Author Archives: Dale

About Dale

Journalist in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery

QP: Bigger deficit fears

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It being nearly the last day of the season, the benches were filling up, and both Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer were present. Scheer led off in French, worrying about the report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer who says the deficit could be bigger than anticipated. Trudeau stood up without a script, and talked about how much better off Canadians are now and how great the economy was doing. Scheer reiterted the question in English, and Trudeau deployed his talking points about bringing up the growth rate and the lowest unemployment rate in modern records. Scheer said that Trudeau doesn’t care about spending because he came from wealth, and Trudeau hit back with the $150 billion debt the Conservatives left with nothing to show for it. Scheer tried to respond by burnishing the Conservative record and accused Trudeau of squandering the good fortunes left to him, for which Trudeau listed the ways in which cuts made to ensure a “phoney” balanced budget hurt Canadians. Scheer tried to get pointed in his retort, that Trudeau was “darn right” that they were obsessed with treating taxpayer dollars with respect before repeating his slight about Trudeau’s family wealth, and Trudeau noted that Scheer was resorting to personal attacks because he had nothing else to offer. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he railed that trade deals meant that VIA Rail couldn’t prefer Bombardier for its fleet renewal. Trudeau took up a script to read that they wanted to ensure that people got the best value for money and that government interference would be bad for business. Caron changed topics to talk about the CUPW court challenge of the Canada Post back-to-work legislation, and Trudeau noted that they undid the labour law changes from the Conservatives and how they worked with labour to ensure tripartite agreements. Karine Trudel repeated the question in French, and Trudeau read that the litany of measures they took to ensure that negotiations kept going and that the recently appointed a new arbitrator to deal with the outstanding issues. Tracey Ramsey then repeated the VIA Rail question in English, for which Trudeau said that those trade deals mean that Canadian firms can access procurement in other countries.

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Roundup: It’s Statute of Westminster Day!

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Today is the anniversary of the Statute of Westminster, which you should be very excited about. Why is it important? Because in 1931, this is not only the Act of Parliament that gave Canada its sovereignty in terms of setting our own foreign policy – essentially meaning we were now a real country and no longer a glorified colony – but more importantly, it also created the Canadian Crown. In fact, this is where the Crown became divisible, and suddenly the Crown of the United Kingdom split off to become the Crowns of Canada, New Zealand, the Irish Free State, South Africa, Newfoundland, and Australia. The realms have changed since then, but the principle remains – that the King (now Queen) was no longer just the King of the United Kingdom, but that each realm had their own separate legal Crown as well. This is an important milestone in Canadian history, and we should pay much more attention to it than we traditionally do – particularly if you’re a fan of the Canadian monarchy because this is where it all began for us.

With this in mind, here’s Philippe Lagassé explaining the consequences of the Statute with regards to royal succession and the compromises that resulted from it.

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QP: Deficits and compensation

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For the final Monday QP of 2018, Justin Trudeau was present, but Andrew Scheer was not. Pierre Poilievre led off, reading Trudeau’s Electoral promise about a balanced budget, before he threw out a number of other non sequiturs before demanding a balanced budget. Trudeau stood up with a script in hand, and he read about their promise to invest in Canadians. Poilievre gave some disingenuous nonsense about tax increase (based on a torqued Fraser Institute calculation), to which Trudeau stood up, without script, and he noted how much better off families are under his government and he praised their growth record. Poilievre tried a third time, and Trudeau resorted to another pabulum script. Alain Rayes took over in French, asking the same question, and Trudeau, sans script, reminded the other side about their record on debt and growth. Rayes tried again, and Trudeau noted that they made different choices and decided to invest in Canadians. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and he railed about Supply Management under the new NAFTA. Trudeau took up a script to read that they protected the system and the creation of three working groups to design compensation for the agreements. When Caron tried again, Trudeau read the praise that Alexandre Boulerice heaped on the agreement. Tracey Ramsey took over to ask the same question in English, got the same scripted answer, and on her supplemental, she railed about the steel and aluminium tariffs, to which Trudeau took up another script to read the same praise quotes from Boulerice about the new NAFTA. 

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Roundup: Complaints without suggestions

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In the wake of the First Ministers’ meeting last week, we’re still seeing a lot of narratives in the media about how the prime minister hasn’t yet taken any steps to help the province in the short term – a take that is ignorant because it fails to comprehend what the situation about the price differential is. At its core, it’s a supply and demand problem, with too much supply and not enough demand, which drives prices down. Nothing the federal government can do will fix that in the short term. Buying rail cars is medium-term at best, but may simply being throwing money away given that once the Line 3 pipeline is up and running, it’ll outstrip the capacity of those trains right away – and I can’t stress enough that we are again in the midst of a global supply glut, so putting more product into a full market isn’t going to help matters.

And while this happens, we see more nonsense like this column from former Alberta MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans, which incoherently rambles about Trudeau not respecting the nation and inciting Western alienation. Which is ridiculous, because there is not a single fact in the piece, nor is there any suggestion of anything Trudeau could do about Alberta’s situation. It’s just angry flailing. Part of the problem that people – and Albertans especially – keep ignoring is that what’s happening with their prices right now is the result of decades of structuring their oil export market on the assumption that the Americans would be perpetual customers, which didn’t see the shale oil revolution that upended those assumptions, and they haven’t managed to pivot to overseas markets on a dime because obviously pipelines take a long time to build, and people don’t necessarily want them going through their backyards. It’s hard to blame Trudeau for that – any prime minister (or premier for that matter) would have a hard time dealing effectively with this state of affairs, and no, carbon taxes have nothing to do with this situation, nor does the desire to change environmental assessment legislation, because the current system isn’t working either. But Albertans – and I speak as one – both tend to be allergic to self-reflection (recall how they recoiled at Jim Prentice suggesting they take a look in the mirror, and elected Rachel Notley as a result), and a they like to blame Ottawa for their problems – especially if there’s someone named Trudeau in charge. We should be better than this.

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Meanwhile, the Globe posted a nonsense story about equalisation – again – in that Quebec still gets it while Alberta is in a deficit, and I can’t even. You would think that a national newspaper could get the basics of equalisation right, but apparently not. To remind the rest of us: Equalisation is about fiscal capacity, not your province’s budget balance. Provinces don’t sign cheques over to have-not provinces, but rather, this is all money that comes from income taxes. The reason Alberta pays more is because they have the highest incomes in the country. Grievance politics, along with lazy reporting that confirms narratives rather than challenges them is largely what keeps this myth alive, and it should be stamped down.

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Roundup: Unfulfilled drama

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After days of building expectation that there was going to be drama at the First Ministers’ meeting, virtually none was had. Doug Ford was going to storm out, and then he didn’t, and his people started recanting the threats. And, well, other stories started emerging as well. And some other premiers claimed progress on their files, like François Legault saying he got closer to his demands for $300 million in repayment for irregular border crossers and dairy compensation; Rachel Notley could claim some progress on getting Ottawa to consider helping pay for her plan to buy more rail cars. That sort of thing. 

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Where there was some minor drama was Doug Ford and Scott Moe coming out at the end, complaining that the federal government was trying to “move the goal posts” on them when it comes to their climate action – which was immediately denounced by other premiers’ officials, and which also demonstrates that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to the federal climate framework – in particular that Ford was walking back on some of the province’s earlier commitments to the tune of a 30-megatonne reduction in GHGs, which was not going to fly with anyone else. (Oh, and the federal government says that Ontario won’t get the $420 million promised as part of the Low Carbon Economy Fund after they pulled out of cap-and-trade).

Meanwhile, Andrew Coyne questions the point of these meetings, even from the standpoint of political theatre, while Chantal Hébert calls out Doug Ford’s marked inexperience and partisan petulance, and that he made threats with no reason to back them up. Paul Wells takes the opportunity to explore what these kinds of meetings mean for Trudeau’s style and his vision of federalism – before throwing some well-deserved shade at the final communiqué.

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Good reads:

  • In case you missed it, Statistics Canada reported record job numbers and the lowest unemployment rate since the current tracking began in 1976.
  • Here’s a look into the arrest of Huawei’s CFO, and the extradition process that she will now be subject to. She didn’t get bail; our ambassador in China is on the case.
  • The Canadian Institute of Health Research is doing away with virtual meetings citing lack of preparedness and distraction, but the trade-offs are travel costs.
  • Some BC First Nations are looking to renegotiate their benefit agreements with Trans Mountain on the pipeline expansion.
  • Crown attorneys will stop prosecuting some HIV non-disclosure cases as new prosecutorial guidelines come into effect.
  • Here’s a good look at how Doug Ford and Jason Kenney are sowing distrust with the media for their own ends.
  • Murray Brewster delves into the Crown’s filings on Mark Norman as part of their court case alleging he leaked shipyard information.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks into the darker undersides of the good job numbers that came out yesterday.
  • My weekend column calls out Andrew Scheer’s use of conspiracy theories as part of his war on truth that he hopes will give him an edge, but only feeds Russian trolls.

Odds and ends:

It looks like we’re seeing a renewed bout of really dumb takes on “Alberta separatism,” which seems to forget some pretty basic facts about their exports.

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Roundup: Energy, pipelines and C-69

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With the big climate conference about to get underway, and the current oil price crisis in Alberta – along with the demands by the Conservatives to withdraw Bill C-69, there’s a lot of interesting things going on if we wanted to actually talk policy and not just hurling insults and blaming Justin Trudeau for everything wrong in this world. So with that in mind, here’s Andrew Leach with a fascinating thread on the oil sands, pipelines, climate commitments, and Bill C-69.

By now means is Bill C-69 a perfect bill either, and I’ve spoken to lawyers on both the environmental and proponent sides about their concerns, and they can all point to some of the same concerns, but I also think that the Conservatives’ characterization of it as a “no more pipelines” bill is beyond hyperbolic. If it works as it’s supposed to, the ability to better scope assessments will likely mean more timely actions and targeted consultations thanks to the early engagement that the bill mandates. But trying to cast this bill as a millstone around the country’s economy is ridiculous on the face of it, and withdrawing it won’t miraculously make the oil price differential disappear, or GM to reopen the Oshawa plant, as has been intimated. But far be it for us to expect honest debate on these issues these days.

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QP: A narrative of doom

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While Justin Trudeau was in Montreal to pre-meet with some premiers in advance of the first ministers’ conference, Andrew Scheer was present, fresh from being booed by the chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations, and he led off with the false notion that premiers had to resort to threats before the oil and gas sector was on the agenda at the first ministers’ meeting, and surprisingly, Diane Lebouthillier got up to read that they were taking measures to help the workers. Scheer then worried that the Crown lawyers were trying to block the Canadian Taxpayers Federation from intervening at the Saskatchewan carbon tax court challenge, to which Amarjeet Sohi replier that they were trying to fix a broken pipeline system that we inherited from the Harper government — which wasn’t the question. Scheer railed that the government was trying to phase out the energy sector and demanded that Bill C-69 be withdrawn, to which Sohi replied that when the government tried to extend EI supports for laid off workers, the Conservatives voted against it and funding for orphan oil wells. Gérard Deltell worried about the economic turbulence meaning higher interest rates — which, actually, would be a sign of a good economy — and Scott Brison reminded him that when they took office, the country was in a technical recession and the current government turned it around. Deltell tried again, and got the same answer. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and raising the Trans Mountain pipeline, wondered when ten government would take its responsibilities to Indigenous communities seriously. Sohi said that they were taking the renewed consultations seriously. Caron worried that Trudeau was dismissive of a First Nations Chief yesterday, to which Philpott got up to defend the PM’s honour. Rachel Blaney took over to rail about “free, prior and informed consent,” and Sohi repeated their renewed consultations. When Blaney repeated the demand that Trudeau apologise to that BC Chief, Philpott again defended the PM.

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Roundup: Sorry for the service interruption

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Hey everyone – sorry for the service interruption! Malware sucks. Fortunately, it’s been taken care of and I have new preventative measures to ensure that it won’t happen again in the future, but that also costs me a lot more money to run this site than it used to, so if you can, please consider becoming a patron (and you get some exclusive content to go along with your support). Thanks again for your patience with this.

Good reads:

  • This week’s first ministers’ meeting is expected to get testy, and lo, the oil and gas sector is not explicitly on the agenda (to which Trudeau insists it’ll get discussed).
  • Oh, look! Data on rural work camps and violence against women! It’s something that does happen, despite the Conservatives deriding the association made.
  • Dairy producers are the beneficiaries of import quotas under TPP rules (and lo, I wrote about this being likely two months ago based on the CETA experience).
  • Federal lawyers are objecting to the UCP trying to join the Saskatchewan court challenge on carbon taxes. (It is unusual for opposition parties to be party to a case).
  • A lot of doubt is being raised as to whether the government will actually end arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
  • Apparently Canada’s “feminist” foreign aid policy is too unfocused and spread too thin to have a meaningful effect (not to mention is underfunded).
  • The Commons foreign affairs committee was supposed to have an in-camera meeting with Chinese officials, but that has been cancelled.
  • The Privacy Commissioner is calling for tougher digital privacy laws.
  • Environment Canada is an outlier in that it generally doesn’t track the e-waste of its weather balloons (in part because it’s too costly as we’re a vast country).
  • The CFO of Hwawei was arrested in Vancouver for extradition to the United States, and that could trigger backlash from China.
  • Raj Grewal’s lawyer says that all of Grewal’s gambling loans were from friends and family, and are entirely traceable.
  • Ontario’s chief controller resigned after she refused to sign the Ford government’s attempt to sell the “true” size of the deficit as $15 billion.
  • The New Brunswick premier wants Energy East to be revived, but TransCanada isn’t interested. It’s like there are economics at play!
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at the Bank of Canada’s sudden caution on raising interest rates, in large part because of the oil price shock.
  • Colby Cosh looks into Statistics Canada’s programme of testing municipal wastewater for signs of cannabis consumption.
  • Chantal Hébert looks at the federal-provincial  battles over pipelines, that will play out well after the next election.
  • Chris Selley disputes that there’s a crisis around the French language in Ontario.
  • Andrew Coyne looks at how far Andrew Scheer is willing to go to get the far right vote on the immigration issue as he rails against the UN global migration compact.

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QP: Talking to the folks at home

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Caucus day, and the benches were full, with all of the leaders present. Andrew Scheer led off, and he decided to re-litigate the cancellation of Northern Gateway, and demanded that it be revived. Justin Trudeau responded by reading quotes from the Federal Court of Appeal decision, and saying that the Conservatives treat the Duty to Consult as a suggestion. Scheer insisted that Indigenous communities would benefit from Northern Gateway, and Trudeau repeated that they didn’t understand that they need to work with Indigenous communities and scientists to ensure that projects get built in the right way. Scheer switched to French to demand the full guest list for the India trip, to which Trudeau congratulated the members of NSICOP for their work and that they accepted their recommendations. Scheer switched to English to raise the allegations around Navdeep Bains and the Brampton land deal — despite Bains’ repeated denials. Trudeau took the opportunity to tell the folks at home that parliamentary privilege means Scheer can say anything he wants inside the House without fear of prosecution, but the real test was if he repeated it outside. Scheer piled on the list of Liberal ethical lapses, and Trudeau again addressed the people at home to say that while the role of the opposition is to hold government to account, the current party across the way was more content with smears and innuendo. Guy Caron was up next, and demanded action for missing and murdered Indigenous women, to which Trudeau listed the measures they have taken to date. Caron demanded a national action plan, and Trudeau said that while there was work to do, they were continuing make progress. Sheri Benson wanted the PM to meet with petitioners around the MMIW inquiry, to which Trudeau read a statement about the Inquiry’s mandate and listed some of the investments made. Benson asked again, and Trudeau noted the extension of the Inquiry’s time, mandate and added funding.

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Roundup: Courting the tinfoil hat crowd

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Over the past few days, the Conservatives have been delving into tinfoil hat territory in their attempts to stir up panic and anger toward the UN compact on global migration, which Canada plans to sign next week in Morocco. According to the Conservatives, this non-binding political declaration will somehow erode Canadian sovereignty and be tantamount to “border erasure,” and that if you listen to the Twitter trolls picking up on Andrew Scheer and Michelle Rempel’s posts about this, it will make criticizing immigration a “hate crime.” All of which is complete and utter bullshit, and even Chris Alexander, one-time Harper-era immigration minister, calls this out as factually incorrect. And yet, the Conservatives plan to use their Supply Day today to force a vote on this very issue so that they can express performative shock and dismay when the Liberals vote it down.

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While Justin Trudeau and Ahmed Hussen have quite rightly called the Conservatives out on this issue as repeating Rebel Media talking points, I have to see this as yet another example of Conservatives not only shamelessly lying to score points, but trying to dip their toe into extremist territory, and the belief that they can just “just enough” extremist language and talking points to try and stir up enough anger and paranoia that they think it will move their poll numbers, but no white supremacists or xenophobes please, “we believe in orderly immigration.” And of course, real life doesn’t work that way, and they wind up stirring up elements that they say they disavow, but continue to wink at because they think it’ll get some kind of benefit out of it.

The other theory raised about why the Conservatives are going full steam on this issue is because they’re trying to head off Maxime Bernier, who is also trolling on this particular bit of lunacy. Why they think this would be a good strategy, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s not as harmless as they might think it is, and that should be concerning to everyone.

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