With an expected eight-hour vote-athon looming, and with Harper off meeting the Prime Minister of South Korea, QP got underway with Thomas Mulcair reading off a question about implausible economic forecasting. John Baird, again the designated back-up PM du jour, recited his Economic Action Plan™ talking points. For his final question, Mulcair asked about the government fighting the release of Residential School documents, bringing up how Jack Layton worked with Harper on the apology. Baird assured him that all relevant documents would be released to the question – but one wonders if “relevant” was the key word. Jean Crowder followed up asking the very same thing, to which John Duncan reminded her that he answered those very same questions in committee yesterday. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, making the case for refundable tax credits so that they actually benefit low-income Canadians, but Baird wouldn’t actually acknowledge the issue. For his final question, Rae asked the issue the issue of OxyContin in northern Reserves and mechanisms available to the federal government, but Leona Aglukkaq decided to hit back and blame the Liberals for approving OxyContin in the first place. This caused some outburst from Carolyn Bennett, but I missed what she said.
Tag Archives: F-35 Fighters
Roundup: Making way for double bunking
Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! iPolitics has obtained documents that show that Corrections Canada is changing their policy to allow for double bunking to be normal policy, and to eliminate rules around maximum capacity. Not only does this violate our international agreements on corrections policy and it’s been proven to be bad for correctional behaviour period, but it’s like an invitation to a return to the era of prison riots. Well done, Vic Toews!
Here is your rough guide to the remaining stages of Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge in the Commons.
Ruh-roh! New documents show that the government was being briefed about the cost overruns of the F-35 fighters in advance of the Auditor General’s report. How much of this is just bureaucratic ass-covering is a question, but nevertheless, it looks like they knew more than they were letting on.
Roundup: The case of the missing naval documents
Questions are being raised after Access to Information requests showed that naval intelligence documents were destroyed and then suddenly reappeared after being found in the emails of those serving overseas. Not only would their destruction have been against National Archives laws, but it raises further questions about how intelligence matters are being handled in the post-Delisle era.
Jason Kenney says he doesn’t want to turn any more immigration powers over to the provinces like already exist for Quebec, because he wants immigration to be about nation-building, not just making more Albertans or Nova Scotians rather than new Canadians.
Newly released emails show that during the last election, government officials avoided a meeting with the Parliamentary Budget Officer about the cost of the F-35s, and when his report was released that showed they cost double what the government claimed, they scrambled to undermine his credibility.
Roundup: Flaherty wants to stay put
Newsflash: Jim Flaherty says he wants to keep his job as Finance Minister until the budget is balanced, which likely means spring of 2015, in advance of a new election. While it’s unlikely that Harper will shuffle him out before he does his promised major re-shuffle a little closer to the next election, there have been some questions as to how long Flaherty will be sticking around as he’s been looking pretty tired and acting downright cranky the past couple of months.
Peter Kent is patting himself on the back for cancelling a proposed shallow gas infill project in Alberta, despite the fact that this was a decision that took seven years. Even more laughably, Kent is claiming the Orwellian-named “Responsible Resource Development” legislation from earlier this year as the reason for the cancellation – despite, as we mentioned, the fact that this has been a seven-year process.
As the government and the military continue to back away from the F-35s, General Tom Lawson now says the term “Fifth-generation” is unhelpful. Or should I say Fifth Generation™, since it’s a trademarked marketing term and not an actual description of capabilities.
Roundup: Back to the Ethics Commissioner
It’s Friday, and Stephen Harper is jetting off to Labrador to announce a loan guarantee for the Muskrat Falls hydro project – a project that embattled minister Peter Penashue has family ties with, which means he’s back to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner’s office.
When Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge returns to the Commons, it’ll face between 26 and 47 votes on amendments put forward by the Greens. Kady O’Malley explains why the Speaker’s hands were tied when Scott Brison tried to point out the improper procedure employed in order to get some of his amendments back.
Over at the Natural Resources Committee, the Conservatives managed to work through the Liberal filibustering and have summoned David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau to appear before the committee to explain their “anti-Alberta” comments – not that McGuinty’s comments were anti-Alberta, and despite the fact that it offers both a platform to publicly denounce the job the government is doing in a public forum. But hey, it’s not like the committee has anything better to do than engage in a partisan witch-hunt.
QP: Carney’s “abrupt” departure
In the afterglow of the by-elections, and with Thomas Mulcair still absent – having celebrated his party’s win in Victoria last night – it was up to Libby Davies to lead off QP for the NDP today, and she started off with a question on budget choices. Harper indulged her, and spoke about preserving essential services while still eliminating the deficit in the medium term and growing the economy. So far so good. But then Davies painted a rather odd picture about Mark Carney making an abrupt departure for England, and getting out of Canada in a hurry before our economy cratered again – apparently. Roars of laughter went across the Conservative and Liberal benches, and when Harper did get up, he reminded Davies that their definitions of “abrupt” may be different as Carney is sticking around until June, and that he doesn’t take his new position until July. Oops. Nycole Turmel was up next to wonder about what the government’s fiscal contingency plan was, considering that Europe was back in recession. In response, Jim Flaherty touted the OECD’s projections that Canada would be the second-fastest growing economy in the next two years, behind only the US, which is starting from a much worse position than we are. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, asking about the coming 2014 health accords and whether there would be provisions for drug coverage, as it is the fastest-growing portion of healthcare costs. Harper reminded him that healthcare is a provincial responsibility, and that the government sends plenty of health transfer dollars to the provinces.
QP: No amendments, no mistakes
With a news-packed morning passed and the by-election anticipation building, the House was absent of party leaders today. Megan Leslie took the lead for the NDP, asking about Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge and the government’s refusal to accept amendments, despite having made mistakes in the previous omnibus budget bill that this bill had measures to correct. Jason Kenney, the back-up PM du jour, went on about unnecessary regulations and ponds on farmers’ fields. When Leslie asked him about the “contingency plans” spoken of by Flaherty as he and Harper contradicted one another on the deficit numbers, Kenney touted the Economic Action Plan™ instead. Peter Julian was then up to ask about the yet-unreleased foreign takeover rules, but Christian Paradis accused the NDP of being anti-investment. Paradis went a little off-message by accusing the Liberals of opposing foreign investment as well, when the usual talking point is that they rubberstamped every foreign takeover that came before them. (Looks like someone’s handler is going to have to give him a talking to). Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and pressed about the refugee health cuts, especially with the comments made by Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall. Kenney said that the provinces can make any decisions they like about additional insurance for refugee claimants, and left it in their laps.
Roundup: Trudeau apologises! Let’s obsess some more about it!
Our long national nightmare is over – or is it? Justin Trudeau apologised for his comments about Alberta, saying he meant Conservatives when he said Albertans. Well, then. And so we continue to obsess over it all. Trudeau’s camp tested the sincerity of the apology by immediately putting out a fundraising letter to help them counter the Conservative attack machine. Martin Patriquin dissects the pandering in fantastic style. Andrew Coyne examines the comments and apology alongside those made by David McGuinty, and concludes that in their proper context, McGuitny’s were downright admirable for calling out parochialism, whereas Trudeau’s makes one question the breadth of vision required to govern a country such as ours.
The Premiers concluded their meeting and are talking about collaborating on energy issues, skills training, trade, and infrastructure. Also, Redford and Clark didn’t get into a catfight, and Marois apparently acquitted herself well for her first time out, in case anyone was wondering.
QP: Not meeting with the premiers
The day was not off to a promising start as more statements condemning David McGuinty and the Liberals continued to make the rounds during the QP warm-up, because hey, there’s a by-election four days away, and there’s nothing like cheap political hay to be made. Thomas Mulcair started off by reading a pair of questions on why Harper wasn’t attending the First Ministers’ meeting in Halifax to talk about the economy, to which Harper assured him that he meets with the premiers regularly, and he’s focused on the economy. For his last question, Mulcair asked about the court case against the Parliamentary Budget Officer, but Harper didn’t answer about that, only offered to “correct” Mulcair’s preamble aside about how job numbers weren’t really that great, and so on. Libby Davies was up next asking about child poverty rates, to which Diane Finley assured her that they were less than half of what they were under the Liberals because of the government’s good work. Bob Rae returned to the question of Harper not speaking to the premiers, and Harper said that he not only met with premiers regularly, but members of the business community and ordinary Canadians too!
Roundup: Awards season, Hill style
It was the Parliamentarian of the Year Awards last night, and a hearty congratulations to Elizabeth May for taking the top prize. Other winners include Kirsty Duncan (Hardest Working), Bob Rae (Best Orator), Peter Stoffer (Most Collegial, once again), Stephen Harper (Most Knowledgeable), Michelle Rempel (Rising Star), and Niki Ashton (Best Represents Constituents). A lifetime achievement award was presented to Preston Manning. In advance of the awards, Paul Wells sat down with previous winners to discuss the importance of the award. (And here are some more photos from the party – because it really is one of the best events on the calendar.)
The other big news out of yesterday was the amount of faux outrage because David McGuinty deigned to call MPs out for being provincial when it comes to the narrow interests that they’re promoting. The horror! Were the remarks impolitic? Yes. Were they an offence that merited his resigning his critic portfolio? Hardly, and yet that’s what happened. Let’s see how much more faux outrage the Conservatives can try to milk out of this today as well as they try to shore up their chances in the Calgary Centre by-election.