaid a substantial amount in expense claims before this whole audit business started, which is also interesting news. Senator Mike Duffy, meanwhile, could actually end up owing $90,000 plus interest on his living expense claims rather than the $42,000 that was cited over the weekend. Oops. Tim Harper looks at the sideshow that is Senator Duffy’s non-apology and smells a deal made to save his job. Senator Cowan says that repayment doesn’t answer the questions – especially not the ones about residency, which means he may not be up to protect Duffy – or Wallin and Patterson’s – seats. And those Senators who’ve been silent on their residency claims are now being called before the Senate Internal Economy committee to explain themselves. Terry Milewski goes through the entire housing claims allegations and fixes an appropriate amount of scorn on the idea that two ticky-boxes are “complex” on the forms.
Roundup: Page takes aim at the real problem of Parliament
iPolitics‘ Colin Horgan had a good talk with Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, who breaks down some of the key concerns that his office has – that the political executive is now steamrolling budgets through without due diligence and telling MPs to trust them and check their work afterwards, when the Public Accounts come out, because the process is so convoluted. And he’s right – it is broken, but not only because the executive has gamed the system, but because MPs have decided to abdicate their responsibility to scrutinise the estimates because they have other priorities, like their eleventieth Private Members’ Bill that won’t see the light of day, or scoring political points in the scandal of the day, or pet hobby projects that yes, they may care about and may be important, but ultimately at the cost of their actual job of scrutiny. Add to that how they’re using their staff to shepherd through passports and immigration files rather than assisting them in the actual analysis work. Yes, the system needs to be fixed, but I will caution that the changes need to come from the ground up. Voters need to demand that their MPs do their due diligence, and MPs need to take that job seriously and not fob it off onto the PBO, as they have been doing, often under the rubric that his numbers can be trusted because he’s non-partial. Meanwhile, there is insufficient pushback – especially from the government backbenchers, who aren’t supposed to just parrot mindless slogans – and we wind up with a situation like we have today. At least Page is talking about the actual problem and laying the blame where it needs to be laid, rather than just pouting about the current government being mean (as so many others are doing).
QP: Schrödinger’s contingency plan
While Thomas Mulcair was back in the Commons today, Harper was off meeting the President-elect of Mexico, who is currently visiting Ottawa. So while Mulcair opened QP by reading off a trio of questions on whether or not the government had any contingency plans for another fiscal downturn, it was Jason Kenney’s turn to be back-up PM du jour, and he responded that there was a line in each budget for unexpected expenses. Oh, and the NDP would raise taxes. Peggy Nash then asked what the government was going to cut in order to meet its election promises, to which Ted Menzies batted back about the fictional “carbon tax” and reiterated their intention to get the budget in balance within the current parliament. Bob Rae demanded an apology from the Conservatives for their engaging Campaign Research for their reprehensible calls into Irwin Cotler’s riding, to which Peter Van Loan (correctly) pointed out that this wasn’t about government business, before he went on to say that the Speaker had already settled this issue.
Roundup: Dissecting the by-election results
In the wake of the three by-elections, Pundit’s Guide crunches the numbers. While I disagree with the aggregation of the three events into a single grand number (for the same reason that I will remind you that the national “popular vote” numbers are a fallacy), the voter share breakdowns seem to indicate that the Greens were eating into the Conservative vote in Calgary Centre and Victoria, which further problematises the already dubious “unite the left” propositions. Because seriously – bundling both the Liberals and the Greens with the NDP as the “left” is too facile of an understanding of some of the issues the parties stand on, and one of the reasons why these “vote splitting” arguments annoy me. Colby Cosh gives his post-mortem of the Calgary Centre vote.
The government unveiled new emissions regulations yesterday for passenger vehicles a few years into the future – never mind that regulations are a far more costly way of controlling greenhouse gas emissions than simple carbon pricing. Meanwhile, Aaron Wherry gets a response from Preston Manning about his thoughts on carbon pricing – apparently he wants complete cost accounting, but that includes things like paying for the volume of land flooded by hydro projects as well as oil sands development.
Roundup: Veteran protests and shuttered investigations
As we head into the Remembrance Day weekend, here’s the tale of a veteran protesting the government’s inaction on the file, and the tale of how the minister quietly shut down the Veterans’ Ombudsman’s investigation into those privacy breaches. Because you know, they had a Ten-Point Action Plan™ and are taking this problem seriously, etcetera.
The Supplementary Estimates B were tabled, which features demands for more funds for the RCMP, First Nations, and oh, look – more government advertising, this time for their branded Responsible Resource Development™.
With Stephen Harper’s tour now in the Philippines to talk trade and security, here’s a look at the unanswered questions from India, such as why the pace of trade negotiations are so slow, and what was up with those warnings about Sikh extremism? Harper will be in Hong Kong tomorrow to mark Remembrance Day there.
QP: A near-outbreak of spontaneous debate
It was a strange kind of place in the Commons this morning – the Chamber was on a Friday schedule so that MPs could head back to their ridings early for Remembrance Day activities, and it was a mostly Friday-vibe in the House, with most front-benchers gone – either mentally or physically – and time distorted into what felt like the longest 45 minutes in history. Despite there being other NDP deputy leaders present, it was Nycole Turmel who was chosen to haltingly read off the lead questions about proposals to privatise certain social services in order to run them like Goldman Sachs – or something like that. (In reality, Diane Finley wants charities and private enterprise to explore “social finance instruments,” not that you could tell from the question Turmel asked.) Kellie Leitch responded with an equally coherent accusation that the NDP want to raise taxes and won’t support the Economic Action Plan™ to create jobs. So really, an edifying start to the day. For her last question, Turmel switched to English and lamented the Service Canada wait times, to which James Moore – apparently the part-time back-up PM du jour – responded that just because they were doing things differently it didn’t mean it was worse, or something that effect. Megan Leslie was up next and denounced this call for ideas as a PR stunt to cover cuts. Leitch responded that they were trying to let local communities tackle local problems. Leslie then switched to ski trails being on the receive end of cuts, but Peter Kent assured her that they were protecting natural spaces, and that they were working with volunteer groups. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, demanding to know what caused the government to settle with Ashley Smith’s family in their lawsuit, and what other videos or evidence they had in possession, not only with this case, but with other prison deaths concerning the mentally ill. James Moore repeatedly stood up – despite Toews being in the Chamber – and said that all kinds of information was being provided to the inquiry, but Toews remained in his seat, no matter Rae’s efforts.
Roundup: What fake parts?
The Americans discovered a problem that some of their military hardware was being sold to them with counterfeit parts, most of them from China. We buy most our military hardware from the Americans. So what is DND doing about this possible threat? Nothing. You’re welcome, Canada.
The Conservatives have consented to allowing ten different committees study aspects of the Omnibus budget bill, for what it’s worth. The NDP moved a motion to break it up into eleven parts, not that the government will take them up on it. Meanwhile, John Geddes parses what the changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act means, and why the government talking points about it aren’t really all that accurate.
Not unsurprisingly, the recession derailed the government’s debt retirement plans, and even less surprising is the fact that they haven’t come up with any new plans. Seeing as long-term planning isn’t really this government’s forte and all.
Roundup: A no thank-you for transparency
In its response to the report from the Government Operations committee, the government has opted not to make certain changes that would make the estimates process more transparent. Currently the estimates reflect the previous year’s budget, and MPs wanted to change that so they have a better idea of what they’re voting on – by Tony Clement has said no. Because you know, it’s not like the estimates process is the backbone of why we have a parliament in the first place or anything. Not unexpectedly, they also rejected the call for a more independent Parliamentary Budget Officer as part of this report.
The government announced that three by-elections – Victoria, Durham, and Calgary Centre – will be held on November 26th. This precludes the possibility of Etobicoke Centre being included in that because a Thursday decision from the Supreme Court will be outside of the minimum time frame. The Conservative Party spokesperson then inexplicably stated that majority governments don’t win by-elections, which Kady O’Malley thoroughly debunked. (Also, the wouldn’t win Calgary Centre? Really? Unless he’s foreshadowing how unpopular Joan Crockatt really is…) Thomas Mulcair, meanwhile, calls these by-elections a warm-up for 2015.