Tag Archives: Procurement

Roundup: New sanctions on Iran, new enforcement resources

Posted on by

Mid-afternoon, on the Friday before a long weekend, the prime minister and deputy prime minister hastily called a press conference and announced new sanctions against the Iranian regime—the top 50 percent of the IRGC will be permanently barred from Canada under powers in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which have thus-far only been applied to genocidaires from Bosnia and Rwanda. As well, more sanctions to other individuals have been announced, but even more importantly was the announcement of $76 million to establish a new sanctions bureau at Global Affairs so that we have the capacity to actually monitor and enforce these sanctions we’ve been applying.

Is this a declaration that the IRGC is a terrorist entity? No, because it would still be impossible to monitor and enforce, and would capture too many low-level conscripts. Will the Conservatives continue to yell and moan about it? Of course they will. There is some commentary that if applied properly, these measures could be more effective than listing them under the Criminal Code, but again, this depends on it being properly applied, and it will take time to build the capacity in the aforementioned sanctions bureau. It also bears noting that this all seems last-minute, reactive, and like this government doesn’t know how to get ahead of issues, so even if they do the right thing, it comes off as being pushed or shamed into it, which doesn’t help the narrative that this government is getting tired.

Danielle Smith

In the wake of her leadership victory, Alberta’s incoming premier Danielle Smith has agreed to run in a by-election for a seat of her own, and one of her MLAs is resigning to accommodate her (and had not planned to run again in the next election), and for Smith, it’s a mostly rural seat, because that’s her base. There is also a vacant seat in Calgary, but Smith would have a harder time there, and also plans not to hold that by-election in advance of next spring’s general election, which is indefensible under political norms. But hey, she’s willing to pretend the whole constitution is free to be ignored, so why should political norms matter? Yeah, this is a problem.

Meanwhile, here’s Jason Markusoff’s lengthy profile of Smith and her reinvention. Ken Boessenkool considers Smith to be a kamikaze mission into modern conservatism itself (and yet it’s almost like the bastardised way in which we now run leadership contests basically makes this an inevitability). Colby Cosh tries to put some context into Smith’s comeback and her outlasting all of her political rivals. Andrew Coyne sees storm clouds on the horizon with both François Legault and Danielle Smith looking to be constitutional vandals. My weekend column previews some of the absolute constitutional chaos, right up to the suspension of the rule of law, if Danielle Smith tries to get her own way.

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/1578497923016699904

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 226:

There have been explosions in the Kharkiv region, as Russia concentrates attacks on the city while they are being driven back elsewhere in the country. More mass graves have been found in the Kharkiv region, on top of those already found at Izium and in Lyman.

https://twitter.com/TetySt/status/1578462615994368000

Continue reading →

QP: Triple, triple, triple the bad math

Posted on by

Even though the prime minister was in town, he was not in Question Period today, though his deputy was. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, worrying that housing prices have doubled, and that bills take up 60 percent of an average paycheque, while the government’s solution is to “triple, triple, triple” the carbon price. Steven Guilbeault reminded him that the carbon price is the most effective in the world, and that emissions have been reduced by nine percent and the revenues go back to households. Poilievre switched to English to decry the carbon prices, misleadingly talking about missed targets and insinuating that it was tripling overnight when it’s over a decade, and misquoted the PBO about the cost to households, before repeating his “triple, triple, triple” line, to which Guilbeault reminded him that O’Toole stated that pricing mechanisms were the best way to go. Poilievre repeated his assertions, and Guilbeault needled the Conservatives for constantly flip-flopping on their position on carbon pricing. Poilievre insisted that the Liberals “attacked” a woman in rural Newfoundland and called her a “polluter” for heating her home, and Guilbeault pointed out their programme to help people transition off of home heating oil. Poilievre mocked the government programme to help people afford a “tax,” accused the government of putting people into energy poverty, and demanded the carbon price increase be cancelled. Chrystia Freeland responded this time, saying Canadians understand that climate change is real, and that the global economy is in the midst of a transition to a green economy, which is why the government is helping Canadians and industry make that transition.

https://twitter.com/journo_dale/status/1577002549261078541

René Villemure led for the Bloc, and he accused the government of secretly giving contracts to Liberal donors around Roxham Road, to which Helena Jaczek read in French that they negotiated fair market value and publicly releasing the details would release commercially sensitive information. Villemure insisted this was just the government sowing doubt other contracts, which were not proven to be in any wrongdoing. Jaczek repeated a version of her statement in English. 

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and he demanded immediate EI for the Atlantic provinces in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, to which Carla Qualtrough says that Service Canada has waived the requirement for a record of employment. Alexandre Boulerice denounced Poilievre before repeating the same question on EI, and Qualtrough assured him that EI modernisation is on the way. 

Continue reading →

Roundup: Demanding LNG with someone else’s money

Posted on by

While the federal Conservatives continue to promote the fantasy notion that Canada can somehow supply Europe and Japan with LNG to displace Russian supply—something that was never going to happen because of the timelines for projects to be built and that they need to be in operation to make their money back—under the notion that Ottawa needs to “get out of the way,” again ignoring that there has been no market case for it, Jason Kenney is going one step further and demanding that the federal government to build LNG export infrastructure. Which is odd because the Conservatives howled with outrage when the federal government nationalized the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline in order to sufficiently de-risk it for it to complete construction. If there’s no market case, why not get the federal government to do it?

But let’s also remember that the proposed Kitimat LNG facility on the West Coast, fully permitted and approved, is not being built, because there is no market case. Hence why Andrew Leach is calling out Kenney’s nonsense below, particularly the fact that Kenney is calling on the federal government to spend their money rather than Kenney spending his province’s own money. You know, like he did with Keystone XL, and whoops, lost billions because he made a bad bet and the American administration didn’t restore its permits. Funny that.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 217:

UN human rights investigators have found that Russia has been violating international law when it comes to the treatment of prisoners of war during the invasion of Ukraine, which shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also asked for Canadian help in ridding his country of mines left behind by Russian forces. Meanwhile, there are reports that Russian conscription officers are at borders trying to intercept would-be conscripts from fleeing the country.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Still nothing to say

Posted on by

Oh, nothing. Just a few more selected tweets as this situation continues. Don’t mind me.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1573395492259729408

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1573412911065841687

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1573414167989698565

https://twitter.com/Garossino/status/1573514485998161921

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 212:

Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine were subjected to sham “referendums” yesterday, to provide a paper cover that claims these regions want to “overwhelmingly join Russia,” which of course is not true and will not be internationally recognized, because everyone knows it’s a sham. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians in these occupied regions to undermine these sham referendums, and to share information about those caught up in said farce. Meanwhile, a UN commission of inquiry on the invasion of Ukraine has found evidence of war crimes committed in Russian-occupied areas, which should surprise no one.

Continue reading →

Roundup: A better than anticipated fiscal picture

Posted on by

The Department of Finance’s fiscal monitor was released yesterday, showing that for the first quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the government ran a $10.2 billion surplus, which is not a big surprise considering that the economy is overheated, and that’s generating a lot of revenues, particularly with high oil prices. Of course, this comes with the caveat that Q4 tends to book a lot of the expenses and liabilities that drag the figure down at the end of the fiscal year, but it’s a promising sign, and it’s certainly showing that all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the government’s spending and deficit has been largely for naught, and that maybe Chrystia Freeland is a better fiscal steward than they think she is.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563202103186968576

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563231824935292929

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563233131280629764

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563249022860935168

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 184:

As overnight shelling continued near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, people in the vicinity have been issued iodine tablets in the event that there is a catastrophic failure and containment is breached, releasing radiation. So that’s cheery.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Premiers pleading poverty while demonstrating largesse

Posted on by

Ontario premier Doug Ford met with Maritime premiers in New Brunswick yesterday, and wouldn’t you just know it, they demanded more federal healthcare dollars while simultaneously saying that throwing money at the problem wouldn’t fix things, so they want to go to more private delivery. The problem, of course, is that Ford didn’t even bother to spend his full healthcare budget last year as he continues to underpay nurses and doctors, and both he and Blaine Higgs in particular put pandemic healthcare dollars onto their bottom lines, and Higgs boasted a healthy surplus last year thanks to federal transfers. It’s hard to take premiers’ demands for cash seriously if they don’t actually spend the dollars they’re given, and that they keep boasting about their balance sheets while still steadfastly refusing to increase pay, or to reform billing systems. While François Legault wasn’t at the table today, he’s also promising a tax cut if he gets elected again, while crying poor and insisting the federal government needs to spend more. Erm, you know that the federal government can see you, right?

On that note, Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe announced that his province is so flush with money thanks to high oil and gas revenues that they’re going to give out vote-buying cheques to the whole province. But he too is going cap-in-hand to Ottawa for more health transfers, and he’s sending patients in his province to private clinics in Alberta and won’t pay for their transportation to get there either. (Oh, and giving cheques to everyone is going fuel inflation, but you knew that, right?

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 180:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is banning public celebrations in advance of Ukraine’s independence day, citing fears that Russia will likely plan more severe attacks in line with the occasion, particularly around civilian infrastructure. Russians struck near Kharkiv and areas near Bakhmut in the Donbas, while the Ukrainan counter-attack continued to advance on Kherson in the south. There were also new claims of Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as international pleas to ensure a ceasefire around the area continue to go unheeded. Russians are also, not surprisingly, blaming the car bomb that killed the daughter of one of Putin’s advisors, on Ukraine.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Hussen nets yet another self-inflicted wound

Posted on by

This government continues its habit of own-goals and an inability to communicate their way out of a wet paper bag, and in this week’s episode, we find Ahmed Hussen not properly addressing the fact that the government apparently didn’t properly vet a supposed “anti-racism training” contractor, and lo, he turned out to have a history of making antisemitic comments over social media. But in his statement, Hussen a) doesn’t name the individual, and b) doesn’t say what “working to rectify the matter” means. Have they terminated the contract? Are they going to report on why due diligence was not done? Is there going to be some kind of accountability to be had for this colossal cock-up? Because from this kind of bland statement, I’m not seeing responsibility, accountability, or a recognition that this wasn’t being taken seriously enough in the first place.

To pour gasoline on this self-inflicted fire is the fact that this just gives ammunition to Pierre Poilievre and other Conservatives, who while consorting with far-right extremists, insist that it’s the Liberals who are the real racists because Justin Trudeau did Blackface. In fact, Poilievre did just that over the weekend. And the Liberals keep giving him the ammunition to do so, because they don’t seem to have enough adult supervision in what they’re doing. This is a problem that they can’t seem to get a handle on, seven years later. I’m not saying any of the other parties will be any better, but wow. It’s not really an encouraging sign about government capacity in this country.

https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/1561126969097555969

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 179:

More Ukrainian drones have been in the airspace over Russian-occupied Crimea, which some analysts stay is showing the weakness of Russia’s position there. Ukraine also made airstrikes over the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Russia forces have been shelling the southern city of Voznesensk, while intensifying combat around Bakhmut in the country’s east. In related news, a suspected car bomb killed the daughter of one of Putin’s closest advisors, but nobody has claimed responsibility, though this will likely ratchet up tensions in the conflict.

Continue reading →

Roundup: CSE posts a threat bulletin about Russia

Posted on by

We’re on day one-hundred-and-forty-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians fired missiles at the central city of Vinnytsia, hitting civilian locations including a medical clinic. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his statement that the Russian regime is a terrorist threat. Meanwhile, the leadership at the International Criminal Court in the Hauge is calling for an “overarching strategy” to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice, so that other countries contributing to the investigations can cooperate with their efforts.

Closer to home, CSE released a threat bulletin on Russia’s cyber-activities in Ukraine, and it was a doozy, saying that the scope and severity has almost certainly been more sophisticated and widespread than has been previously reported, and yes, that has repercussions for Canada as well. Stephanie Carvin has more in this thread:

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547663710700728320

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547664718721994753

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547666383428718594

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547666393423757315

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547669128076374017

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547669143700131840

Continue reading →

Roundup: Brown’s whistleblower goes public

Posted on by

We’re now in day one-hundred-and-thirty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it sounds like Russia might be taking an “operational pause” to regroup before they return to hammering Donetsk province…though there was still some shelling in the region. The Ukrainian flag is once again flying on Snake Island, which is a strategic access point to ports like Odessa. For his part, Putin says that he’s just getting started, and is daring the West to meet him on the battlefield, so that’s going well.

Closer to home, the Patrick Brown saga continues, as the woman who was in his camp and reported the alleged financial misdeeds to the party came forward and said she blew the whistle, and detailed the allegation that a company was paying for her work on the campaign and that Brown knew about it (which he and his camp have denied). As this goes to the Commissioner of Elections, the Liberals, keen to make some mischief, sent in their own complaint to the Commissioner, asking him to investigate the Conservative Party as a whole in the event that they benefitted financially from any memberships the Brown camp sold that may have been done improperly. So that’s going well.

The party is also contending with how they will count votes for Brown that are received, given that they’re not reprinting ballots, and don’t want to just not count his votes in any way in case that alters the maths of the preferential ballot in some way, so…they’re consulting. And we’ll see what that says. Meanwhile, members of the Conservative committee vetting leadership candidates apparently warned the organizing committee not to approve Patrick Brown’s bid, but were overruled, so that’s also interesting.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Hoping for a Canada Day with little disruption

Posted on by

We’re on day one-hundred-and-twenty-eight of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like shelling by Ukrainian forces have driven Russian troops from Snake Island, a strategic location in the south near Odesa (and where those border agents famously told the Russian warship to fuck itself). This could mean that the threats against Odesa are receding. Meanwhile, the fighting continues around Lysychansk, where the Russians are facing a tough road to try and encircle the city as they can’t cross the river without being exposed to the Ukrainian forces on the high ground.

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1542426545490460672

Closer to home, it’s Canada Day, but the festivities are taking place off the Hill in Lebreton Flats, because a third of the lawn in front of the Centre Block is now a giant pit while they dig new underground infrastructure for the renovated building. As well, the Snowbirds have been forced to cancel their performance because of a serious maintenance issue with their fleet. The far-right extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists and grievance tourists have already started to descent on downtown Ottawa and Parliament Hill, so we’ll see if things are as disruptive as they were during the occupation, but thus far, police are taking no chances and we’ve already seen arrests and vehicles being towed, so we’re off to a better start than we were in January. Regardless, I hope you enjoy your Canada Day as much as possible.

Programming Note: I’m taking the long weekend off to recuperate, so I’ll see you Monday or Tuesday, depending on how I feel (and how much news there is over the weekend).

Continue reading →