Tag Archives: Inflation

QP: How is Dr. Seuss an insult?

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The prime minister was off in Whitehouse, which may or may not have anything to do with the balloon shot down over its airspace on the weekend, but his deputy was present for the first time in a couple of weeks, which was a nice change. Melissa Lantsman led off with a script on the mini-lectern in front of her, and she quoted a Statistics Canada survey about people feeling economically stressed. Chrystia Freeland praised her plan which was compassionate but affordable, and listed measures that it included. Lantsman quoted a Léger poll about people feeling the country isn’t working, and demanded the prime minister take responsibility. Freeland suggested that the Conservatives take responsibility for telling people to invest in crypto. Lantsman then read out the talking points about “random Liberals” saying the government spent too much, but Freeland retorted with the gangbusters January jobs numbers. Luc Berthold took over in French, worried about food price inflation and demanded the prime minister take responsibility for it (never mind the actual causes of droughts, floods, and Russia invading Ukraine). Freeland listed the measures they made to help people, which the Conservatives voted against. Berthold insisted they voted against inflationary policies, and this time Pablo Rodriguez who got up to decry that the Conservatives would cut programmes.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, quoted Chantal Hébert in saying some anglophone Liberals in Quebec who wanted Parliament prorogued in order to keep the official languages bill from being passed as amended. Ginette Petitpas Taylor insisted that they wanted the bill passed. Therrien mocked anglophones in Montreal who feel oppressed by Quebec language policies, to which Rodriguez insisted the Bloc needs to get their own MPs in order and accused them of delaying that bill.

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and in French, he demanded the minister block the Roger-Shaw merger. François-Philippe Champagne said that he favours competition but he is still reviewing the Federal Court of Appeal decision. Daniel Blaikie took over in English to repeat the demand with some additional sanctimony. Champagne repeated his pledge for more competition in English.

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QP: Pierre Poilievre, anti-corporate defender

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Even though the prime minister was in town, he was away from the Chamber and QP, as were most of the other leaders. Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French worrying about the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s criticism that the “government” decided it’s not worth going after $15 billion in overpayments received by wage subsidy recipients, none of which is true. The CRA Commissioner, who is arm’s-length from the government, said that the $15 billion figure is over-inflated, and that it’s not worth it go after every case—he didn’t say it wasn’t worth it go after any of it. Peter Fragiskatos responded by saying that the Commissioner said verification work for COVID programmes is ongoing. Poilievre turned to English to repeat the question, calling the CRA Commissioner the “prime minister’s chief tax collector,” and repeated the same complete bad faith framing, insisting that it was about letting friendly corporations keep ill-gotten gains. Fragiskatos hit back by saying that Poilievre was talking about cuts and austerity when Canadians needed help during the pandemic, and that the Conservatives previously voted to stop the CRA’s verification work. Poilievre insisted that he told the government not to pay wage subsidies to wealthy corporations, and insisted that 37 corporations who received the subsidy paid shareholder dividends, to which Fragiskatos insisted that the subsidy was about keeping small businesses afloat, and the Conservatives cut the CRA’s budget to do the work of combatting tax avoidance, while the current government restored it and audits are up. Poilievre insisted that the Conservatives were able to collect taxes from corporations more efficiently using fewer CRA employees—seriously?—while the current government lets the CRA complain they don’t have the resources to go after these corporations who took the wage subsidy, and insisting that the government goes after the “little guy” instead of the corporations (which is not what people at the Public Accounts committee are saying). Karina Gould got up and insisted that she talked to small businesses who thanked the government for the help they gave in the pandemic. Poilievre insisted this wasn’t about small businesses, which he supported, but this was about “fraud” and corporations who illegally received these subsidies (which, again, is not really true). Randy Boissonnault took a turn and listed measures that the government undertook, such as the return on investment in the CRA, and that there were regulations in place so that companies who took the subsidy and put that money to profits would have those funds clawed back, as well as implementing their windfall tax on banks and insurance companies.

Alain Therrien led for the NDP, and he railed about the statements that certain Montreal Liberal MPs made about Quebec’s language laws, calling it misinformation and that the prime minister approved of it if he doesn’t announce it. Ginette Petitpas Taylor stood up to give a trite defence of the official languages bill. Therrien thundered about all of the ways in which Trudeau supposedly “divides” Canadians, especially around this bill, and Petitpas Taylor reminded him that she is an Acadian from 

Rachel Blaney rose for the NDP, and complained that the contract to a Loblaws-owned company to support veterans was not working out. Darrel Samson read a statement about getting veterans the help they need. Gord Johns accused the government of not delivering on their promised mental health transfer, and Bennett said that was part of the proposed bilateral agreements with provinces so that they could be ensured of transparency and accountability for those dollars.

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QP: Taking personal responsibility

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In the aftermath of the prime minister’s meeting with the premiers, and after a moment of silence for the bus crash in the daycare in Laval, things got underway. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he raised the daycare collision, and offered support and prayers for the families, and asked for an update from the federal government. Justin Trudeau echoed the sentiments, pledging support, and offering thanks to first responders. Poilievre then got back to his usual attacks, blaming the prime minister for people needing to have $1.7 million in savings to retire, and demanded the prime minister take “personal responsibility” for inflation. Trudeau noted that while some seniors face difficult situations, the government increased their benefits and listed a number of programmes. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same question, and Trudeau said it was “ironic” that Poilievre talks about fixing things when they needed to reverse Conservative cuts when they took power, and listed more programmes for seniors. Poilievre blamed the prime minister for rent increases and for heating bills (what global oil prices) and mortgage prices, and demanded the prime minister admit he broke things so that they can fix them. Trudeau listed support programmes for low-income people and seniors, and reminded him that the Conservatives nickel-and-dimed seniors and veterans, and said he was surprised that Conservatives voted against affordability measures. Poilievre then accused the PM of banning anyone from saying that the country is broken, and yet “his own” parliamentary budget officer said that things were broken, and he wondered if the prime minister would call him to try carpet to explain himself. Trudeau said that there is always more work to do, and cited his new funding for healthcare as proof.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and first needled the prime minister on the divisions in his caucus over the official languages bill before complaining that the health care deal was woefully insufficient. Trudeau recited his points about the funds and what they hope to achieve. Blanchet accused the government of indexing underfunding, and Trudeau again recited what Canadians need around doctors and mental health service, which is why they were improving the situation in partnership with provinces.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and accused the government of not putting his foot down on more privatisation and that Doug Ford said that it didn’t come up. Trudeau said that Singh was misinformed and that the first thing he raised was the public system and the Canada Health Act. Singh repeated the question again in French, and Trudeau repeated his answer in French.

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Roundup: A ten-year health “deal”

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Before the big meeting between Justin Trudeau and the premiers, Trudeau had a one-on-one meeting with Alberta premier Danielle Smith, and it was…awkward. From her limp handshake to her hectoring about the “just transition” term, it was certainly something.

When the big meeting did happen, Trudeau and his ministers kept the attention on the big number: $198 billion over ten years, of which $46.2 billion is new funds, beyond planned increases in the Canada Health Transfer, and other promised funds for things like boosting the pay of long-term care workers and to hire front-line health workers. I am curious about this immediate $2 billion with no strings attached, intended to help meet things like surgical backlogs, but which you know premiers are going to use elsewhere (at least two of them have imminent elections) because they will immediately cry that this is one-time funding and not stable, long-term predictable funding. The increase to the transfer is tied to better data and increased digitization (which, frankly, was supposed to have been completed by now), plus $25 billion for the one-on-one deals with each province to meet specific needs, and finally another $2 billion over ten years for Indigenous health outcomes.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1623077585847726080

Of course, premiers aren’t happy because it wasn’t as much money as they wanted, and there are strings. Some, like Doug Ford, kept trying to spin this as “a down payment” when the federal government was pretty quick to say this money is it. And then you get former premiers like Jean Charest coming out of the woodwork to insist that strings attached is “risky,” while he repeats the straw man arguments that the federal government is trying to “run emergency rooms,” which absolutely nobody has ever stated, while the federal government just wants health dollars to be spent on healthcare. Nevertheless, the message from the federal ministers is that they expect these one-on-one deals with provinces to be signed in weeks, not months, because they want this all done before the federal budget. The Star has a look at how the logjam broke down, a little at a time.

“Losing control”

One of my perpetual pet peeves of mainstream media in this country is this insistence that we want MPs to be more independent, but the moment they show a glimmer of independence, we rend our clothes and wail that the leader is “losing control” of his or her caucus, and lo, it’s happening again. The story is about a group of Liberals, mostly from Montreal, who have taken exception with the preamble of the official languages legislation which recognises Quebec’s provincial language laws, which they object to both because it restricts anglophones in the province, but because a federal bill shouldn’t enshrine a provincial law in federal statute, and it was a dumb move by the federal drafters to put that in the bill. And one of the Liberals’ Franco-Ontarian MPs is pushing back. OH NOES! Trudeau is “losing control” of his caucus, as opposed to “he drafted a sloppy bill,” or “the minister didn’t consult her own gods damned caucus first.” The narrative is “losing control.” Zeus wept.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 350:

Ukrainian forces are claiming to have killed 1,030 Russian troops overnight on the front lines in the eastern part of the country. Meanwhile, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked parliament for approving his new cabinet picks as he shuffles up his ministers, including the defence minister.

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QP: Variations of keeping the heat on

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While the prime minister and his deputy were meeting with premiers about future health transfers, most of the other leaders were absent, safe Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre led off in French, then pointed out the increase in the national debt without fixing the system, and demanded the prime minister take responsibility for the problems he caused, never mind that this is the result of generations of provincial premiers cutting their systems to the bone. Randy Boissonnault reminded Poilievre of the additional transfers under the pandemic, and that the PM is meeting with premiers today. Poilievre went another round in English and got the same answer. Poilievre went back to French to accuse the government of causing runaway inflation with overspending, misquoting people left and right along the way, to which François-Philippe Champagne vociferously defended the government’s investments in science and innovation. Poilievre returned to English to mock the investment in Medicago before reciting his “triple, triple, triple” ear worm and his new line about keeping the heat on while cutting the tax. Champagne got back up to defend the investment in Medicago as investing in all vaccines until they found ones that work. Poilievre listed a bunch of non sequiturs he considered misspending, and then modified his talking point to promise that they would keep the heat on until they take off the tax. Karina Gould got up to list the things the government has done to help people while the Conservatives voted against it.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc and he accused the prime minster of dividing people with his appointment of Amira Elghawaby and the Liberal MPs raising concerns about the Charter of the French language. Pablo Rodriguez got up to taunt that the Bloc only exists to divide. Therrien got up to rail some more about those Liberal MPs, to which Ginette Petitpas Taylor recited well-worn talking points about the bill protecting French across the country, after the opposition benches stopped chanting “Pablo! Pablo!” in the hopes he would respond a second time.

Don Davies rose for the NDP, and he railed sanctimoniously about private delivery of healthcare, and Adam van Koeverden read some pabulum about the investments under discussion with the premiers. Daniel Blaikie repeated the question in French, and van Koeverden repeated his script in French.

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QP: Crossing a line around MAiD access allegations

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The prime minister was allegedly in town, but didn’t show up for QP today, while his deputy was out of town, and most of the other leaders were absent as well, save Pierre Poilievre. And he led off QP in French, worrying about how much mortgage costs have risen, rent increases, and blaming this on “inflationist policies” of the government (which is completely contrary to economic data). Pascale St-Onge, who is apparently now the designated French responder during the leaders’ round when Trudeau is away, gave the back-patting that Canadians know the government is there for them when times are tough. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same question, demanding that the prime minister take responsibility for pricing working-class youth out of a home. Ahmed Hussen praised their measures such as the rent-to-own programme, the tax-free savings account for first-time buyers, and that the Conservatives voted against these kinds of measures. Poilievre insisted that they voted against inflationary policies, and complained about how much housing prices have gone up in markets like Toronto, demanding the federal government take responsibility for this failure (never mind that these are clearly municipality and provincial responsibilities). Randy Boissonnault reminded him that mothers who took CERB and parents who take their kids to the dentist don’t create inflation, and that the Conservatives dealt in nonsense economics. Poilievre insisted that the government created that inflation, and blamed government spending for inflating the housing market (which is lunacy), and Hussen got back up to demand that Poilievre take responsibility for voting against housing supports. Poilievre took on a tone of faux gravitas and drew a specious link between people at food banks and asking for Medical Assistance in Dying because poverty has them depressed, and accused the government of being more in favour of them accessing MAiD for depression rather than helping them (which is frankly outrageous, particularly since the expansion of MAiD for mental illness is explicitly not about simple depression, no matter what its opponents will falsely claim). Carolyn Bennett tried to dispute this and point out that the eligibility criteria screens out suicidal behaviour, but she was shouted down and the Speaker didn’t allow her to start again from the top.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc and demanded the resignation of Amira Elghawaby, because of course he did. Hussen read that she already clarified and apologised for her past comments and invited Therrien to read that statement. Therrien insisted that the position itself was a problem and that it was only about demonising Quebec, and demanded the position be abolished. Hussen got up to talk about his attending the memorial for the Quebec City mosque shooting and how many people attended it, before reiterating that she already clarified and apologised for her past comments.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the Bloc, and he yelled about use of consultants as privatisation and decried that they were being too cheap with public servants at the bargaining table. Mona Fortier recited some pabulum about good jobs for Canadians. Gord Johns read the English version of the same question with added sanctimony, wanting a full investigation into government outsourcing. Helena Jaczek said that she looked forward to answering their questions at committee. 

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Roundup: Reducing chances of a wage-price spiral

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There have been a lot of misleading things said about the Bank of Canada’s concerns around a potential wage-price spiral, most of them from left-wing economists or union leaders (as well as Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Poilievre), who have wrongly said that either governor Tiff Macklem was blaming wages for inflation (false), or that he told business leaders not to raise wages (also false). What Macklem said was that when negotiating contracts, to remember that they were determined to get inflation back to two percent as quickly as possible, so don’t keep high raises out for too long, because that is what could drive a wage-price spiral. What that means is that because wages would be above the rate of inflation, it means that prices—particularly for services—would need to be raised to pay for those wages, which then keeps inflation higher for longer. It’s also why it’s not just price controls that have happened in the past, but wage and price controls, to try and keep that impetus in check.

Payroll data has been released, which demonstrates why the concerns about a wage-price spiral are abating. Kevin Milligan explains:

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618678055396081665

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618679010099359744

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https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1618691478653644800

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 338:

Russians fired more missiles at Kyiv and places like Zaporizhzhia, killing eleven civilians in the process.

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1618859295851921409

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Roundup: A few notes on the hybrid quotes

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Because the hybrid parliament debate will resume in the New Year, CTV has a collection of quotes from MPs both here and in comparable Parliaments abroad about the format, and I find some of the commentary to be lacking. A few notes:

  1. Lots of talk about being able to participate while stick, while ignoring that this is setting up an extremely unhealthy system of presenteeism. MPs should be allowed to take sick days or leave if they require treatment for something like cancer, and not be made to feel guilty about it.
  2. There was some talk about party whips setting up rules for when MPs can appear virtually, but there seemed to be a lot of “when they feel like it” happening, particularly since Niki Ashton only appeared in Ottawa for two days the whole fall sitting, which should be absolutely unacceptable.
  3. Our committees are in crisis because of how they have been limited by hybrid sittings and the lack of interpretation staff. Only two government bills that were not budget-related got passed in the fall. Two. Some bills were in committee the entire thirteen sitting weeks that they sat, and are still not out of committee. Additionally, there are some committee chairs who are only appearing virtually (while not sick or infirm), which should not be allowed because it’s impossible to moderate a room you’re not in.
  4. The piece did quote the interim head of the interpretation service, but absolutely none of the MPs raised a single concern for the injuries that they are telling the interpreters to suffer so that they can appear remotely when they feel like it. The continued lack of basic awareness or concern about this remains unconscionable, and it’s absolutely shameful that MPs can’t arse themselves to care.
  5. Only the Bloc raised the concerns that ministers aren’t accessible because they are moving increasingly remotely, and allowing virtual voting is even worse for that. It used to be the time when MPs could get a chance to catch a minister’s attention about a matter that requires their attention, because they were all in the Chamber at the same time. Now most ministers run out of the Chamber when votes begin and vote on their phones from their cars, and they are no longer accessible, and that is a very big problem. Similarly, the more MPs and ministers are remote, the less they are able to be button-holed by journalists, making them even less accountable than they already are (especially because the architecture of the West Block makes it too easy for them to avoid media, even when they are there).

I don’t care how convenient MPs find hybrid sittings or remote voting, it’s degrading our institutions and it needs to come to an end immediately.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 302:

I could find no stories on the situation on the ground in Ukraine because absolutely all of the coverage was about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington DC. During Zelenskyy’s visit with President Joe Biden at the White House, we got confirmation that the US will be sending Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine. Zelenskyy then headed to the Capitol, where he met with Nancy Pelosi (who enthused that this was just like when her father met with Winston Churchill in Congress 81 year ago), before Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of Congress. His message—that aid for Ukraine isn’t charity, but an investment in democracy and security, at a time when a number of US representatives are publicly doubting the “blank cheque” that has been given to Ukraine.

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Roundup: Are the rising Senate costs that alarming?

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Because this is sometimes a media criticism blog, I have to say that the CBC story on the rise in bureaucratic expenses in the Senate is…textbook alarmism. Look at the framing. The front third of the story are quotes from senators lighting their hair on fire at the seventy percent rise in costs!, divorced from any actual facts or context. And by the time you get more than halfway down, you have a spokesperson for Senate administration explaining some of those costs, and not necessarily even noting that seven years ago, the Senate was operating at a greatly reduced capacity because Stephen Harper had avoided making any appointments in a fit of pique in the wake of the ClusterDuff scandal, and senators were keeping their heads down lest more hellfire rain down on them. But none of this is mentioned by way of comparison, and only some mention is paid to the fact that because the Senate is now broadcasting its proceedings, it takes a lot more staff to do that work, which is partly why the costs have gone up.

The other thing that nobody is really discussing among all of the alarmist rhetoric and the wailing and gnashing of teeth—obligatory in any story that mentions costs, because Canadian journalism and the CBC in particular absolutely love cheap outrage—is the fact that turning the Senate into a more “independent” chamber is going to make things more costly, because senators can no longer rely on party infrastructure to do some of that work for them on the cheap. It shouldn’t be that big of a mystery as to why displacing that will make other costs rise, but nobody wants to talk about that—only the supposed good that “independent” senators bring. (And some of them do bring good! But the Liberals in particular lost a whole lot of institutional memory and state capacity because Trudeau rather gutlessly cut his party’s senators loose rather than face what was coming with the Auditor General’s report, and pretended it was for the sake of altruism and principle).

While I have a lot of strong opinions about what is happening in the Senate these days, the so-called rise in costs is not one of them. The story here is largely a lot of nothing, dressed up in a frightening costume for clicks, but that’s the current media modus operandi, unfortunately.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 299:

There have been renewed attacks on Kyiv in the early hours, while there is a watchful eye on the Belarusian Border as Putin heads to visit his ally there. Here’s a look at the significance around Hanukkah for Ukraine’s Jewish community, while in Kherson, there are questions as to how Russian forces were able to overtake the city so easily in the first place.

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QP: One last kick at the can for 2022

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It was the final Question Period of 2022, and not a moment too soon. After we got the traditional recitation of the Xmas Poem as read by Anthony Housefather (some of whose rhymes were a bit more tortured than in years previous), things got underway.

Pierre Poilievre led off in French, raising a statistic about the rising cost of Christmas dinners, and wedged in a lurid tale of people threatening to access MAiD rather than living in grinding poverty (which ignores that that is not a criteria). Justin Trudeau said that he would like to join in and wish people happy holidays, but knows that it can be difficult because of global inflation, which is why they have created support programmes for those who need it, including with dental care and childcare. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his same points, but trying to tie poverty to government waste. Trudeau noted that Canadians step up for each other, and listed his government’s actions again. Poilievre again tried to tie supposed government waste to inflation, and Trudeau deployed his well-worn talking points about the government making the decision to help Canadians when they needed it and it resulted in the economy roaring back faster than our comparator countries. Poilievre demanded to know when the “waste” identified by the Auditor General would be paid back, but Trudeau mentioned this week’s by-election in his paean about his government supporting Canadians. Poilievre could not end the year without deploying a “triple, triple, triple” ear worm in worrying about heating bills, and Trudeau noted that the federal carbon price doesn’t kick in over in Atlantic Canada until the spring, so Poilievre was trafficking in misinformation. 

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and tried to intimate that the premiers wanted to meet with him “like a family dinner,” and Trudeau noted that he has met with premiers more than any of his predecessors, noted that he was meeting with François Legault in a few days, but he was there to work with provinces to solve the healthcare crisis. Blanchet torture the family dinner even more, and Trudeau noted that the system as it exists isn’t working, which is why he was there to invest more, but it would take more than just throwing money. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and asked a very selective reading of the health-related promises from the election, and wondered where the action was. Trudeau noted that they were working toward rewards and outcomes with provinces. Singh declared that when he as prime minster, he would keep his promises (to much laughter), and demanded to know what happened to the promised $25/hour wage for long-term care workers, and Trudeau repeated that the federal government is there to step up, and that they would work with provinces to raise those wages.

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