Pierre Poilievre is challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet the premiers in a televised conference to defend the federal government’s carbon pricing measures.
“Will he agree to a televised carbon tax conference if he is so sure of himself on this issue?” the Conservative Leader asked during Question Period today, echoing a call from several provincial leaders, including Alberta’s Danielle Smith and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey.
Trudeau did not directly respond to the urging. Instead, he touted the positive aspects of his government’s approach to pricing carbon, and said he will meet premiers on affordability issues. He also noted that he met with the premiers on climate change in 2016.
The federal carbon price increased April 1 by $15 to $80 a tonne. The federal charge is applied in all provinces except British Columbia and Quebec, which have their own provincial carbon pricing systems.
Poilievre is also sponsoring an Opposition Day motion that calls for a “carbon tax emergency meeting” with the 14 premiers and territorial leaders on the government’s carbon-pricing policies.
Asked for comment on the motion, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon was non-committal. “Well, we will see how the debate turns out. We have opposition motions all the time,” he told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England says he supports the idea of Trudeau meeting the premiers on the issue.
Speaking at an event in Ottawa on Monday, Mark Carney, now the United Nations’ special envoy on climate action and finance, said he supported a call from Ms. Smith for a first ministers’ meeting on climate.
But he said the discussion should go beyond a debate over the federal carbon levy, which has been heavily criticized by Poilievre and a number of provincial premiers.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
National security adviser says foreign meddling efforts do not equal success: Nathalie Drouin told the federal inquiry into election interference that Canadians might mistakenly think foreign actors had an effect on Canada’s election results. Meanwhile, CSIS says the Prime Minister’s Office, top ministers and senior officials received 34 briefings on foreign interference since 2018.
MPs approve rare censure of ArriveCan contractor for refusing to answer questions: The House unanimously passed a motion declaring Kristian Firth to be in contempt of Parliament, and calling for him to face new questioning from MPs.
Liberal budget to include $500-million for youth mental health, Freeland says: “We want younger Canadians to have the support they need so they are set up for success,” Freeland told a news conference in Ottawa.
Freeland doesn’t rule out new taxes on wealthy or Corporate Canada in coming budget: The Finance Minister pointedly did not answer when asked during a news conference about the prospect of new taxes on Corporate Canada or others not part of the middle class.
Ontario looks at counting student residences toward aim of building 1½ million homes: Housing Minister Paul Calandra wrote in a letter to Mississauga’s acting mayor that the ministry is tracking housing starts as defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., in addition to counting long-term care beds, but it is also now looking at “other institutional types of housing.”
Alberta distillery to stop making four-litre vodka jugs after minister raises concern: T-Rex Distillery says public response has been mixed since photos of the jugs began circulating on social media, with about half praising the jugs for “innovation and convenience.”
New challenge for Ottawa’s embattled LRT system: As The Ottawa Citizen reports, the stench at the Parliament Station of the transit system in the nation’s capital hits like a picnic basket full of egg salad sandwiches that have been left behind for a week or two.
“Very often on budget day, all of you are met with a flurry of announcements. Laying out our plan, step by step, day by day is an opportunity for Canadians to hear from us what it is we’re doing and for there to be a real thorough, reasoned, fact-based debate about a number of the measures, and I think that’s a really good thing.” – Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, at a news conference in Ottawa today, on releasing details of next week’s federal budget in recent announcements ahead of the April 16 official release of the document.
“I think he’s too scared. …Trudeau’s in hiding. He’s hiding from me at [Question Period] today. I just learned he won’t show up to debate me on the carbon tax in the House today, but do you blame him. He’s losing the debate: Canadians want to axe the tax.” – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, in a Parliament Hill scrum this morning. The Prime Minister’s schedule for today initially said he was not attending Question Period, but was later updated to indicate he would be there.
“I just spoke with Anthony Housefather, actually. We’re both on House duty together. I just gave him a big hug, and he is my parliamentary secretary and he’s – he and I have a wonderful working relationship. I’m very happy that he’s back and resuming his work as parliamentary secretary. It’s wonderful news” – Treasury Board President Anita Anand on Liberal MP Housefather ruling out a departure from the Liberal caucus over a motion passed last month.
“I haven’t had a chance to read the book. … I’m aware of it. I’ll put it on my reading list.” – Health Minister Mark Holland on the new book by former health minister Jane Philpott, Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada. Monday’s Politics Briefing newsletter featured a Q&A with Philpott on the new book.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, April 9, accessible here.
Federal Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein has released a review of sponsored travel by MPs in 2023. The list of travels is here, and the commissioner explains his views on the issue here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau chaired the weekly cabinet meeting, and attended Question Period.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet held a news conference at the House of Commons ahead of Question Period, which he attended.
Green Party Leader ELizabeth May, in Ottawa,’ met with representatives of the Canadian Cancer Society along with fellow MP Mike Morrice. Later, May attended the Equal Voice International Women’s Day Celebration.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh participated in Question Period.
No schedule released for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
The Liberals are sleepwalking through an increasingly dangerous world
“The official name of Ottawa’s defence policy review is Our North, Strong and Free, but the title really should be While Canada Sleepwalks.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Sham defence review shows Canada will never meet its commitments to NATO allies
“If Canada is to retain any credibility with its allies, the government needs to get a move on. That means accelerating the procurement process for major new acquisitions. It means working with the United States to provide a timeline for modernizing NORAD’s defences, and then meeting the commitments of that timeline. The update is out. Now it’s time to act.” – John Ibbitson
Nuclear tech isn’t all the same, and there’s a specific type Canada must focus on
“We have an opportunity to assume a global leadership role that will support domestic and international efforts to fight climate change while nurturing Canada’s cutting-edge nuclear ecosystem. We urge governments at all levels and of all stripes to seize on this occasion by choosing the deployment of homegrown Candu nuclear technology in the Canadian market, and aggressively marketing it to energy-starved partners across the planet.” – Jean Chrétien and Mike Harris
Requiring age-verification for porn won’t save children from online harm. But it will invade our privacy
“We can all agree that young people deserve protection from harm, so keeping kids safe online is a position that politicians are quick to endorse; support for anti-porn bills offers an easy route to positive PR. But good intentions don’t make for good laws.” – Maggie MacDonald
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EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government’s $8.6-billion plan to fast-track building new schools will include a pilot project to incentivize private ones.
Smith said the ultimate goal is to create thousands of new spaces for an exploding number of new students at a reduced cost to taxpayers.
“We want to put all of the different school options on the same level playing field,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary Wednesday.
Smith did not offer details about how much private school construction costs might be incentivized, but said she wants to see what independent schools might pitch.
“We’re putting it out there as a pilot to see if there is any interest in partnering on the same basis that we’ll be building the other schools with the different (public) school boards,” she said.
Smith made the announcement a day after she announced the multibillion-dollar school build to address soaring numbers of new students.
By quadrupling the current school construction budget to $8.6 billion, the province aims to offer up 30 new schools each year, adding 50,000 new student spaces within three years.
The government also wants to build or expand five charter school buildings per year, starting in next year’s budget, adding 12,500 spaces within four years.
Currently, non-profit independent schools can get some grants worth about 70 per cent of what students in public schools receive per student from the province.
However, those grants don’t cover major construction costs.
John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges of Alberta, said he’s interested in having conversations with the government about incentives.
He said the province has never directly funded major capital costs for their facilities before, and said he doesn’t think the association has ever asked for full capital funding.
He said community or religious groups traditionally cover those costs, but they can help take the pressure off the public or separate systems.
“We think we can do our part,” Jagersma said.
Dennis MacNeil, head of the Public School Boards Association of Alberta, said they welcome the new funding, but said money for private school builds would set a precedent that could ultimately hurt the public system.
“We believe that the first school in any community should be a public school, because only public schools accept all kids that come through their doors and provide programming for them,” he said.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said if public dollars are going to be spent on building private schools, then students in the public system should be able to equitably access those schools.
“No other province spends as much money on private schools as Alberta does, and it’s at the detriment of public schools, where over 90 per cent of students go to school,” he said.
Schilling also said the province needs about 5,000 teachers now, but the government announcement didn’t offer a plan to train and hire thousands more over the next few years.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Tuesday praised the $8.6 billion as a “generational investment” in education, but said private schools have different mandates and the result could be schools not being built where they are needed most.
“Using that money to build public schools is more efficient, it’s smarter, it’s faster, and it will serve students better,” Nenshi said.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ office declined to answer specific questions about the pilot project Wednesday, saying it’s still under development.
“Options and considerations for making capital more affordable for independent schools are being explored,” a spokesperson said. “Further information on this program will be forthcoming in the near future.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
OTTAWA – Health Minister Mark Holland urged a committee of senators Wednesday not to tweak the pharmacare bill he carefully negotiated with the NDP earlier this year.
The bill would underpin a potential national, single-payer pharmacare program and allow the health minister to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover some diabetes and contraceptive medications.
It was the result of weeks of political negotiations with the New Democrats, who early this year threatened to pull out of their supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals unless they could agree on the wording.
“Academics and experts have suggested amendments to this bill to most of us here, I think,” Independent Senator Rosemary Moodie told Holland at a meeting of the Senate’s social affairs committee.
Holland appeared before the committee as it considers the bill. He said he respects the role of the Senate, but that the pharmacare legislation is, in his view, “a little bit different.”
“It was balanced on a pinhead,” he told the committee.
“This is by far — and I’ve been involved in a lot of complex things — the most difficult bit of business I’ve ever been in. Every syllable, every word in this bill was debated and argued over.”
Holland also asked the senators to move quickly to pass the legislation, to avoid lending credence to Conservative critiques that the program is a fantasy.
When asked about the Liberals’ proposed pharmacare program for diabetes and birth control, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has often responded that the program isn’t real. Once the legislation is passed, the minister must negotiate with every provincial government to actually administer the program, which could take many months.
“If we spend a long time wordsmithing and trying to make the legislation perfect, then the criticism that it’s not real starts to feel real for people, because they don’t actually get drugs, they don’t get an improvement in their life,” Holland told the committee.
He told the committee that one of the reasons he signed a preliminary deal with his counterpart in British Columbia was to help answer some of the Senate’s questions about how the program would work in practice.
The memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and B.C. lays out how to province will use funds from the pharmacare bill to expand on its existing public coverage of contraceptives to include hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms.
The agreement isn’t binding, and Holland would still need to formalize talks with the province when and if the Senate passes the bill based on any changes the senators decide to make.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s NDP are accusing the government of prioritizing landlords over residents who need an affordable place to live, as the opposition party tables a bill aimed at addressing the housing crisis.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender took aim at the Progressive Conservatives Wednesday ahead of introducing two new housing bills, saying the government “seems to be more focused on helping wealthy developers than everyday families.”
The Minister of Service Nova Scotia has said the government’s own housing legislation will “balance” the needs of tenants and landlords by extending the five per cent cap on rent until the end of 2027. But critics have called the cap extension useless because it allows landlords to raise rents past five per cent on fixed-term leases as long as property owners sign with a new renter.
Chender said the rules around fixed-term leases give landlords the “financial incentive to evict,” resulting in more people pushed into homelessness. She also criticized the part of the government bill that will permit landlords to issue eviction notices after three days of unpaid rent instead of 15.
The Tories’ housing bill, she said, represents a “shocking admission from this government that they are more concerned with conversations around landlord profits … than they are about Nova Scotians who are trying to find a home they can afford.”
The premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also included in the government’s new housing legislation are clearer conditions for landlords to end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing fellow tenants, repeated late rental payments and extraordinary damage to a unit. It will also prohibit tenants from subletting units for more than they are paying.
The first NDP bill tabled Wednesday would create a “homelessness task force” to gather data to try to prevent homelessness, and the second would set limits on evictions during the winter and for seniors who meet income eligibility requirements for social housing and have lived in the same home for more than 10 years.
The NDP has previously tabled legislation that would create a $500 tax credit for renters and tie rent control to housing units instead of the individual.
Earlier this week landlords defended the use of the contentious fixed-term leases, saying they need to have the option to raise rent higher than five per cent to maintain their properties and recoup costs. Landlord Yarviv Gadish, who manages three properties in the Halifax area, called the use of fixed-term leases “absolutely essential” in order to keep his apartments presentable and to get a return on his investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
