Author Archives: Dale

About Dale

Journalist in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery

Roundup: The inefficient drive for efficiencies

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Remember how the government was going to offer cash rewards to employees who could make implementable money-saving solutions? Here’s how the process turned out – byzantine, bloated, inefficient, and no one getting any money in the end.

The Conservatives have finally launched a couple of weak sauce attack ads against Thomas Mulcair.

It was the Conservatives versus the Council of Canadians at the Federal Court yesterday arguing about those seven ridings the Council is fighting to get the election results overturned in.

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Roundup: Green infrastructure dollars diverted

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It looks like the Conservatives have been using their billion dollar “green infrastructure fund” to help fund pipelines and forestry projects. Liberal John McCallum has asked the Auditor General to investigate the fund, but hasn’t received word yet.

The government has also spent over $86,000 in rebranding the “Harper government” in government communications. It’s not really a big number in context, but age of austerity, and all of that.

Thomas Mulcair defended his comments on the resource sector at the provincial NDP convention in Saskatchewan last weekend. According to Mulcair, people from Saskatchewan believe the polluter should pay, which is what he’s trying to say. Mulcair, meanwhile, joined forces to Pauline Marois to slam Harper as being anti-Quebec in the wake of the “secret meeting” with Mulroney. Harper’s Quebec lieutenant, Christian Paradis, says his government is ready to work with the PQ if they get elected. Oh, how I wish there was a QP today for this to come up in.

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Roundup: Secret meeting with Mulroney

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With a need to bolster his public image in Quebec, and the real sense of how much trouble he could be in should the PQ get elected in the province, Harper apparently had a secret meeting with Brian Mulroney last week for advice. (I’m still trying to figure out when that might have happened, given that Harper’s been a pretty busy PM of late, between international travel and vote-a-thons in the Commons). Nevertheless, necessity can make for strange bedfellows. Paul Wells dissects what it all means here.

The Rio+20 summit has ended with little in the way of agreed upon targets or timelines. Peter Kent says it’s a good thing, and that big conferences like that end up being counter-productive, and that binding targets are “inappropriate” and “unrealistic.”

Despite the requests to waive solicitor-client privilege in the investigation of a soldier’s suicide, Peter MacKay says no.

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Roundup: No summer vacation yet for senators

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The Commons has risen for the summer, and MPs have all fled the oppressive, muggy heat of Ottawa for their ridings. The Senate will still sit for another week, possibly two, depending on how long it takes them to pass the three bills that have been identified as their current priorities – the omnibus budget bill (which they’ve been doing extensive pre-study on for the past several weeks), the refugee reform bill (which the government needs passed before June 30th, lest last year’s refugee bill comes into force before this one does), and the copyright reform bill (which is an issue with the forthcoming TPP negotiations). During the end-of-sitting press conference yesterday morning, Senate opposition leader James Cowan noted that the government has made the unusual step of bringing in time allocation on those bills (which is actually a rarity in the Senate), which limits the role that Senators are supposed to play in our system, which is of course more in-depth study of legislation and the “sober second thought” of being a step removed from partisan and electoral politics. Not that these traditional considerations have stopped the current government, but what can you do?

A new Commissioner of Elections has been appointed amidst the various robocall investigations and the spending irregularities of Dean Del Mastro. But before anyone gets any particular ideas about how this is really a surprise or some Harper conspiracy to silence those investigations, his job was posted back in February, so no one should really read too much into it. On the subject of Del Mastro, it seems that his claims that he knew nothing about the investigation into his spending have been contradicted by further affidavits by Elections Canada officials. Oops.

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QP: All over the map before the summer

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The last QP of the sitting could be described in a single word: Scattershot. Apparently everyone was looking to get as many YouTube clips for their MPs’ websites to sustain them through the summer on a variety of topics, so there was very little coherence to any of the debate. Thomas Mulcair asked about F-35s (Harper: We’re rebuilding the Canadian Forces with the equipment our men and women in uniform need!), the cut in funds to minority francophone newspapers (Harper: There’s this funding formula in place, and hey, you ran all kinds of unilingual Anglophone candidates in francophone ridings), and about the myriad ethical lapses of the Conservative front bench (Harper: This was one of the most legislatively productive periods in Canadian history, and you’re an ineffective opposition!). So there. Nycole Turmel then took a turn batting away at those ethical lapses (Paradis: Our government’s done a good job on the economy!) before Bob Rae got up and went after Flaherty’s mortgage announcement earlier in the morning, noting that the new changes return the policy back to where it was in 2006 when the government took office (Harper: We’re being prudent after listening to the experts!). For his final question, Rae noted that it was National Aboriginal Day, and given all of the 1812 celebrations, why hasn’t the government resolved the Six Nations land claims dispute that has been going on since said war. Harper assured him that they were in negotiations, and hey, they have new land claims legislation.

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The sitting roundups

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It being the last sitting day of the spring for the Commons, all three parties summoned the media to outline their particular versions of what happened the past few months.

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For the government, Peter Van Loan summoned us to the Foyer, where, along with Stephen Blaney to provide the French narrative, he outlined a simple message. “We got the job done.”

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Cutting the Speaker some slack

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Attacks on the Speaker are, generally speaking, the last refuge of the desperate, and those unwilling to look at their own complicity in the state of affairs they decry. And yet we have seen an increasing amount of grumbling about Speaker Scheer in the past few weeks, not only over venues like the Twitter Machine, but also by way of anonymous gripes to the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

It’s not to suggest that Scheer has done a perfect job, because let’s face it – his ruling this week that he couldn’t rule on the quality of written responses to questions was problematic. This isn’t to call him partisan, but rather, it’s to acknowledge that he’s in a pretty tough spot. The response was clearly a non-answer, and the government has a demonstrated pattern of trying to limit the flow of information and control what opposition parties – and the media – can see. And yet, Scheer is also bound by the rules of the Commons, known of course as the Standing Orders.

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Roundup: Last-minute Order Paper additions

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With a little over a day left in the spring sitting of the Commons, two major government bills were unveiled yesterday. The first was yet another immigration bill, this time looking to crack down and deport non-residents who commit crimes and serve time in Canada, and oh look – it proposes to give the minister additional powers to decide on these cases. Right as a bill that proposes to give the minister additional arbitrary powers over refugee determination has nearly finished wending its way through the Senate. But you would be correct if you saw a theme emerging – giving the minister more arbitrary powers under the guise of speeding processes along, seeing as creating sets of rules that need to be followed takes time, and apparently we’re willing to forgo rules for the sake of speed. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, Vic Toews announced the tabling of a bill to amend the RCMP Act in order to improve the discipline process as the Commissioner had been requesting while he works to clean up the Force after a series of embarrassing scandals. These changes also include a more robust public complaints process, which is also a good thing.

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QP: The price for being at the table

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The G20 over, Harper was back in the House today for what will probably be the penultimate QP of the spring sitting. (All those in favour of getting the blazes out of Ottawa with its oppressive muggy heat, please say ‘yay.’ And so on). Thomas Mulcair, scripted questions waiting on his miniature lectern, led off by asking Harper a trio of questions regarding Canada’s entry into the TPP negotiations, and what exactly we were willing to give up to get to the table. Harper simply reiterated how great the “jobs and growth” agenda was, which trade is a part of. Peggy Nash wondered about how it was the PBO “overstepped” his mandate when not that long ago he was praised for having improved the financial reporting process in Parliament. Tony Clement insisted that a parliamentary committee voted that he wasn’t doing his job – ignoring the context of said report and how it was actually about a turf war the PBO was having with the Parliamentary Librarian. Oops. But then Nash decided to call out Clement to repeat allegations that the PBO wasn’t doing his job – outside of the House! And thus officially ended Nathan Cullen’s promise that he was going to keep the NDP from engaging in the “silly season” that happens around this time of year. Bob Rae was up next and he too wanted to know about the issue of the PBO getting the information he requested, and Harper insisted that they provide all information by the usual means. But for his final question, Rae took everyone by surprise and wondered if Harper was going to be sticking to the planned October 2015 election date given that some seven provinces are also holding elections at that same time. Harper, after joking about the Liberals’ motives for wondering about election timing this far out, said that they were aware of the pile-up and were having discussions with the provinces about it.

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Roundup: Obsessing over a-bombs

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Because it was all anyone could talk about yesterday (every time someone says a dirty word…) it seems the antipathy between many Federal and Alberta Conservatives is alive and well. It’s no secret that most Federal Conservatives were lined up behind the Wild Rose during the last election, and were pretty bitterly disappointed when Redford pulled out ahead. So with Redford’s deputy PM coming to town, the chair of the “Alberta caucus” within the Conservative party asked if anyone wanted to have a gathering to meet with him. Jason Kenney’s response? No, because he doesn’t want to set a precedent for future ministerial visits, “Plus he is a complete and utter asshole.” Yep, minister of the Crown. Hitting “Reply all.” Demonstrating that he’s all class. As you may have read, Kenney refused to apologise publicly during QP, but according to his spokesperson, he did afterward. Aaron Wherry finds that this isn’t the first time that Jason Kenney has called his opponents assholes – and in the House no less.

CBSA is going to halt their plans to install surveillance technology into airports and border crossing until the privacy concerns can be addressed. You know, like they should have done before they started. They’ve also deleted recordings that have already been made. (Here’s an interview with the excellent deputy Privacy Commissioner, Chantal Bernier worth checking out).

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