Tag Archives: Housing

Roundup: No federal backstop for Smith’s threats

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s threats around withholding funding for her province’s justice system if she doesn’t get her own way on judicial appointments is attracting broader attention, and there was a particular exchange at a Senate committee the other day that bears pointing out. When asked about this thread, federal justice minister Sean Fraser essentially said that if Smith does this, it’ll be a choice, but also that the federal government is not going to swoop in and backstop this funding lapse with federal dollars.

https://bsky.app/profile/senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social/post/3me4zvsm23k27

This is a good thing. Frankly, if the federal government did this, it would set a terrible precent because all provinces are underfunding their justice systems, and if they backstop Alberta because Danielle Smith is acting like an entitled baby throwing a tantrum, then every other province will cut their own funding and hope for a federal backstop, and once again, things will get worse in our system because provinces aren’t living up to their obligations. They’re not right now, but this would make things infinitely worse. Of course, if this does happen, the federal government will actually have to get off their asses and loudly point this out repeatedly that this is the provincial government’s fault. They should be doing it right now, with the whole nonsense going on around bail reform, but this would be infinitely worse. Court delays for simple matters? Thank Smith. Criminals going free because they can’t get trial dates? Thank Smith. Did that accused murderer get released because they couldn’t actually hold a trial with no functioning court house, no prosecutors and no court staff? Thank Smith. That’s the kind of thing that they need to be doing as is, but they lack the gonads to do so, but they would need to step it up even more if Smith did pull that trigger.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Bar Association is speaking out about Smith’s unconstitutional demands, and other law organizations are joining them, while also explaining how the judicial appointment process works, and why Smith is wrong to characterize them as “activists” who act on the federal government’s behalf. It also bears reminding that the UCP purged the provincial judicial nomination committees in favour of partisan appointees, and that two sitting judges are under investigation for donating to the party, so maybe Smith’s concerns about supposedly political choices are just her projecting and admitting she wants to fix the process for her own political ends.

Ukraine Dispatch

Two people were injured in the overnight attack on Kyiv early Thursday. Ukrainian forces made a successful strike against one of Russia’s missile launch sites. The “peace talks” have seen another agreement on exchanges of prisoners of war.

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QP: Just who is standing with Trump?

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The PM was in southwestern Ontario for his auto strategy announcement, while Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French, with a somber delivery of his script on food price inflation, with the added accusation that the government gave us a weak dollar. François-Philippe Champagne said that it was the Conservatives obstructing their measures to grow the economy. Poilievre hit back that Champagne promised to stabilise food prices two years ago and they were still rising, to which Champagne quoted Poilievre’s own words around the past support for the previous GST rebate. Poilievre switched to English to denounce that auto production has fallen by half and decried that the government was subsidising American vehicles, and Champagne praised the “good news” of their auto strategy. Poilievre hammered that Champagne saw the loss of auto production and jobs, and wanted the government to eliminate the GST on Canadian-made vehicles. Champagne countered that he brought over a European auto manufacturer to Canada. Poilievre made the same demand, and Champagne patted himself on the back for their investments in the auto sector of tomorrow with EV supply chains. Poilievre pivoted and accused the government of letting Bishnoi Gang members into the country with no screening and letting them stay with refugee claims. Sean Fraser retorted that the Conservatives were obstructing lawful access measures (as well they should, because it’s unconstitutional!)

Yves Perron led for the Bloc, and he raised the Bloc’s issue of the week around the problems with pension payment software. Patty Hajdu read a script about the department working to rapidly resolve the issues. Perron tried again, and Stephanie McLean haltingly read her own statement of the same. Andréanne Larouche gave it another round of the same, and Hajdu defended her bilingualism before thanking the civil service for shrinking the backlog.

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QP: Asking for theories when we all know the data.

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The PM was present today, as was Pierre Poilievre, so there was a buzz of anticipation for this show-down after his convention (though really, nothing was going to really change). As well, Stephen Harper and several of his former ministers were in the gallery to watch the proceedings in advance of Harper’s portrait unveiling. Poilievre led off in French, and launched into his spiel about “hope” and his “theory” on “hidden taxes” on food price inflation, and wondered what the government’s theory was. Mark Carney said that the industrial carbon price worked out to zero, and there was no food packaging tax, but that the biggest problem was the currency exchange, tariffs, and climate change. Poilievre insisted that it couldn’t be the problem, because other countries face lower food price inflation, and Carney registered his points. Poilievre repeated his first question in English, and got much the same response with an added bit about the clean fuel regulations being good for the canola farmers in his riding. Poilievre again tried to contest these assertions, and Carney returned that he knows that Poilievre is “just visiting his riding,” and after things calmed down, he suggested that Poilievre spend time with the farmers in nis riding to see how the biofuel charge helps canola production. Poilievre retorted that Carney was just visiting Canada, and listed towns in his riding to ask people there about the charges. Carney said he would always be happy to go back to his home province. Poilievre returned to his “theory” and demanded Carney’s, and Carney said that the fall of the Canadian dollar, thanks to Conservative obstruction, was one of the drivers.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and after an acknowledgment to Harper, he asked about the expropriation in Quebec as it related to Mirabel. Carney also acknowledged Harper before saying high speed rail is a national project that is getting consultation. Blanchet railed about the “trauma” of the expropriation related to Mirabel and wondered if he was aware that high speed rail would do the same. Carney insisted that they were cooperating closely with the constituents there about a small corridor and not a huge airport. Blanchet said that C-5 and C-15 were “heartless” bills, and Carney wondered if Blanchet was actually in favour of high speed rail.

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QP: Delusions about the trade war

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The PM was in town but otherwise occupied, allegedly, nor Pierre Poilievre was present, even though his caucus was chuffed from his leadership review results over the weekend. In his stead, Melissa Lantsman led off, reading an angry script about food price inflation. François-Philippe Champagne was thrilled about the good news that they agreed to fast-track the GST rebate to help Canadians. Lantsman took a swipe at Champagne for failing to bring food price stability when he was industry minster, and Champange kept up his praise for the rebate. John Barlow called the Liberals the “literal definition of insanity” before reciting the food price inflation talking points, and this time Patty Hajdu listed organisations like Food Banks Canada and others who praised their measures. Barlow recited the Risible nonsense about imaginary “hidden taxes,” and Hajdu sang the praises of the various measures the Liberals put into place help families. Pierre Paul-Hus took over to read the French version of the same script, and Champagne returned to his praise for the rebate and the fast-tracking of the bill. On another round for the same, Champagne listed the other measures they are taking for the food supply chains.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she once again raised the problems with federal pension software, and Stephanie McLean read, in halting French, that the department is working to address any problems clients may encounter. Normandin took a swipe at the software contract, and Hajdu read her own assurances that 98 percent of recipients have gotten their payments, and for anyone who has an issue to come forward. Andréanne Larouche  recited the same again, and McLean haltingly read more assurances about the software and the benefits seniors receive. 

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Roundup: The smell in the convention hall

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With the Conservative convention now over, we can prepare for a whole bunch of legacy media pundits insisting that Poilievre is “setting a new tone,” and that he’s demonstrating he needs to “change,” and a bunch of other equally risible nonsense. Poilievre is not going to change, no matter if you think one speech signalled an intention to or not. Aside from the fact that in all of his adult life, he has refused to change, the fact that he spent his speech talking about Trudeau and not Carney or Trump should be the dead giveaway. Legacy media keeps insisting that this time for sure he’ll change, but rest assured he won’t.

Yes, the quote that Conservatives began weaponizing in 2015 definitely created the Quebec separatist movement that dates back to the 1960s.

— Max Fawcett (@maxfawcett.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T17:53:57.593Z

And while we get voices like Jenny Byrne who keep insisting that everything the party says needs to come back to affordability, to the point that she thinks they should blame the inability to get a deal with Trump on that (and funnily enough, Trump gets no blame there). There was also another push for a bunch of more failed American-style laws in their policy debates, but I will note the attempt to undo the conversion therapy ban and to change the policy on abortion laws both failed to get enough support, so that’s a minor positive. The grassroots also pushed back at the central party for putting their thumb on nomination races, and insisted on changing the rules around it to be fairer, so that’s a rare positive in all of this.

The smell in the room, however, was the presence of the Alberta separatists, who made their presence known, and who were not denounced by anyone in any official capacity. Danielle Smith continues to give them succour, and when those separatists boasted that members of her own caucus have signed their petitions, she claimed that she “doesn’t police the responses of my MLAs,” well, we all know that’s not true either. Smith also continued her bullshit lines about Trudeau “relentlessly attacking” her province, when he in fact bent over backwards to help them when oil prices crashed, and was repaid by this. Federal Conservatives also mouthed these grievance talking points, and wouldn’t denounce separatism either, so that’s healthy, and a conversation the party should be having with itself right now.

Danielle smith repeats disinformation about 30 percent plus being in favour of this.

— Orlagh O’Kelly (@orlaghokelly.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T19:45:19.591Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone struck a bus carrying miners in Dnipropetrovsk, killing twelve people, which is one more way of targeting energy workers.

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QP: Thursday scripts with Friday faces

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It was an unusual Friday-on-a-Thursday QP, with the usual Friday start time, thanks to the Conservatives having their convention this weekend, and with the PM meeting with the premieres and Poilievre having already left for Calgary, it was going to be the b-team in play. That left it up to John Brassard to led off and accuse the prime minister of “seducing” Canadians with their own money, and accused the supposed “hidden taxes” of raising food prices. Peter Fragiskatos dismissed this and accused the Conservatives of being unserious. Brassard tried again, and Fragiskatos listed this as a populist distraction tactic. Rob Moore read the same script, and Evan Solomon recited talking points about the GST rebate and how the Conservatives are blocking their plans to build. Moore tried again, and Solomon repeated his same points. Gérard Deltell took over in French to read the same points, and this time, Marjorie Michel pointed to the previous tax cut and the GST rebate. Deltell raised food bank line-ups, and was reminded that they are following Food Banks Canada’s suggestions. 

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she raised the problems with the OAS payment system and said it was worse than claimed. Steven MacKinnon said that one error was one too many, and encouraged people to reach out to Service Canada if they have an issue. Normandin tried again, and MacKinnon again offered bland assurances that the modernised services were positive on the whole. Andréanne Larouche took over to ask the same again, and MacKinnon gave his assurances for a third time.

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Roundup: All smiles with the premiers

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Mark Carney is meeting with the premiers today, after having them all over for dinner last night, and already everyone is having a big love-in, showing that they have a big united front as the country deals with the ongoing threats from the US and Trump administration. They’re all in agreement that these aren’t “normal times,” and David Eby and Danielle Smith played nice on the issue of Alberta looking to ram a pipeline through their territory (which appears to have Carney’s enthusiastic support, per Question Period on Tuesday), and I will admit that this is a big change from the latter Trudeau days, where nearly all of the premiers were lining up to take shots at the federal government.

However. Carney is letting them get away with all of their bullshit, particularly on the big things that the provinces need to be doing to Build Canada Strong™, whether that’s building housing, or taking care of their major infrastructure, or doing something about healthcare rather than letting the collapse continue. If you have a “Canada is broken” complaint, you can pretty much be guaranteed that it’s because of provincial underfunding, but the federal government is taking and will continue to take the blame, because the federal government refuses to call them out on it, and Carney is keeping this up. It’s all smiles and laughs, when it was the premiers who created the situation with immigration that the federal government had to step in with (to the long-term detriment of the country), and it’s the provinces who are exacerbating things like the affordability crisis. If Carney wants to fix things, that means leaning on the provinces to start doing their gods damned jobs.

With that in mind, I’m going to look askance as the territorial premiers want dual-use infrastructure funds to flow to them rather than have the federal government fund these projects directly, because we’ve never had provinces or territories take federal funds and spend it on other things before. And Gregor Robertson is calling on premiers to increase their spending on transitional housing, given the scale of need. Oh, you sweet summer child. The premiers don’t want to spend their own money on these things, even though it’s in their wheelhouse. They want you to spend federal dollars instead, because that’s how they’ve learned how to play this game. Just asking them to increase spending nicely isn’t going to do anything, but I can pretty much guarantee that the federal government won’t play hardball on this so that they don’t look like the bad guy, even though they’re going to take all of the blame. What a way to run a country.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-28T23:01:45.031Z

Ukraine Dispatch

More Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and across the country overnight, and it could be as much as three weeks for some Ukrainians to get power back because of the attacks on infrastructure. Meanwhile, the US keeps stalling to give more time for Russia to keep up these attacks.

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QP: Another round of same “gas tax” nonsense again

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The PM was in town and in the building, but was meeting with premiers instead of being at QP, which was mighty unusual for a Wednesday, but that’s Mark Carney for you. Pierre Poilievre was also absent, so it was up to Gérard Deltell to lead off in French, where he listed the nonsense “hidden taxes” as it relates to food price inflation, and François-Philippe Champagne responded with praise for their GST rebate and the other investments promised in the same announcement. Deltell reiterated the nonsense about the “gas tax,” to which Champagne praised the government’s actions, while the Conservatives only have rhetoric. Tim Uppal took over in English to make the specious arguments, and Julie Dabrusin noted that Poilievre represents one of the biggest canola-growing ridings in the country, and noted how much they stand to benefit from clean fuel regulations and biofuels. On  another go-around, Champagne admonished them to support their benefits. Lianne Rood read another tired script of the same, and Patty Hajdu noted that the Conservatives liked to raise the plight of food banks, they are now fighting against supports for them. Rood accused the government of “gaslighting” (that’s not what that means, guys), and Hajdu raised the other support for families like child care and the school food programme. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and said that the promised lifting of Chinese tariffs on pork has not happened, and worried the government created false hopes. Anita Anand said they were working with partners and diversifying trade relationships. Blanchet was not mollified by this answer, and demanded more specifics. Anand said that discussions were ongoing with China, including pork, and they they are working in Canada’s interests. Blanchet then wondered about action on forestry, and Champagne said they are working with the industry and have invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

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QP: Pushing a bananapants bill

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The PM was actually present today, on the day the Conservatives have their Supply Day motion to pass Pierre Poilievre’s bananapants bill, so that was going to be a…stupid dynamic from the get-go. Poilievre led off in French, and went on a tangent that there were no prices visible at Carney’s grocery store event, and demanded they lower prices. Mark Carney wondered if this was the new spirit of cooperation, and praised his meeting with Doug Ford yesterday as cooperation. Poilievre chirped that Carney only has meetings with no results, and denounced Carney’s record on food prices. Carney insisted that they have done a lot, such as cutting taxes, making the school food programme permanent, and their new GST credit. Poilievre repeated his first question in English with added smarm, and Carney repeated his lines about cooperation with Ford. Poilievre repeated his line about meetings without delivering results, and listed his “hidden tax” nonsense. Carney praised the job numbers, wage statistics, and their tax cuts before returning to the GST rebate proclamation. Poilievre then pivoted to demanding they government pass his bananapants bill, and Carney said that how they move projects forward is collaborating with the provinces, and pointed out that the premier of Nunavut was present—and got warned by the Speaker he’s not allowed to do that. Carney insisted there were no shovels in the ground, and again demanded they pass his bullshit bill. Carney praised his MOU with Alberta and insisted it would build a pipeline to tidewater (which seems very presumptuous).

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he was worried there was no movement on negotiations or tariffs with the U.S. Carney declared that the world and Washington have changed, there is nothing normal in the U.S., and that he had a thirty-minute conversation with Trump last night. Blanchet said that he knew that the world changed, and they wanted diversified trade, but that they are still exposed to the U.S. market. Carney said they are all committed to NAFTA negotiations in a few weeks. Blanchet took a dig at Carney’s understanding of history before wondering about Chinese tariffs on Quebec pork. Carney said that things are in the works and those tariffs are to be lowered, and praised the agreement for canola.

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Roundup: The Coastal First Nations aren’t budging

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Prime minister Mark Carney was in Prince Rupert, BC, to meet with the coastal First Nations, and by all accounts, it was a welcome and cordial meeting, and most of what they discussed were ongoing projects and conservation commitments in the region, along with the promises of renewed funding for ongoing projects in the area. This being said, nothing has changed on the part of these First Nations when it comes to their opposition to a pipeline in their territories or on lifting the tanker ban. The prime minister’s readout from the meeting talked glowingly about the commitments, but what was absent was any kind of commitment in writing to respecting their right to consent to projects in their territories.

Readout of Carney's meeting with Coastal First Nations.I don't see any commitment to respect their wishes if they don't grant consent to a pipeline through their territory.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T21:02:12.244Z

While this was happening, Pierre Poilievre decided to concern troll that there hadn’t been any meeting sooner, which wasn’t going to get things built faster. Of course, this concern is false because Poilievre has already declared that any consultation he will do will be perfunctory, and that he will ram through projects without any kind of consent (and a former Alberta minister was on Power & Politics to again insist that the obligation is consultation not consent, but that is dated with the adoption of UNDRIP which stipulates free, prior and informed consent).

Quite the concern troll given that Poilievre has flat-out said he'll build pipelines regardless of First Nations' objections.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T15:20:49.737Z

Meanwhile, when it comes to the Pathways project that Carney insists needs to move ahead if a pipeline is to move ahead (while the MOU also states that a pipeline needs to happen for Pathways to happen), this is your reminder that it’s a scam that will only happen if the government pays for it (and it’ll only remove about 12 percent of production emissions, to say nothing about downstream emissions).

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-13T15:08:05.432Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones have struck infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih, forcing power cuts, while the attacks overnight Tuesday consisted of nearly 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles, hitting eight regions and killing at least four people. Ukraine’s parliament rejected former prime minister Denys Shmyhal as the new energy minister.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/2010987717274861983

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