U.S. Inflation Reduction Act causing brain drain of Canadian talent: CEOs

OTTAWA – Accusations of homophobia and partisan jabs took centre stage in the House of Commons on Thursday as MPs debated another Conservative motion aimed at toppling the government, after their first attempt failed.

The fall sitting of Parliament has been off to a heated start and hostilities continued to run high Thursday, forcing House Speaker Greg Fergus to play referee in question period and beyond.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis defended himself against accusations of homophobia over a comment he made on Wednesday about the prime minister engaging in a bathtub with other leaders.

The comment, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s response, derailed question period for a time after Trudeau accused the Tories of bullying and casual homophobia, and said he would “call them out on their crap.”

On Thursday, NDP MP Heather McPherson called on the Speaker to uphold decorum in the House of Commons, calling Genuis’s remark homophobic and disgusting.

“It had nothing to do with sex, I wasn’t thinking about sex at all,” Genuis said, as members around him shouted.

The tensions in Parliament come as the Conservatives make back-to-back bids to try and bring down the minority government.

The majority of MPs voted on Wednesday against the first non-confidence motion that was put forward by the Conservative leader.

If that motion had passed, it would have defeated the government and very likely triggered an immediate election campaign.

The Conservatives are now accusing the NDP and Bloc Québécois of propping up a government they have repeatedly criticized.

However, the NDP and Bloc are rejecting the Conservatives’ framing of events, saying that the non-confidence vote essentially asks them to support Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over Trudeau.

The second non-confidence motion brought forward by Poilievre on Thursday states that the House of Commons has lost confidence in the Liberal government and “offers Canadians the option to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.”

That’s the list of slogans the Tories have been using for months.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said Thursday the confidence vote was about “whether the leader of the Opposition should be trusted.”

The series of confidence votes comes after the NDP ended the supply-and-confidence deal that had kept the government stable since early 2022.

The Bloc Québécois has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to pass two private member’s bills related to supply management and old age security if they want to avoid an election before Christmas.

MPs will vote on the latest Tory motion on Oct. 1 and on another confidence motion related to the Liberals’ capital gains tax changes on Oct. 2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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British Columbians could find out who wins the provincial election on Oct. 19 in about the same time it took to start counting ballots in previous votes.

Andrew Watson, a spokesman for Elections BC, says new electronic vote tabulators mean officials hope to have the first results within 15 minutes of polls closing at 8 p.m., half of all votes counted within about 30 minutes, and for the count to be “substantially complete” within an hour.

Watson says in previous general elections — where votes have been counted manually — they didn’t start the tallies until about 45 minutes after polls closed.

This will be B.C.’s first general election using electronic tabulators after the system was tested in byelections in 2022 and 2023.

“The reason behind them is to provide better service to voters and to make the voting process more accessible,” Watson said Thursday.

Voters will still mark their choice of candidate on a paper ballot that will then be fed into the electronic counter, while networked laptops will be used to look up people’s names and cross them off the voters list.

Watson said the change from a paper voters list means people casting ballots won’t have to stand at specific voting stations based on their names, and the process is expected to take an average of five minutes.

He said the electronic tabulator means voters will know right away if their ballot can’t be read, something that wasn’t possible under a manual system.

“So we’re hopeful that that will reduce the rate of rejected ballots in the election, which is already low, but anything we can do to bring that number lower is, I think, beneficial for accessibility,” Watson said.

One voting location in each riding will also offer various accessible voting methods for the first time, where residents will be able to listen to an audio recording of the candidates and make their selection using either large paddles or by blowing into or sucking on a straw.

The province’s chief electoral officer recommended modernizing the voting system in 2018 and politicians passed the required legislation a year later. Watson said the snap 2020 election, held about a year earlier than expected, didn’t leave enough time to implement the changes.

Watson said Elections BC has heard from a “small minority” of voters concerned about the use of the technology.

He said voters are still making their choice on a paper ballot, which is considered “the gold standard in election administration because it gives you a complete paper trail for audits, recounts, whatever is necessary.”

“We still have scrutineers, party and candidate representatives observing every step of the process, and there’s an extensive testing process in place to make sure that tabulators are tested before and after they’re used,” he said.

“And again, parties and candidate representatives observe that whole process, and it’s all done transparently in a voting place.”

Elections BC says the tabulators are never connected to the internet, preventing hacking.

Watson said in close races, recounts will be done by hand.

The province’s three main party leaders were campaigning across B.C. Thursday with NDP Leader David Eby in Chilliwack promising to double apprenticeships for skilled trades and in Nanaimo for a health-care announcement, Conservative Leader John Rustad in Prince George talking power generation, and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau holding an announcement about mental health.

Eby — who was stung by a wasp during the news conference in Chilliwack — said his government would spend $150 million over three years to double the number of trade apprentice seats from the current 26,000 to more than 50,000.

The additional apprenticeships would include training to become a bricklayer, industrial electrician, machinist, plumber and others.

At a town hall in Nanaimo, Eby promised a new patient tower for the local hospital.

The Conservatives issued a statement promising increased local power generation in the northwest to bring down costs and increase energy security.

They say wood waste would be used to generate power locally, and natural gas could provide a stable and cost-effective energy supply.

At a news conference in Creston, B.C., Furstenau promised every B.C. resident would get six visits per year with a mental health professional under the provincial medical services plan.

The party estimates the cost at about $100 million a year. Furstenau said paying for proactive mental-health care would save money in the long run and take pressure off the acute-care system by helping prevent people from having a crisis.

The party’s mental health platform also includes promises to regulate psychotherapy, adding a specific mental health option for 911 calls alongside police, ambulance or fire, and creating a mental health advocate.

Meanwhile, a health-care advocacy group wants to know where B.C. politicians stand on six key issues ahead of the election that it says will decide the future of public health in the province.

The BC Health Coalition wants improved care for seniors, universal access to essential medicine, better access to primary care, reduced surgery wait times, and sustainable working conditions for health-care workers.

It also wants pledges to protect funding for public health care, asking candidates to phase out contracts to profit-driven corporate providers that it says are draining funds from public services.

Ayendri Riddell, the coalition’s director of policy and campaigns, said in a statement Thursday that British Columbians need to know if parties will commit to solutions “beyond the political slogans” in campaigning for the Oct. 19 election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

MONTREAL – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Quebec’s premier of saying things that he “knows aren’t true” about immigration as the two leaders continue to clash over the issue.

His response comes after Premier François Legault last week asked the Bloc Québécois to support a Conservative non-confidence motion to topple the government on the grounds the federal Liberals haven’t acted strongly enough to reduce temporary immigration in Quebec.

“It is a shame to hear the (premier) of Quebec sharing things and declarations on immigration that he simply knows are not true,” Trudeau said in Montreal on Thursday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We have worked together constructively, or we have certainly worked with members of his team constructively, over the past many, many months to take action in response to the challenges around immigration in Quebec.”

Despite the Bloc’s refusal to vote against the Liberals in the confidence vote, Legault has suggested immigration should be a ballot-box question in the next federal election. He has asked all the parties to commit to cutting the number of non-permanent residents to his province by half.

Trudeau said Thursday that his government has worked to limit the number of newcomers by closing a popular pathway used by asylum seekers, by re-imposing a visa requirement on visiting Mexican nationals, and by moving to limit the numbers of new temporary workers and international students arriving in the country.

Trudeau said that while his government has acted, his provincial counterpart has yet to present a plan for how to reduce the temporary workers that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

“I asked Mr. Legault to give us a plan, his plan, particularly on temporary foreign workers here in Quebec,” Trudeau said. “And many, many months later, we are still waiting to see what his plan is for his responsibilities around temporary immigration here in Quebec.”

Legault has previously said that in the last two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled to 600,000 from 300,000, which he says is putting pressure on housing, schools and public services.

The Quebec premier last month announced a six-month freeze on certain low-wage temporary foreign worker applications in Montreal, but admitted that the move would only reduce the numbers by about 3,500.

He has asked Trudeau to reduce the number of non-permanent residents that are under federal jurisdiction from about 420,000 to 210,000, and has also repeatedly called for Ottawa to hand over more powers to Quebec over immigration.

Legault was also in Montreal Thursday for his own meeting with Macron, but did not answer reporters’ questions on the way out.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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