Inquiries. Audits. How much easier it would have been, and how much less politicized, if the public’s right to know had been front and centre from the start of our flagship transit project.
Unless it had worked perfectly from the get-go — that is, nary a jammed door or square wheel to be found — Ottawa’s ambitious light-rail project was inevitably going to be the target of ugly political jockeying. There was just too much public money, involving too many levels of government, to avoid this. Now, with important elections set for 2022, we may have finally hit peak politicking.
Yet so much of it could have been avoided — no matter how expensive the project — by respecting that old cliché: The public has a right to know.
This past week, Ontario’s transportation minister, Caroline Mulroney, announced a public inquiry into LRT. It comes as the Confederation Line lurches back to life, having been down for 54 days due to a September derailment that resulted from a gearbox falling off a train. Mulroney made her announcement after Mayor Jim Watson and a majority of council rejected a judicial inquiry into the system’s problems and asked the city’s auditor general to take a peek instead.
Watson and council face a municipal election next Fall. As sincere as some of his council foes may be about getting more facts on the table, they are also delightedly aware that a judicial inquiry (usually public) could embarrass the mayor leading up to the election. So, politics. For his part, the mayor’s rejection of their proposal and support for a private AG probe instead snuffed out that danger. Politics again.
Meanwhile Mulroney, a Conservative, watched these shenanigans involving a mayor who is a former Liberal MPP and cabinet minister. With the excuse of billions in provincial funding to safeguard, she called her public inquiry. The provincial Tories also face the voters, on June 2, so targeting a Liberal mayor must have seemed a no-lose temptation. Sigh: more politics. (It’s no surprise that the federal Liberal government, which has also dumped vast sums into LRT, has slunk quietly into the shadows. There’s no political advantage to area Grit MPs in getting involved in this mess at this time.)
Respect that old cliché: The public has a right to know.
This doesn’t mean a provincial inquiry, which Mulroney wants to fast-track (pardon the pun), won’t reveal valuable information; everyone hopes it will.
But how much easier it would have been, and how much less politicized, if the public’s right to know had been front and centre from the start of our flagship transit project. Instead, Ottawans will remember that it took a local CBC journalist to find out that the winning bid for the Trillium Line Stage 2 contract went to a company that hadn’t met the minimum technical score for the project. Councillors demanding information were shut down for months.
Ottawans may also remember that only through Freedom of Information requests from civilian researcher Ken Rubin did we all discover that crumbling concrete and a leaky tunnel were part of the construction mix for the Confederation Line.
It’s true there are certain confidentiality needs in any city contract. But crystal-clear emphasis on the principle of transparency as the starting, default position for all public spending could have avoided the political posturing we now witness from all sides. It would have allowed the city and its private partners to focus on what the mayor insists they should be doing: going about the job of fixing light rail’s deficiencies and building the system our billions were meant to produce.
But politicians, it seems, always prefer politicking. That train, unfortunately, has left the station.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Quebec wants to curb excessive tipping.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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