Opposition MPs on the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations voted Tuesday to delve into the massive security breach at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Liberals MPs on the committee tried to curtail the parliamentary examination, introducing a motion that would not make the investigation a priority and limiting the number of meetings into the matter.
Liberal Yasir Naqvi said he was concerned the inquiry would be all about political posturing rather than getting answers about what happened at Canada’s only Level 4 infectious-disease lab.
“This cannot turn into a political show. This cannot turn into a process where members are trying to just score political points,” he said.
The Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and NDP defeated Mr. Naqvi’s motion and another one that would not have allowed MPs to summon witnesses if they refused to testify. Bloc MP René Villemure reminded the Liberals that it was their government that played political games by denying Parliament access to classified documents on the matter.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Bank of Canada warns of low productivity ‘emergency,’ making it harder to control inflation: Senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers, during a speech in Halifax, said Canada is slipping further behind the United States and other peer countries when it comes to economic output per worker.
Nenshi has ‘more than doubled’ Alberta NDP membership: MLA: Rakhi Pancholi, exiting the race to lead the Alberta NDP, said former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi has more than doubled the party’s membership in just a week as he seeks the leadership.
High price tag of equipment driving delays in defence policy update: The federal government’s long-promised defence policy update has been kept under wraps since 2022 because the Trudeau cabinet is struggling with the cost of big-ticket items at the same time the United States is pressing Ottawa to boost military spending, according to a senior official.
Judge pauses MAID death as father, daughter continue court fight: However, Monday’s ruling by Justice Colin Feasby also prevents the daughter from receiving the procedure for at least a month so her family can appeal.
Bloc eyes adding age verification for pornography sites to online harms bill: Rhéal Fortin, the Bloc Québécois’ justice critic, said he was surprised the government did not include age verification in the bill to stop children viewing sexually explicit material online, and that the issue would be “one of my first preoccupations” when Bill C-63 is studied by MPs. Marie Woolf reports.
The bloom has come off the rose for the CAQ – and Legault: Not so long ago, it seemed Quebec Premier François Legault, for the majority of Quebeckers, could do no wrong. But The Gazette in Montreal looks into how things have gone wrong for the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, with polls now suggesting the Parti Québécois is out front in voter support.
Ex-B.C. premier Glen Clark takes reins of Overstory Media Group: The former NDP premier, who joined Jim Pattison Group after he left politics and eventually became chief operating officer, will temporarily take over top duties at Victoria-based media enterprise Overstory Media Group. The Logic reports.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“You know those signs that say, `In an emergency, break the glass’? Well, it’s time to break the glass.” – Carolyn Rogers, the Bank of Canada’s senior deputy governor, raising concerns about Canada’s “poor record on productivity” in a speech to the Halifax Partnership, the city’s public-private economic development organization.
THIS AND THAT
Commons, Senate: The House of Commons is on a break until April 8. The Senate sits again April 9.
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Chrystia Freeland is in Ottawa, but has no public events scheduled.
Ministers on the road: Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is in New York on the second and final day of an official visit as part of what the government describes as a Canadian-U.S. engagement strategy. In a posting on social-media platform X, Champagne said he visited the headquarters of Bloomberg to meet with the media organization’s editorial board. Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, in the Prince Edward Island community of Montague, acting on behalf of of Health Minister Mark Holland, announced an agreement to spend more than $29-million over five years to help people age with dignity, closer to home. International Trade Minister Mary Ng, in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, is leading a Canadian trade mission that will include stops in Vietnam before it concludes on Friday. Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, in North Vancouver, at Seaspan Shipyards, announced that two contracts with a combined value of $490.6-million have been awarded to Seaspan’s Vancouver shipyards to initiate the next stages of procuring six multi-purpose vessels for the coast guard.
Commons committee highlights: The government operations committee hears witnesses from the Canada Border Services Agency on the ArriveCAN application. The Special Committee on Canada-China Relations met this morning to consider a request to hold meetings on matters revealed in Winnipeg Lab documents involving China.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau is in the Ottawa region, but has no public events scheduled.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre attended a party fundraising event at a private residence in the Montreal community of Westmount.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May met with constituents in her B.C. riding of Saanich – Gulf Islands.
No schedules released for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
THE DECIBEL
On today’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Brenda Bouw, a reporter for Globe Advisor, explains how Canada Pension Plan works and what determines how much you get from the plan. She also speaks to the debate around what’s the right age to claim it. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
British Columbia’s troubling diversion on opioids
“The NDP needs to embrace oversight of the program – going back to witnessed consumption is an obvious possible solution – and it must plainly lay out the clinical benefits and risks of prescribed pharmaceutical alternatives. Anything short of that threatens the viability of this harm-reduction initiative.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board.
The productivity puzzle: How could we be doing so poorly? We did everything right!
“Canada has the most highly educated population in the Group of Seven, with 58 per cent of its adult population, according to the 2021 census, having graduated from some form of postsecondary institution. We spend more than almost any country on higher education, as a percentage of GDP. There are many good reasons to invest in higher education, but if the argument is “it pays off in higher productivity,” that doesn’t seem to be the case. Not as we are currently spending it.” – Andrew Coyne
Women’s rights advocates should stand up for victims on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
“Recognizing the suffering of “the other side” is not a sign of weakness, but rather, a recognition of our shared humanity. We all want human dignity, security and a better future for our children. Let’s work on healing the pain. This will entail difficult conversations that forge a path toward justice for all aggrieved parties.” – Sheema Khan
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
