Tag Archives: Estimates

Roundup: All those arcane rules

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A new parliamentary report says that arcane rules are keeping MPs from doing their jobs when it comes to scrutinising the estimates. It’s good that they acknowledge that, and I’m still working my way though reading the report, but some of those rules aren’t that arcane and were more recent additions in order to keep the opposition from bogging down the business of government (this being the “deemed” rule whereby estimates are “deemed adopted” if they pass a certain date on the calendar). And MPs have always had the ability to change those rules whenever they decided it was time to start taking the estimates process more seriously, so this tone of them being the poor victims of traditions dating back to the Magna Carta really reads hollow to me, sorry to say. There are also calls in the report to strengthen the role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which is all well and good, but a) good luck getting this government to agree to it, and b) we should be careful not to make it tempting for MPs to simply fob off their responsibilities of scrutinising the estimates to him more than they already are.

Uh oh – when Christian Paradis was minister of Public Works, he had the department roll out the welcome mat for firms from his riding. Apparently the Ethics Commissioner have him a talking to about the fact that while it’s all well and good to represent your constituents, as a minister there are limits. But like Paradis said, these are all just learning experiences, right?

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Roundup: Distortions and unfollowed guidelines

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An American expert following the F-35 debacle asserts that the government’s response doesn’t go far enough. You don’t say! And that General Natynczyk still thinks they’re the best jet for our air force, no matter what anyone says? Get out of town! Meanwhile, here are some of the references around how this was or was not just an “accounting error,” the lifecycle being assessed – which former Assistant Deputy Minister Alan Williams calls “a distortion” – and while Peter MacKay assures us that there’s all kinds of documentation to back this up, the Auditor General repeatedly said there was not. And Andrew Coyne goes to Treasury Board guidelines to take apart MacKay’s argument.

It cost the public purse $2.3 million for Elections Canada to investigate and take the Conservatives to court over the In & Out affair, for which they paid out a meagre $52,000 in fines.

Here’s a good examination of the meaning of the government’s decision to dismantle the National Roundtable on Energy and the Economy, and the negligible savings to the treasury that will actually result.

The government has also cut all funding to the National Aboriginal Health Association, which will close in June.

Also, cuts to the Canadian Space Agency will likely impact on future projects that Canada will be able to participate in.

Hat tip to Aaron Wherry for finding the speech by John Diefenbaker in 1949 about the role of the Official Opposition, and how they were having the very same doubts about the estimates process and the role of the Public Accounts Committee back then as they are now.

So many communities tried to host a Diamond Jubilee party that the special fund has been “oversubscribed.”

And the NCC is going to start putting up plaques with the statues of the Fathers of Confederation and early prime ministers up on Parliament Hill, so that people know who they actually are and what they accomplished. Which really is long overdue, really.