While the PM had initially promised to be in QP today, he cancelled earlier in the morning, leaving Andrew Scheer to square off against another front-bencher — likely Bardish Chagger. Scheer led off in French, mini-lectern on desk, and went through previous statements of the PM on the Double-Hyphen Affair and demanded the truth on the matter. Chagger reminded him that everything was in public and people could make up their own minds. Scheer tried again in English, and got the same response in English. Scheer read that nobody bought the prime minister’s line, and he read statements from the transcript of the Wilson-Raybould/Wernick call, to which Chagger reminded him the committee heard testimony in public. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French to accuse the justice committee of being obstructionist, and Chagger reiterated that all of the facts were now public and the system was working. Paul-Hus listed the staffers who the committee hadn’t heard from, and Chagger repeated that everything was in public, and that the prime minister already took responsibility. Ruth Ellen Brosseau led off for the NDP, and read a defence of Wilson-Raybould’s decision to record the conversation with Wernick and turned it into a question about not standing up for women. Chagger calmly repeated that all of the facts were now public, and accused the NDP of playing politics. Brosseau then read a demand that the PM visit Grassy Narrows immediately, and Seamus O’Regan responded that they were moving ahead with building the health facility there. Charlie Angus then self-righteously demanded the PM personally call the chief of Grassy Narrows to apologise personally, and O’Regan said that he was going to meet the chief personally to ensure they would move ahead with the health centre. Angus then thundered sanctimoniously about the recorded call, and Chagger remarked that in their own caucus, they allow robust discussion.
Tag Archives: Pharmacare
Roundup: Kenney’s meaningless proposals
I try not to make too big of a habit of talking Alberta politics here, but Jason Kenney outlined a bunch of policy planks over the weekend, and they’re both bizarre, and a bit concerning. Like, reviving the Firewall Letter concerning.
https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1109567125163638784
Equalization reform? You mean, the formula that Kenney was at the Cabinet table for the last time the formula was tweaked? And he knows that including resource revenues in the calculations that Quebec will end up getting more, right?
3. Convert Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer to Tax Points for the Provinces.
— Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@jkenney) March 23, 2019
The Fiscal Stabilization Fund is how Alberta has been getting additional dollars to help with their recent oil recession – never mind that they still have the highest incomes and potential tax base in the country – but “fairness.” Meanwhile, ending federal transfers in favour of letting provinces raise their own revenue goes against the whole notion of federal transfers to ensure equal levels of access across the country. It’s also like saying he wants to let Alberta raise taxes to compensate for federal funds, but he also keeps promising tax breaks, so go figure.
5. Fairness in Employment Insurance.
— Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@jkenney) March 23, 2019
I believe that “Trudeau-Notley” payroll tax hike is the reforms to CPP, so that it ensures greater retirement security because people weren’t saving enough on their own. As for fairness in EI, again, Alberta has the highest incomes in the country, and industries that are far less seasonally dependent than other parts of the country. I’m not sure crying “fairness” will get him much sympathy.
7. Corridors Coalition: create pre-approved, guaranteed land corridors for Canadian products to each market.
— Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@jkenney) March 23, 2019
Exempting Alberta from the CMHC stress test in ludicrous, because the whole point of the stress test is to ensure that banks aren’t saddled with bad mortgage debt. You know, like that whole global economic in 2008 was centred around? But sure, Albertans should be allowed to have bad mortgage debt because they need to keep buying suburban McMansions and pissing away oil wealth and should be exempt from consequences when the world price of oil falls again? Okay. As for those “land corridors,” well, Andrew Leach has a whole thread of questions about this particular policy that showcases that this one-line promise ignores the particularities around environmental assessments, Indigenous rights, and compensating property owners along those corridors (since Kenney is all about property rights, after all).
9. Create an Alberta Parole Board.
— Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@jkenney) March 23, 2019
An “economic charter” is likely code for another bully tactic to force pipelines through other provinces, but he’s aware how provincial protectionism works, right? And how this has been an intractable issue in Canada since 1867? How his government did pretty much zero about furthering this when he was in federal Cabinet? All a Charter would do is force political questions onto the courts, which is more abdication of political responsibility in this county. Sorry, but no. As for an Alberta Parole Board, why? To what extent? Pardons are a federal responsibility, and while I’m sure it’s great that you want to make a big show of being tougher on criminals in your province than in others, that opens up Charter of Rights violations.
So, sorry, but no. This is all a bunch of empty noise designed to try and make a show of looking tough against Justin Trudeau as part of the Alberta election campaign, and not one of these is serious in any way. But, I guess better to throw a bunch of useless policy planks into the wind than talk about the world price of oil, or the xenophobes and white supremacist sympathisers who keep resigning in his candidates, or his own leadership campaign questions.
Roundup: Traps and tantrums
Budget Day was a giant production, for a variety of reasons yesterday, starting with the long-awaited showdown at the Commons justice committee. Given that the Liberal members had released that letter the night before, we knew that they were going to wrap it all up – without a report, I might add – and on their way in this morning, they handed to the media a copy of the motion they were planning to move to start a new study on hate crimes (because this increasingly seems like what the Liberals want to fight the next election on). Well, this caused the opposition to storm out because that motion was supposed to be in camera (and we all know how much they’ve respected the notion that committee business be handled in camera of late), and then they came back and had their meeting, and the committee (read: Liberal majority) decided to end the study of the Double-Hyphen Affair.
Here is what the Liberals say they want to discuss instead of #SNCLavalin. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/bcPgb1RH5X
— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) March 19, 2019
This set the Conservatives off, and they warned that they would ensure that the budget was going to be delayed, mark their words, and they set up all manner of procedural trickery in which to do so. Except that the Liberals outplayed them, tabled the document just before 4 PM, right before the vote was being called that was intending to delay the budget speech, and then Bill Morneau marched out to the Foyer to start talking to all of the assembled media outlets and get his message out, while the opposition stayed in the Chamber to carry on their procedural shenanigans, to the point where they essentially held themselves hostage. When Morneau was able to give his speech, well over an hour later, the Conservatives did ensure that he was drowned out with noise so that he couldn’t be heard and that no clips were able to be captured for news media, but given how Morneau was doing the media rounds and Scheer wasn’t – indeed, after the fact, when he and his caucus marched out to the Foyer, they denounced the budget as a distraction from the Double-Hyphen Affair, and had nary a substantive comment on it. (Jagmeet Singh, incidentally, had the usual NDP talking points about how it wasn’t enough, but couldn’t really respond when pressed about specifics or implementation of their vision). So, take it for what you will, I’m not sure how well the Conservatives came across in the end yesterday, especially as Scheer walked right into Trudeau’s very obvious trap that about the Conservatives not wanting to talk about the economy.
Speaking of the budget, it was far more stimulus-heavy than I would have expected, but then again, targeting both seniors and millennials, and going some distance in doing more for skills training, though their housing affordability measures were weak sauce and will likely do nothing about the supply side of the issue (especially as they keep the focus on buying a home rather than simply having affordable housing writ large).
Although I should note that I think the opposition has a 100 percent legitimate point of privilege re: Liberal MPs handing out motions to be presented during in camera sessions.
— kady o'malley (@kady) March 19, 2019
With that in mind:
- The deficit will grow this year before shrinking again, but there is no path back to balance in the immediate future. (Debt-to-GDP continues to decline).
- Here are the highlights for five key demographics.
- Here are 23 key measures in the budget.
- There was the start of Pharmacare, beginning with the Canadian Drug Agency to facilitate bulk buying – next steps coming with the Hoskins report.
- Municipalities got a chunk of new funding (with shots taken at premiers who are holding up infrastructure agreements).
- There are more funds earmarked for Indigenous services, not only with water but also child and family services.
- The budget also outlines a plan to start targeting stock options for taxation as another way of soaking the wealthy.
- There is a plan to start taxing cannabis products by the potency of their THC.
- The budget has money to help veterans transition to civilian life, but doesn’t seem to have anything to deal with the disability backlog.
- There was a big commitment on rural broadband, but implementation details remain fuzzy.
- Here are ten things that may slip under the radar.
- Here’s a fact-check of Morneau’s speech (but the sources could have been better selected).
In budget hot takes, Chris Selley calls it the budget of a government that is no longer selling utopia – just buying votes, whereas Alan Freeman simply calls it a “do no harm” budget. John Geddes details the spending surprises in the document, while Andrew Coyne grouses about the how there seems to be more concern over the quantity of spending over the quality of it, given there is nothing in the budget about things like productivity. Heather Scoffield takes note of the Liberals’ attempt to frame the budget as a response to anxieties – economic or otherwise – that Canadians are feeling. Kevin Carmichael cautions that there budget leaves very little wiggle room for economic downturns, given how sluggish growth already is. Paul Wells notes the sprinkling of spending throughout the document, and the big bomb for political journalists in there. There are also worthwhile threads from economist Kevin Milligan here and here.
Roundup: Predictable committee stunts
As expected, the justice committee meeting yesterday was short and went nowhere, as the Liberals on the committee (most of whom are not regular members of said committee) voted to respect the original schedule, which is to consider next steps on Tuesday, like the plan was all along. And predictably, there was much performative outrage and the pundit class all shook their fists in outrage that the Liberals would dare to shut down the inquiry (which they didn’t), and lo, why doesn’t the PMO get it right on this whole sordid affair, woe is us, woe is us. If you need any clues that this “emergency meeting” was anything other than a stunt, let’s consider the fact that despite the fact that the committee was going to deal with next steps when Parliament returned next week, they nevertheless demanded said “emergency meeting” in the middle of March Break to denote how seriousthey were about it. (Meanwhile, if any of these MPs complain about how hard parliamentary life is on their families and children, we need only remind them that they pulled stunts like this). But when most of the actual committee members are unavailable, it’s not exactly like the bodies they’re filling the seats with are in a position to do the work of the regular members of the committee for them and to evaluate what they’ve heard. Oh, and putting Pierre Poilievre in the lead seat for the Conservatives is a flashing red light with accompanying klaxon that this is a stunt. The opposition also wanted this debate on inviting Jody Wilson-Raybould back to be in public, despite the fact that committee deliberations on witnesses and timetables happen behind closed doors for a reason. I cannot stress this enough. This kind of meeting to demand a vote in public is showmanship designed for the cameras. The feigned outrage and unctuous sanctimony when the Liberals voted the way everyone expected them to is also indicative that this was entirely a stunt. And We The Media bought it all, and nobody I saw bothered to challenge them on any part of it. Well done us.
Now, the Liberals have a choice next week, and if they don’t invite Wilson-Raybould back, it’ll be a black eye for them, deservedly. I suspect they know this. As for Wilson-Raybould, I’m not sure that anyone believes she can’t speak to her resignation, because it has nothing to do with solicitor-client privilege, Michael Wernick stated that none of this was discussed at Cabinet (hence essentially waiving any Cabinet confidence on the matter), and Gerald Butts has also spoken about this time period. If she insists she can’t, the credibility of that assertion needs to be questioned. But until the Liberals on the justice committee actually vote to shut it down and write their report, can we hold off on the pearl-clutching until then? Otherwise, we’re playing into stunts.
Speaking of predictable pundit outrage, here’s Andrew Coyne decrying that prime ministers can get away with anything in this country. Well, except for the resignations, the committee study, the Ethics Commissioner investigation, strongly worded letter from the OECD and intense media scrutiny. As for his shaking his fist at “our system,” I don’t exactly see the system south of the border any better at dealing with the blatant corruption of their president, so…yay?
https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1106007982209294336
https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1106012461910581255
QP: Chagger’s randomized responses
Tuesday in the Commons, and while Justin Trudeau was in the building, he was not in Question Period for some unknown reason. Andrew Scheer was, however (for a change), and he led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he wanted to know why the prime minister didn’t take no for an answer when it came to the remediation agreement for SNC-Lavalin, and Bardish Chagger read some lines about protecting jobs and the whole point of remediation agreements. Scheer tried again, and this time Chagger read about the respect they have for committees before pivoting to good news economic talking points. Scheer insisted this wasn’t true, before asking if anyone in the government gave assurances to SNC-Lavalin, and Chagger reminded him that they had confidence in the committee before pivoting go a point about Conservative austerity. Alain Rayes took over in French, and repeated the question about assurances to SNC-Lavalin, and Chagger read French talking points about opposition leaders meeting with SNC-Lavalin representatives, and respecting committees. Rayes tried again, and Chagger repeated that they respect the work of the committee. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he was concerned about the number of meetings with SNC-Lavalin representatives, and Chagger reminded him that both opposition leaders also had meetings, and they respected committees. Caron tried again, and this time Chagger read the talking point where the Director of Public Prosecutions disavowed any political interference in her work. Charlie Angus was up next, and he sanctimoniously demanded that PMO staff also appear at committee, to which Chagger repeated that they need to respect the work of committees. Angus wondered when no means no with regarding the DPA, and Chagger repeated her response.
Roundup: Flippant suggestions stepping on the message – again
There weren’t any official new developments in the SNC-Lavalin/Wilson-Raybould controversy yesterday, but we did get a few more drips of information, like how prime minister Justin Trudeau had a one-way teleconference call with the caucus in the wake of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s departure, with the main message being that he still wished her well and didn’t want her booted from caucus. Not helpful was justice committee chair Anthony Housefather who somewhat flippantly suggested that perhaps Wilson-Raybould was replaced because she didn’t speak French at a time when a great many legal issues are coming up in Quebec – only to apologise later and clarify that he said it in relation to the baseless speculation that is rampant, not because it was a serious suggestion (except he did repeat it in a couple of different interviews, but I’m sure it sounded good in his head at the time). Because this party never ceases to stop stepping all over its own message, and can’t communicate their way out of a wet paper bag. Every. Single. Time.
NEW: Anthony Housefather on Jody Wilson-Raybould's demotion: "there's a lot of legal issues coming up in Quebec and the Prime Minister may well have decided he needed a Justice minister that could speak French." (Courtesy: @CJAD800) #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/D6ukqMqbvV
— Michel Boyer (@BoyerMichel) February 14, 2019
Thanks Matt and I apologize to anyone offended by offering a specific example. I was simply trying to say that the whole world stating with no knowledge as to why a shuffle happened was unfair. I made clear I had no specific knowledge and as such we should all stop speculating. https://t.co/wjS7Jcb7RK
— Anthony Housefather (@AHousefather) February 14, 2019
In the absence of any new developments in the story was looking at where various Liberals are starting to align themselves in relation to Wilson-Raybould’s current status, but that hasn’t stopped the anonymous Liberals from trying to give takes about “crossed wires” and “revisionist feelings” with benefit of the doubt going to Trudeau – or not, in other cases. Northwest Territories MP Michael McLeod points out that Wilson-Raybould’s departure means there is no longer Indigenous representation in Cabinet (expect this to be a factor in the upcoming shuffle). New Brunswick Liberal MP Wayne Long continues to break ranks and say he wants more answers, and good for him for doing his job as a backbencher properly. Oh, and PMO now apparently condemns the smack talk of other anonymous Liberals besmirching Wilson-Raybould’s record following complaints from Indigenous groups that said it was sexist and racist. Elsewhere, a number of Indigenous senators published a letter of support for Wilson-Raybould but also noted that this shouldn’t derail reconciliation, which is more than the work of one minister. (Senator Brazeau was not among them and is trying to make more hay of this).
In related matters, here’s a look at how the way in which the Ethics Commissioner undertook his examination (note that he didn’t investigation) of the matter could mean that he can end it at any point without a public report, and it’s not clear that he really has the scope to undertake such an investigation to begin with. The premier of Quebec is calling for SNC-Lavalin to get that deferred prosecution agreement, surprising no one. Here’s a look at SNC-Lavalin’s history of lobbying on the issue, and why Quebec sees the company as an asset in spite of their poor history.
Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt thinks there are lessons from #MeToo that Trudeau should be drawing from in handling this whole mess, particularly as silence remains on half of the tale. Jen Gerson thinks that it’s time to stop treating SNC-Lavalin with kid gloves, and that their demise may actually benefit a number of other companies who don’t have a history of corruption.
QP: Lametti on repeat
Following a morning dominated by a salacious tale in the Globe and Mail, Justin Trudeau was off in the GTA (where he denied the allegations in the story), but Andrew Scheer deigned to show up to get some clips of him asking angry questions about that story. And when the time for oral questions was called, Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he read the allegation in French that the government was pressuring the Attorney General over SNC-Lavalin. David Lametti got up and categorically denied any pressure was applied. Scheer asked again in English, and Lametti stood up to say the allegations were false. Scheer said that wasn’t the question, and asked again, and again Lametti repeated the response. Scheer then asked if the criminal prosecution questions came up as part of SNC lobbying, and Lametti said he wasn’t party to those meetings. Scheer read that SNC lobbied the government 14 times, and Lametti repeated that no directions were given to him or his predecessor. Guy Caron was up next, stated that SNC gave illegal donations to the Liberals in 2006, and now wanted help from the government, and Lametti repeated that the allegations were false. Caron tried again, linking this to Jody Wilson-Raybould being “fired,” and Lametti again repeated the allegations were false. Nathan Cullen got up to repeat the question in English with added sanctimony, and Lametti repeated again that he or his predecessor were not subjected to pressure. Cullen tried again, throwing everything he could manage at the topic, but got the same reply.
QP: Treating a gaffe as gospel
For caucus day, Andrew Scheer decided to show up for QP, and he led off in French, and he immediately zeroed in on yesterday’s verbal gaffe about low-income people not paying taxes, and Trudeau launched into a rant about the Conservatives gearing benefits to the wealthy while he was lowering taxes for the Middle Class™, enriching the Canada Child Benefit and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, all of which the Conservatives opposed. After they repeated the exchange in English, Scheer insisted that taxes were lower under the Conservatives, to which Trudeau said they were misleading the House, and that it was a fact they vote against the measures that would help Canadians. Scheer listed off tax credits that the Liberals cancelled, to which Trudeau slowly enunciate that non-refundable tax credits don’t help the low-income people who need the help. Scheer insisted that low-income people would have benefitted from those tax credits, but Trudeau shrugged off the attacks on his family fortune, before he talked about his choice to serve Canadians. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and in French, he railed about a pharmacare system that still lets private plans exist, to which Trudeau rattled off his talking points about their advisory council that was concerned with implementation. Caron insisted that a fully public system would provide economies of scale, and this time Trudeau picked up a script to list the “concrete steps” they took to make pharmaceuticals more affordable. Don Davies repeated Caron’s first question in English, and Trudeau repeated his first points in kind. Davies went again, and Trudeau replied with the English version of his script.
QP: Demanding a tax pledge
Another snowy day in Ottawa, and things got back underway in the new Chamber, with numerous statements of remembrance for the Quebec City Mosque shooting two years ago. While Justin Trudeau was present today, Andrew Scheer was not, preferring to tweet instead about Google search results he didn’t like. That left Lisa Raitt to lead off, raising the case of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, and allegations that Scott Brison was withholding personal emails from the courts. Trudeau stood up to read that they were respecting judicial independence and would not comment. Raitt tried again, calling it a “concerning cover-up,” but Trudeau’s response did not change, only he recited the lines from memory. Raitt then moved on to a homily about affordability and wanted assurances that the government wouldn’t raise taxes. Trudeau assured her that they were cutting taxes for the Middle Class™ while they were growing the economy. Alain Rayes took over in French to demand a balanced budget with no tax hikes. Trudeau deployed his lines about growing the economy and helping the Middle Class™. Rayes tried again, and this time Trudeau insisted that they lowered taxes and would not raise them, while the Conservatives preferred tax cuts for the rich, when “trickle down economics doesn’t work.” Peter Julian led off for the NDP, accusing the PM of misleading the House on housing stats. Trudeau delivered some pat lines about their National Housing Strategy that has helped a million Canadians so far. Julian name-dropped the riding of Burnaby to demand new affordable housing, to which Trudeau cautioned him against maligning the refurbishment of existing housing which ensures Canadians have safe and affordable places to live, which is what they were ensuring. Brigitte Sansoucy went into a paean about personal debt and affordable housing, and Trudeau deployed more talking points about the investments they made. Sansoucy then said that he didn’t consider seniors in his response, to which Trudeau deployed his standard talking points about increasing the GIS.
Roundup: Another solution in search of a problem, by-election edition
The good folks at Samara Canada have penned an op-ed in the Globe and Mail to call for legislation that demand swifter by-elections than currently exists, and would seek to remove the discretion of the prime minister in calling them. To this I say nay, because much like fixed election dates, this is a solution in search of a problem. Indeed, the piece entirely ignored that fixed election dates are not only antithetical to our system, which is based on confidence, but that it created a whole host of new problems and solved none. It used to be the big concern that prime ministers would call “snap” elections when it was deemed politically suitable, and that it wholly disadvantaged opposition parties. Of course, that’s entirely a myth that doesn’t survive actual scrutiny (recall that governments in this country were punished when they called elections too soon because they had good poll numbers), and fixed election dates instead created interminable election campaigns that required even more legislation to crack down on spending and advertising in defined pre-writ periods – something that wouldn’t need to exist under the proper system of ministerial discretion.
Throughout the recent round of braying to call by-elections, none of the arguments has convinced me that this is anything more than a moral panic. While the op-ed does correctly point out that MP offices remain staffed and operational, reporting to the party whip instead of the departed MP, the op-ed laments that there is no MP to push files through the bureaucracy – something that is not only not an MP’s job, but is something we should actually be discouraging because it sets up a system that starts to look corrupt, when it becomes who you know that will get action on your files. If anything, parties should actually take advantage of the fact that when a by-election hasn’t been called yet, it gives the riding associations ample time to locate a good candidate, run an effective nomination process, and then start door-knocking. If parties got their act together, they’d have more time to do this, rather than waiting months, and trying to get a hint as to when the by-election might be called before they even start their nominations – something that is absolutely boggling. Jagmeet Singh should have used the time to do the door-knocking at every available opportunity, and yet that didn’t seem to be the case for the months he was complaining that the by-election hadn’t been called.
You don’t have to convince me that it’s important to run these by-elections in a timely manner, and that having an MP in place as soon as possible is the right thing to do. It absolutely is. But more legislative constraints on executive discretion won’t solve any problems, and only creates more of them. We keep seeing this time and again, and yet we keep coming back to yet more proposals for even more of them, creating a spiralling cycle of more rules to fix a problem that was never actually a problem in the first place. Time to step off this merry-go-round.