Thomas Mulcair was back in the House today, and led off Question Period with a trio of questions arising from Stephen Harper’s interview with Peter Mansbridge last night, about what kinds of plans he had to stave off another recession if the Europe situation worsened. Seeing as Harper was not there to respond in person, it was Peter Van Loan’s turn to be designated back-up PM du jour, and he responded with praise for the Economic Action Plan™ as the only tool the government needs to head it off. Peggy Nash got up for her turn, and followed up with a pair of questions on whether the government would be focusing on cuts instead of growth and job creation. Ted Menzies stood up to lament that the NDP obviously didn’t want to help people if they wouldn’t vote for the budget. Bob Rae apparently also paid attention to the interview, and wondered if Harper would call a meeting with all of the various premiers upon his return, since he was preaching greater integration in Europe, so why not with Canada. Van Loan simply delivered a talking point about Harper preaching Canada’s fiscal approach to Europe. For his last comment, Rae asked if Conservative foreign policy had sunk so low that MP Larry Miller – he who compared the long-gun registry to Hitler’s actions – was musing that Canada should withdraw from the UN. Van Loan insisted that Canada has a Values-Based Foreign Policy™, and that we were all about freedom and human rights. Okay then.
Tag Archives: Parliamentary Budget Officer
Roundup: May’s plot to derail the omnibudget
Elizabeth May has moved a Point of Order in the Commons to have the omnibus budget bill declared out of order because it doesn’t fit the proper criteria for such bills. Not surprisingly the government disputes this, but we’ll see more in the next couple of days as other parties get to weigh in before the Speaker makes any kind of ruling.
Meanwhile, May and the Liberals are planning a marathon series of amendments to the omnibus budget bill for when it returns to the Commons, and the 200 or so amendments they plan to move could mean upwards of 50 of 60 straight hours off votes. They’re already planning the logistics of food and bathroom breaks, but this is looking like it’s set to go ahead. They got a taste of it with some three-plus hours of amendment votes on C-31 last night. Expect much more in for the omnibudget.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer is calling bullshit on the government’s excuses as to why they can’t turn over their numbers relating to the cuts. If some departments can, all of them can, and the unions don’t have problems with the figures released so long as it doesn’t include personal information. And yet the government continues to insist that they can’t give the information, and that everything will come out in quarterly reports and public accounts statements.
There was lots of activity on the defence file yesterday. The Canada First Defence Strategy is going to need an overhaul, seeing as we can’t afford the whole laundry list of new procurement. In fact, they’ve known for some time that they can’t afford the list, but the government kept that under wraps until now. And you never know – future procurement may include unmanned naval vessels, kind of like unmanned aerial drones but on the water. Meanwhile, it looks like Peter MacKay’s staff is unimpressed that Canadian Forces staff didn’t defend MacKay vigorously enough when he was under fire for things like that helicopter lift. Aww, poor MacKay can’t fight he own battles.
The Department of National Defence won’t say what two other fighters it considered before the decision to go with the F-35s was made, but it seems that the Super Hornet wasn’t one of them – even though it meets all of the requirements that have so far been released.
It looks like the government has softened its stance on an international arms control treaty, and are now less likely to derail the process.
Lisa Raitt talks about her experience with post-partum depression as a new initiative to address the stigma of mental health launched in Ottawa yesterday.
And not to be outdone, but Wildrose leader Danielle Smith also plans to be at Edmonton’s gay pride festival. My how things are changing in Alberta.
Roundup: Six days of debate
So you know that 420-ish page omnibus budget bill, that affects some fifty Acts, completely rewrites the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, the Species At Risk Act, removes the Inspector General from CSIS, disappears the immigration backlog and all manner of other measures? Has been subjected to time allocation. The government, feeling generous, is giving it some six days of debate, which really means twenty-something hours in the House at Second Reading, which is hardly anything at all for a bill of this magnitude. The Senate at least will begin pre-studying the bill next week and actually breaking it up into appropriate committees, which the Commons won’t be doing (though as a half-measure, the government will allow a sub-committee at Finance to study all of those environmental changes, which I’m sure will last all of a week, tops). I think John Ivison put it best:
It makes you wonder: What is the point of Parliament? Why not have one whopper of a bill once a year, allow MPs to give it a cursory skim and then send them back to their constituencies to do the ceremonial work of opening supermarkets and attending Rotary barbecues?
If the abuse of time allocation and omnibus legislation continues, that may very well be the way things are headed.
Roundup: Taking another crack at the numbers
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been asked to update his cost estimates of the F-35s, and he’s once again asking DND for information, like they wouldn’t give him last time. Meanwhile, here’s a look at what it costs the defence industry in Canada every time a DND procurement goes off the rails. (Hint: They’re not rolling in profit the same way American firms are).
Incidentally, the PBO’s latest report indicates that the government will likely balance the books by 2015-16, but all of their austerity is likely going to lead to slower economic growth. Imagine that. Also, that Parliament needs to do a better job of reporting the financial numbers so that MPs can scrutinise it – you know, like their primary job is supposed to be. But we’ll see if they actually have the will to do it, when they have people like Kevin Page to crunch the numbers for them.
The retired air force fleet manager who was formerly in charge of the CF-18s has come out to say that the F-35s won’t meet our operational needs, and their price tag is likely to keep climbing. So it’s a clean sweep then. And given his credentials, I’m wondering how long it will take the government to ask why he hates our men and women in uniform.
The government has reduced the amount of time that the public can give input into the process for redrawing the electoral boundaries. Because what is public input in the face of speedy timelines?
Elections Canada is now digging into phone records to try and get more information about misleading live phone calls directing people to the wrong polling stations in ridings other than Guelph.
The government’s new $8 million witch-hunt of charities that engage in political activities will really only be looking at less than one percent of all charities out there. That said, if they’re looking into charities engaging in political activities, perhaps they should broaden the scope to include churches, who also get tax breaks? Just saying…
Under the guise of deterring abuse by “bogus” claimants, the government is scaling back health benefits given to refugee claimants – you know, people who had to leave everything they had in order to flee for their lives. Just more rhetoric about how “generous” our refugee system is.
Small surprise, but the government announced yesterday that it would be appealing the Bedford decision on brothels to the Supreme Court.
And here’s a video of Liberal MP Scott Brison’s speech yesterday on his Private Member’s Motion about getting the Commons finance committee to study income inequality in Canada, and says that it’s a discussion that needs more than just reductionism and accusations of “class warfare.”