While Thomas Mulcair was busy touring the Alberta oil sands, Nathan Cullen was once again holding the fort in Ottawa, and his lead series of questions were on the objections of those former Conservative fisheries ministers to the changes of the Act in the omnibus budget bill. Stephen Harper assured him that these changes were getting more committee study than ever, and that they would ensure a thorough and efficient review process. Cullen then brought up the upcoming website blackout protest and the attack on charities, but Harper shrugged it off, saying that most charities follow the rules and this was just ensuring that remains the case. Peggy Nash lamented that the government was offering no environmental leadership, to which Peter Kent reminded her that all three ministers showed up at the subcommittee for two hours! Except no, it was only for one hour, and it was a surprise appearance with almost no prior notice, and three ministers at once means that you can’t really get any substantive answers, but hey, details. Bob Rae asked about Rona Ambrose’s comments on the need to come with a new procurement process, and indicated that the government needed to take another step back in order to actually have some defence and foreign affairs policies in order before we decide what kind of planes we need. Harper simply retorted that at least his government was doing procurement, unlike the Liberals did. When John McKay asked for an open, fair and transparent competition for the fighter procurement, Jacques Gourde delivered Rona Ambrose’s talking points for her.
Tag Archives: F-35 Fighters
QP: The calm before the Apocalypse
It started out like any other Question Period would. Thomas Mulcair rose to decry the effect of the EI changes on seasonal workers, and Harper assured him that EI would be there for those who need it. Peggy Nash tried to draw a connection between today’s census data and the need for OAS, but Diane Finley returned to her “sustainable” talking points, while Tony Clement assured her that all of their financial data was still being reported in quarterly reports and so on. Bob Rae brought up the comments of Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale regarding the EI changes and the lack of consultation, but Harper assured him that he meets with premiers all the time. The Liberal benches didn’t sound like they believed that story, and while Harper may meet with premiers on an individual basis, he certainly hasn’t called a First Minister’s meeting in about six years, for the record.
Roundup: Back-to-work bill on track for tonight
Expect today to be taken up with the back-to-work legislation around the CP Rail strike. Because of the way things are laid out procedurally, the vote on time allocation will take place this evening, at which point the bill will take precedence over everything and debate and votes – limited to a couple of hours – will go into the evening. It should be noted that the bill is far more fair and even-handed than previous examples under this government, according to many, though it’s still derided as an attack on the rights of workers.
As Thomas Mulcair prepares for his trip to Alberta – and Fort McMurray in particular – he’s toning down his language somewhat, while his critics out there are sharpening their own words.
Ted Opitz has appealed the overturning of the Etobicoke Centre election results to the Supreme Court at the last minute, but hasn’t exactly been clear on the grounds for the appeal. The Supreme Court is supposed to hear this without delay, and render a quick judgement, per the Elections Act.
QP: McJobs and the race to the bottom
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.
Roundup: Less accessible EI appeals
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™.
QP: Increasingly angry tangents
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.
Roundup: Complicating the “Dutch disease”
Western premiers continue to strike back at Thomas Mulcair, refuting his assertion that they are simply “Harper’s messengers,” while he sticks to his guns on the “Dutch disease” diagnosis, calling it “irrefutable.” Erm, except more economic data shows that it’s not. An IRPP study shows that while there may have been a mild case of said “disease,” it’s a far more complex picture than simply Alberta versus Ontario’s manufacturing sector, as the decline in the manufacturing sector has more to do with the rise of China than it does with the strength of our dollar, which has in turn helped other sectors of the economy as well. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reports that the manufacturing sector is rebounding. Not that we should expect Mulcair to back down from his position anytime soon.
It seems that the F-35s were built with no cybersecurity protections in them, making them as vulnerable to cyberattacks as Humvees were to roadside bombs, apparently. But these are still the best aircraft that our airmen and women need, remember! Meanwhile, the government sent the RCMP on a five-month probe into what they thought might have been leaked documents after a Globe and Mail story on the F-35s, which turned out to be nothing. Well, nothing but a warning that if the government doesn’t like what the media is reporting, they’ll read too much power into certain National Security Acts that don’t really apply and send the RCMP after them.
Roundup: Scrutiny versus populist outrage
The government is backing another private members’ bill, this time about establishing a mandatory minimum sentence on kidnapping a person under 16 – despite the fact that a former Supreme Court justice calls this unnecessary and creating a more patchwork Criminal Code that increasingly is ad hoc and full of loopholes and inconsistencies. It’s like the government were going along with anything that sounded good without giving it proper thought or analysis. Oh, wait –that’s exactly what they’re doing. Who needs proper scrutiny when you’ve got populist outrage on your side?
Thomas Mulcair dismisses the premiers of Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan as “Harper’s messengers” when they go after him about his comments on the oil sands and our supposed “petro dollar.” Erm, okay. Because that makes sense. Paul Wells further dissects that particular line of thinking here.
QP: Orwell was not a how-to manual
With the NDP now out to turn public opinion to their side on the omnibus budget bill, one wondered if this was going to lead off QP for the day. And in a sort of tangential sense it did, as Thomas Mulcair asked about Jim Flaherty’s comments that OAS changes could save $10 to $12 billion. Harper insisted there would be no actual pension reductions. Mulcair then turned to Flaherty’s “there are no bad jobs” comments with regards to EI changes – and several times was drowned out by Conservative applause when he repeated Flaherty’s statement. (And yet he kept repeating it and kept getting drowned out). After a warning from the Speaker, Mulcair finished and between that and two follow-up questions about how that also applied to seniors and the disabled, Harper insisted that Canada has a superior job creation record, and hey, they have a disabled member in the cabinet, so there’s nothing that disabled people can’t do. Bob Rae was up next, and brought up George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and how it shouldn’t be a how-to manual for governments, and he related this to the kind of silencing of critics the government has been engaged in, whether it is with the National Round Table on Environment and the Economy, or any other number of NGOs or data-gathering organisations. Harper insisted that they were interested in administrative savings and doing away with duplication where the information these groups provide could be found elsewhere. For his final supplemental, Rae gave a nod to the Auditor General’s return to the Public Accounts committee and his assertion that the government wasn’t giving accurate numbers on the F-35s. Harper turned to his rote talking points about no contracts signed and no purchase having been made, and left it at that.
QP: Confirming ideological cuts?
Without a weekly edition of Monday Morning Sanctimony to set the tone, we waited anxiously to see just how the Official Opposition were going to be holding the government to account. And when the appointed hour came, Thomas Mulcair stood up to denounce the omnibus budget bill and wondered what happened to those principles that Harper once espoused about these kinds of things. John Baird, acting as Back-up PM du jour responded that they were “focused like a laser” on jobs and growth, while the NDP was busy playing procedural games. (Could we please ban “focused like a laser”? It’s not cool or clever). When Mulcair asked about the environmental and EI provisions in the bill that gave the ministers an inordinate amount of power, Baird reminded him of Peter Julian’s 11-hour filibuster on the original budget. Peggy Nash was up next to wonder about the savings that the OAS changes will deliver, but Diane Finely was ready with her talking points about future sustainability. Bob Rae got up and listed off the number of organisations being slashed in the omnibus budget – the Inspector General of CSIS, Rights and Democracy, the National Round Table on Environment and Environment, the First Nations institute, the National Council of Welfare, and so on. Baird insisted that if they didn’t make these changes then the country would become the “Welfare capital of the world,” as Ontario was under Rae’s leadership. Not only that, but NRTEE advocated instituting a carbon tax, which the Liberals obviously were in favour of, which is why they wanted NRTEE kept intact. No, really, he said that. When Rae called him on that, Baird repeated it. Remember that the original reason why NRTEE was being cut was because it was from an era when there weren’t other such research organisations, but there are apparently plenty of them out there now. Now Baird seems to be indicating that the reason they were being cut was over a policy disagreement. Uh oh. (In the scrums after QP, Baird started combining both reasons, for the record). For Rae’s final question, he asked about the growing number of bungled military procurement contracts and wondered if we weren’t headed for a “Decade of Doofus.” Baird returned to an old talking point about how the Liberals oversaw a “decade of darkness.”