Tag Archives: EI Reform

QP: McJobs and the race to the bottom

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The final MP to give a member’s statement for the day was Ted Opitz, embattled MP whose election results were overturned, and who decided earlier in the day to appeal to the Supreme Court at the last minute. As soon as he stood up to give a perfunctory attack against the NDP and their “reckless economic policies,” a voice shouted from the Liberal benches “Are you still here?” Apparently so.

And when Thomas Mulcair rose to begin QP, he prompted that perhaps Opitz may want to listen carefully as he may soon be seeking EI – before he went into a tale about how manufacturing jobs were being replaced with “McJobs.” John Baird, today’s back-up PM, lamented Mulcair’s lack of commitment to the “new civility” before he touted how great the new EI measures were going to be. Mulcair followed up with comparisons between the EI reforms and Conservative patronage appointments, not that Baird took the bait, but instead delivered his talking points about individual circumstances being considered. Megan Leslie was up next to also take on EI, with a bit more of a spin on seasonal industries, to which Diane Finley gave some slightly modified talking points, making it clear that this was good news for Canadians who want to work but who just need more information on where those jobs are. Bob Rae turned to the issue of the looming back-to-work legislation, and wondered why the government wouldn’t allow for both sides to appear before a committee to explain their situation before the government drops the hammer. Lisa Raitt lamented that when the Liberals once tried this, the matter got tied up in committee by the opposition – to which the Liberal benches roared that her party was the opposition at the time – not that it seemed to matter. Rae returned to the issue of EI and the lack of consultation with the premiers, to which Baird reminded everyone about what a terribly premier Rae had been, as though it was germane to the topic at hand.

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Roundup: Back-to-work legislation ahoy!

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With the negotiations at CP Rail having broken down, it looks like we’ll be seeing some fresh back-to-work legislation this week.

Joe Oliver says he’s supportive of Alison Redford’s national energy strategy idea – but he just doesn’t want to call it that. Meanwhile, this unsigned Maclean’s editorial makes a few good points about the “Dutch disease” debate, the changing manufacturing sector, and the nonsense of trying to attach environmental concerns to the economics. Stephen Gordon has even more economic data that seems to divorce the decline in our manufacturing sector from the rise in our resource economy, when compared to other major economies.

Western premiers will be meeting on Tuesday to talk about energy and environmental regulation, and it seems like Mulcair will be on that agenda as well. Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador premier Kathy Dunderdale has a bone to pick with Peter MacKay over the search-and-rescue closures in her province, and that’s only getting worse with the EI changes.

Jim Flaherty is striking a slightly more conciliatory tone around EI changes than Diane Finely has been.

There is talk that the government is exploring the idea of a standalone military procurement office, after all of the many and sundry blunders that have taken place in the past few years. One should say that if they do go ahead with this, they’re probably better off not just putting the same people in charge as the ones who’ve made the mistakes in the past – you know, like they did with the new fighter jet secretariat.

What’s that? An internal investigation of the privacy breaches at Veterans Affairs clears the department of wrongdoing? You don’t say!

What’s that? A quarter of defeated Conservative candidates have since been given public service jobs? You don’t say! Actually, this is neither that concerning nor alarming considering that most are qualified for the new jobs, and we shouldn’t get too worked up if defeated candidates get staffer positions. It’s not like opposition parties don’t give staffer jobs to their own defeated candidates at times either.

Thomas Mulcair has remortgaged his house eleven times since the early eighties, continually increasing his mortgage debt despite his MP salary, but no one will say why – even though this is a very unusual thing.

Sadly, the birth of Canada hardly rated mention in Queen Victoria’s journals. Alas!

And Tabatha Southey casts a satirical eye on the “bravery” of David Wilks and his strong stand against…his previous strong stand.

Roundup: Less accessible EI appeals

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Amidst all of the changes to the EI system, another of the items tucked away in the omnibus budget bill is the scrapping of the two current EI review boards. While the current system is free and as different levels of appeal, the plan calls for a much smaller board to hear EI appeals, along with CPP and OAS claimants. Oh, and it’s a more technical process that’s likely going to need people to hire lawyers, thus making far more inaccessible than the current system. Diane Finley and her people claim “efficiency” and “less duplication,” while the people who work with the system currently say that it’s not actually inefficient. Oh, and about those changes to the EI system, Newfoundland and Labrador premier Kathy Dunderdale is not happy – especially about the lack of consultation with the decision, not that this should come as a great shock.

Lockheed Martin says that Canadian companies will lose out on future contracts if we don’t go ahead with the F-35 purchase – and that all indications on their end are that the government is still committed to them, despite this new secretariat and a Seven-Step Action Plan™.

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Roundup: Unveiling the proposed regulations

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Diane Finley has unveiled her proposed EI reform regulations, and it seems to be a lot about twice-daily emails about “appropriate” jobs in the local area to EI recipients. Which is great – provided you have a computer and Internet access, and aren’t one of those poor schmucks who has to rely on their local library for the Internet, especially seeing as the federal funding for those library computers is now at an end. The changes will also track how often one claims EI, and start taking away benefits the more you claim it. Rona Ambrose likens it to E-Harmony for jobseekers. No, seriously. Meanwhile, here is some more reaction, plus Scott Brison relays concerns from the agricultural sector in his riding with regards to these reforms’ limits on temporary foreign workers, who they say the use of actually creates more jobs for local residents. Steve Murray casts his satirical eye on the situation here.

To say nothing about him personally, John Baird has been pretty vocal about promoting GBLT rights around the world in his capacity as foreign affairs minister. With that in mind, it’s awfully curious that he was speaking at an event sponsored by an anti-gay church on the topic of religious freedom. His speech, however, was pretty bland, and offered no real clues about the still undefined Office of Religious Freedoms.

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Roundup: A Monday deadline

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CP Rail is now on strike amidst thousands of layoffs, though they are mostly keeping commuter service unaffected. Lisa Raitt, however, is citing the harm to the economy, and is giving them until Monday to come to a deal, lest she bring down the hammer of back-to-work legislation. (This feels like a good time to remind you of my conversation with Senator Elaine McCoy, a former provincial conservative labour minister, about how this government handles its labour disputes).

Leona Aglukkaq admits that yes, there are food issues in the North – but that doesn’t mean she’ll back down from her comments about the UN Special Rapporteur for Food. Nor will she stop using it as an excuse to bash other countries about their criticism of the seal hunt – even if the Rapporteur never made any mention of the seal hunt in his report.

Elections Canada tried to get Michael Sona to talk about who might be behind the misleading robo-calls. Sona wouldn’t bite.

Defenders of the Canadian Wheat Board are back in court trying to overturn the law that dismantled it.

$100,000 spent in flights and hotels while looking for cost savings. Fiscal austerity, everyone!

Here is a reminder about fifteen things stuffed into the omnibus budget bill that have nothing really to do with the budget.

And Prince Charles and Camilla finished the Diamond Jubilee Royal Tour in Regina last night. Part of his visit there included a tour of First Nations University, and a block of oak from Charles’ estate in Cornwall was given to the province for the creation of their own Black Rod.

Up today: Diane Finley is set to unveil the regulations around the proposed EI changes today. I suppose it’s a good thing that we’re actually getting them now and not after the omnibus budget bill passes. Incidentally, HRSDC is no longer sending Statistics Canada certain EI statistical data, apparently over unresolved “inconsistencies,” which seems terribly convenient.

Roundup: Hints about the EI changes

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Fisheries minister Keith Ashfield has lifted the lid off the proposed EI reform regulations, and they almost seem *gasp!* reasonable. People won’t be forced to take jobs more than an hour’s drive from their homes, which shouldn’t result in the massive depopulation of the Atlantic provinces. Of course, this may all be wrong, and there remains no official word, but it’s a start, right?

The seven Conservative MPs whose seats are facing court challenges have all now formally requested the cases be dismissed as “frivolous and vexatious.” Meanwhile, Stephen Maher worries about what the revelations that overturned the results in Etobicoke Centre say about the job that Elections Canada is doing in ensuring the integrity of our elections.

Attorney General Rob Nicholson is stepping in to try to halt a Human Rights Tribunal hearing about an aboriginal RCMP officer alleging systemic racism in the Force. Meanwhile, here are the unpleasant allegations of sexual misconduct around one senior officer in Alberta’s RCMP headquarters.

Ministerial clampdowns appear to be the theme of the day as Peter MacKay has also ordered one on the inquiry of a soldier’s suicide.

The government is launching consultations on how to improve official languages in this country, while sparing said programmes from budget cuts.

What’s that? Vic Toews is misquoting an NDP MP? You don’t say!

CP Rail assures us that a strike won’t affect commuter service. But the economy is still fragile! No word yet if Lisa Raitt is going to drop the hammer yet again and table some back-to-work legislation.

The Prime Minister’s official bio in Diamond Jubilee Royal Tour media materials contains the election phrase “strong, stable, national majority” (though we have been assured that this was a copy-paste and not written by public servants). Because there is no distinction between the partisan and the office it seems.

And a number of First Nations chiefs met with Prince Charles yesterday, and requested a meeting with the Queen to discuss treaty issues. Remember that the treaties are with Crown directly, and that relationship is personal. Meanwhile, Charles and Camilla are off to Regina, the last stop on their Diamond Jubilee Royal Tour. As for their time in Toronto, here’s a bit of video, including of Camilla visiting with the Queen’s Own Rifles, the regiment for whom she is the Colonel-in-Chief.

Roundup: Just take the minister’s word

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While the issue of missing regulations on EI changes dominates the debate in the Commons right now, it seems that department of Human Resources and Skills Development did conduct a focus group study on what it would take to encourage people from high-unemployment areas to those regions with better opportunities. The minister has tried to distance herself from this study and her comments have consistently been about finding work within one’s region, but without any regulations on offer, we are left to take her word for it.

Seeing as political parties and voter databases exist outside of privacy legislation in this country, you would expect that this might lead to problems. Well indeed it has, with the voters’ list being abused with fraudulent robo-calls, and people being added to databases after contacting their MPs on policy concerns or case files. Who would have guessed?

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QP: Increasingly angry tangents

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I’m not going to lie – it was a pretty ugly day in the Commons today. Harper wasn’t there, and everyone was in a pretty snappish mood already, after a morning full of committee shenanigans. When Thomas Mulcair started off by asking about the government getting the RCMP to launch a probe into the Globe and Mail after a story about the F-35s, James Moore – the back-up PM du jour – started off with a perfunctory “We have a responsibility to protect sensitive information,” before turning to Mulcair’s comments about the resource sector and mischaracterising those quotes as calling them a “disease” (which is not what “Dutch disease” refers to). But then Mulcair would go on a tirade defending his comments, before returning to his completely unrelated RCMP probe questions. And Moore would answer back with an attack, and Mulcair’s tirades would get increasingly angry and tangential, until he went on about the government following the development model of “Nigeria and not Norway” in a rant that was clearly not a question – not that it mattered by that point. Bob Rae toned things down a bit asking about the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ comments about the changes to EI, and Moore, calmly, told him the changes were in the legislation. Which of course, they aren’t – the changes are dependent upon future regulation – but Rae did not lose his cool, though he did get a bit more excited on his final question – about the missing numbers of how much the OAS changes would save the treasury, but Moore simply repeated the boilerplate talking points about changes not coming until 2023.

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QP: Tinfoil hats and telecom trouble

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While some MPs may have been a bit bleary-eyed from the previous late night, it certainly didn’t make for a dull Question Period. Or perhaps, that’s why it took such a turn for the worse the longer it continued. Thomas Mulcair was up first, reciting his carefully prepared questions on why the government still hadn’t provided any figures for the planned changes to OAS, to which Harper assured him that there weren’t going to be any actual cuts to benefits. Mulcair then turned to the issue of Chinese telecom company Huawei being granted Canadian contracts after the US and Austraila barred them as security risks. Harper insisted that the US doesn’t dictate our policies. When Randall Garrison rose to keep asking about the same questions, Vic Toews said that the CBC story only told half the tale, and that his officials weren’t in opposition, while Conservative backbenchers chirped about people wearing tinfoil hats. Bob Rae got up to ask about the changes to EI and how worker protections were eroding as their rights would no longer be enshrined in legislation, but rather in regulation. But when he demanded that Harper produce said regulation now, Harper dodged and insisted that the appeals process would remain in place. When Rae turned to the issue that the government wouldn’t produce the data on how much would be saved in the OAS changes, Harper reminded him that the measures wouldn’t be coming into effect until 2023.

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