The virus outbreak has opened a wide on-ramp that could deliver liberal policies like paid family leave and cash grants into the economy at an unexpected moment, one when the most progressive Democratic candidates seemed likely to fail to capture the party’s presidential nomination. The party as a whole has control over the House only.
But this week, it was Republicans who were emerging as the loudest champions of populist economic initiatives and deficit spending while Democrats internally debated how much direct aid they should provide to Americans.
“I’m always happy to hear from the converted,” Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts said dryly. As the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Springfield Democrat is working with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on drafting the House’s version of the stimulus legislation.
Most Republicans fought tooth and nail against stimulus measures after the 2008 financial crisis, leaving President Barack Obama and Democrats to push through legislation on their own. But faced with this looming economic crisis under a Republican president, GOP senators appeared to more rapidly coalesce around a deficit-spending bonanza than House Democrats, whose leadership is still weighing its own proposal.
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“I think they did not start out thinking as big as they needed to,” said one economist who consulted with House Democrats and did not want to be named, in order to speak frankly about private conversations. “Now they understand the magnitude.”
As more Republicans began floating the idea of sending checks to Americans — and several Democrats also drafted legislation to do so — Democratic leaders warned they did not want to sign onto any proposal that gave wealthy people more money.
“The Speaker supports Congress taking an approach targeted to those most in need,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, said on Twitter.
Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said on Monday that “millionaires” shouldn’t be getting payments, and criticized the idea of sending Americans $1,000 checks as “small thinking” since that money would quickly run out for those in need.
Later in the week, Democrats began to regroup, criticizing McConnell’s latest proposal, which would give $1,200 checks to individuals making up to $75,000, for giving less to lowest-income Americans and favoring corporations. In a letter to Democrats on Friday night, Pelosi called McConnell’s proposal a “non starter” and said the response to the crisis had to increase unemployment assistanceand Medicaid, help small businesses, expand paid leave, and “put money directly into the hands of those who need it most.”
“I think there’s a chance here to do some fundamental restructuring of the American economy,” said Neal. “In moments like this, those who embrace intransigence or a rigid ideological position, they’re not likely to be players in that debate.”
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Neal said he was open to going “maybe a bit higher” than a $75,000 income limit for people eligible for cash grants, although those negotiations were still ongoing Friday. He said it’s possible Congress would authorize more grants in one or two more major stimulus bills after the one being worked on to address the crisis.
“I think we can find an agreement on cash grants with the understanding that we’re likely going to have to go back for another round on them,” Neal said.
One member of Congress who did not wish to be named in discussing the deliberations said liberal lawmakers are pushing Neal to increase the dollar amount of checks to more than $5,000, and send them to people who make up to $100,000 a year, which would significantly top the Republican proposal.
Representative Katie Porter, a California Democrat, said that Pelosi and Neal have not embraced direct cash assistance to families to the degree that she would like. Some of the tools they have embraced, including tax credits, will simply take too long, she said.
“Democrats in 2008 and 2009 in that bailout made the mistake of putting way too many conditions and way too many hurdles in front of American families who needed help to avoid foreclosure,” Porter said. “Big banks got their bailouts literally overnight. I am discouraged that some of my Democratic colleagues don’t seem to have learned lessons from that.”
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Some Senate Democrats also are pushing for more long-term action to stabilize the economy. Warren supports cash assistance, but she is calling for more permanent fixes, like widespread cancellation of student debt to be part of the stimulus package.
“I’m pushing Democrats to push for more,” she said. “A stimulus package that delivers permanent relief to the grass roots and not the treetops could reshape our economy.”
Warren disagreed sharply with McConnell’s plan to give less assistance to lower-income Americans. But even she expressed some surprise at the size of the Republican’s $1 trillion bailout package, which is bigger than the $750 billion stimulus she initially proposed.
“Based on the Republicans’ unwillingness to give President Obama an adequate stimulus package back in 2009, I assumed they would be resistant to going as high as $750 billion in this stimulus package,” she said. “Obviously with a Republican in the White House, Mitch McConnell has changed his tune.”
The size of a rescue package is not the only indication of how progressive it is, and some Democrats cautioned that the Republicans’ big proposal could still do more to help corporations than working families.
Barney Frank, the former chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said Democrats who backed the $700 billion bank bailout in 2008 got “burned” in the 2010 elections when many of them lost seats as Republicans gained control of the House. That history may make Democrats nervous to back another gigantic rescue package this time around.
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“There’s a little hesitancy, but I think it’s being overcome,” Frank said.
The fierce blowback to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank bailout legislation known as TARP, which passed under President George W. Bush, may also explain Republicans’ enthusiasm for a more populist framing of the fast-changing coronavirus bailout proposal.
“I think a lot of Republicans don’t want to repeat the PR mistakes of the 2008 bailouts, where it appeared they were just helping Wall Street and not Main Street Americans,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist.
Progressive Democrats are calling for strict conditions on any aid received by big industries, and for the bulk of the aid to go to individuals. “Any aid to industry needs stringent restrictions and should be targeted to prevent workers from being laid off and to prevent cuts in their pay,” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California. “Not a dime should go to shareholders or executives.”
Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III disagreed with the notion that Republicans had moved to the left of House Democrats on stimulus efforts.
“The Senate is moving first, but I believe Speaker Pelosi has some leverage here and I expect that you’re going to see them use it,” said Kennedy, who had proposed his own stimulus package that included a $4,000 payment for every adult making less than $100,000, plus $2,000 for each child, and scaled-back payments for those making more than that income level.
Jared Bernstein, a progressive economist who served as then-vice president Joe Biden’s top economic adviser from 2009 to 2011, pointed to a Goldman Sachs estimate that the economy could contract by an eye-popping 24 percent next quarter
“This is no time to jam the opposition,” he said. “Both sides are going to have to give.”
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
Dr. Julio Montaner said the construction of Vancouver’s first indoor supervised site for people who inhale drugs comes as the percentage of people who die from smoking drugs continues to climb.
The location in the Downtown Eastside at the Hope to Health Research and Innovation Centre was unveiled Wednesday after construction was complete, and Montaner said people could start using the specialized rooms in a matter of weeks after final approvals from the city and federal government.
“If we don’t create mechanisms for these individuals to be able to use safely and engage with the medical system, and generate points of entry into the medical system, we will never be able to solve the problem,” he said.
“Now, I’m not here to tell you that we will fix it tomorrow, but denying it or ignoring it, or throw it under the bus, or under the carpet is no way to fix it, so we need to take proactive action.”
Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.
The centre has been running a supervised injection site for years which sees more than a thousand people monthly and last month resuscitated five people who were overdosing.
The new facilities offer indoor, individual, negative-pressure rooms that allow fresh air to circulate and can clear out smoke in 30 to 60 seconds while users are monitored by trained nurses.
Advocates calling for more supervised inhalation sites have previously said the rules for setting up sites are overly complicated at a time when the province is facing an overdose crisis.
More than 15,000 people have died of overdoses since the public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016.
Kate Salters, a senior researcher at the centre, said they worked with mechanical and chemical engineers to make sure the site is up to code and abidies by the highest standard of occupational health and safety.
“This is just another tool in our tool box to make sure that we’re offering life-saving services to those who are using drugs,” she said.
Montaner acknowledged the process to get the site up and running took “an inordinate amount of time,” but said the centre worked hard to follow all regulations.
“We feel that doing this right, with appropriate scientific background, in a medically supervised environment, etc, etc, allows us to derive the data that ultimately will be sufficiently convincing for not just our leaders, but also the leaders across the country and across the world, to embrace the strategies that we are trying to develop.” he said.
Montaner said building the facility was possible thanks to a single $4-million donation from a longtime supporter.
Construction finished with less than a week before the launch of the next provincial election campaign and within a year of the next federal election.
Montaner said he is concerned about “some of the things that have been said publicly by some of the political leaders in the province and in the country.”
“We want to bring awareness to the people that this is a serious undertaking. This is a very massive investment, and we need to protect it for the benefit of people who are unfortunately drug dependent.” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
