Tag Archives: Danielle Smith

Roundup: A couple of not-that-scathing reports

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The Auditor General released two reports yesterday on pandemic befits programmes and vaccine procurement, and they were…not explosive. Really. There were weak spots from the government, in large part because of the haste in which these programmes were designed because of the pandemic, and some inefficiency, but on the report about vaccines, part of the problem with wastage is because of a lack of provincial data, because the federal government hasn’t been able to sign agreements with the provinces. And as we’ve seen all too often, this is the fault of the provinces.

Nevertheless, the Conservatives were salivating over this release and put on a whole dog and pony show to decry that this was a sign that this government’s “wasteful spending” is what is fuelling inflation, which isn’t true, but this is the narrative they have been trying to push, and these numbers were ripe for the plucking. And as they do with every other officer of Parliament, they misconstrued the report, cherry-picked figures, and cranked up the hyperbole, and lo, this was scandalous. But that’s not what the report found. And it also ignores that they voted unanimously to design the benefit programmes this way because it was more important to get the money out the door.

Anyway, here’s Jennifer Robson’s read of the report, and it’s worth your time.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 287:

Another drone strike within Russia set a third airfield ablaze, though the Ukrainians have not claimed responsibility for the attack. (Video here) More Russian missiles did strike civilian targets in Ukraine, but they were said to be less severe than other attacks in recent weeks. The strikes against Russian airfields have Russian bloggers questioning the competence of their government’s defences.

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1600135762179018752

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Roundup: Incoherent amendments to an incoherent bill

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith has announced the plans to amend her “Sovereignty Act” to take out the egregious aspect of giving Cabinet unlimited powers to amend existing legislation without through decree, and framed in a way that this was about “listening to caucus” rather than admitting that this was one giant omnishambles from the get-go. The problem is that her planned amendments…don’t actually make any sense. It sounds like they plan to send any proposed amendments from Cabinet back to the legislature to vote on, but that doesn’t make sense if you would just remove that whole section and let the legislative amendment process carry on as usual? And does it really remove the Henry VIII clause, or just add an extra step to it that would wind up being pro forma given their majority? None of it makes any sense, but considering just how incompetent she and her government are, nothing can really be surprising.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 286:

Russians fired another barrage of missiles into Ukraine, many of them hitting the suburbs of the city of Zaporizhzhia, plus other energy facilities including near Kyiv. Two Russian airbases were hit, allegedly by Ukrainian drones, but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for a strike inside Russian borders. Meanwhile, here’s the tale of how Ukrainian healthcare workers saved children from being deported into Russia. Elsewhere, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court denounced a plan by the EU to create a UN-backed special tribunal for war crimes in Ukraine, saying that the ICC is perfectly capable of doing the job.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Ingersoll, Ontario, as the first EV rolled out of the GM factory there. There, he offered assurances about hunting rifles in the gun control bill.
  • Trudeau also said he is “extremely concerned” by reports of Canadian-made parts found in Iranian drones used by Russians in bombarding Ukraine.
  • Trudeau said that he is “watching closely” as the Americans respond to European complaints about North American protectionism in their Inflation Reduction Act.
  • In a year-ender, Trudeau says that Canadians need to be reassured about the allegations of Chinese interference in elections.
  • The COP15 biodiversity conference begins in Montreal today, which Canada is co-hosting with China (and I’m sure there’s no awkwardness there).
  • Mélanie Joly announced new sanctions on Haitian elites accused of empowering the criminal gangs in the country.
  • Sean Fraser says the federal government will fund projects to remove barriers for foreign-trained health care workers from practicing in Canada.
  • Employment data is showing that the national child care programme is having the desired effect, as more working-age women are entering the labour market.
  • The Royal Canadian Mint plans to release a special $2 circulation coin to honour the late Queen Elizabeth II.
  • Permanent residents can now apply to join the Canadian Forces.
  • Major-General Dany Fortin was acquitted of a sexual assault charge dating from 1988, and says he wants to get his career back.
  • As you may have heard, researchers at Dalhousie University predict that food prices will continue to climb by another seven percent next year.
  • A Spanish civil rights group reports that there are at least three Chinese “secret police stations” in Toronto, one in Vancouver, plus one more unknown location.
  • The Assembly of First Nations is likely to vote this week on the child welfare settlement agreement that their negotiator helped to craft.
  • Grocery oligopoly executives were at the Commons agriculture committee to push back against the claims they are driving food price inflation. (They’re not really).

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take sorts some fact from fiction on the notion that Justin Trudeau has turned his back on Europe looking for LNG.

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Roundup: Blame the premiers for the paediatric health crisis

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The crisis in our hospitals, particularly paediatric ones, continues to get worse. In Ottawa, CHEO now has Canadian Red Cross staff assisting. In Newfoundland and Labrador, their children’s hospital had to cancel surgeries. In Alberta, they are sending children in palliative care home because they need to redeploy those staff elsewhere. So what are people doing? Telling people to bother the federal government.

No.

This is squarely on the premiers. They have been consistently underfunding their healthcare systems, even with higher transfers the federal government has been sending the past couple of years, both because of the pandemic and with additional funds intended to help reduce wait times, but has that money gone to good effect? Nope. But you have several provinces who sent out vote-buying cheques to people, nearly all of them are running surpluses, and New Brunswick and Quebec are promising tax cuts, particularly for high-earners. They have been playing chicken with the federal government, driving the crisis so that they can be sent more money with no strings attached (this is one of Danielle Smith’s many complaints), and it really looks like they want the system to collapse so they can blame the federal government and bully them into acceding to their demands. But so long as everyone keeps fixating on what the federal government is going to do to fix the problem rather than playing blame on the premiers, where it belongs, this state of affairs is going to continue. It’s only when the premiers start feeling the pressure that they’ll make changes, and right now, they are being let off the hook by too many people. Don’t let them. Put the pressure where it needs to be, and that is the premiers.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 285:

Ukrainian forces held a three-day amnesty for those looking to cross the Dnipro river in the Kherson region from the Russian-held side, in order to reunite families and get civilians to safety, but it sounds like Russian forces killed at least one person crossing the river. Meanwhile, the US’ intelligence chief says that the slower tempo of action in the conflict could wind up favouring Ukraine as Russian forces continue to be outmatched. Here’s a look at the fiscal situation Ukraine finds itself in, trying to finance the war without printing more money and driving up inflation. And here is a slideshow of the conflict.

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Roundup: No, LNG sales aren’t being blocked

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It seems that Pierre Poilievre, and by extension other members of his caucus like Michael Chong, are trying to sell another false narrative to the Canadian people, and this time, they are claiming that the prime minister is “blocking” LNG sales to Germany. This is patently false, but that’s not surprising considering that this is coming from Poilievre, and he is without any sense of shame when it comes to outright lying at all times. His “proof” is a National Post article with a framing device claiming that Canada “snubbed” Germany on LNG, so they are signing a deal with Qatar.

The federal government has not blocked any LNG projects. We did not “snub” Germany either because they know full well we don’t have the export infrastructure, and by the time we could build it, it would be too late for Europe, hence why they came looking for hydrogen and got it. It wasn’t the government blocking any LNG terminals from being built—it was the market. There is very little supply along the East Coast to try and tap into for supply for export (indeed, there is one import terminal in New Brunswick), so unless you’re piping it all the way from Alberta or the United States, at an increased cost, there has been little sense in constructing it (and no, fracking is not going to happen in New Brunswick). There are terminals being constructed on the West Coast, where there is supply, but they are still being built, because it took a long time for them to secure the export contracts to make construction viable. If Trudeau was really “blocking the sale” then why would these projects still be allowed to proceed? It makes no sense.

There is also the consideration that Canadian LNG is more expensive than that coming from Qatar, which is a large part of why it has been unattractive to the European market (especially when it was coming pretty cheaply from Russia). It’s why most of the proposals aren’t getting off the ground–these projects won’t make their money back for thirty or forty years, by which time we will be deep in decarbonizing and reaching Net Zero targets. Even if we could somehow build an export terminal and a pipeline to supply it, the market for the product is likely to rapidly decrease, which means we’d be stranding those assets and have billions of dollars in these terminals going nowhere. The market doesn’t want to invest for a reason, and it’s not the Canadian government.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 283:

In a rare admission, a top aide to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that between 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion began in February. (The Russian losses have been much higher). The International Atomic Energy Agency says a deal aimed at safeguarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is almost completed. Here is a look at how school children in Kyiv are faring between Russian bombardments and blackouts. Meanwhile, here’s a look at a Canadian-funded work doing de-mining work in Ukraine.

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Roundup: A bill drawn up by deranged constitutional saboteurs

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The fallout of the rollout of Danielle Smith’s “Alberta Sovereignty in a United Canada Act” carried on for much of the day, starting with a “clarification” that the province’s justice department sent out, but it didn’t clarify anything because it contradicted the plain language of the text, and I am forced to wonder why we aren’t seeing a raft of resignations because this whole affair has been an egregious, unconstitutional omnishambles from the get go. (From bean to cup…)

For his part, Justin Trudeau is keeping his powder dry and standing well back. While he said nothing is “off the table,” but added that he’s not looking to pick a fight, he knows full well that a fight is what Smith wants, because that’s what she hopes to use to leverage support in the next election, because there is a demographic in Alberta who likes the attitude of pugilism with the federal government, even though most of the grievances are imaginary or overblown. And no, he is not going to invoke disallowance on this because it’s a constitutional dead letter and would be provoking an even bigger constitutional crisis. But I also get the sense that “disallowance” is the new “Emergencies Act” that the press gallery in Ottawa is going to ask Trudeau about at every single opportunity, like they did through the height of the pandemic. But seriously, Gretchen—stop trying to make disallowance happen. It’s not going to happen. As for what Trudeau will do, I suspect it’ll be a reference to the Supreme Court of Canada after the bill receives royal assent, whenever that happens.

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1597961310779891713

For commentary on the bill, law professor Eric Adams lists the bill’s many unconstitutional aspects which will result in court cases, one way or the other. Emmett Macfarlane pulls no punches in calling it the most unconstitutional bill in modern history, goes through the many problems, and asserts that the bill was “drawn up by deranged constitutional saboteurs,” and he’s right. David Moscrop points out that the bill gives Smith a temporary win by harnessing populist forces to her benefit, where she can play victim when the courts eventually strike this down. Colby Cosh doesn’t take Smith at her word that she hopes never to use this legislation, and hopes that people can cool down before this escalates.

https://twitter.com/tim4hire/status/1598044824380506117

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 281:

Fighting continues both in the east, as Russians continue to try and advance to Bakhmut, and near Kherson in the south. Meanwhile, nine people were killed by fire over a 24-hour period as they tried to find ways of providing heat, and it didn’t go very well for an of them.

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QP: Careful hewing to prepared lines about national security

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The prime minister was in the Chamber for his usual Wednesday spot of proto-Prime Minister’s Questions, as were all of the other leaders, which hasn’t happened for a few weeks. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he once again returned to the Global News report that China had funnelled money to federal candidates in 2019, and wanted to know if the prime minister had gone back to CSIS to ask if there was any evidence to support such an allegation. Justin Trudeau said that he has to be very careful in answering questions about national security, and with a script in front of him, recited that Canada and its allies are regularly targeted by foreign states like China, including during election campaigns, and that his government had more steps than any other including creating an independent panel tasked with assessing the risk coming from foreign countries, and those panels confirmed that the electoral integrity was not compromised, and concluded with yes, he receives regular briefings. Poilievre switched to English, said it was interesting that he said he did get briefings, and repeated to know if he got one post Global News report on the allegations. Trudeau repeated his same response in English, word-for-word, but added at the end that all parties are briefed about elections. Poilievre said that wasn’t the question, and wanted a yes-or-no answer on a post-Global News briefing. Trudeau very slowly enunciated that in all of the briefings he received, there has never been any mention of candidates receiving money from China in either 2019 or 2021, and praised the panels once again. Poilievre wanted a yes-or-no answer on whether Trudeau asked for briefings after the Global News story, but Trudeau went on about how Poilievre, a former minister, knows the importance of respecting national security guidelines and that because Poilievre was the former minister for elevations integrity, he knows this, but also added that when Poilievre was minister, he did nothing about adding security against interference while the current government did. Poilievre was incredulous by the notion that Trudeau didn’t demand a briefing on the story, but moved on to ask if there was any electoral interference at all. Trudeau reminded him that Canada is regularly subject to some level of foreign interference, including from China, including during elections, which Poilievre would know when he was minister of elections, and noted that the two previous leaders did get briefings before, during and after the elections on foreign interference.

Yves-François Blanchet wondered at what point the interference goes from a little to a lot, and wondered about Chinese money flowing into Trudeau’s riding was interference or influence. Trudeau stated that rather than allowing partisan accusations to muddy the waters, they created a panel to precisely look at those issues in an objective and non-partisan manner. Blanchet was more specific about Chinese money flowing into Trudeau’s riding at a time a bank was trying to get approval, and Trudeau said that while the Bloc was trying to cast doubt on the integrity of our institutions, he could assure them they were not affected.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, worried about an overloaded hospital in Quebec, and accused the prime minister of sitting on his hands, and demanded the government do more like they did in the pandemic. Trudeau reminded him that they have been working with the provinces. Singh switched to English to worry about Danielle Smith’s “Sovereignty Act” and that she would use it to undermine the Canada Health Act, which proves he doesn’t know what he was talking about because the whole gods damned point of the Act is to put conditions on federal dollars. Trudeau noted that he could understand why people were concerned, but he was going to focus on getting good results for Albertans.

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Roundup: The Sovereignty Act is an attack on democracy itself

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith tabled her “Alberta Sovereignty in a United Canada Act” yesterday, and it was worse than anyone had previously imagined.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1597736239960297473

For starters, the “in a united Canada” part is an attempt to be clever in trying to insist that this isn’t about separatism, but that’s mere window dressing. (I also suspect that it’s not much of a coincidence that just days ago, conservative luminary Ken Boessenkool declared Stephen Harper’s “The Québécois are a nation within a united Canada” motion to be a genius unifying move, never mind the fact that just who “the Québécois” were was never defined and created rifts with Anglo-Quebeckers). The substance of this bill is a wholesale power grab using the most extreme form of a Henry VIII clause known as enabling legislation. In this case, it allows Cabinet to amend any legislation they see fit to after being given a mandate by way of a resolution passed by the legislature (where they have a comfortable majority). Smith and her justice minister, Tyler Shandro, kept insisting that this resolution process was democratic and transparent, but this kind of enabling legislation is anything but, particularly because it allows Cabinet to define the terms of what they deem “injurious to Alberta’s interests,” or whatever the excuse they’re giving themselves to take these powers. It violates the separation of powers by declaring federal legislation to be null and void in the province, and directs police not to enforce federal laws, which is an attack on the rule of law.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1597732003411267584

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1597761564257701888

Smith justified the need for such powers as saying that Alberta has been “ignored” by the federal government for the past ten years, which is a) complete bullshit, and b) that’s not a justifiable reason to give yourself the power to ignore the legislative process. She insisted this was just defending rights like Quebec does, but Quebec doesn’t do this. Her list of grievances was largely all strawmen—the incoming emission cap on the oil and gas sector, the plan to reduce fertilizer emissions, environmental assessment legislation, and the worst affront of all—that the federal government would dare to try to attach strings to federal dollars. How very dare they! But this kind of mendacious grievance-mongering is how politics has been practice in the province for years now, so it’s not unexpected that this is what she would fall back to.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1597733033754386434

Smith’s apologists immediately came out to defend the bill saying that it’s “symbolic” and Smith herself was insisting she doesn’t want it to be used. That’s all horseshit. You don’t give yourself very real enabling legislation powers for “symbolic” reasons if you don’t intend to use it. The federal government has largely been signalling that they won’t be engaging, though I wouldn’t be surprised if, now that we’ve seen the text and the huge overreach, that they would refer this to the Supreme Court of Canada so fast that it will give you whiplash. While this could be Smith imagining that it’s a fight she wants, I have severe doubts that it would give her the legitimacy in a fight that she so desperately wants.

As this was all going down, Jason Kenney announced that he had resigned his seat, with a letter attached that bemoaned how polarized politics had become—after he spent 25 years actively engaging in that very polarizing behaviour and driving it to partisan effect. The kicker here is that Kenney was vehemently opposed to the proposed Sovereignty Act, and planned to oppose it in the legislature, but as soon as the bill is tabled, whoops, there he goes. I can’t quite decide if this is weaselly behaviour, or Kenney being a chicken shit. Either way, it was a choice.

https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1597741099971641344

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 280:

NATO foreign ministers met in Bucharest, Romania, and have pledged additional non-lethal support with things like more blankets and generators to help Ukrainians to get through the winter, but also to send them Patriot missiles. The Americans announced $53 million to buy parts to help repair the electrical grid. Inside Ukraine, “Points of Invincibility” have bene set up which are stations to get food, drinks, and warmth as the shelling of critical infrastructure continues.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1597661671560024067

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Roundup: Danielle Smith will threaten your funding

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Danielle Smith’s Alberta is a place where Smith and her ministers will phone you up and threaten your funding if you have mask or vaccine mandates, it was revealed yesterday. Smith threatened funding for the Arctic Winter Games, and has been phoning film productions to threaten them if they have mandates, because of course she is. It’s an abusive, arbitrary exercise of power that is imposing conditions on these groups or productions that don’t have these obligations in their written agreements, but it’s not like she cares about things like legalities.

It was also revealed that she isn’t moving ahead with her plan to add protection for the unvaccinated in the province’s human rights legislation, and is instead going to focus on her so-called “Sovereignty Act,” but rumour is that it’s going to be something like “Sovereignty Within a United Canada” or some other similar bullshit to make it look like it’s not a full-on separatist movement that will spook investment, not that doing arbitrary things like phoning you up and threatening your funding will make anyone feel like they want to continue doing business in the province. I’m almost surprised that her caucus isn’t revolting already considering the absolute abuse of power on display.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 279:

Ongoing Russian strikes and power disruptions as a result are making it difficult for hospitals in Ukraine to carry out their work, and at times, surgeries are being performed with headlamps and flashlights. The US is expected to announce aid that will help with the restoration of electricity around the country. Meanwhile, 30 settlements in the Kherson region have been shelled 258 times in the past week, and Russia has kept up shelling at Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk province as they try to make gains there.

https://twitter.com/DavidLametti/status/1597320883441319936

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Roundup: Trudeau takes the stand

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It was prime minister Justin Trudeau’s long-awaited appearance on the season finale of the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and he defended the invocation of the Act, and he sat and answered questions for over five hours, and from the sounds of it, managed to acquit himself fairly well. He seemed to have a much better memory of events than beleaguered RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, and dismissed the so-called plan that was in the works on the 13th before the Act was invoked as not being an actual plan. There was a detour through the sub-drama about Candice Bergen, and Trudeau produced a transcript of the call where she did express concerns about setting a bad precedent around demands he meet with the occupiers—Bergen had previously told the media that the PMO description of the call was different than she recalled. (Bergen? Not being honest? Perish the thought!) In all, Trudeau says that he’s “serene” with his decision, and now it’s up to the Commissioner if that’s enough.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1596170763261935625

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1596178220701077505

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1596167087818526722

And with that, the testimonies portion of the inquiry wrapped. The parties all gave closing summaries of their arguments (though the one lawyer representing the occupiers’ read like it was coming from an alternate reality and ended with a demand for Trudeau to resign), and the judge gave his thanks to all of the participants.

Additionally, Shannon Proudfoot offers her sketch of the day’s events. Paul Wells runs through Trudeau’s testimony and sees particular places where he seems to be trying to be clever about certain things like the dismissal of the previous plan, and it’s a good read throughout.

And then, by sheer coincidence, it also happened to be the night that Trudeau made his appearance on Canada’s Drag Race, and yeah, as with any political appearance on the show, it was slightly cringe and not terribly critical, but that’s pretty much how these shows happen these days. Still, good on him for making the appearance at a time when drag is being heavily politicised (though drag is by its nature political), and where it is under attack in certain American states. Having a world leader show support does help.

https://twitter.com/canadasdragrace/status/1596332148297912320

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 276:

Russians bombarded Kherson again, killing ten civilians and wounding more, damaging more power stations, though most were back online in much of the country by the end of the day.

https://twitter.com/kovaliv_y/status/1595861029514256384

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Roundup: Benefits based on political rather than economic need

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith paid for television airtime last night to announce that she would be making “inflation-fighting measures,” which are mostly cheques to people, but targeted payments rather than just the old model of money to everyone. Of course, where she blamed the cause of inflation is pure fiction, so that was classic Smith, and common among populist “conservative” parties these days. There were some good measures in there like re-indexing several social programmes (the decision not to index them being purely spiteful legislated poverty).

This being said, the targeting is done pretty deliberately, and it’s not entirely based on need, unless you count her political need as what she’s addressing. Money for relatively affluent seniors, and to families with children are politically motivated—seniors vote, and suburban mothers are a highly desirable demographic because women are less likely to vote conservative, and while Smith is likely to clean up in rural ridings by default (because this is Alberta), her problem are the urban ridings (and when I say urban, I really mean suburban because again, this is Alberta and its cities all have miniscule urban cores surrounded by endless suburbs). And while it wouldn’t be a political party pandering or bribing voters by ensuring that singletons get nothing, as usual, this is done with a little more intention than the usual policy objectives of appealing to families. It’s about buying the votes she needs to hang onto power in the spring, and it’s so blatantly obvious that it’s pretty insulting.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 273:

Fighting continues near Bahkmut, and Russians accused Ukrainians of targeting power lines in Donetsk (but they also are masters of projection, so take that as you will). Meanwhile, the government has begun evacuating people from Kherson to prevent them from freezing to death over the winter, and to prevent any losses of life due to the cold. As well, Ukraine’s counter-intelligence forces searched an Orthodox Christian church in Kyiv, shortly after its priest was speaking favourably of Russia, and they wanted to ensure that there are no Russian operatives working out of the church.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1595260762532229121

https://twitter.com/CFOperations/status/1594799007750295552

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