Tag Archives: Auditor General

Roundup: Audits being virtually ignored

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If the Auditor General releases a report and nobody reports on it, does it make a sound? I suspect we’re not far away from finding out, as once again, AG reports were released yesterday, and got the absolute bare minimum of coverage—two wire stories from The Canadian Press (combining two reports in one story, the third report as a standalone), that were picked up across several legacy media outlets, including major chains, and one CBC story that covered all three reports in the same piece. That was it. And in Question Period, the NDP raised one of those reports in Jagmeet Singh’s lead question, but in the most generic terms possible, and that was it.

To recap the reports:

  1. There hasn’t been a measurable change in the situation of First Nations housing in four audit cycles, and the process of devolving this responsibility to individual First Nations is not proceeding very quickly. (The government points out that there has been an 1100 percent increase in spending on First Nations housing, and that they are consulting on projects going forward).
  2. Indigenous policing agreements are not being lived up to by the RCMP or Public Safety, whether it’s with under-investment, under-spending of allocated funds, or the RCMP not being able to staff positions as they’re supposed to.
  3. The National Trade Corridors programme got off to a good start in the design phase, but the department isn’t tracking implementation or results very effectively, and that’s its own particular breed of problem.

It’s incredibly hard to hold a government to account if you’re not paying attention to the very reports designed to do just that, even if this isn’t one of the “sexy” special reports like on ArriveCan. Auditor General lock-up days used to be a packed affair, and now only two English-language outlets released stories. That’s a very bad sign about the state of journalism, and of the attention span within politics for these kinds of things when they don’t fit into the slogan of the day.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Both Ukraine and Russia each claim to have repelled numerous air attacks overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Russians say that they have captured the village of Orlivka in the Donetsk region, near Avdiivka. A new head of the Navy was named in Russia following so much damage and loss of their Black Sea fleet. Ukraine is hoping to have enough ammunition by April as the Czech-brokered deal gets closer to being fulfilled..

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QP: Calling out a committee chair

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Both the prime minister and his deputy were present today, as were all of the other leaders, who had all attended the lying-in-state for Brian Mulroney earlier in the morning. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he rattled off his slogans, but quickly switched to English and claimed that the PBO “confirmed” that in every province people pay more in carbon levies than they get back in rebates (which isn’t really true, because he’s looking at a different set of numbers), and demanded that the prime minister give his caucus a free vote on their Supply Day motion about cancelling the increase. Justin Trudeau responded in French that eight out of ten families get back more than they pay, and that Poilievre only wants to take money out of people’s pockets while they do nothing about climate change. Poilievre stayed in English to read that the Nova Scotia legislature voted unanimously to reject the carbon levy increase, and demanded a free vote on their motion, to which Trudeau listed what their carbon rebate is. Poilievre read a misleading number about how much the PBO says the levy costs the province, and repeated his demand, and Trudeau doubled down to praise the rebate, but didn’t dispute the PBO number. Poilievre then raised Bonnie Crombie saying she won’t implement a carbon price in the province if elected and again demanded a free vote. Trudeau trotted out the full lines about affordability challenges, and the Ontarian rebate level—because he needed his full clip. Poilievre then raised BC, misleadingly stated that the province “administered” the federal price, which is wrong, and Trudeau complained that Poilievre doesn’t care about facts, but only making “clever arguments,” to which the Conservative caucus got up to applaud before he could finish his point.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he resurrected the “fiscal imbalance” talking point from the grave, to which he accused the federal government of engineering Quebec’s deficit, which is…a novel argument. Trudeau said that the federal government is there to help provinces, while the Bloc is only trying restart a sovereignty debate. Blanchet accused the federal government of owning Quebec $7 billion, and Trudeau insisted that he works with the Quebec premier, not the Bloc.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and raised the Auditor General’s report on Indigenous housing. Trudeau thanked the Auditor General for her report, and said that they are working in partnership with First Nations to advanced their priorities. Singh repeated the question in French, and Trudeau insisted that they have invested recorded amounts in housing and services for Indigenous communities, but they have made progress.

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Roundup: Making a provincial problem a federal one—child care edition

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The CBC continues to go out of its way to provide cover for delinquent premiers who can’t live up to their promises, in an attempt to make provincial problems federal ones. Yesterday is was on the early learning and child care system—fewer than half of the promises spaces have been created, and they want to make this a federal problem. It’s not, however—the federal government did their part, and delivered the promised funding, and what is left is for the provinces to live up to the agreements that they signed, and put their own money into the system. Several provinces are not doing that, and yet demanding more federal funding, because of course they are, and because they know they will get away with it.

The federal government did not force or strong-arm provinces into this system. Why? Because every single premier who signed up knew that this was a) popular, and b) economically necessary. We have labour shortages in this country and one of the most fundamental things they can do is to increase the labour force participation of women by providing subsidised child care. Quebec learned this years ago, and also learned that this pays for itself once the tax revenue from those women in the work force rolls in. The federal government wanted to get the ball rolling and provided a certain level of funding, and attached particular strings and metrics to it so that there is uniformity around the country, and some fundamental standards, particularly around things like improving pay for workers, and standards of care, and the choice was made to subsidize not-for-profit spaces because they’re less likely to cut corners for the sake of juicing their profit margins. But there are provinces who haven’t been investing in the system like they agreed to, or those like Ontario who cut the provincial funding they were supposed to invest, and then complain that there aren’t enough spaces being created.

We need to stop giving the premiers a pass on this. This is their problem, because they signed on and now are refusing to live up to their obligations. But the media doesn’t like holding premiers to account for some unknowable reason, so you get this CBC piece that continually frames this as a federal problem where the solution must be more federal dollars. No, the solution is the provinces living up to their obligations, and they have just as many revenue tools as the federal government does—and this will make their money back. But they don’t like to raise their own revenues, and when they get federal funding, don’t like to spend it on the things they are supposed to spend it on. And like Ontario is doing here, they get federal funds, cut their own share, and then demand more federal funds or the programme will suffer. It would be great if legacy media could actually hold them to account for this rather than trying to once again make this a federal problem.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drone and bomb attacks killed four people overnight in the Sumy and Donetsk regions. Ukrainian drones damaged more Russian oil refineries in a second day of attacks. Here is a look at the Russian rebel groups attacking from Ukraine. The artillery purchase arranged by the Czech government should start arriving in Ukraine by June.

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QP: Demands to turn over documents

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The prime minister was off in Winnipeg for a healthcare announcement with premier Wab Kinew, and his deputy was away in Toronto, while most of the other leaders were also absent. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and after deploying a half-dozen slogans, he broached the ArriveCan issue and said that he was told that a court order would be required to get a court order for the production of documents, and wanted the government to turn them all over. Jean-Yves Duclos said that the Auditor General did good work in her damning report, and that they have taken steps and more would follow soon, and that they were being transparent and turning over all requested documents to the RCMP and elsewhere. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the allegation that the RCMP needs a production order for records and again demanded that the government simply turn over the documents to the RCMP and committees. Duclos cautioned that Poilievre sounded like he was calling into question the capabilities of the Auditor General. Poilievre repeated his claim and again demanded that all documents related to ArriveCan or GC Strategies be turned over. Dominic LeBlanc insisted that they have been cooperative. Poilievre then quoted Thomas Mulcair on the situation, Poilievre wondered why the NDP were keeping the government in power, but that wasn’t a question to government. LeBlanc got up anyway to insist that they have taken this situation seriously. Poilievre then quoted Sean Fraser, claiming he was attacking himself, and demanded the government start building homes. Soraya Martinez Ferrada got up to pat the government on the back for working with mayors, and said that unlike when Poilievre was minister, they were getting housing built.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he wanted an expanded investigation into GC Strategies. Duclos reminded him of the scope of urgency in the pandemic, but said it wasn’t an excuse for civil servants not to do their jobs properly. Therrien demanded a “clean sweep” at CBSA, to which Duclos agreed that there needed to be an investigation, several of which are ongoing.

Heather McPherson rose for the NDP, and raised the number of casualties in Gaza, but insisted that the government is keeping up with arms sales (which they haven’t), and called out Rob Oliphant’s leaked comments. Ahmed Hussen insisted that Canada was the first to start offering humanitarian aid. Daniel Blaikie wanted support for the party’s bill on amending EI benefits, and Randy Boissonnault said that the work to modernise the system is ongoing, and this particular issue of women on mat leave being laid off was before the courts.

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Roundup: The AG’s report into ArriveCan

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The Auditor General released her report into ArriveCan yesterday, and it was suitably scathing, but in spite of Pierre Poilievre throwing arounds words like “corruption” and blaming the prime minister directly, the AG’s criticisms were squarely directed to the CBSA. It bears mentioning that CBSA is a federal agency, not a department, which means that it operates at arm’s length of government. Unlike a department, they don’t have direct political oversight, and while the president of CBSA reports to the public safety minister, and will accept broad political direction, the government does not direct operations (much like the CRA or RCMP).

So just what did she find? A complete lack of paperwork, of checks and balances, or of proper management or contracting practices, right up to the point of the outside contractor taking senior CBSA officials out to dinners and helping write the terms for when the contract would be put out to tender in a way that benefitted them. Once again, it’s hard to pin this on the government or Cabinet because they’re not involved in this level of decision-making. The Conservatives like to characterise this as “Liberal insiders” or “cronies” getting rich, but again, the report draws none of these conclusions. Meanwhile, those senor officials are now suspended, and there is an ongoing RCMP investigation, which is appropriate, while CBSA’s internal audit is ongoing.

There is an open question as to the reliance on outside contractors, which may be appropriate considering that CBSA wouldn’t have required the presence of app developers on their IT staff as a matter of course, and I’m not sure if this could have been contracted out to Shared Services Canada either (though given SSC’s history, I’m not sure I’d be confident in the quality of that product). And that’s fair enough. The problem becomes that they cut every corner and disregarded the rules in the process, whereas transparent contracting and proper paper trails and records of approval processes could have shown this to be a viable exercise, but we can’t know that because of how they ultimately behaved. So, while Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh insist that civil servants could have done the work, I’m not convinced, but that doesn’t mean that this still wasn’t handled in the worst way possible.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces attacked a power plant in Dnipro with missiles and drones, cutting off power and water supplies to some residents. Analysis shows that Russia used Zircon hypersonic missiles against targets in Kyiv on February 7th. Ukraine is looking to produce thousands of long-range drones this year. Ukrainian military intelligence suggests that Russia has been obtaining Starlink terminals through third countries.

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QP: The Empty Chair gambit makes a return

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Even though the prime minister was in town and in his office, he was not in QP today, and neither was his deputy, and other leaders were absent as well. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he complained that Quebeckers would be paying for the fictional “second carbon tax,” and claimed it was to fund the scandal at the clean energy agency. Diane Lebouthillier stood up to ask what plan the Conservatives had for the environment, and then answered that it was nothing. Poilievre tried to be cute about Trudeau not being present, claimed there was “carbon tax chaos” and demanded he cut the carbon price. Fergus gently warned Poilievre not to do indirectly what he can’t do directly, after which Randy Boissonnault asked if the Conservatives would pressure western premiers to sign up to the heat pump programme. Poilievre got on the empty chair tactic and demanded the prime minister answer, and this time Jonathan Wilkinson said that Poilievre was too busy patting himself on his own back to do his homework, and explained about heating oil being a driver of energy poverty which is why they were phasing it out. Poilievre carried on with the empty chair gambit, and this time Boissonnault launched into an attack on the Conservatives not standing up to Danielle Smith for her attack on CPP. Poilievre again railed at the absent prime minister not answering, and demanded support for a motion about removing the carbon price on all heating. Wilkinson pointed out that the government was doing public policy rather than slogans.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded that the government consult with Quebec before announcing their immigration targets later in the day. Mark Miller said that they have been consulting, and that the spoke with the minister, and even if they don’t agree, they were still consulted. Therrien railed that they had not consulted on the “federal targets,” and Miller launched into an explanation about the immigration funding that they provide to the province.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and railed about the carbon price “pause,” and demanded the government tax the profits of oil companies to provide relief to all Canadians. Wilkinson suggested that Singh do his homework, disputed that there was an onerous process for the heat pump programme while they fight climate change. Singh repeated the question in French but with an added mention of “the era of Duplessis” for local Quebec flavour, and Wilkinson repeated his answer.

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QP: Cracked crystal balls and shifting goal posts

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While the prime minister and his deputy were both in town, neither were present for QP today, while most of the other leaders were. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, accusing the prime minister of doubling housing costs and the report on the rise in the used of alternative loan services, which charge higher interest rates, and in turn wanted lower spending. Diane Lebouthillier, surprisingly, got up to decry that the Conservatives only want to chop, chop, chop, particularly programmes that people need, claiming they are like a shark that claims to be a vegetarian. Poilievre raised the story of a senior who had to sell his house and could not afford to rent anywhere, and demanded the government cut spending. Lebouthillier went on a tear about cracked crystal balls, Conservative cuts, and that they couldn’t tell the future. Poilievre switched to English to worry that people we going to alternative lenders to get mortgages, which charge added interest, and demanded the government cut spending to bring down interest rates—which doesn’t logically follow. Sean Fraser for up to denounce the Conservatives’ housing plans as doing nothing. Poilievre claimed that the government hasn’t built any housing, and that they only want to cut taxes on luxury penthouses. Fraser trotted out that when Poilievre was minister, his $300 million programme only built 99 houses. Poilievre tried to speciously claim the National Housing Strategy increased housing prices before pivoting to complaints from restaurant owners. Rechie Valdez stood up to read a script about what help the government has offered small businesses.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded the government extend the CEBA repayment period for another year including the non-repayable portion. Valdez read a script in French that they have offered more flexibility to these businesses. Therrien insisted that this wasn’t what they were asking for, and this time Sonya Martinez Ferrada recited that businesses appreciated that the government kept them in business during the pandemic.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, to which Ahmed Hussen rose to read that the government continued to work with allies to call for humanitarian law to be respected and that they were the first to provide aid. Singh read his same demand in French, and Hussen repeated his same points, still in English.

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Roundup: Another diminished Auditor General Day

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It was Auditor General Day yesterday, and she had five reports that weren’t terribly complimentary of the government and its efforts, especially as some have been in the works for years and are making progress that is far too slow for the task at hand.

  1. In spite of working to make changes to the processing, there is still a massive backlog of permanent resident applications at Citizenship and Immigration, as well as a major problem with asylum claims that are taking years to be processed.
  2. The efforts to combat racism in government departments and the RCMP are falling short (which is not a huge surprise because this government has a particular problem of saying “intersectional” and “GBA+” and assuming that it will magically fix things rather than doing the actual hard work).
  3. The work to modernise the critical IT infrastructure of the government, particularly when it comes to delivering services Canadians rely on, is getting worse and Treasury Board doesn’t have plans yet on how to replace some of it (which should be alarming).
  4. Modernising the delivery of benefits like CPP, EI, and OAS is behind schedule and facing cost overruns, because of course it is.
  5. Canadians can’t get access to critical antimicrobial drugs as drug resistant strains get worse, and while data collection is improving, there remain gaps in access, which the Pandemic made worse.

You might also note that only three of those five items had news stories attached to them, and not all five. Even more to the point, two were Canadian Press wire stories, one came from the Globe and Mail, and that was it. The National Post had their own version of the immigration story, but of the major outlets, that was all that got covered. It used to be that on Auditor General days, the lock-up room at the OAG was packed, and each outlet sent several reporters to ensure that most of the reports got adequate coverage (some of the special audits of Crown corporations excepted). What we see now is a sad indictment of just how diminished our media capacity is, and how little value we are placing on these reports, which is a problem.

Ukraine Dispatch:

New overnight attacks focused on both the north and south of Ukraine, but no casualties have been reported yet. Russian forces resumed their onslaught of the eastern city of Avdiivka, which Ukrainian forces continued to hold at bay. Russians have also stepped up their bid to re-take the city of Kupiansk, which was liberated late last year. Meanwhile, Ukraine is looking to fill 2000 judicial vacancies (and we thought it was bad in Canada), while also looking to vet the current roster of judges for malfeasance as they work toward cleaning up corruption in order to meet the conditions for acceptance into the EU.

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QP: Questions about French castles

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While the prime minister was entertaining Caribbean leaders for the CARICOM summit, his deputy was on her way to Washington for other meetings, and only a couple of the other leaders were present in the Chamber for QP. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and recounted the story of a couple from Ontario who wold their home and bought a castle in France, and wouldn’t be able to afford to move back to Ontario and buy a new home there. François-Philippe Champagne took this up and launched into a demand that the Conservatives support their bill on affordability. Poilievre pivoted and said that they warned the government that the clean fuel regulations would impose higher costs on lower income Canadians and wanted it cancelled, and Steven Guilbeault noted that the Conservatives campaigned on the same standards, but the difference is that the Liberals actually did it. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the story of a couple with the castle in France. Champagne got back up to deploy the “take no lessons” line and exhorted the Conservatives support their bill. Poilievre claimed this was Champagne saying “let them eat cake,” and this time Karina Gould got up to point out that Poilievre won’t explain why he won’t support a bill to increase affordability measures. Poilievre returned to the question on the clean fuel regulations, and this time Guilbeault read a survey of small businesses owners impacted by weather events and pilloried the Conservatives for ignoring climate change. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and decried that only 20 trucks of humanitarian aid have been allowed into Gaza, and wanted to know if the government has been on the case. Mélanie Joly says that they have been constantly asking to deliver humanitarian aid, and that they are engaging with the different countries in the region. Therrien insisted that Canada needed to show humanitarian leadership, to which Ahmed Hussen red a script about their commitment to getting humanitarian aid to civilians. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he railed that Toronto hasn’t received the promised $97 million in aid for housing, particularly around asylum seekers. Mark Miller said that they are engaging with the city and the province, and that they have been asking the city for the receipts which they will pay for once they receive them. Singh switched to French to recount a story of someone who was evicted and needed to find a smaller, less adapted home. Champagne exhorted him and all of the opposition to vote for their affordability measure.

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Roundup: What our diverse Cabinet isn’t thinking enough about

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It’s one of those mid-August “let’s quote a random academic” stories, but this piece on the added diversity in the Cabinet shuffle did get me thinking about a slightly more serious topic than perceived tokenism and need to ensure that these new ministers are adequately supported. Part of my thinking was simply the fact that I have interviewed some of the previously-new Cabinet ministers from after the previous election, and a recurring theme was that having more diverse voices around the Cabinet table is a net benefit, and that they have a lot of really enriching conversations as a result. Which is fair!

But the other thing I got to thinking about was intersectionality, and how such a diverse Cabinet should be getting better at it—but this is still a PMO with a strong central impulse (because the PM’s circle of trust is so small and too many things funnel through his chief of staff, Katie Telford). This is something that they should be better at, and should be more aware of, but perhaps this is one more of Trudeau’s blind spots, where he believes that simply paying lip service to the existence of intersectionality is enough, rather than actually doing the work.

And with that in mind, here’s economist Lindsay Tedds, who is actually doing the work of intersectionality, and is calling on the government to get their act together.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1689841585746579456

Ukraine Dispatch:

A Russian missile struck a house not far from the Polish border, killing an year-year-old boy. Meanwhile, all of the heads of regional army recruitment centres have been fired as part of ongoing battling of corruption within the country, after audits found abuses within those centres.

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