Tag Archives: Transfer Payments

QP: Glad you’re keeping to your Queen’s Park roots

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For proto-PMQ day, not only was the prime minister present, but there were six Liberals including two other Cabinet ministers — almost unheard of in the current situation. Erin O’Toole led off, scripts on mini-lectern, and he raised the scourge of domestic violence, citing a recent incident in Quebec, and Justin Trudeau readily listed off the investments that his government had made in combatting it. O’Toole then switched to the topic of the the delay between vaccine doses, claiming the federal government mandated the four-month gap — which they did not — and complained about the delay in doses arriving. Trudeau reminded him that NACI is arm’s length and they follow guidance while they have procured vaccines that are arriving. From there, O’Toole asked if the National Security Advisor was tasked with investigating the allegations against General Vance, for which Trudeau stated that allegations were sent to the proper authorities and that politicians should not be involved. O’Toole waved an email from the former Advisor in saying he was not alerted to the allegations, and Trudeau repeated that they always forward allegations to the proper authorities, and that they need to ensure there are resources and recourse for those who come forward. O’Toole repeated that question in French, and got much the same answer. 

Yves-François Blanchet raised a Quebec port that is damaged and can’t participate in crab season, for which Trudeau stated that they are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of fishers and those who use the facilities, and that they were doing everything they could to support them. Blanchet then moved to whether a high-frequency train route would be in the budget, for which Trudeau told him to wait for the budget, before offering a paean to the people in Trois-Rivières he met earlier this week.

Jagmeet Singh then rose for the NDP, and in French, he castigated other parties in the Commons for voting down their motion on removing profit from long-term care, and Trudeau chided that this is Ottawa and they have to respect provincial jurisdiction. Singh switched to English to repeat his plaintive wail, and he got the same answer.

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QP: Demanding a “data-driven” plan to re-open

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On a beautiful Tuesday in the Nation’s Capital, the prime minister was indeed in the Chamber for QP, along with fourth other Liberals, which was a very pleasant change of pace. Erin O’Toole led off in person, script on mini-lectern, and he raised the fatigue over lockdowns and the spectre of opioid overdoses, and true to his party’s Supply Day motion, demanded a “data-driven” federal plan for re-opening the economy. Justin Trudeau noted that the federal government has always been there for Canadians and would continue to listen to the recommendations of experts on re-opening. O’Toole tried to wedge a mental health angle, and Trudeau insisted that they stuck to the advice of science, and poked that some Conservatives didn’t even believe in masks. O’Toole then falsely accused the federal government of making a political decision around second doses, before accusing the federal government of being late on everything, to which Trudeau pushed back, citing that the provinces make the decision around spacing vaccine doses. O’Toole then repeated his first question in French, got much the same response in French, and for his final question, O’Toole accused the country of trailing behind. Trudeau took the opportunity to say that while O’Toole wanted a plan for the economy, he still doesn’t believe that the environment and the economy go hand in hand.

Yves-François Blanchet rose to for the Bloc, and after raising the announcement on high-speed internet yesterday, demanded higher health transfers. Trudeau reminded him that they have given higher transfers to the provinces in the pandemic and they would discuss future transfers after it was over. Blanchet then raised the panic over a certain obnoxious blow hard professor’s “Quebec-bashing,” but this time, Trudeau didn’t bite and returned to talk about federal supports for provinces. 

Jagmeet Singh then rose for the NDP, and in French, demanded an apology for General Vance getting a raise after allegations were raised against him, and Trudeau spoke about the importance of independent investigations. Singh switched to English to demand the government support their Supply Day motion on taking profit out of long-term care, to which Trudeau reminded him that under the constitution, this is a provincial responsibility. 

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QP: Bludgeoning about belief in climate change

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It was heartening to see a few more bodies in the Chamber, but alas, there remained only a mere two Liberals — Mark Gerretsen and the designated front-bench babysitter, Catherine McKenna. Candice Bergen led off in person, and she spun a very dubious connection between continued lockdowns and federal actions or perceived lack thereof. Jonathan Wilkinson, surprisingly, answered and gave a brief speech about how climate change is real, in the wake of the Conservatives’ policy convention. Bergen then pivoted to the trials of the two Michaels, and demanded the government withdraw their participation in the Asian Infrastructure Bank, which Marc Garneau disputed, citing that these were a top priority, and thanked allies for appearing that the court houses in China in protest. Bergen railed that the government sent $40 million to the Asian Infrastructure Bank, and Garneau gave a stern warning to China about arbitrary detention. Gérard Deltell took over in French, and received pay increases given to General Vance after the allegations against him were raised, for which Harjit Sajjan stated that he doesn’t determine pay raises, but that it was done independently on the advice of the public service. Deltell tried again, and this time Sajjan raised testimony from Harper’s former chief of staff at the defence committee earlier in the day.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, and demanded increased health transfers for the provinces, crocodile tears about the plight of nurses metaphorically streaming down his face, for which Patty Hajdu reminded him they are already giving increased transfers to the provinces. Therrien was not mollified, demanding increases, and in response, Hajdu listed assistance given to the provinces.

Jagmeet Singh then led for the NDP in person, and in French, he also raised Vance’s pay increase and demanded an apology, for which Sajjan repeated that he does not determine pay. Singh then switched to English to demand concrete action to end systemic racism in the RCMP, and Bill Blair gave his condolences to Colton Boushie’s family, and said that the Commissioner of the RCMP agreed to implement the recommendations of the report.

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QP: Curious expectations of the ombudsman

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For the one-year anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic, there were more MPs in the Chamber than we’ve seen in weeks — there was more than bare quorum for a change, and not only was the prime minister present, but so was Catherine McKenna and three other Liberals — it’s almost a miracle. Before things got underway, a moment of silence was called for the victims of the pandemic. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he said that PCO told the PMO that the military ombudsman was not in a position to investigate sexual misconduct — which isn’t what anyone was asking, but may instead have been based on a poor interpretation of something the minister had said — and accused the government of a follow-up. Justin Trudeau reminded him that they take allegations seriously, and that politicians cannot do the investing, but appropriate independent authorities must do it. O’Toole tried again twice more with increasing sanctimony, and Trudeau repeated his same answer. O’Toole then pivoted to the 40-day delay between vaccine doses and if the off-label use would have an impact on the contract with Pfizer, and Trudeau reminded him that politicians don’t give guidance around vaccines, but experts to. O’Toole repeated the question in French, and got the same response. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and in light of the day, wanted them to put partisanship aside…and accede to the provinces’ demand for $28 billion without strings. Trudeau reminded him of the increased transfers they already gave for during the pandemic and an assurance that they would negotiate increases after it was over. Blanchet tried to then affect some gravitas in demanding that all seniors be given additional supports and not just those over 75. Trudeau explained that older seniors have greater needs than younger ones, which is why the government was giving them additional supports.

Alexandre Boulerice led for the NDP by video, and he returned to the allegations around General Vance, for which Trudeau gave a paean about working harder to giving support to victims and in transforming in institutions like the armed forces and the RCMP. Lindsay Mathyssen repeated the question in English, with an added demand for an apology, and Trudeau repeated his same paean, but he disputed the assertion that the government did nothing, and he listed some of those actions.

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QP: The 2015 or the 2021 Justin Trudeau?

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For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, the prime minister was finally present for the first time in the week, and he was accompanied by three other Liberal MPs, all of them men. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he quoted Justin Trudeau in 2015 calling for then-chief of defence staff General Tom Lawson’s resignation after comments he made about sexual misconduct, and wondered why the same Trudeau did not demand the resignation of General Vance when allegations were raised in 2018? Trudeau merely read a prepared statement about them taking it seriously and ensuring that they are followed up on, and that the changes they are making in the Canadian Forces need to go further, which they are committed to. O’Toole was not mollified and tried again, and this time, Trudeau said that they allegations were directed to independent authorities and they didn’t get enough information to go on. A third time got the same answer, that his office was aware of the direction of the ombudsman to authorities, but no more. A fourth time, this time wondering why Vance’s term as chief of defence staff was extended, and Trudeau repeated his answer. For his final question, O’Toole switched to French to ask why the government was allowing second doses to go up to 40 days in spite of pushback from Pfizer, for which Trudeau reminded him that they listen to science and that the vaccine task force is independent from government. 

Yves-François Blanchet was up for the Bloc, wondering why the government wasn’t increasing supports for all seniors, to which Trudeau reminded him that they did increase the GIS across the board and they have supported seniors. Blanchet complained that seniors’ purchasing power has been diminishing, to which Trudeau listed supports they have given seniors during the pandemic.

For the NDP, Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and in French, complained that certain documents were only tabled in English, which was treating French as a second-class language.  Trudeau rejected the characterisation, and reminded him that they have been producing millions of documents and are moving as fast as they can. Singh switched to English to demand that long-term care be made non-profit across the country, and Trudeau recited the actions they have taken to help seniors.

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Roundup: A nuanced conversation post-interview? Hardly.

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I’ll say right off that I did not watch That Interview last night because I was trying to have what little life I have available to me in these pandemic times, but judging from the reaction over the Twitter Machine, I have a feeling that we’re in for a week full of boneheaded op-eds and “tough questions” about being a constitutional monarchy, or whether we should abandon the monarchy. Well, good luck with that, because we’d need to rewrite the constitution from top to bottom, because the Crown is the central organising principle, and good luck deciding on just what we would replace the monarchy with. No, seriously – good luck, because that exercise went so poorly in Australia that not only did their republican referendum failed, but support for the monarchy has been on the rise since.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1368770788128620544

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1368771249464348677

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1368771778047262727

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And lo, some of our country’s Serious Journalists are already Asking Questions™. And it’s going about as well as you can expect.

So, yeah. That’s what we can look forward to this week. I can’t wait, because I’m sure it’ll be even dumber than we expect.

https://twitter.com/tomhawthorn/status/1368818526564229121

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Roundup: Keeping the minister away

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The drip-drip-drip of revelations around the allegations surrounding former General Jonathan Vance continues to be felt, with emails showing that defence minister Harjit Sajjan’s former chief of staff emailing about the attempted investigation, but with the former ombudsman not providing any information that could be deemed actionable, we know it went nowhere until after Vance retired. The Conservatives are trying to use this to “prove” that PMO knew that something was up with Vance and are now engaged in a cover-up, but I am not entirely sure about that. A Liberal MP appearing on Power & Politics last night made the salient points that as soon as Sajjan was alerted to the allegations, he steered clear of them and turned PCO onto the case, because he needed to ensure that this did not become politicised, and if this is the case – and it sounds very plausible that it is – then it’s also quite plausible that these staff were trying to create that ringfence around the minister and prime minister to keep them from getting involved so as to avoid politicising any aspect of the investigation or its fallout.

This of course raises questions about what Sajjan should have done in leaving Vance in place knowing this allegation was out there, and whether or not he had an obligation to pursue the claim against his chief of defence staff. If he was trying to stay out and let the arm’s-length PCO process carry out, and it didn’t proceed because of a lack of actionable information, is that on Sajjan? Or should he have been more proactive in possibly accelerating Vance’s departure, given that he was already reaching what would have been the usual end of his term as CDS (and the fact that he stayed on for three more years meant that Vance became the longest-serving CDS in Canadian history)? Again, it’s a hard call to make because he was trying to keep that separation in place to avoid this being politicized.

Trudeau, meanwhile, says he still has confidence in Sajjan, which had everyone joking on Twitter that this essentially put a countdown clock over Sajjan’s head. But this is a mess that makes it very difficult to sort out because of the considerations at play, and the fact that a parliamentary committee is now digging into this will make it all the more partisan as the days go on. I will not be too surprised if Sajjan is made to fall on his sword about this in a few weeks’ time, but not before the Liberals put up a fight to say that he did all the right things, and that the real problem is that the accuser didn’t feel comfortable enough to want to make the allegations official or actionable – but that gets us back into something of a Catch-22. None of this will end well.

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Roundup: A $28 billion demand

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It was with a certain amount of chutzpah that the premiers assembled virtually yesterday, and demanded that the federal government turn over an additional $28 billion a year to them in Canada Health Transfers – or else they’ll ask the opposition to demand it for them. And yes, all three opposition parties are happy to demand that unconditional transfers be increased for the provinces (the NDP, at the same time, also saying that they can offer more federal money with strings attached for things like pharmacare, under the false assumption that the premiers wouldn’t dare turn it down).

Of course, this is a completely laughable proposition, because without strings, there is no guarantee that premiers will actually spend this money on healthcare, or that they won’t reduce their own spending. It’s almost like we’ve seen variations of this roadshow before – under the older health transfer escalator, health transfers were rising at a much higher rate than healthcare spending growth was, meaning that the additional dollars were not being spent on healthcare by the provinces (in spite of all protests to the contrary – math is math). When the current federal government boosted infrastructure spending with the hopes that it would help boost productivity, the provinces retreated in their spending and lo, those productivity gains didn’t happen. When Stephen Harper agreed to Jean Charest that the fictional “fiscal imbalance” with Quebec existed and decided to placate him with those billions of dollars, what did Charest do? Turn it into a tax cut. Justin Trudeau isn’t an idiot – not to mention, he’s got pharmacare on his agenda to implement, and he wants national standards for long-term care if he’s going to turn over more money for it. Of course, he’s going to put all kinds of strings on this money, and the provinces are going to have to either take it to get the money they claim they are so desperately in need of, or they can throw a tantrum and hope that they can get votes by claiming Ottawa is being mean to them (which, to be fair, will work in some provinces). Either way, their request is laughable, and Trudeau would be a fool to give in to it as is.

Oh, and as a reminder, every time you read a premier saying that healthcare spending used to be 50-50 and now it’s not, that would be true except that Ottawa and the provinces long ago agreed to change the formula in exchange for giving the provinces tax points instead, which they happily accepted at the time, and trying to make the 50-50 claim without mentioning the tax points is revisionist history that should be called out for what it is. You have been warned.

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Roundup: Ford is steering Ontario into the third wave

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Ontario is seeing the biggest rise in the B117 variant of COVID – known colloquially as the UK variant – and yet Doug Ford is promising to start lifting restrictions later this week. We’ve only just gotten first doses to residents of long-term care facilities, and even those vaccinations won’t have a dent in ICU admissions, and yet, Ford and company are barrelling ahead with nonsensical plans. Another example was to delay March Break until April, ostensibly to prevent travel (because there is always travel over holidays), but it seems to also fly in the face of measures related to closing schools to prevent more spread, and that it could have had that utility.

Nevertheless, the province’s own modelling shows a disastrous third wave oncoming because of these more transmissible variants, and point to the need to keep up current restrictions. Ford plans to go ahead with loosening them. And then there was this remarkable exchange where a TVO reporter asked if the province was headed for disaster on this current course, and the public health officials essentially confirmed it.

Ontario is being governed by a group of murderclowns. There is no other explanation.

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QP: Disputing the vaccine math

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Another day of the Liberals only putting up Mark Gerretsen in the House, another day of their ongoing contempt for what Parliament means in the face of a pandemic – made worse by this being PMQ day, and the prime minister would only appear virtually. Erin O’Toole led off, in person, on Enbridge Line 5 once again, noting that Imperial Oil is making contingency plans to move the oil by rail if it is shut down, and demanded action. Justin Trudeau, appearing by video, assured him they were engaging with the Americans on Line 5. O’Toole insisted that Trudeau wasn’t engaged as it wasn’t mentioned in any of the readouts of his calls with top US officials, and Trudeau repeated that they are engaging on Line 5 and pointing out its importance. O’Toole pivoted to the front page of the Globe and Mail and its denunciation of the vaccine plan, and demanded a new one — err, which is mostly provincial jurisdiction. Trudeau reminded him of their strong procurement plan, and investments in domestic options. O’Toole changed to French to raise the issue of PnuVax not getting any domestic production contracts, to which Trudeau reminded him of all the domestic investments they made. O’Toole railed that no shipments arrived last week, to which Trudeau reminded him that there will be the fulfilled contracts by the end of the quarter, in spite of fluctuations week-to-week.

Yves-François Blanchet got up to lead for the Bloc, and he lamented the vaccine numbers before demanding the contracts be made public, to which Trudeau contested his assertions.  Blanchet wondered if he got any contracts about getting Pfizer doses from the US, to which Trudeau called out his fear-mongering, and said that they were working to ensure supply chains remain open.

Jagmeet Singh was then up for the NDP, and in French, he wondered why the government didn’t plan for domestic production a year ago, to which Trudeau reminded him that they did invest in domestic options from the very start. Singh accused the government of giving “mixed messages” on domestic production — which is not actually true — before repeating his question in English, for which he got the same response.

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