Tag Archives: Healthcare

Roundup: Debating the “manipulated media” tag

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Because this campaign is already reaching levels of stupid that are hard to comprehend, we got into the supposed health care debate portion over the weekend, with Chrystia Freeland tweeting clips of Erin O’Toole responding to a question where he praises certain elements of privatizing healthcare – apparently to help “drive efficiencies” – but what the clip didn’t show was him saying that he still felt universal healthcare was paramount. And while this raged back and forth over social media, Twitter slapped the “manipulated media” tag over the French version of the video (but not the English, leading to some speculation that it was because of the subtitles), and lo, did all of the Conservatives on social media have a field day.

Of course, said field day simply outlines their own hypocrisy, as they went into the weekend widely sharing shitposts of Justin Trudeau saying he doesn’t think about monetary policy – while having truncated the clip so that you don’t hear him talking about affordability. It’s a game they’ve long played (hello, the truncated quote of “budgets balance themselves” anyone?) so they can’t claim to be the wounded party here, and their wounded tones about Freeland proving she wasn’t such a statesman after all is all partisan bullshit, and yet, we’re in a campaign so it’s not wholly unexpected. But seriously, guys, tone down the sanctimony – and the gloating.

Meanwhile, a couple of reminders when it comes to the healthcare debate:

https://twitter.com/tammyschirle/status/1429525317866115079

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1429546698184003589

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Roundup: Stay-at-home again, complete with feigned surprise

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Ontario is now back under a “stay-at-home” order, issued its third state of emergency, and lo, there has been movement on vaccinations in that they are now going to start targeting high-risk neighbourhoods and essential workers, like they should have started weeks ago, so that’s positive. Oh, but still no paid sick leave because Ford and company continue to mislead people by claiming the federal sickness benefit is the same thing, which it absolutely is not. What most assuredly is not positive is the fact that the provincial government knew this was coming. They have been warned for weeks that this was going to happen, and they were explicitly told that loosening restrictions in the face of the new variants would be a disaster. There was that press conference on February 11th that said just that – and they didn’t listen, and now they have the gall to pretend to be surprised that the numbers are exceeding their worst-case scenarios? Sorry, but no. Get out of here with that bullshit.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1379884476054966272

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1379962777566085120

And here’s Supriya Dwivedi which lays out why Ford has completely ballsed this up and created this Third Wave and all of the illnesses and resulting deaths as a result.

Meanwhile, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has decided to stick with their advice that second doses can be delayed for up to four months – and the “up to” is key – but given increasing vaccine supplies, that interval is likely to be less. And the reason why they’re saying this is because they are looking at the balance of ensuring that as many people get a first dose as soon as possible in order to have at least some level of protection. The problem is that this isn’t being effectively communicated by most media outlets (the Star piece linked here is actually doing a decent job) and even on Power & Politics last night, after the head of NACI patiently explained all of this, Vassy Kapelos still characterised it as NACI recommending a four-month delay, omitting the “up to” and creating a false impression of the advice, and it makes it easy for certain parties like the Conservatives to deliberately misconstrue NACI’s advice for partisan point-scoring. I do not understand what CBC thinks they are doing by reporting this way. It defies sense.

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QP: O’Toole with the follow-up

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Wednesday, proto-Prime Minsters Questions Day, and all of the leaders were present. Erin O’Toole led off, with his script on the mini-lectern in front of him, and not only declared that Canada would not get vaccines until other countries do, and demanded the “real” vaccine plan. Justin Trudeau assured him that Canada has one of the most robust vaccine plans in the world. O’Toole was not mollified, and again demanded the plan, to which Trudeau gave some bland platitudes before he said they had a numerous plans for distribution in the works. O’Toole complained he wasn’t getting a real answer, wondered about American “emergency” approvals for drugs, and accused the government of not having a plan. Trudeau gave a weary sigh and noted that people don’t care about what they hear in QP, but that they wanted the government to get stuff done, and they were. O’Toole switched to French to complain that the government was been mean to Quebeckers by not applying the province’s Bill 101 to federal workplaces, and Trudeau assured him that they were committed to protecting the French language in Quebec. O’Toole then mischaracterised comments by MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos as being “contemptuous” of Quebeckers, and Trudeau assured him that she had apologised for the her remarks. Yves-François Blanchet picked up on this line and decried the decline of French, and Trudeau repeated that they respect French and were working to strengthen it. Blanchet ratcheted up his rhetoric for his follow-up, and Trudeau wondered why the Bloc was trying to start a fight over something the government agrees with. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and in French, he accused the government of doing less in the second wave than they did in the first to which Trudeau listed measures that they have taken to assist the provinces. Singh then switched to English to repeat the accusations, and Trudeau repeated his response. 

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QP: Assertions of no PMO interference

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All of the leaders were absent for the day, and not even the deputy PM was present, making it feel a little more like a Friday than a Monday. Gérard Deltell led off in English, lamenting that the prime minister wouldn’t protect the unconditional freedom of speech, and feeling there should be limits on it. François-Philippe Champagne responded with condolences for the people of France, and saying that Canada would defend freedom of expression around the world. Deltell repeated the question in French, to which Champagne warned him against politicising such a horrific incident. Deltell tried to put forward the notion that it took Trudeau twelve days to condemn the murder of that teacher in France, to which Champagne rebutted that he made a statement the following day. Deltell reminded Champagne that he is not yet prime minister, and insisted that the government was not standing by its ally in France, and Champagne rebutted that the government speaks as a whole. Deltell again returned to Trudeau citing that there are limits to freedom of expression, for which Champagne again chided him about politicising the issue. Stéphane Bergeron led for the Bloc, and he too hammered on Trudeau saying there were limits to freedom of expression, for which Champagne reiterated his that Canada stood by France and to defend freedom of expression. Bergeron accused the government of downplaying Islamic terrorism and hurting Quebec’s special relationship with France, to which Champagne repeated that Canada was standing by France. Jagmeet Singh was up next by video, and in French, after mentioning the attack in Quebec City, he demanded increased funding for mental health services, for which Patty Hajdu reminded him that they have been increasing funds for provinces for mental health services. Singh switched to English to worry about small businesses paying commercial rent, accusing Trudeau of helping “Liberal insiders” instead. Sean Fraser responded with a list of programmes available for small businesses. 

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QP: Confusion over police powers

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The prime minister was around, but absent from the Chamber for QP, leaving his deputy in his place. Erin O’Toole led off, script and mini-lectern in front of him accusing the government of being absent on the issue of tensions around the Mi’kmaq fishery issue, to which Chrystia Freeland condemned the violence that took place, and said that federal and provincial governments were working together to recognise the Mi’kmaq rights under the Marshall Decision. O’Toole went again on the same question in French, got the same answer, then n French worried about threats that China was making, particularly around Canadians in Hong Kong. Freeland responded that the foreign minister had issued a clear statement, and that only Canada would make its own decisions on immigration. O’Toole asked again in English, and got much the same response, with slightly more specificity on the individual issues in China. O’Toole blustered more about Trudeau’s apparent “admiration for the basic dictatorship of China,” the Chinese ambassador’s comments and wondered when his credentials would be pulled. Freeland reminded him that she was well aware of what a totalitarian communist country is like, as she lived in one and reported from it, before repeating that they were standing up for human rights and the Canadian citizens in Hong Kong. Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, worrying that the government would rather go to an election than talk about the WE Imbroglio, to which Freeland said that the Government House Leader had made a sensible suggestion around a special committee on pandemic costing, which she hoped they would support. Therrien said that was well and good but still wanted a committee dedicated to the WE Imbroglio, to which Freeland reminded him of what has been released to date. Jagmeet Singh appeared by video to accuse the prime minister in French of standing by and not protecting the Mi’kmaq (never mind that policing is a provincial responsibility), to which Freeland said that they approved a request to give more resources to the RCMP on the ground. Singh switched to English to repeat the question, and got much the same response.

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Roundup: A spineless premier in the centre of a dispute

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The suspicious fire of a lobster pound used by the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia is the latest escalation in the fisheries dispute in that province, which prompted a number of calls over the weekend for the federal government to do something. But when you ask for specifics, people tend to come up with a bunch of hand-waving and not a lot of answers. As a reminder, policing is a provincial responsibility, and in Nova Scotia, the RCMP are contracted to the province. This means that it’s the province’s responsibility to ensure that the RCMP are doing their jobs and protecting the Mi’kmaq people from the mobs of angry commercial fishers that are threatening them, and not just standing there and watching it happen like they did during the swarming of a lobster pound last week.

Of course, the premier keeps trying to insist that he can’t solve the problem and demands that the federal government define what a “moderate livelihood” for the Mi’kmaq people is under their treaty rights (which, to be clear, the government has been at the negotiation table about for weeks now), which is a cynical exercise in buck-passing from a premier who make a big song and dance about admitting that the province was mired in systemic racism. Funny that when it’s in his face, he doesn’t want to do anything about it. On Saturday, the province’s attorney general finally requested additional support for the RCMP from the federal government, which Bill Blair immediately granted, days after he publicly stated that there were resources waiting to be deployed to the province upon request, which they had not done up until that point. A bunch of people (including Jagmeet Singh) also started chirping over Twitter that this attack was “terrorism,” except that it’s not – the Criminal Code has a very specific definition, and a mob is not it. One of the Indigenous chiefs at the centre of the dispute also mused over social media that the military should be called in, but again, this can’t be done without the request of the provincial government, and I cannot stress this enough, but you do not want the military to conduct law enforcement. It’s a VERY, VERY BAD THING.

Meanwhile, both the fisheries minister and the NDP are now calling for an emergency debate in Parliament over this, which seems to me to be the most useless thing imaginable, but what can you do? Erin O’Toole is also trying to pin the blame on the federal government, insisting that they should have had the negotiations over by now (how? By imposing a solution?) and blaming the federal government for not properly resourcing the RCMP in the province (who are under provincial contract and jurisdiction), but then again, truth hasn’t exactly been his strong suit of late. But this shouldn’t be an issue about the treaty – the government has signalled that they will protect those rights, and are just figuring out the details. Protection of the Mi’kmaq fishers and their property should be a police matter, which is provincial jurisdiction, but so long as the premier is too afraid of the white voters, I don’t see him exactly taking a strong stand on this issue anytime soon, and while all eyes turn back to Justin Trudeau to do something, anything, he doesn’t exactly have the levers at his disposal.

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Roundup: Special committee games

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The competing offers for special committees got even more crowded yesterday as the Liberals suggested their own possible special committee to examine pandemic spending, in a bid to jam both the Conservatives and NDP as they make their own offers. The Conservatives, you may recall, are employing a stunt to call for a special “anti-corruption committee,” as though the penny-ante bullshit that happens here were actual corruption that happens in other countries, and called explicitly for the purpose of decrying any lack of support for this committee idea as being in support of corruption. The NDP have their own proposal for a pandemic spending committee, but it was intended as a kind of super-committee to draw in not only the WE Imbroglio, but to revisit other non-scandals such as the Rob Silver affair (which the Ethics Commissioner declined to investigate), or the fact that one of the many pandemic procurement contracts went to a company whose owner is a former Liberal MP (whose departure was a bit huffy and drawn out at the time, one may recall).

The Liberal plan is to offer a “serious committee” to do “serious work,” which is a political gambit in and of itself – citing that if the other parties don’t agree to this particular committee (whose terms of reference one expects will be fairly narrowly circumscribed), then it proves that they are simply motivated by partisan gamesmanship rather than helping Canadians. And they’re not wrong – that’s exactly what both the Conservatives and NDP are looking for, at a point where they can only expect diminishing returns the longer that they drag on the WE Imbroglio (though, caveat, they do have a legitimate point in the Finance committee about producing the unredacted documents because that was the committee order that the government didn’t obey, and risks finding themselves in contempt of parliament over; the Ethics Committee demands are going outside of that committee’s mandate).

To add to the possible drama, the Liberals are also contemplating making the Conservatives’ upcoming Supply Day motion on their committee demand a confidence vote, which will wind up forcing the hands of one of the opposition parties into voting against it because nobody wants an election (and that could mean a number of Conservative MPs suddenly having “connectivity issues” and being unable to vote on the motion to ensure its demise). Of course, there is always the possibility of an accident – that seat counts weren’t done properly and the government could defeat itself, though that’s highly unlikely in the current circumstances. Nevertheless, this game-playing is where we’re at, seven months into the pandemic.

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QP: Energy workers and omitted automation

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The prime minister was away, having attended the state funereal of Rt.Hon. John Turner, but his deputy was again present, which was worth something. Erin O’Toole led off, with his script on the mini-lectern in front of him, and in French he accused government of dragging their feet on the procurement of ventilators, citing one contract in particular.  Chrystia Freeland assured him they were taking the pandemic seriously, and thanked industrial partners for stepping up. O’Toole tried again, and this time Freeland stated that his assertion wasn’t true, that they had sourced enough ventilators across the country, and were still procuring necessary equipment and medication. O’Toole switched to English to reiterate the question with added bombast, to which Freeland calmly assured him that they were confident they have the ventilators they need, and they have acquired so much PPE that they are acquiring additional warehouse space. O’Toole then switched to the topic of a possible refinery closure in Newfoundland, to which Freeland too exception to his characterisation, and reminded him that they just transferred millions of dollars to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador for the benefit of energy workers. O’Toole then raised Suncor job losses — studiously omitting that those losses were as a result of increased automation— and Freeland disabused him of the notion that the government doesn’t care about Albertans and listed the benefits delivered to the province. Alain Therrien led off for the Bloc, and he made the usual demand for increased health transfers, to which Freeland reminded him of the increased supports they have already provided. Luc Thériault repeated the plea, and Freeland repeated that they have given the provinces additional funds. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he complained that some people made profits off the pandemic and they needed to be taxed, to which Freeland listed that they were working to combat tax evasion. Singh switched to English to complain that private clinics were giving COVID tests for a fee, and Freeland agreed that everyone should be treated the same, and that Health Canada just approved an antigen test.

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QP: Blaming Trudeau for Ford’s inaction

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Prime minister Justin Trudeau was in town but chose not to appear at QP today, but fortunately his deputy was present in his stead. Erin O’Toole led off, listing countries that are using rapid tests and railing that Manitoba can’t procure their own. Chrystia Freeland led off with belated congratulations to O’Toole for his election as leader before stating that they have recently purchased millions of rapid tests. O’Toole railed that provinces couldn’t procure them, but Freeland insisted that they worked with the provinces on the Safe Restart Agreement. O’Toole switched to French to ask the same thing and Freeland repeated her response in kind. O’Toole returned to English to carry on his lament for rapid tests, and Freeland assured him that they would start arriving next week, and more announcements were forthcoming. O’Toole then attempted some revisionist history around border closures, and Freeland insisted that they got it right. Alain Therrien led off for the Bloc, and he, unsurprisingly, demanded increased health transfers, and Freeland assured him that they reached the Safe Restart Agreement with the provinces. Therrien said that it wasn’t enough, that they demanded $28 billion, and Freeland very calmly annunciated that Quebec got nearly $300 billion for health and economic recovery. Jagmeet Singh appeared by video to lead for the NDP, where he demanded a plan for testing and long-term care, both of which are provincial responsibilities. Freeland responded that they were working with provinces and municipalities. Singh stumbled over his attempt to pin the blame on the prime minister, to which Freeland agreed that the country was at a crossroads, before she reiterated that the government was working with provinces and municipalities. 

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Roundup: Another brave demand for money without strings

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Four nominally conservative premiers convened in Ottawa yesterday to once again bravely demand that the federal government give them more money for healthcare and infrastructure, and to not attach any strings to it. In total, they demanded at least $28 billion more per year for healthcare, $10 billion for infrastructure, and retroactive reforms to fiscal stabilization that would give Alberta another $6 billion. Of course, two of those premiers – Jason Kenney and Brian Pallister – were in the Harper government when health transfers were unilaterally cut, to which we must also offer the reminder that the numbers at the time show that provincial health spending was not rising nearly as fast as the health transfer escalator, which means that the money was going to other things, no matter how much the provinces denied it. As well, most provinces have not actually been spending the current infrastructure dollars that are on the table for one reason or another (some of which have been petty and spiteful), so why demand more when they already aren’t spending what’s there.

As for Alberta’s demand for retroactive fiscal stabilization, one should also add the caveat that the current formula asserts a certain amount of moral risk for provinces who rely too heavily on resource revenues for their provincial coffers – that they should be looking at other forms of revenue (like sales taxes) so that they aren’t so exposed to the vagaries of things like world oil prices. Retroactively changing the formula means that the federal government becomes their insurance for the risks they undertook on their own balance sheets, which hardly seems fair to the other provinces in confederation, who have to pay higher provincial taxes.

And then Kenney dropped this little claim:

This is patently untrue. The province still has tremendous fiscal capacity because they still have the highest per capita incomes in the country and the lowest taxation. Sure, that fiscal capacity has diminished, but not that much. The province’s deficit is a policy choice because they refuse to implement a modest sales tax that could actually pay for the services that Kenney is now in the process of slashing, having ordered up a report to tell him that they have a spending problem instead of a revenue problem. Err, and then he spent billions on a money-losing refinery and another pipeline that will actually make said refinery an even bigger money-loser. So no, the quality of healthcare in his province isn’t being jeopardized by the state of his economy – it’s because he won’t stabilize his revenues (and because he’s launching an ill-conceived war against the doctors in his province in the middle of a global pandemic, because he’s strategic like that).

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