Tag Archives: Environment

Roundup: Another useless vote-a-thon over

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After about thirty hours, the vote-a-thon “filibuster” was complete (it wasn’t a filibuster), and MPs went home. Well, probably not home, as they all missed their flights, so a bunch will either be trying for a weekend flight only to turn around and fly back 24 hours later, or they’ll stay in Ottawa for the weekend, and fume about missing family and constituency events, and it’ll be Conservatives fuming as much, if not more so than anyone else. It bears noting that Justin Trudeau was present for much of the voting in person, and most of his front bench was as well—François-Philippe Champagne arrived directly from his flight from Dubai and immediately headed to the Chamber to vote, with some jokes that he didn’t know what time it was supposed to be after the flight. Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, was absent for nearly all of it. After taking off for a Hannukah event in Montreal (there is a whole sub-plot of Conservative MPs going to Hannukah events where Liberals didn’t because these were confidence votes on a money bill) and then a fundraiser, he arrived late in the night bearing fast food, tried to move a motion to end the vote-a-thon if the Liberals would accede to his demands and “axe the tax,” which they wouldn’t, and then he took off again and was mostly absent the rest of the vote-a-thon. Because he’s a leader like that. (Coverage of the votes from The Canadian Press, CBC, the Star and the National Post, each making different observations).

This vote-a-thon technique has been done before, and it’s failed before, because it never connects to whatever the Conservatives are demanding. They are merely exploiting the fact that for Supply, they can engineer to vote on individual line-items, so they force these vote-a-thons as some sort of “punishment” for the Liberals, but this has all of the same logic as being mad at your partner and withholding sex. The end result is that you really only end up punishing yourself. The Liberals treated this as a big team-building exercise at a time of great caucus unrest and division, and according to all of the reports, morale was high throughout, while Poilievre is going to be hearing about this from his angry backbenchers. Not to mention, the whole logic of thinking that the minor discomfort of a thirty-hour vote-a-thon is going to force the Liberals to abandon a signature policy that they won three elections on and is supported by every other party in the Chamber is ludicrous. That the Conservatives are trying to spin this as a pressure tactic is risible.

And spin is what they are indeed trying to do. Scheer tried to spin this as a “victory” because they made the House lose a sitting day, even though that was a Friday, so not very many hours of debate were really lost. Poilievre has since been insisting that he’s going to prevent the government from going “on holidays,” but he has no power to do that. The Standing Orders have a fixed date to rise, and changing that would require a unanimous consent motion, which he’s never going to get. This was just an impotent exercise in wasting everyone’s time for a temper tantrum based on the lie that carbon pricing is what is driving unaffordability (that has been debunked so many times), but these are the times we live in, where this is all for performance and clips—which the Liberals have been making their own of, where Conservatives voted against line items about the very things they claim to care about, and in particular things like NATO exercises and support for Ukraine—votes that will be going into dossiers in the capitals of our allies, as they know just who Poilievre will be should he ever form government.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians conducted missile strikes against the central part of Ukraine, with 14 missiles shot down outside of Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk, while they again pressed the attack at Avdiivka and Kupiansk. Media were invited to see Ukrainian troops training for winter combat at facilities in Poland. Here is a look at the attempt to get better casualty figures for the war, particularly from the Ukrainian side, where they aren’t published for fear of harming the war effort.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1733078163360477582

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Roundup: The “watered down” oil and gas emissions cap

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The federal government unveiled their oil and gas emissions cap while at COP28, and the predictable reactions happened—the Greens, Bloc and NDP decried it as being too weak and watered down (never mind that there are recent court decisions that the government has to consider when it comes to just how far they can go); Danielle Smith and Scott Moe were performatively angry, even though it pretty much aligns with Alberta’s existing targets; and the oil and gas lobby decried how much money this was going to lose them. Economists point out that this undermines the carbon pricing system even further.

The cap is only on the pollution, not the production, because that would be provincial jurisdiction, so theoretically these companies could continue to increase production if they better control and capture emissions. (Also, refinery emissions are not in these because that’s part of the clean fuel standard). There is also a cap-and-trade system attached to this emissions cap, so that if a facility goes over their targets, they can buy offsets from a company below their cap, as well as pay into a decarbonisation fund.

Now we wait for the inevitable court challenges, and those dragging their feet to comply because they hope that the polls stay true and that Poilievre will form government in two years and they can ignore all of this then, as though climate change isn’t still the biggest threat to our lives, well, ever.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians struck the Danube River port infrastructure once again, killing a driver and damaging grain infrastructure. Ukrainians are starting to use rail to bypass the blockade by Polish trucks at their border. And the Ukrainian government has come to an agreement with two American firms to jointly manufacture 155 mm shells in Ukraine, but it could be two or three years before that production can come on line.

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QP: Today’s script was about a food report

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The prime minister was on his way back to town from Montreal and was not present today, though his deputy was. None of the other leaders were present either, for what it’s worth, and Speaker Greg Fergus was back in the chair today, and that was definitely an issue for some. Melissa Lantsman led off, and she read some slogans about carbon prices, and paid mention to a report that predicts that food prices will increase next year for a family of four by $700, before demanding the carbon price be lifted. Jonathan Wilkinson notes that a carbon price is an important part of an emissions reduction plan and that most people get more back in rebates than they pay, and the Conservatives are only fighting for the rich. Lantsman accused the prime minister of calling senators to intimidate them on Bill C-234 (which is risible). Karina Gould note that most of the Conservatives senators didn’t show up to vote on that bill. Lantsman repeated the concern about the food report, to which Wilkinson noted that farmers are already largely exempt from carbon pricing, and that farmers are on the front lines of climate change, before taking a swipe at the Conservatives for voting against the bill on the trade agreement with Ukraine. Luc Berthold took over in French repeat the same accusation with some added swipes taken at the Bloc. Jenna Sudds rose and spoke about how humbled she is to work on behalf of Canadians, and decried that the Conservatives voted against a (symbolic) bill about school food programmes. Berthold raised the stories of children asking for grocery gift cards for Christmas and demanded the government cancel the carbon price to lower grocery prices (which it won’t do). Chrystia Freeland said that everyone knows that Conservatives don’t support those who aren’t well-off, and raised the UNICEF report about how Canada lowered child poverty thanks to the Child Benefit that the Conservatives vowed against.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and raised the notion about the government allegedly owing Quebec for asylum seekers, and demanded the minister get out his cheque book. Mark Miller noted that there isn’t a one-way relationship, and he’s working well with his provincial colleague. Therrien thundered that they needed to pay more, and Miller noted that they transfer a lot of money to Quebec for a lot of things.

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video to badmouth grocery CEOs, to which Marie-Claude Bibeau stood up to praise the government’s competition legislation. Singh repeated his question in a French, and Bibeau repeated her same response. 

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Roundup: The empty threat to sit over the holidays

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Yesterday began with Pierre Poilievre announcing at the start of his caucus meeting that the Conservatives would keep the government from going on their Christmas holidays—because they had allegedly ruined the Christmases of Canadians—unless the government lifts the carbon price from “farmers, First Nations, and families,” which is pretty nebulous, and would seem to mean the consumer carbon price and not the industrial one. Their method of warfare? Thousands of amendments that would force round-the-clock votes on things like their budget implementation bill or the bill to amend competition laws.

The problem is that, despite the threats that Conservatives like Melissa Lantsman are making, is that they can’t actually force the House to sit past December 15th. MPs long ago put the fixed calendar into the Standing Orders, and it would take a unanimous consent motion to change that date, which they’re not going to get. And if they think they’re going to exploit the loophole of keep voting going for days on end (which would technically be one sitting day that lasts beyond twenty-four hours), well, Poilievre is going to find his own MPs are going to start getting pretty upset with him because they have families, and constituency business to attend to, and this kind of thing gets pretty tiresome really quickly.

It’s an empty threat, and it’s the same kind of thing that happens every June, and every December without fail. The opposition parties start thumping their chests because it’s their last chance to flex their muscles and look like they’re being tough on the government, and without fail, they go home on time, if not a day or two early, because everyone is tired, cranky, and just wants to get the hell out of there. I would be incredibly surprised if the House didn’t rise for the holidays by the end of the 14th. Of course, this will be a different matter for the Senate, who will once again complain bitterly that these amendment vote-a-thons will delay their getting the bills, which will mean rushed passage, and that same song and dance will play out yet again, as it does at the end of every session.

In short, everyone needs to grow the hell up, and frankly, MPs need to go home sooner than later and think about their atrocious behaviour.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces shot down 41 out of 48 Russian drones in a major overnight attack. Russian forces pressed again on Avdiivka, with both sides each claiming they made gains. It was Armed Forces Day in Ukraine yesterday, with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisting they would win a fair peace “against all odds,” while his defence minister was in Washington to try and secure more aid from the Americans, who are holding it up to try and force concessions around their border. A former Ukrainian MP who was regarded as a traitor was shot dead outside of Moscow, and sources say that Ukraine’s security service was responsible.

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QP: An ejection stunt among the scripts

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The prime minister was present, but would only be for the leaders’ round today instead of his usual Wednesday practice of taking all questions, as he needed to head to the École Polytechnique vigil in Montreal. His deputy was absent, as was Jagmeet Singh, who has not been seen in person for over a week now. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he noted the day for remembrance of École Polytechnique before pivoting this to questions of children who are asking Santa Claus for food, and asked if the prime minister “ordered his senators” to vote against Bill C-234. Trudeau read a statement about Polytechnique and gender-based violence. Poilievre then raised a question in the Senate asked of the president of CHMC, who said there wasn’t a plan to add 40,000 housing units and then plugged his “documentary.” Trudeau dismissed the chasing of clicks and praised their housing strategy. Poilievre returned to English to repeat the same question, but called the CMHC the “prime minister’s housing agency,” which is risible. Trudeau read a script that Poilievre chases clicks, and uses homeless people as props. Poilievre blamed Trudeau for causing homelessness, and accused him of attempting to “manipulate and intimidate” senators to vote against Bill C-234. Trudeau quipped that the only farming Poilievre cares about is rage-farming. Poilievre pilloried him for reading talking points from junior staffers, and repeated his same accusation. Trudeau, with a script in his hand, says that Poilievre is so ideologically opposed to climate action that he wants to take parliament hostage, and accused Poilievre of only being fuelled by the sound of his own voice.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he railed about Catherine Tait’s leadership at CBC/Radio-Canada and the cuts being made. Trudeau read some scripts about cancelling Harper cuts and their work on the Online News Act. Blanchet hoped that they would not conclude that Liberal cuts were better than Conservative ones and took another swipe at Tait. Trudeau reminded him that they will look at the protection of French as part of CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate.

Lindsay Mathyssen rose for the NDP, and read statistics on gender-based violence before accusing the government of cutting funds to women’s shelters (which is not actually the case). Trudeau read a script about supporting shelters and working with provinces and territories on strategies to eliminate gender based violence. Lori Idlout accused the government of deliberately keeping Indigenous women in violent situations by not adequately funding housing. Trudeau read a script about co-developing housing strategies and solutions, while they have already helped build and renovate 30,000 housing units for Indigenous communities. 

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Roundup: Who “axing the tax” really benefits

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Economist Trevor Tombe and the CBC have come up with some modelling of the federal carbon levy, and lo, there remains yet more proof that for most households, the price and rebate system do in fact leave people better off. And more to the point, it also proves that removing the price—the “axe the tax” that Pierre Poilievre has been touring the country to promote, would only benefit people making over $250,000/year, which is pretty much the top one percent of income earners in the country.

This should be nothing new—back when they were in government, the Conservatives kept producing boutique tax credit after boutique tax credit that they kept claiming would help “ordinary” Canadians, when in fact they were structed in such a way as to really only benefit the wealthiest households. It’s not an uncommon trick from right-wing parties, particularly as they convince people to vote against their own best interests, but once again, they have created a massive disinformation campaign to claim that the carbon price is what is driving inflation and in particular food price inflation, when it’s simply not true, and that killing it will “make life affordable,” or that people will be able to “eat and heat their homes” again, which again, are not really being made unaffordable because of the carbon price, but other factors at play. And even with this data to prove that they’re lying, they’ll insist that it’s wrong, or that Tombe and the CBC are the ones doing the disinformation (which is why they attack academics and the media), but we need to be calling out that the Conservatives have been lying to the public as a way of rage-farming to drive votes and engagement.

Meanwhile, Tombe has also collaborated on another analysis of carbon prices in BC (which is separate from the federal system, but at the same price level), and finds that lo, they contributed a whole 0.33 percent to the price of food, which is of course what the Conservatives keep claiming is driving up food costs. It’s not—climate change is. Just this week, Statistics Canada released this year’s crop production data, and thanks to drought on the Prairies, crop yields are down this year—not as bad as it was in 2021, but wheat is down 6.9%, barley yields down 10.9%, and oat yields down 49.6%. This is the kind of thing that is affecting food prices, not the carbon price, but Conservatives will keep lying to you.

https://twitter.com/trevortombe/status/1732071690480562570

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian authorities say that they downed ten of seventeen Russian drones in an overnight attack, that hit targets in both the west and east of the country. As aid for Ukraine from the US is under debate, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had to cancel a planned virtual meeting with US lawmakers, as the Republicans are trying to tie that aid to border measures. Zelenskyy is slated to meet virtually with G7 leaders today.

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1732084917708759146

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QP: A non-partisan private screening?

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The prime minister was present today, while his deputy was not. Most of the other leaders, but not all, were present as well. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he immediately praised his “documentary” and crowed that four million people have watched it on Twitter, before wondering if the prime minister would watch it. Justin Trudeau noted that Poilievre has asked the federal government to withdraw from the housing sector, and said that they would’t repeat the same mistakes Poilievre made when he was “housing” minister and denounced Poilievre’s proposals, saying that Poilievre was focusing more on his own popularity than housing people. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his back-patting on his “documentary,” and Trudeau declared that Canadians need the government’s “bold action,” and declared that the federal government has an important leadership role to play and listed some actions. Poilievre mocked Trudeau releasing his own video in a development, then claimed to “set partisanship aside” to offer a private screening of his “documentary.” Trudeau noted the things that Poilievre was promising that wouldn’t actually get more houses built, and that they were more focused on houses than clicks. Poilievre recited a series of slogans, before Trudeau noted that Poilievre was satisfied with his ability to deliver misinformation and disinformation online, which he was very good at. Poilievre called Trudeau the “king of self-aggrandisement,” and praised his “documentary” again. Trudeau noted that he didn’t think he’d be hearing an infomercial instead of QP, and recited lines about how the government was working with cities to take concrete measures to get houses built while Poilievre is busy talking to himself online.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and worried both the dire state of the media, particularly with the recent CBC/Radio-Canada cuts. Trudeau insisted that they have been there for the media for years, and praised their Google deal. Blanchet insisted that the Google deal was not enough, and that was particularly concerned about cuts to French services at CBC while executives would still get bonuses. Trudeau read a script about cancelling the Harper cuts to CBC, and praise for the Online News Act, taking a swipe at Poilievre in the process.

Jenny Kwan rose for the NDP, and demanded immediate action on housing. Trudeau said that they were reaching out to municipalities and provinces to deliver, and that they all needed to roll up their sleeves to solve this process. Alistair MacGregor went on a rant about corporate greed driving people to food banks, to which Trudeau read a script about competition legislation to crack down on predatory pricing and ensuring more competition in the sector to lower prices.

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Roundup: Speaker Fergus is in trouble

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The incident over the weekend where Speaker Greg Fergus appeared in a video at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention, in his robes, in his official office, blew up in the House of Commons today, and it wasn’t wholly unexpected. Fergus led off the day with an apology and a promise to be more careful in the future, but also an insistence that this was a personal message to outgoing interim provincial Liberal leader John Fraser, for whom he las a long-standing friendship, and non-partisan.

This didn’t mollify the Conservatives, who immediately launched into a point of privilege, led by Andrew Scheer, while the Bloc immediately decided that Fergus needs to resign over this, while the Conservatives also came around to this demand. The NDP, for their part, said that this needs to go to a committee for study, but all the while, Fergus recused himself from this discussion (as well he should have, which as something that Anthony Rota didn’t do after his particular incident), but the Deputy Speaker, Chris d’Entrement, indulged. It was quite clear that this was really more of a dilatory tactic from the Conservatives, who put up speaker after speaker to this point, for hours on end, which again, d’Entrement indulged when he shouldn’t have. But this is what they’re doing at this time of year, to run out the clock, like they do at the end of every sitting, and this was just today’s excuse rather than insisting that they really, really needed to debate a three-line committee report from eighteen months ago.

A couple of observations here:

  1. This wasn’t necessarily a breach of non-partisanship because this was at a provincial and not a federal event. Scheer tried to use the analogy of an NHL referee giving a pep talk in on team’s dressing room while in uniform, but that doesn’t hold—this would be an NHL referee giving a note of congratulations to someone in the OHL. But Scheer is a serial liar, so of course he’s going to turn out a work of fiction on this.
  2. Fergus should have known better, and while Fraser is trying to take the blame for this, Fergus should have had better judgment than to appear in his robes, in his official office, regardless of the circumstances. As a friend of mine noted, the Liberals can’t seem to help themselves with this kind of thing, and Fergus has been a little too proud of his new post and to be showing off his robes at every opportunity, and that’s going to get him in trouble. Well, more than he already is. Did he learn nothing from the fact that Rota was a genial idiot using his position to pose for photos in his uniform at every opportunity, and it led to his downfall? Seriously.
  3. If people want to get precious about what is and isn’t non-partisan for a Speaker, Rota would be making government funding announcement in his riding all the time, which he shouldn’t have done because he’s not a minister, and he’s the Speaker and shouldn’t have been there for them. And yet, nobody said boo about this practice, which they really should have.

Bottom line is I don’t think Fergus should have to resign over this, but man oh man, what terrible judgment so early in his time in that office.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces say they have successfully attacked oil depots in Russian-occupied Luhansk, while the deputy commander of Russia’s 14th Army Corps was killed in fighting in Ukraine. The death toll from the strike on the eastern town of Novohrodivka has risen after more bodies were found in the rubble of a residential building.

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QP: Did you watch my documentary?

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While the prime minister was in town, he was not present, though his deputy was. Most of the other leaders were absent as well, for what it’s worth. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he decried that rent was rising faster than salaries, and blamed the prime minister for it, and implored him to watch his “documentary” which he called “common sense,” and demanded a “common sense” plan. Sean Fraser got up to respond that it was a shame that Poilievre doesn’t put as much energy into generating housing policy as he does videos, and that the reality was when when he looks at Poilievre’s proposals, it would mean fewer houses get built. Poilievre insisted that minster must not have watched his “common sense” video, which he claimed was being “widely acclaimed” (it’s not), and listed some of his proposals. Fraser said that while Poilievre was more concerned about clicks, he was concerned about putting roofs over people’s heads. Poilievre mocked the progress the government has made and their insistence of photo ops, to which Fraser pointed out that Poilievre likes to go around the country on the taxpayer’s expense, and take photos in front of projects the government funded. Poilievre gave a soliloquy about how all of the government’s projects are imaginary, and this time, Fraser pointed out how much the government’s housing strategy has provided, and that they have turned the corner after three decades of federal inaction. Poilievre gave another pitch for his nonsense plan, and Fraser responded with the responsibility that they all have to ensure that everyone has a home.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and wanted to know how long the heritage minister knew that cuts were happening at CBC/Radio-Canada, as though she is the manager in charge. Pascale St-Onge praised their record on reinvesting in CBC and the media sector. Therrien then went on a rant about Catherine Tait having her term expend to make these cuts, to which St-Onge reminds him that CBC operates at arm’s length, and that they were doing more the media sector thanks to their Online News Act.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, took a swipe at St-Onge, before worrying about the Operation Santa Claus letters about children asking for food, and turned it into a rant about grocery giants. Chrystia Freeland talked about how the Canada Child Benefit has lifted families out of poverty but they were also advancing new competition measures. Alaister MacGregor took over in English to decry the grocery CEOs, to which Freeland repeated her praise about benefits, and their bill to enhance competition. 

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Roundup: Overselling “soft populism”

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It was quite the weekend for uncritical media for Pierre Poilievre, after he had a bad couple of weeks of being called out for a series of egregious lies that could no longer be spun or both-sidesed. Nevertheless, the National Post was there to gush about his so-called “soft populism” that was full of comments of people insisting he was really within the mainstream and which studiously ignored his attempting to normalize far-right actors in order to capture the PPC vote, or his shifting the Overton-window to make their particular pronouncements acceptable discourse when they remain radical. Nobody wants to talk about his attempts to take MAGA Republican populism and just use the “good parts only” in the hopes that he can ignore the bad stuff that comes with it, but that’s not how real life works, and these are things we should be discussing.

Meanwhile, Poilievre released a fifteen minute “documentary” on housing over the weekend that the usual pundit suspects gushed over, not because it contained anything true, because it didn’t—it’s the exact same pseudo-intellectual “economics” that he got from crypto-bros on YouTube, but it’s done with higher production values and data-visualization crimes, conspiracy claims, internally inconsistent arguments, and the inability to distinguish between correlation and causation, but hey—it looked slick, so that’s what everyone is going to glom onto. And while I get that it’s the weekend, the Post wrote-up a recap with absolutely no critical pushback to any of its claims, while the CBC couched it in poll numbers and some government talking points, again, with no actual pushback to any of Poilievre’s misleading claims.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians have been shelling Kherson, and killed at least two people over the weekend. Russian advances appear to be easing off on Avdiivka, while their claims of having captured Maryinka remain unsubstantiated. Former president Petro Poroshenko was denied permission to leave the country (because of martial law) when it was found out that he was planning to meet with Hungarian prime minister and Putin apologist Viktor Orbán. Ukrainian officials are investigating claims that Russians shot surrendering soldiers, which is a war crime.

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1731338721583079724

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