It was Auditor General Day yesterday, and boy were there some doozies. Pretty much all of the media attention was focused on the CRA audit, and the finding that call centres pretty much didn’t answer the phones, and when they did, they only gave correct information about seventeen percent of the time in the calls the Auditor General’s office made—yikes! The government is quibbling with the methodology, because of course they are, but also calling the report “constructive criticism” instead of “scathing,” and because these are the Liberals, François-Philippe Champagne thundered that the “good news” was that they had already started their one-hundred-day action plan to fix things without waiting for the report. (No, seriously—he declared this to be “good news” in Question Period). That said, when pressed about whether inadequate staffing was a problem, and what the coming civil service cuts were going to mean, the Secretary of State, Wayne Long, had no answer for it, which you would think is a pretty important detail considering just how embarrassing this is for the government. He also had no answers as to why things deteriorated this badly under the Liberal watch, and just kept saying that he was appointed on May 13th. Come on.
But there were plenty of other reports that were also not good:
- There are plenty of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, not the least of which is because Shared Services Canada still can’t do their jobs properly since they were established under Harper.
- Military housing is tremendously inadequate and much of it in a state of disrepair, and housing for single members is needed most especially.
- Military recruitment is a gong show, and they couldn’t even ask why twelve out of every thirteen applicants abandoned their application.
- There are still barriers to ending the remaining boil water advisories on First Nations reserves, even though they’ve been at this for a decade, and half of previous AG recommendations still haven’t been implemented.
The good news is that most of the legacy media outlets actually sent reporters to do reporting on these reports rather than just relying on CP wire copy, but really, only the CRA story got attention in QP and on the evening talking head shows, which is too bad because there was plenty more to talk about. But that’s indicative of the state of media these days.
Ukraine Dispatch
There was a Russian attack on Kyiv overnight. Ukraine struck a Russian chemical plant with its newly acquired Storm Shadow missiles, which was a key supplier of gun powder and rocket fuel.
Good reads:
- In case you were worried, Mark Carney is “super pumped” about the Blue Jays.
- Dominic LeBlanc keeps saying they’re making progress on a trade deal (even though there is no deal to be had).
- Government House Leader Stephen MacKinnon is making worried noises about the budget given the “ludicrous” demands from other parties.
- There are plenty of questions and complaints about the new pay system for Royal Canadian Air Force pilots.
- The plan to supply Ukraine with refurbished Canadian light armoured vehicles is officially dead, and the government won’t answer questions as to why.
- GM is ending production of its EV delivery vans in Ingersoll, Ontario, thanks to tariffs and the elimination of EV incentives by the Trump administration.
- Canadian companies are last in the G7 and Australia for climate transition planning, which is pathetic but frankly unsurprising.
- Here is the tale of a Canadian drone firm that is looking to sell to Ukraine, while also learning from their drone capabilities for future applications.
- Germany and Norway’s defence ministers are in Ottawa on a charm offensive to help convince the government to choose them to build the new submarine fleet.
- The CBC has a deep dive into the politics around so-called “secularism” in Quebec, but somehow manages not to use the term “ethnic nationalism.”
- CSIS officials were at committee to defend lawful access, admit that the wording in C-2 was overbroad (you think?) and claim surprise at the pushback. (Seriously?!)
- A report says that Canada’s ocean research is vulnerable to espionage, theft or misuse because people underestimate its value.
- Doug Ford refuses to fire his labour minister in spite of skills development funds being channelled to firms that are friendly with the government.
- Ontario’s child care agreement is set to lapse in five months, and negotiations have only just resumed, but you can bet they’re going to demand even more money.
- John Rustad claims he didn’t raise mental health concerns about the MLA that just quit his party, even though there is footage of him doing just that.
- First Nations leaders in BC are calling out Rustad for “dangerous and cynical rhetoric” about the court decision recognising Indigenous title to Richmond, BC.
- Leonid Sirota enumerates some of the problems with the proposed written constitution for Quebec.
- Susan Delacourt remarks on Carney’s setting and managing expectations about his budget, while the other parties all threaten to not support it.
- Justin Ling points to the dangers of Poilievre delving into conspiracy theories in order to call for his opponents to be investigated and jailed.
- Paul Wells has a lengthy contemplation about why Poilievre made the comments about the RCMP, and his being too comfortable with certain interviewers.
- My column calls out Poilievre’s fictional “hidden taxes” as his excuse for high grocery prices when he’s merely trying to attack environmental laws by stealth.
Odds and ends:
My Loonie Politics Quick Take worries that Carney has apparently reverted to the Harper-era trick of “aspirational targets” when it comes to emissions reductions.
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