george - The Hill Times

Transcription

EXCLUSIVE POLITICAL COVERAGE: NEWS, FEATURES, AND ANALYSIS INSIDE
HOUSE
COMMITTEES PARTY
HARPER’S TOOTOO HIRES
LATE-TERM GEORGE
APPOINTMENTS P.20
TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR, NO. 1322
NEWS SENATE REFORM
Monsef, LeBlanc
to reveal this
week Trudeau’s
vision for nonpartisan Senate
By Abbas Rana
Senators are eagerly waiting
to hear this week specific details
of the Trudeau government’s plan
for a non-partisan Red Chamber from Government House
Leader Dominic LeBlanc and
Democratic Institutions Minister
Maryam Monsef.
The appearance of the two
ministers at the Senate standing committee will be the first
time the government has presented detailed plans to reform
the Senate. Also, this is the first
official communication between
the House of Commons and the
Senate on Mr. Trudeau’s views on
the Senate’s future.
YOUNG P.28
PRIMER PP. 30-31
CENTRAL P.35
Canada’s Politics and Government Newsweekly
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016 $5.00
LeBlanc backs away from
whipped vote on assisted
dying bill, but Grit MPs
are ‘comfortable,’ call it a
Charter of Rights issue
Members of the
Joint Committee
on PhysicianAssisted
Suicide,
pictured at
a committee
meeting on the
Hill. The Hill
Times photograph
by Jake Wright
Continued on page 4
NEWS FINANCE
Morneau
expected to shed
light on deficit,
CIBC economist
predicts
$30-billion
By Derek Abma
The federal government is
expected to shed more light on
the size of its deficit on Monday,
and one prominent economist
has predicted it will be at least
$30-billion—about three times
what the Liberals promised during the election campaign—due to
lower-than-expected tax revenue
from a slow economy and the
need for more fiscal stimulus.
“The $10-billion [deficit] was
the figure that was out there
based on the projection that the
economy was growing faster
and revenues would be coming
in faster,” CIBC World Markets
chief economist Avery Shenfeld—
Continued on page 15
NEWS SENATE
Senate
Modernization
Committee
formed,
chairman
Sen. McInnis
chosen without
election
By Abbas Rana
After months of delay, the
Senate last week formed a special
committee to modernize the Red
Chamber, but already some committee members are questioning
why the Senate’s caucus leaders
Continued on page 6
NEWS PUBLIC SERVICE
Rachel Aiello
Liberals late last week were
backing away from whipping the
vote on the government’s upcoming and controversial legislation
on doctor-assisted suicide saying
it’s too early to determine how
the vote will go without seeing the bill, but Liberal MPs on
the Special Joint Committee on
Physician-Assisted Dying told
The Hill Times earlier in the week
that they were “comfortable” with
the whipped vote.
NEWS LIBERAL RESEARCH BUREU
By Derek Abma
Liberals’ $2.4-million research
bureau headed by Thalmann, Bosch
By Laura Ryckewaert
The Liberals’ $2.4-million
research bureau is now “fully
functioning” with almost 30
staffers hired, and whether
Union leaders are calling on
the federal government to provide
younger employees with clearer
paths to long-term careers as a
way of making the public service
a more attractive place to work
for millennials.
a party is in government or
opposition, the parliamentaryfunded caucus research bureaus
are a “very important part of
Short-term
work
assignments
stymie federal
public service
renewal: union
leaders
Brett Thalmann and Kevin Bosch.
2
THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016
FEATURE BUZZ
HEARD
ON
THE
HILL
B Y D ER E K A B MA
Ottawa’s popular
watering hole, Hy’s,
approaches final day
This Hour Has
22 Minutes’
star Mark
Critch, left,
stopped by
Hy’s Ottawa
location to film
a segment last
week and had
some fun with
Global News’
Tom Clark and
CTV’s Don
Martin. The
restaurant is
slated to close
Feb. 27. The Hill
Times photograph
by Jake Wright
H
y’s Steakhouse’s Ottawa location is
poised to close after Feb. 27, putting an
end to an establishment that for more than
three decades has been a regular gathering
place for politicians, their staffers, lobbyists, journalists, and other players on the
Ottawa political scene.
After failing to come to an agreement
with its landlords at the Queen Street
building it occupies on the ground floor,
it became public in September that the
Ottawa Hy’s would close after its lease
expired in February.
Last Thursday, a crew from CBC’s This
Hour Has 22 Minutes, including on-air personality Mark Critch, showed up to film some footage for an episode scheduled to air March 1.
Karyn Byrne, a spokeswoman for the
Hy’s chain, which includes other locations in
Vancouver, Whistler, B.C., Calgary, Winnipeg,
and Toronto, said there are no special events
planned as the Ottawa location approaches
its final day, though business is brisk.
“It’s a last hurrah for a lot of people
who had Hy’s Ottawa near and dear to
their hearts,” she said. “We don’t have
anything in particular scheduled, though
we certainly have lots of our loyal guests
coming in to pay a visit.”
Nonetheless, word is getting around that
former CBC journalist Don Newman and
colleague Andrew Balfour, both of whom
now work for lobbying and communications
firm Navigator, are organizing a party at
Hy’s for the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 24.
On the role Hy’s has played in Ottawa,
Ms. Byrne said: “I think it certainly serves
a great place in the community, not just as
a fantastic restaurant, but certainly as a
communications hub outside of the norm
for Members of Parliament, as well as journalists. It’s been a great place to come and
exchange information.”
Ms. Byrne said that while the company
is not currently seeking another Hy’s
location in Ottawa, “that’s not to say in the
future there won’t be opportunities.”
up winning a landslide victory in that vote.
In a blog posting earlier this month, Mr.
Cleary said if he could do it over again, he
would not have run for the Tories provincially.
“I knew a few days into the election that I
didn’t have a chance,” he wrote.“The anti-Tory tide was too strong, combined with voter
anger at my decision to ‘betray’ the NDP.
“If I had my time back would I have
made the same decision? No, the public
backlash—particularly on social media—
was absolutely devastating to my family.”
Yet, explaining his decision, Mr. Cleary
talked about his close relationship with
Paul Davis—up until recently, the Conservative premier of Newfoundland—and how
he pressured the former Conservative federal government under Stephen Harper to
compensate the province for concessions
on fish-processing made as part of the freetrade deal with the European Union.
He also talked about his opposition to
the extent of influence labour unions have
on NDP policy and his support for disaffiliating the federal NDP from provincial
branches, explaining that “the federal NDP
has an in-it-to-win-it attitude, while the
provincial NDP was/is content to serve as a
social conscience.”
Mr. Cleary said he got along well with
federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, though
he did have “issues with the OLO (Opposition Leader’s Office),” which Mulcair
occupied before the last election.
New fiction book from
Postmedia’s Maher due
this summer, oh yeah
Former NDP MP Cleary
regrets run for PCs in
Newfoundland
Postmedia’s Stephen Mayer has written a crime
thriller that’s due out in August. The Hill Times
photograph by Jake Wright
We benefit.
Sensible rules for NHPs – Give Canadian consumers safety and
choice with sensible rules for NHPs that stop unlicensed internet sales.
Former NDP MP Ryan Cleary says he his decision to run for the Progressive Conservatives
provincially in Newfoundland caused a ‘public
backlash’ that was ‘devastating to my family.’
The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright
GMO Labelling – Canadians have a right to know what’s in the
food they eat: Mandate GMO labelling!
Safe & effective NHPs – look for the NPN.
Visit chfa.ca to learn more.
Visit chfa.ca to learn more.
Former NDP MP Ryan Cleary—who lost
two different elections with two different
parties within two months—has some regret
about his last decision to run for the Progressive Conservative Party in the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial election.
Mr. Cleary, who represented the riding
of St. John’s-Mount Pearl for the NDP
between 2011 and 2015, lost the riding to
Liberal Seamus O’Regan in the October
federal election.
He then chose to run for the Tories in
the Nov. 30 Newfoundland election in the
riding of Windsor Lake, and was soundly
defeated by Liberal candidate Cathy Bennett. The Liberals under Dwight Ball ended
Postmedia political journalist Stephen
Maher has written a second book coming
out later this year about crime and intrigue,
and set in Nova Scotia.
The book is called Salvage, according to
a description on the website of publishing
company Dundurn, and will be available in paperback and as a digital download in August.
It’s based around a character named
Phillip Scarnum who, while sailing along
the south coast of Nova Scotia, finds an
abandoned lobster boat, which he hauls in,
hoping for a hefty salvage fee.
However, a dead fisherman, full of bullet holes, ends up washing up on a nearby
beach, and police start questioning the main
character about it. Some Mexican gangsters
who are missing about 100 kilograms of cocaine also take an interest in Mr. Scarnum.
Mr. Maher has taken leave from Postmedia as he participates in a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University until June.
His first novel was a political thriller called
Deadline, released in 2013.
On Canada’s Side. Sophisticated marine engineering made for our
Arctic climate goes into each Coast Guard vessel built by Canada’s
defence and security companies. Not only are our ports and channels,
from coast to coast to coast, kept safe and secure, but our equipment
is used on world-leading expeditions to map and chart the Great North.
DEFENCEANDSECURITY.CA
IMAGE: CANADIAN COAST GUARD-FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA.
4
NEWS SENATE REFORMS
Monsef, LeBlanc
to reveal
Trudeau’s vision
for non-partisan
Senate, this week
Senators eagerly
waiting to hear the
government’s views
on the Senate.
Continued from page 1
“We wanted to get it from the
government what’s the intention,
what’s the long-term purpose,
because when you [fundamentally] change … an institution, it
has some impact and sometimes,
as we say, the law of unintended
consequences,” Quebec Liberal
Sen. Serge Joyal said in an interview with The Hill Times. “You
can have generous intentions,
but the way it’s materialized, it’s
implemented, might have serious
impact in terms of how the institution is operating.”
Mr. LeBlanc (Beauséjour,
N.B.) and Ms. Monsef (Peterborough-Kawartha, Ont.) are appearing before the Senate’s Standing
Committee on Rules, Procedures
and the Rights of Parliament on
Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. in Room
160-S of Centre Block on Parliament Hill. The two ministers are
appearing at the request of committee members and will offer
more details about the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau,
Que.) vision for the Senate.
“We’re interested in learning
more about the government’s
view of change in the Senate,”
Quebec Liberal Sen. Joan Fraser,
who is chairwoman of the committee, told The Hill Times. “The
Senate is master of its own
destiny, but the government is
responsible for appointing Senators, and also the whole question
of government leadership versus
the government representative,
and we just thought it would be
appropriate to invite them to
come and explain to us.”
Sen. Fraser said the committee
will take the government’s view
to account to adjust or change the
Senate rules in the coming weeks
and months.
In the midst of the Senate
expenses scandal, Mr. Trudeau
booted all Liberal Senators from
the national caucus in early 2014,
arguing that he wants to make the
Senate a non-partisan Chamber.
Since becoming Prime Minister after the Oct. 19 election, Mr.
Trudeau has taken steps to fill
vacant seats in the Upper Chamber
with Independent Senators, contrary to traditional Senate appointments based on party affiliation.
Mr. Trudeau is slated to appoint
at least 26 Senators this year on the
recommendation of an independent advisory board. The first five
are expected to be appointed late
this month or in early March. Cur-
rently, the independent advisory
board is reviewing applications of
potential candidates and is expected to recommend 25 candidates to
Mr. Trudeau by Feb. 25, of which he
is to select the first five.
In the 105-member Red Chamber, there are 45 Conservative
Senators, 27 Liberals, 11 Independents, and 22 vacant seats. Manitoba Liberal Sen. Maria Chaput
has announced her intention to
retire by March 1. Two Liberals
and one Conservative—Quebec
Liberal Sen. Céline Hervieux-Payette, Toronto Liberal Sen. David
Smith, and Quebec Conservative
Sen. Michel Rivard—are scheduled to retire later this year.
The Trudeau government has
announced it will not appoint
any Senator to the position of
government Senate leader, who
has traditionally been responsible
to shepherd government legislation, serve as the chief government spokesperson in the Upper
Chamber, and answer questions
on behalf of the government in
the Senate with an annual office
budget of about $1-million.
Instead, the government has
said that one of the first five new
Senators will be appointed to the
position of government Senate
representative, a new position
that currently does not exist within Senate rules. The precise role
and responsibilities of the government Senate representative were
still unclear as of last week.
Since the Liberals took over
power in early November, there’s
no government Senate caucus as
the Conservatives are the opposition party and the Liberals are the
“third-party” or a “recognized party”
in the Chamber. It remains to be
seen if the Independent Senators
will form a caucus of their own,
will join one of the two other parties, or will serve as individuals.
The Senate’s Internal Economy
Budgets and Administration Committee has set aside an annual budget of $925,000 for the new Senators
in case they choose to form their
own caucus. According to the current Senate rules, for a caucus to be
recognized and receive a budget, it
must have at least five Senators. The
amount of the budget also depends
on the size of the caucus and is
determined by the Senate’s Internal
Economy Committee.
The Conservatives’ annual
caucus budget is $1.3-milllion and
the Liberals’ annual caucus budget is $1.1-million.
According to Senate rules, the
government leader gets $80,100 in
addition to the regular Senator’s
salary of $142,400. Similarly, the
opposition leader receives a salary boost of $38,100. Other Senate
caucus positions for both the government and opposition—such as
deputy leader, whip, deputy whip,
Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc, top left, and Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef will appear
before the Senate’s Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament Committee on Wednesday to discuss the government’s plans for Senate reform. The Hill Times photographs by Jake Wright
and caucus chairperson—also
receive additional salaries.
Since the Liberal Cabinet was
sworn in on Nov. 4, Liberal Senators in leadership positions have
only been getting their regular
salaries without top-ups because, according to Parliament of
Canada Act, there’s no salary for
Senators holding leadership positions other than with the government or opposition.
Meanwhile, in the absence
of more information on how the
government wants to reform the
Senate, Senators on both sides
of the aisle have been awaiting
details since the last election.
“I have no idea what the
government is going to do,” said
Saskatchewan Conservative Sen.
David Tkachuk, a member of the
Senate Rules, Procedures and the
Rights of Parliament Committee.
“My understanding is from
what I know publicly by the Prime
Minister and by the House leader
that these five [new Senators] people are going to be representatives
for the government. I don’t know
what kind of party they’re going to
be because they can’t be a political
party because the Prime Minister
doesn’t want political parties. He
wants to destroy political parties
and he’s calling these Independent Senators. I have no idea how
they’re going to operate.”
British Columbia Liberal Sen.
Mobina Jaffer said she hopes she
will get more information about the
government’s plans for the Senate.
“Now, hopefully, we’ll find out,”
said Sen. Jaffer who is also a member of the Senate Rules Committee.
“I’m very excited about them
coming because they’re coming to
explain to us what they’re going
to do to the people [Senators] that
are most affected. So, it’s nice that
we’re now talking to each other as
to how we proceed and we’re looking forward to hearing from them
what the plans for the Senate are.”
Sen. Jaffer said one of the
questions she wants to ask the two
ministers is how the government
will ensure gender equality and
diversity in its new appointments.
“For me, the most important
[point] is that they make sure that
when they select [new Senators]
that there’s diversity to reflect the
new Canada and, secondly, there’s
gender parity,” said Sen. Jaffer.
All Senators interviewed for
this article said that in addition
to the members of the Standing
Committee, a significant number of
other Senators are also expected to
attend this meeting as all Senators
want to know the government’s
views on Senate reform.
“It will be the first time that there
will be a formal meeting with government representatives and a clear
exposé of the government’s intention
with the Senators,”said Sen. Joyal.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Conservative Sen. David Wells,
a member of the Senate Rules
Committee, declined a comment
for this article, saying he wants
to hear from the two ministers
before offering his opinion.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
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6
NEWS SENATE
Senate Modernization Committee formed,
chairman Sen. McInnis chosen without election
A new Senate
committee has been
formed to make the
institution more
democratic, though
its chairman was
selected without a
vote from committee
members.
have chosen a chairman without
an election when the committee is
mandated to find ways of making
the Senate more transparent, open,
democratic, and accountable.
In interviews last week, Nova
Scotia Conservative Sen. Stephen
Greene and Quebec Liberal Sen.
Paul Massicotte told The Hill
Times they support the committee
chairman, Nova Scotia Conservative Sen. Thomas McInnis, but
that the leadership should have
let committee members elect
their chairperson. Both Senators described Sen. McInnis, a
former provincial politician, as a
“very good choice” and said he’s
“reform-minded” and “fair.”
“I support him [but] the process
could be better,” Sen. Greene said.
Through his assistant, Sen. McInnis declined an interview request.
Sen. Massicotte said the election
of committee chairs, vice-chairs
and committee members is one of
the key reform ideas that the Senate Modernization Committee will
review in the coming weeks. He
said hopefully the committee will
approve that in the future, all committee chairpeople and vice-chairpeople should be elected through
proper election processes.
“That’s one of the things we’ve
got to correct,” said Sen. Massicotte.“Some of my colleagues think
that until there’s a consensus for
change, the old way is acceptable.”
Choosing committee chairpeople, vice-chairpeople and membership of high-profile committees
such as the powerful Internal
Economy, Budgets and Administration, is one of the tools that leadership of both the Conservatives and
Liberals use to reward and punish
Senators to keep them in line.
Conservative Senate Leader
Claude Carignan (Mille Isles,
Que.), in an interview with The
Hill Times, said that the Senate
Modernization Committee will
study the process to choose committee chairs and if the committee
comes to the conclusion that it
needs to be changed, the Senators
can recommend that to the Senate.
“The committee will be able to
study, to make recommendations
about all our procedures, including the process to choose members of committees, and we will
see the recommendation of the
committee,” said Sen. Carignan. “If
they recommend to elect the chair
of this committee also, it will be
something that they could study
and recommend.”
The 15-member special committee on Senate Modernization
Conservative Senate Leader Claude Carignan (Mille Isles, Que.), in an interview with The Hill Times, said that the Senate
Modernization Committee will study the process to choose committee chairs and if the committee comes to the conclusion that it needs to be changed, the Senators can recommend that to the Senate. The Hill Times photograph by Steve Gerecke
will hold its first meeting on
Wednesday, Feb. 24. The membership includes nine Conservative
Senators, three Liberals and two
Independents. At the first meeting, the committee will discuss
details related to the overall plan
and process that will be used to
study Senate modernization. Also,
the committee members will officially confirm Sen. McInnis as
their chair at this meeting.
In the coming weeks, the committee will study all ideas that
have come out from Senators
over the last few years, including
the election of caucus officers;
electing chairpeople, vice-chairpeople, and members of standing
committees; electing the Speaker;
replacing Question Period with
“Issues Period”; webcasting and
televising Senate proceedings;
and a larger communications
budget to promote the Senate
standing committee reports.
The Senate Modernization Committee has been established in response to a motion that was passed
in December, which required the
committee to file interim reports and
a final report by June 1. It remains to
be seen if the Committee will be able
to complete its work by June.
Sen. Massicotte, however, hoped
that the committee should complete
its work by May so that the Senate
could have adequate time to evaluate and endorse its recommendations before Parliament adjourns
for the summer recess at the end of
June. He said his Senate colleagues
and Canadians want to see a concrete path toward Senate reform.
“People want to see real results. Most of us feel very strongly
that the Senate has to change. The
public wants a more modern Senate, a more responsive Senate, a
more transparent Senate. Most of
us feel that,” he said.
Before the committee was announced last week, Sen. Massicotte
was one of the Senators from both
parties who were openly expressing frustration about the lack of
progress on changing the inner
workings of the Senate.
“Obviously, frustration exists
with many Senators,” Sen. Mas-
sicotte told The Hill Times three
weeks ago. “I’m not demeaning
anybody. I just haven’t heard very
much and I’m concerned that people are—human nature is being
such—resisting change, including
the leadership.”
A week after that, he wrote an
email to Liberal Senators expressing similar sentiments.
“I appreciate the uncertainty
of our course, but all the more
reason to develop a clear understanding of our probable choices
and risks, to thereafter define
our objectives, strategy and how
we would like [to] achieve such.
Why let simple destiny choose by
default our course, without our
possible influence and positioning?” Sen. Massicotte wrote in an
email, obtained by The Hill Times,
that he sent to his Senate caucus
colleagues on Feb. 10.
“Related to this broader discussion, I am particularly concerned
with our lack of momentum on
Senate Reform. In my opinion,
it has been neatly delegated to a
committee to ‘make it go away’ (at
least for now), where the committee
is even having problems getting off
the ground and where its timetable
may very much make it irrelevant. I
believe this is in line with the opposition leader’s favour, with our mute
consent. Rather, current efforts are
moreover oriented to delaying any
changes and how to preserve the
existing power structure. Agreeably, the status quo is much more
comforting and easier to many.Yet
the Senate’s best interests and our
responsibilities demand otherwise.
In my opinion, we need to elevate
this debate and need to everyday
concern by our leadership and
Senators. How best to do so?”
Last week, Sen. Carignan told
The Hill Times that he had a meeting with Sen. Massicotte recently
and provided him with more
information and assured him that
the Senate leadership is serious
about Senate reform.
Sen. Massicotte also confirmed
that he met with Sen. Carignan
and Liberal Senate Leader James
Cowan (Nova Scotia) and both assured him that they want to deliver
concrete results on Senate reform.
Quebec Liberal Sen. Serge
Joyal, a member of the Senate
Modernization Committee, said
that before making any judgment,
the committee should be given
time to complete its work. He
said that he can understand Sen.
Massicotte’s frustration, but the
process will take time.
Sen. Joyal added that he’s
optimistic the committee will be
able to deliver results to reform
the Senate.
“I can understand his frustration,
but sometimes it takes time before
you reach consensus. In the Senate,
especially on an issue like that, it’s
not preordained by the government. It stems from the Senators
themselves,” Sen. Joyal said.“The
job of convincing the Senators is
up to anyone of us. There has been
evolution of minds in the Senate in
relation to that, and there’s now a
certainly a consensus to adapt the
institution to contemporary needs
and to make sure that the institution
satisfy its constitutional role.”
Before Sen. Massicotte’s
public expression of frustration,
three Conservative and Liberal
Senators had quit their caucuses
in disappointment over lack of
progress on Senate reform and
are now sitting as Independents.
Earlier this month, Sen. Ringuette
announced that she was resigning
from the Senate Liberal caucus,
and before that, New Brunswick
Conservative Sen. John Wallace
and Quebec Conservative Sen.
Jacques Demers resigned from
their caucuses in November and
December, respectively.
“Individually, a lot of people
on both sides of the current sitting situation in the Senate have
been trying for more change,
but for one reason or another, it
seems that we’re still in this status quo. It’s not good enough for
me and it’s not good enough in
regards to the aspirations of the
Canadian people or the institution,” Sen. Ringuette told The Hill
Times earlier this month.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
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EDITORIAL HOUSE SITTINGS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
MPs should be sitting more,
not less in House of Commons
Parliament isn’t ‘just’ there to hear
constituents: Lib MP Fisher
T
R
his year, the House of Commons
has 26 break weeks, or constituency
weeks, and 26 sitting weeks in Ottawa,
which works out to be about 130 sitting
days a year. It’s not a lot of sitting days.
As well, MPs are talking about cutting
out Friday sittings altogether. But if they
do away with Friday sittings, our federal
legislators who take three-month summer
breaks and five or six week Christmas
breaks, should sit a few more weeks a
year in December and January and they
could be accomplishing so much more.
“I think getting rid of Fridays is a
good idea because a lot of legislatures
do that, but if you get rid of Fridays, get
rid of some of the break weeks as well,”
Carleton University professor Gary Levy,
the former longtime editor of the Canadian Parliamentary Review and a former
Library of Parliament researcher who
worked on several parliamentary committees over the years, told The Hill Times.
“The numbers they have now of break
weeks, I think, is obscene, frankly.”
The House Affairs Committee, meanwhile, is looking at the merits of doing
away with Friday sittings, among other
reforms, but, as Prof. Levy told The Hill
Times, MPs should re-examine their overall use of time in Ottawa.
“The MPs will tell you they work hard
during break weeks and they hate when
you call it a holiday, but it is a holiday
from Parliament. They go out into the
constituencies and they have all kinds of
meetings and they’re very busy and they
work hard, I don’t deny that, but it’s a
holiday from their parliamentary duties
and I think that’s a problem,” he said.
The most number of days the House sat
in a year in the last decade was 129 days,
EDITORIAL
ASSISTANT DEPUTY EDITOR Abbas Rana
NEWS REPORTERS Tim Naumetz,
Rachel Aiello, and Laura Ryckewaert
PHOTOGRAPHERS Steve Gerecke, Jake Wright,
and Andrew Meade
EDITORIAL CARTOONIST Michael De Adder
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Denis Calnan, Simon
Doyle, Christopher Guly, Leslie MacKinnon, and
Cynthia Münster
COLUMNISTS Keith Brooks, Karl Bélanger, Andrew
Cardozo, John Chenier, David Coletto, Sheila Copps,
David Crane, Murray Dobbin, Michael Geist, Greg
he said, and many years it’s been less than
100. By comparison, in the 1980s, in a
normal year, the House sat about 160 days.
That’s a big decline over the last 30 years.
Moreover, Prof. Levy said he thinks the
patchy House calendar this year is “detrimental to the legislative process,” which
will lead to more obstruction and more use
of time allocation to avoid and delay.
As well, he said with parties now in
permanent campaign mode, constituency
weeks are also a “huge advantage to incumbents” and have already encouraged
parties without representation in certain
ridings “to set up alternate structures,” like
the NDP’s satellite offices in Montreal
and Saskatchewan. He’s right.
The Procedure and House Affairs Committee is currently studying“initiatives toward
a family-friendly House of Commons,”including potentially removing Friday sitting days
and reallocating those hours to a four-day
week with one double sitting day, prompted
by a motion tabled by Government House
Leader Dominic LeBlanc on Jan. 28.
Acting House of Commons Clerk Marc
Bosc suggested to MPs on Feb. 2 three
areas the House Affairs Committee could
explore, including the timing of votes, the
days and times of sittings, and the impact
of not sitting Fridays, as well as the possible usefulness of a parallel Chamber as
exists in the U.K., for example.
It makes sense to eliminate the Friday
sittings in order for MPs to get to travel
to far-flung ridings and to have more family time, but as Prof. Levy rightfully pointed
out, MPs should also consider the use of
time as a whole, not just the so-called family friendly aspect. And as it stands, there
are too many break weeks. MPs should
change that in 2017.
Elmer, Alice Funke, J.L. Granatstein, Éric Grenier, Dennis
Gruending, Cory Hann, Tim Harper, Chantal Hébert,
Jenn Jefferys, David T. Jones, Joe Jordan, Warren
Kinsella, Camille Labchuk, Gillian McEachern, Arthur
Milnes, Nancy Peckford, Kate Purchase, Tim Powers,
Michael Qaqish, Jeremy Richler, Susan Riley, Ken Rubin,
Sarah Schmidt, Evan Sotiropoulos, Rick Smith, Ian
Wayne, Nelson Wiseman, and Armine Yalnizyan
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e: “Number of break weeks ‘obscene’
‘MPs should re-evaluate use of time,’
says parliamentary expert,” (The Hill
Times, Feb. 15, p. 1). I may be a rookie MP,
but I’ve been an “on the ground” municipal councillor for the better part of a
decade. The majority of politicians I have
met take their jobs very seriously.
In Laura Ryckewaert’s story Prof.
Gary Levy called constituency weeks a
“holiday from… parliamentary duties.”
I’m sure many MPs wish constituency
weeks were akin to holidays. In the article, Prof. Levy used the antiquated term
“break week” when constituency weeks
are anything but.
Admittedly, in the beginning I expected that constituency weeks would allow
for life/work balance. I thought I would
have time for the office and more time
for my wife and two children. I still miss
family time and events even though I am
in the riding.
During constituency weeks we still
have many of our parliamentary duties
on top of constituency work. Committee prep doesn’t go away. Hard work on
private members’ bills and research still
takes place. We have numerous meetings
with constituents, events to attend and
never-ending outreach. That’s the way it’s
Conservatives anything but dead
W
hen Justin Trudeau in an interview
with an influential BBC current
affairs show in London right after his
stunning election victory said, “I left them
in the dust,” this was more impulsive optimism than reality. Not quite!
Actually, Mr. Trudeau won his majority with 39 per cent of the vote, precisely
as did prime minister Stephen Harper
in 2008, which means that 60 per cent of
voters did not vote for the Liberals. The
truth is Mr. Harper left his party in very
good shape and in so doing has restored
normal politics to Canada by building
the Conservative Party as a credible
alternative to the Liberal Party who like
to think of themselves as the ruling party
in Canada.
Who could ever say that 70 years of
Liberal rule in our short history is healthy
democracy. It’s about as healthy as the
Communist Party ruling the Soviet Union
for 74 years. The Conservatives have
more than a few reasons to be optimistic. Mr. Harper has clearly distinguished
himself from John Diefenbaker and Brian
Mulroney who both left the Conservatives
devastated. The Conservatives received
nearly 32 per cent of the vote and still
have a healthy 99 seats in Parliament.
Dark economic realities are already
clouding the “sunny ways” agenda of the
new government. Sagging oil prices and
a low loonie will reduce revenue for the
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ADMINISTRATION
supposed to be.
The good MPs work hard in Ottawa,
but by the time they get back to their
constituency—the meetings have piled up
and their schedules are crammed. An MP
is split between Ottawa and their constituency—and our house schedule reflects
that adequately this year.
In the article, Prof. Levy stated that the
view of Parliament “is just there to hear
your constituents”—and he disapproved.
If you aren’t listening and engaging
your constituents you cannot act on their
behalf. I don’t want to be a “leap year”
politician, who’s only seen every four
years looking for votes. I want to be part
of my community.
Sure, Parliament isn’t “just” there to
hear constituents. During constituency
weeks we engage the public—we listen.
Then we evaluate,we research, and we
take action in Ottawa based on that outreach. Effectively, we bring our constituents’ voices to Ottawa. That’s the job.
Although Parliament isn’t just in
existence to hear constituents—it is there
solely for them.
As MPs we cannot forget that human
aspect—this job is about the people.
Liberal MP Darren Fisher
Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, N.S.
FINANCE/ADMINISTRATION Tracey Wale
RECEPTION Alia Kellock Heward
Liberals making it much more difficult
for them to keep some of their irresponsible election promises. Hardly seems
the right time to institute a national
carbon reduction strategy. The cost of
the Syrian refugee resettlement pledge
was supposed to be $200-million but will
likely come in at three or four times that
amount. Mr. Trudeau’s blind commitment to all 94 recommendations from the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission for
First Nations could prove very expensive.
Higher deficits, payroll taxes, carbon
taxes and increased income taxes will be
needed to finance irresponsible promises.
Mr. Trudeau will provide a gold mine
of ammunition for a capable Conservative
opposition with his mistaken, shortsighted and reckless management of the
finances of the nation and the government’s non-existent foreign policy. The
new government has hurt seniors and
families by cutting the tax-free savings
account level in half and eliminating the
universal child care benefit.
Conservatives must resist the temptation to go back to “Progressive” Conservatism, learn from mistakes made in the
election, regain votes from Canada’s major cities and continue to embrace sound
economic and security policies and prove
they are “a government in waiting.”
Gerald Hall
Nanoose Bay, B.C.
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9
COPPS’ CORNER TOM MULCAIR
Mulcair may have difficulty
staying out of the numbers game
If it takes more than
two-thirds of a party
to affirm a leader,
how can you not
ask the same for a
country?
SHEILA COPPS
O
TTAWA—New Democratic
Leader Tom Mulcair may
have difficulty staying out of the
numbers game. He is doing his
best to avoid the trap, saying he
will work to secure the support of
all party members.
But Mulcair may not have a
choice, with NDP Party President
Rebecca Blaikie tossing around
a challenge even more onerous
than the one that sunk former
Conservative leader, ousted prime
minister Joe Clark.
When the party president cites
a number, the die is cast. No one
can blame Mulcair for staying
away from the numbers game.
Many before him have suffered
from that fatal mistake.
But it also begs the question
on the silent killer of sitting New
Democrats in the last election. Why
does it take 70 per cent of a party
to affirm a leader and only 50 per
cent to break up a country?
Mulcair’s orchestration of the
Sherbrooke Declaration and the
killing of the Clarity Act was a
deadly electoral mistake in most of
the country, except Quebec. It was
the one error he did not even mention in recent interviews providing
an autopsy of his own mistakes.
Mulcair’s biggest challenge
will be to re-establish socialist
credentials. The voting public may
prefer the moderate middle. But
the New Democratic Party base
tilts definitely leftward.
Party insiders are not very
happy about an election where
their leader deliberately positioned the platform to the right of
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
Mulcair acknowledges that
mistake, saying it was his decision to play it safe, an electoral
choice that turned out to be fatal.
He also says he has cleaned
house. Some of his longest-serving allies have headed West to
work for Premier Rachel Notley.
That is hardly a demotion, but a
recognition that those who have
tasted the potential sweetness of
power actually want to work in
government.
Languishing for four more
years in a rebuilding mode on the
federal scene is certainly not as
attractive as actually delivering
policy today.
Mulcair has his own nemesis out
in Alberta with former rival Brian
New Democratic Leader Tom Mulcair may have difficulty staying out of the
numbers game. He is doing his best to avoid the trap, saying he will work to
secure the support of all party members. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Topp running the operation for
Premier Notley and recruiting the
castoffs from the good ship Mulcair.
They have a good three years
to hone their governing skills in
Alberta with the hope of coming
back to be part of a winning national team in the next election.
Meanwhile, if Mulcair really
wants to dig deep, he has to acknowledge a couple of flaws in his
own post-election post mortem.
The leader put a tremendous
amount of emphasis on his
principled stand in favour of the
niqab, pointing to insider polling
that saw his party drop 20 points
overnight. For sure the decision
hurt, but the winning party also
had the same position.
So reading too much into that
call is not borne out by overall
election results. Mulcair’s statements on the niqab were more
pointed than those of Justin
Trudeau. But his speaking style in
general was more aggressive.
Trudeau ran a very positive
campaign, while Mulcair admitted his lawyerly rational approach was not appreciated.
It goes deeper than that.
And that is why the referendum
question cannot be overlooked
when New Democrats reflect on
their choice for future leader.
Mulcair was the architect of the
Sherbrooke Declaration, which
became his way of demonstrating
to nationalist Quebecers that he
was one of them. That is probably
why they were so shocked to witness his support for multiculturalism by way of the niqab. They
knew the Liberals were strong
supporters of multiculturalism, so
the Grit head-covering stance was
expected.
But not so for Mulcair, who
was supposed to be “one of them.”
Nowhere was the nationalist streak
more visible than when Mulcair
attacked Trudeau’s father for his
position on the War Measures Act.
The timing couldn’t have been
worse, as it was the anniversary
of Pierre Trudeau’s death, and
Justin hit him right between the
eyes on that, and on the number
that Trudeau considered definitive for referendum purposes.
Nine Supreme Court judges
validated the Clarity Act and
contradicted Mulcair.
Most anglophone Canadians
who could remember supported
Trudeau’s 1970 actions. By attacking him and by vowing to repeal
the Clarity Act, Mulcair lost seats
in Atlantic Canada and Ontario
that otherwise might have survived the purge.
By refusing to reflect on the
problem that he created with the
Sherbrooke Declaration, Mulcair
ignores a big factor in his defeat.
If it takes more than twothirds of a party to affirm a
leader, how can you not ask the
same for a country?
Sheila Copps is a former
deputy prime minister and a
former Jean Chrétien-era Cabinet minister. She is a registered
lobbyist.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
POST-PARTISAN PUNDIT MANNING CONFERENCE
Conservative activists and
thinkers are back in Ottawa,
congregating this week for
the annual Manning Centre
Conference, hosted by
Preston Manning, pictured.
If you’ve never heard of it,
the Manning Conference
is an event where people
on the right side of the
ideological spectrum meet
to discuss and debate
everything from mundane
political tactics to lofty
philosophical ideals. The Hill
My conservative manifesto
Not that long ago,
Conservatives,
stinging from
electoral defeat and
unceremoniously
dumped from power,
staged an agonizing
retreat from our
nation’s capital. But
now they’re back.
GERRY NICHOLLS
O
AKVILLE, ONT.—Not that
long ago, Conservatives,
stinging from electoral defeat
and unceremoniously dumped
from power, staged an agonizing
retreat from our nation’s capital.
But now they’re back.
Or at least conservative activists
and thinkers are back in Ottawa,
congregating this week for the annual Manning Centre Conference.
If you’ve never heard of it, the
Manning Conference is an event
where people on the right side
of the ideological spectrum meet
to discuss and debate everything
from mundane political tactics to
lofty philosophical ideals.
And oh yeah, there’s also tons
of gossiping.
At any rate, one topic that’s
sure to get lots of play at this
year’s Manning Conference is the
future of the once mighty Conservative Party.
After all, as the Conservatives
prepare for the hard work of
rising up from the ashes, thinkers and activists who support the
party will need to ask themselves
lots of key questions.
Questions such as: What will the
Conservative Party stand for? What
values will it represent? What will be
its priorities? Should the next Conservative leader take lots of selfies?
What I’m trying to say here is,
activists must help the party define and articulate a modern, 21st
century brand of “conservatism.”
And since we’re talking about a
political party here, they also need to
come up with a brand of conservatism that’s not only true to its ideological principles, but which is also
capable of winning enough broad
public support to win elections.
Is such a balance between
principle and politics achievable?
Absolutely.
Ronald Reagan’s Republicans;
Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives,
Mike Harris’ Progressive Conservatives—all these parties won
elections by running on strong,
principled conservative platforms
So it can be done.
And for what’s its worth (which
is probably not a lot) I’d like to offer my own suggestions as to what
a Conservative Party should bring
to the table in terms of its values.
It’s actually a simple five-point
manifesto:
•A Conservative Party should
place the power of the individual
over the power of government.
promote free markets and free
speech.
advocate for government that
is smaller, less costly, and less
intrusive.
support a strong, well-equipped
military.
oppose too much government
interference and regulation in businesses and in our individual lives.
In my view, these are conservative values Canadians will
Times photograph by Jake Wright
support, these are values which
will help the Conservative Party
win the next election and, most
importantly, these are values
which will make Canada a better,
freer, more prosperous place.
Will every conservative out
there agree with my take?
Of course not.
Elements exist within the conservative movement and within
the party which will have a different vision as to what constitutes
“true” conservatism.
Some will argue conservatism is
more about imposing moral values
than it is about individualism, others
will claim conservatives must embrace Liberal-style big government
economic policies, still others will
equate conservatism with fanning
the flames of populist resentment.
That’s fine. Debate is healthy
and should be encouraged.
Yet, I know where I stand in
any such debate: I stand for individualism, I stand for tolerance,
and I stand for free markets.
Indeed, I believe now more
than ever Canada needs a principled Conservative Party in Ottawa, which will present a stark
and clear ideological alternative
to the left-wing, pro-big government, big spending Liberals.
So to all you conservatives
attending the Manning Centre
Conference, please keep my five
points in mind when pondering
the future.
If activists don’t stand up for
true conservative principles and
values, then who will?
Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant.
www.gerrynicholls.com
[email protected]
The Hill Times
10
IMPOLITIC NDP
Mulcair may survive, but for how long?
While Tom Mulcair
may prevail in April,
a less than 70 per
cent endorsement
will be seen as
tepid, or provisional.
Whether he is the
one to lead his
party into the next
election in four
years will become a
matter of constant,
covert conversation.
SUSAN RILEY
G
ATINEAU, QUE.—Politics is
a cruel and unusual business.
It squanders too much attention
on colourful clowns. It prefers
charm, or novelty, to depth and
experience. It rewards sloganspouting bullies and undervalues
kindness, intelligence and quiet
competence.
Most politicians, no matter
how impressive their resumes,
emerge from years in office with
their reputations diminished—in
tatters, even—until history recasts
them in a more flattering light.
Unlike other professions, the longer you’ve been around, the less
welcome you may be. (Ask Jean
Chrétien. See Jim Prentice.)
None of this bodes well for
Thomas Mulcair. In April, the New
Democratic Party leader must
apply for his job all over again at
a federal party convention in Edmonton, the first since the NDP’s
devastating collapse in October. It
seems unfair, but Mulcair’s long
experience in public life will count
for little—indeed, it could be held
against him. He will look, in an era
of fresh faces, too familiar.
Nonetheless, early speculation
is that he will survive the mandatory leadership review, largely because no serious challenger has yet
emerged. He may also benefit from
the weary indifference of lifelong
New Democrats, like columnist
and pundit Gerry Caplan, who confessed recently that he doesn’t care
what happens in Edmonton.
Like many party veterans,
Caplan chides Mulcair for running a cautious, conservative and
uninspiring campaign—for ceding
Jack Layton’s moving deathbed
message (“Love is better than
hanger. Hope is better than fear.”)
to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. But
most of Mulcair’s critics are silent
for now, too broken-hearted, perhaps, to push for change.
Meanwhile, Mulcair has offered
what is advertised as an apology—an acknowledgement, at
least, that the campaign failed and
that he bears responsibility. But
he doesn’t say what, exactly, went
wrong. In fact, he reports “a strong
feeling that the campaign we put
together can be repeated. We got
very close—closer than we’ve ever
been—and people are convinced it
is there for us the next time.”
This does not sound promising. In fact, this is delusional. The
NDP’s problem was not “messaging,” as some have argued. It
certainly wasn’t the leader’s work
ethic; he, and his wife, were everywhere. And Mulcair can discourse
articulately and insightfully on the
problems facing the country; he
is far more precise and confident,
still, than Justin Trudeau.
It certainly wasn’t the beard—
although Mulcair’s personal style
does not scream “generational
change.” (As he has pointed out,
American progressives are currently enthralled with a 74-year-old
Senator from Vermont, who isn’t
exactly a newcomer to politics.)
The reason the NDP failed
was a lack of originality, hope
and daring—in their campaign
iconography and in their message. What did they propose to
do about climate change—and
why did they rarely mention it?
Why did they oppose Trudeau’s
modest income tax hike on the
richest Canadians in favour of
a corporate tax hike? Why not
both? And, when Mulcair refused
to participate in any debate—including the big, English-language
network debate—unless Stephen
Harper did, he only looked arrogant; more interested in bigfooting the prime minister than
in talking to Canadians.
Nor is there any indication,
in the first weeks of the new
Parliament, that Mulcair is
about to change his style, or his
preoccupations. If anything, he
is comfortably settling into the
NDP’s traditional role: national
scold, humourless fault-finder,
perpetual outsider.
Mulcair’s prosecutorial style
in Question Period was effective
against the cold and authoritarian
Stephen Harper, but it works less
well against Trudeau’s feel-good
Liberals. The two parties are closer
on the issues, too. Is Mulcair going
to lambast the Liberals for running larger-than-expected deficits,
after Mulcair’s no-deficit pledge
during the campaign disillusioned
so many in his own party?
Even his attack on Trudeau’s
much-delayed policy on ISIS—
withdraw the planes, triple the
number of advisors, significantly
increase humanitarian aid—falls
short. Mulcair insists on an “exit
strategy” where none is possible;
he barely acknowledges the
$1-billion in new humanitarian
aid, long an NDP preoccupation;
he belabours the distinction between “combat” and “non-combat”
as if the war on ISIS was unfolding at a university debating club.
The Conservative opposition
is hitting false notes, too—complaining about Liberal interference in National Energy Board
decisions, for instance, is pretty
rich—but interim leader Rona
Ambrose, less fierce but no less
pointed, is doing at least as well
as Mulcair.
The reason Tom Mulcair’s NDP
failed was a lack of originality, hope
and daring—in their campaign
iconography and in their message.
While Mulcair may prevail in
April, a less than 70 per cent endorsement will be seen as tepid, or
provisional. Whether he is the one to
lead his party into the next election
in four years will become a matter of
constant, covert conversation.
The Liberals are not invulnerable and a winsome smile will
only carry them for so long. But,
for now, Mulcair’s intense, combative personality is a liability
against this youthful, idealistic,
buggy crowd—a government less
concerned with policy detail than
with marketing hope.
Unfortunately for Mulcair, his
job description has changed underneath him. But that’s politics.
Susan Riley is a veteran political columnist who write regularly
for The Hill Times.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
IN PROGRESS CPP REFORM
CPP expansion crucial test for
new finance minister
Canadians can’t
afford another four
years of ragging the
puck on pension
reform. New
numbers, released
last week by the
Broadbent Institute,
show us why.
SARAH SCHMIDT
O
TTAWA—During the Harper
years, we got used to hearing
the well-worn line about why now
was not the time to expand the
Canada Pension Plan.
The economy was still too fragile, the Conservatives told us over
and over again—leaving the distinct impression that the economy,
even if firing on all cylinders,
would just never be quite strong
enough to move on increasing CPP
contributions and payouts.
So you can imagine how Canadians who voted for change felt
when they woke up in December to these headlines following
Liberal Finance Minister Bill
Morneau’s first meeting with his
provincial counterparts:
“Finance ministers go slow
on CPP reform as economic
concerns bite,” reported CBC.
“Trudeau government wimps out
on Canada Pension Plan reform,”
bellowed The Toronto Star, noting
the Liberals had campaigned during the same sluggish economy
on a promise of enhancing CPP.
A mere seven weeks later,
Morneau is striking a different
tone, saying CPP enhancements
are coming “this calendar year.”
We don’t know if these
mixed-messages reflect a communications failure on the part
of a rookie finance minister still
trying to find his groove. And it’s
too early to tell if the impression
Morneau left in December reflects
the government’s thinking or if
his more recent musings do.
What we do know is Canadians can’t afford another four
years of ragging the puck on
pension reform. New numbers,
released last week by the Broadbent Institute, show us why.
Statistician Richard Shillington has been studying poverty
and the design of social supports
for seniors for over 30 years. The
Institute commissioned him to
look at an under-studied cohort
of Canadians—near-retirees aged
55 to 64 without an employer
pension.
Drawing on the most recent
data available from Statistics
Canada, what Shillington discovered is alarming.
Among this group of Canadians nearing retirement with
no accrued employer pension
benefits—representing about half
or 47 per cent of this cohort—the
median value of their retirement
assets is just over $3,000. If that
number doesn’t shock you, consider this: among those earning
between $25,000 and $50,000, the
median value of their retirement
assets is just $250.
Those earning between
$50,000 and $100,000 are doing
better, but not nearly well enough,
with median retirement assets
totalling $21,000.
With these numbers, it’s little
wonder over half of Canadians
aged 55 to 64 without a workplace
pension—55 per cent—have savings that represent less than one
year’s worth of the resources they
need to supplement government
programs, namely Old Age Security (OAS), Guaranteed Income
Supplement (GIS) and the Canada
Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan.
And fewer than 20 per cent
have enough savings to support
the supplemented resources required for at least five years.
Already, the seniors’ poverty
rate in Canada stands at 11.1 per
cent, up from 3.9 per cent in 1995.
The situation is particularly dire
among single seniors—28 per
cent of single female seniors and
24 per cent of single male seniors
are living in poverty.
Just imagine what the poverty
rate among seniors will be in 20
years if this cohort of near-retirees moves into retirement without
an enhanced CPP and improved
government benefits.
Imagine the effects on the
economy if the purchasing power of
seniors plummets along with their
financial security. According to Statistics Canada, seniors are projected
to represent between 23 and 25 per
cent of the population by 2036, up
from 14 per cent in 2009.
Back in 2013, before Morneau
entered politics—while serving as
an executive at Morneau Shepell, a
human resources consulting company and the largest administrator
of retirement and benefits plans
in Canada—he co-authored The
Real Retirement: Why You Could
Be Better Off Than You Think, and
How to Make That Happen.
Following the December meeting of Canadian finance ministers, The Toronto Star’s Thomas
Walkom pointed out that in the
book, Morneau writes, “there is
no retirement crisis in Canada,
that the elderly may work past 65
if their pensions are skimpy and
that most seniors can live perfectly well on 50 per cent of their
pre-retirement income.”
Walkom posited that “this may
explain his laissez faire approach
to the CPP. But it isn’t exactly
what his party and leader campaigned on.”
Seven weeks later, Morneau is
sounding less laissez faire. Let’s
wait and see what he sounds like
in June when he meets again with
provincial ministers to discuss CPP.
Here’s to hoping we don’t hear
Tory talking points about why a
sluggish economy means we need
to push off enhancing CPP. Again.
Sarah Schmidt is the director
of communications for the Broadbent Institute.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
11
FEATURE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS
‘It’s a very small building,
but it’s very rich,’ new
Hill space opens with
Sir John A. Macdonald
Building addition
There’s now an
extra 33,400 squarefeet of space for
Parliamentarians.
Before construction, it
was simply an empty
courtyard with some
parking space beside the
Old Bank of Montreal
building. Now it’s so
much more.
BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT
T
here’s some new square footage available on the Hill with the new addition
to the historic Sir John A. Macdonald
Building, which includes a multi-purpose
room and was designed to be a contemporary, modern match to the main heritage
hall, say architects involved in its design.
“It’s a very small building, but it’s very
rich,” said David Clusiau, a senior principal
at NORR Ltd., who was head of the building design team.
The final product, specifically the glass
atrium connecting the new infill addition to
the heritage building, came together even
better than expected, he said.
“The glass roof is supported on glass
blades, glass beams. … It casts this series
of bands across the whole façade of either
the existing building or the new, depending on the time of day, and it is stunning,”
he said. “Even if you’re walking down the
street and peek in at the right time, you’ll
see it. It’s pretty dramatic.”
“We always did the glass for this idea of
an outdoor space, but not recognizing that
the structure itself would create this beautiful pattern on that wall; that is a pretty
neat discovery.”
Previously the Old Bank of Montreal
building—and originally the bank’s main
Ottawa branch, built between 1930 and
1932—the building at 144 Wellington St.
was renamed in January 2012.
Construction on the Sir John A. Macdonald Building began a few months later
in April 2012 and included asbestos removal, stripping back the old interior including
teller booths, seismic upgrades, masonry
restoration, replacing electrical and other
systems, and the construction of a new
two-storey infill addition in a courtyard to
the west of the building.
The renovation cost about $99-million
and is part of Public Service’s plan to fix up
the entire parliamentary precinct. The building has been a classified heritage space since
1986 and was used as a bank until 2005.
EllisDon Corp. was awarded the contract for construction management for the
building, while NORR was awarded the
main design contract and worked with
MTBA Associates Inc., which focuses on
heritage conservation.
Mark Brandt, senior conservation
architect at MTBA, said his job was to
ensure the design of the new addition “was
in harmony” with the original building,
meaning it needed to be “physically and
visually compatible with, subordinate to
and distinguishable from” it.
“We don’t want to make it like Disney
World and just kind of do the same architecture over again,” he said.
The addition, with limestone and bronze
dominating its façade, was intended to be
an expression of “its own time,” said Mr.
Brandt, but with a similar “big stone box”
look as the original building.
Complimenting an historic space is
“much harder when you’re putting an addition on, like, a Greek temple, which the
original building is,” said Mr. Brandt. While
it was a “huge concern” whether the addition would blend with the street-scape, he’s
happy with the result.
Construction wrapped up last spring,
and the building was officially handed over
to the House of Commons administration
for management in the summer. It opened
for use in September. Since then, about
50 events have been held in the building,
including orientation sessions for new
MPs, ministerial briefings, and legislative
associations have also met in the space.
Already, the renovation of the building
and the design of its addition have been
lauded by Canada’s architectural community with four awards, including the
National Trust for Canada 2015 Cornerstone Award for Heritage Rehabilitation/
Adaptive Use and the City of Ottawa 2015
Urban Design Award for Excellence of
Urban Infill—Low Rise.
Overall, the building has been renovated
to replace West Block’s old Confederation
Room as the go-to spot for special parliamentary and ceremonial events on the Hill.
The addition serves as the main entrance through which Hill visitors enter
the building, as it’s where the security
screening is set-up. It also includes space
for the “support functions” required for
The glass atrium
of the new
addition that
connects to the
main hall is
pictured. The twostorey addition
sits between the
historic Sir John
A. Macdonald
building and
the National
Press Theatre,
previously an
empty courtyard
with some
parking. The Hill
Times photograph by
Jake Wright
the building to function like a conference
facility, such as food storage and new
bathrooms. It also includes a loading dock
facing Wellington Street, which is easy for
pedestrians to miss behind bronze doors
that match the overall façade.
“It’s got such a prominent location across
from Parliament Hill, we couldn’t just create
an ordinary loading dock. We had to do it in
a very discreet manner,” said Mr. Clusiau.
It’s now an extra 33,400 square-feet of
space for Parliamentarians. Before construction, it was simply an empty courtyard with
some parking space beside the old bank,
largely blocked from view by a screen wall.
“It fills in a missing tooth in the streetscape of Wellington. … We were able to fill
that in with something that I think is quite
complimentary to the buildings on either
side,” Mr. Clusiau said.
A glass atrium connects the two-storey
addition to the original building and serves
as a lobby for building guests to mingle
as they enter. The atrium was designed as
an all-glass enclosure, with glass walls to
the north and south, and a glass ceiling
supported by glass beams, allowing the
original eastern exterior of the Sir John
A. Macdonald Building to still be visible,
including from street view.
Glass technology has come a long way in
the last 10 to 15 years, said Mr. Brandt, and it’s
a“very exciting time for glass in architecture.”
Bronze wall-length panels along the
back west wall of the atrium can be moved
to accommodate food serving stations or
tables. Large doorways connect the atrium
to the gold-toned and limestone- and
marble-filled heritage hall.
Up stairs wrapped around a large, red
Cape Breton marble slab, on the top floor of
the addition is a large multi-purpose room
that can fit as many as 200 people, with a
“crush room” in front featuring a large
floor to ceiling window facing the Hill. On
the right is a smaller multi-purpose space
(including a kitchenette), built above and
into the old heritage building. As well, the
addition is topped with a green roof.
“It’s got a million-dollar view looking
out over the Parliament buildings,” said Mr.
Brandt of the addition’s view.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
12
THE WAR ROOM MEDIA PARTY
Where’s Ezra when I need him?
Ezra Levant likes
to rail against the
Media Party, but
where is he in
my fight against
André Marin?
WARREN KINSELLA
T
ORONTO—It being Lent and all,
I was canvassing Scripture and—
bear with me here—I was reminded
of Ezra Levant and his Rebels.
Rona Ambrose may think she
is the leader of the opposition,
but she isn’t. Ezra is. As a lawyer,
a political assistant, a magazine
publisher, a newspaper columnist,
a TV talk-show host, Ezra has always done one thing: get under the
skin of the purportedly progressive
establishment. If you are a Liberal,
a New Democrat, or a “Progressive”
Conservative—if you work for the
CBC or The Toronto Star or a gov-
ernment—the chances are pretty
good that Ezra has taken a run at
you. He’s good at it.
Over the years, Ezra and I
have (briefly) been friends, and
we have (mostly) hated each
other’s guts. He’s sued me, I’ve
sued him. He’s gone after me
professionally, I’ve done likewise.
It’s been nasty.
In 2011, however, our mutual
friend Kory Teneycke was starting up Sun News Network, and he
wanted us on it. But not if Ezra and
I were going to keep fighting with
each other. So we agreed to stop
fighting. We didn’t become besties
and start hanging out together,
naturally, but we laid down our
arms. He did his thing, I did mine.
Now, this is where the Bible
stuff comes in. Pay attention.
On two occasions, I have tried to
be a good Catholic, and I have come
to Ezra’s defence. Almost exactly
three years ago, then, Ezra went on
TV and said various horrible things
about the Roma people. Or, as he
called them, gypsies. Among other
things, he said the Roma “a culture
synonymous with swindlers…one
of the central characteristics of that
culture is that their chief economy is
theft and begging.” He went on like
that for a while.
Now, I’m married to a person
who is Roma. I’m not neutral on
the subject. But when I learned that
the attorney general of Ontario was
getting close to having Ezra (and
likely Kory) charged criminally—
for on-air promotion of hatred
against an identifiable group—I
intervened. Instead of being on
spring break vacation with my
wife and kids, I spent hours on
the telephone trying to calm the
waters. And get Ezra to apologize
on-air, which, eventually, he and
Sun News did. No charges laid,
Ezra doesn’t go to jail.
Fast-forward three years, to
example number two. Alberta
Premier Rachel Notley takes
leave of her senses, and decides
she is going to pick a fight with
Ezra and his Rebel TV online
start-up thing. She is going to bar
him and his ersatz rebellion from
press conferences.
Now, Ezra likes to call guys like
me “the Media Party.” He says, over
and over, that most of Canada’s
journalists and editors aren’t media—they’re an actual lefty political
party, conspiring to impose a One
World Latte Government, human
rights commissions, political correctness, Volvos, and month-long
Sean Penn film festivals. The Media
Party, in other words.
Well, guess what? When socialist
overlord Rachel Notley made her
dumb decision, guess who rallied to
the defence of Ezra and the Rebel
TV gang?Yep. Me. On my website,
on Twitter, on Facebook, in various
media interviews, I angrily said that
governments shouldn’t ever decide
who is a journalist—and that they
should leave Ezra and Co. alone.
After a day or so of this, the Alberta
NDP executed a whiplash-inducing
reversal. Ezra would be allowed in.
At this point, you are probably wondering (a) why I kicked
off this column with the biblical
references and (b) why I went to
the wall for Ezra et al.
Well, on the latter point, I’m
kind of wondering the same thing
myself, but here’s why.
Ontario’s now-former ombudsman, Andre Marin, doesn’t like me.
There’s a reason for that. In
the past, I’ve been pretty critical of
Marin because I thought he was a
vain, thin-skinned bully. Because I
thought he didn’t act like a representative of the legislature, he acted
like a six-year-old with a bad temper.
Because Marin and his senior team
have been the subject of several
human rights complaints, all settled
with secrecy agreements. Because
he used public money to buy himself
wide-screen TVs for his home and
body wash and whatnot. Because he
has given contracts worth a quarter
million dollars to a friend. And
because he—a quasi-judicial officer
of the legislature, with more power
than any judge or MPP—repeatedly
acted like a child on social media.
After I voiced those criticisms,
Marin went after me at the Law
Society of Upper Canada. I’m a
lawyer, and Marin and his acolytes
apparently want me disbarred. For
being, you know, critical of Marin.
Because I’m fighting them off
all on my lonesome, I have reluctantly asked for help. Some folks
have made donations to a puny
legal defence fund, and some
have spoken up on my behalf. I’m
grateful to them.
But from Ezra and the Rebels—
the ones who, you know, talk about
the importance of free speech all
the time? The ones who I have gone
to the proverbial wall to defend?
Nada. Zero, zippo, zilch. Not a
peep. They refuse to say a word—
a single word—in the Marin v.
Kinsella battle, which bears more
than a passing resemblance to
the Notley v. Levant battle, which
leads me to my biblical analogy,
and to my conclusion.
The Rebel folks demand crucifixion. And, when they get it, they
always complain about the view.
And, if you’re up there too, being crucified with them?
Well, too bad, so sad. You’re
the Media Party.
Warren Kinsella is a Torontobased lawyer, author, and commentator. He has been a special assistant to
prime minister Jean Chrétien.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
OPINION BIOTECHNOLOGY
Canada’s biotechnology industry
ready to take centre stage, now
Now is the time to
explore measures
that will support
and reward
innovation and
entrepreneurship.
With a competitive
innovation agenda
and accompanying
hosting conditions,
Canada’s
biotechnology
industry is well
positioned to build
on its natural
strengths to
become a global
leader and support
Canada’s economic
competitiveness
more broadly.
ANDREW CASEY
W
ith the Canadian dollar
and the price of oil hitting
historical lows it is not surprising that while at the recent World
Economic Forum in Davos, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau was
asked about Canada’s economic
prospects in the face of this economic headwind. Trudeau quite
correctly noted Canada’s economic strength lies in its diversity, which includes being home
to great science and innovation,
which has led to the development
of a world leading biotech sector.
This represents an important
recognition of the biotechnology
sector as both a stand-alone economic engine but also one which
can be the catalyst for Canada’s
global economic competitiveness.
The world’s population is predicted to grow to over nine billion
people by 2050. This exponential
growth brings with it enormous
challenges as nine billion people
will require new medicines, food,
energy, and material goods.
Moreover, as populations and
economies grow, it will be essential to develop more efficient and
less impactful ways for humans to
grow, manufacture, and live. Within
the social imperative of addressing
this daunting global challenge lies
the enormous economic opportunity for the innovative solutions
biotechnology delivers. Canadian
biotechnology can play a central
role in addressing these global
challenges but also in helping
key domestic industries such as
forestry, mining, oil & gas, manufacturing and agriculture maintain
their competitiveness in the global
bio-economy.
The Prime Minister’s comments in Davos were underscored
recently in The Hill Times opinion
piece penned by the Minister of
Innovation, Science and Economic
Development, Navdeep Bains, who
wrote,“innovation is about new
ideas and approaches that can
improve our lives.” In this regard,
Canada is excelling. Canadian
scientists and biotech companies
are presently working to: develop
cancer treatments using shrews
and mosquitos; develop new vaccines using tobacco leaves; produce
jet fuel from mustard seeds; turn
soybeans into auto parts; improve
farming and aquaculture productivity; reduce dependence on
petroleum-based products, to name
some of the innovations emerging
from Canadian scientists and being
developed by Canadian biotech
companies.
The comments of both the
Prime Minister and the minister
of innovation reflect Canada’s
long and successful history in the
development of modern biotechnology. Indeed, as a result of past
success and innovation, Canada
is now home to a thriving biotech
ecosystem consisting of clusters
in every province which bring
together: world-class universities
and research institutes; biotech
entrepreneurs; large multinational
players; and a highly-educated
workforce. All told, the Canadian
biotech ecosystem is an economic
strength that positions Canada well
to successfully deliver innovation
to a world looking for solutions.
Importantly, in achieving his
stated objective of making Canada
a “nation of innovation,” the minister
highlighted the important strategic
role government plays to “cultivate a
culture of innovation and entrepreneurship” by “providing the necessary conditions to enable a thriving
innovation ecosystem across Canada is essential.” The industry will
continue to develop new science
and innovation but tax policy, regulatory efficiency, programs such
as IRAP and SR&ED all combine
to establish the hosting conditions
necessary to attract the talent and
investment needed to successfully
commercialize innovation.
In recognizing the strategic
economic asset biotechnology
represents, Canada is not alone.
Other nations are also acutely
aware of this economic opportunity and are quickly moving to
develop and support domestic
innovation by establishing policy
frameworks supportive of innovation and investment. Bains has
correctly identified developing
the innovation agenda as an important step to keeping pace with
other nations. At its very core,
biotechnology is built on a transformative idea and its supporting
science. Unlike many other industries with large infrastructure or
immovable assets, the “idea” at the
Minister of Innovation, Science and
Economic Development Navdeep
Bains recently wrote in The Hill Times,
‘innovation is about new ideas and
approaches that can improve our lives.’
core of biotech is very mobile. If
Canada is not establishing itself
as a place supportive of investment and commercialization then
entrepreneurs will have no choice
but to commercialize in more supportive jurisdictions, taking with
them the economic benefits that
accompany commercialization.
These are certainly important
considerations as the government
prepares the 2016 budget and develops its innovation agenda going forward. With the dollar and
energy prices showing no signs
of an early recovery, Canada will
be counting on other sectors to
create economic growth and jobs.
Accordingly, now is the time to
explore measures that will support and reward innovation and
entrepreneurship. With a competitive innovation agenda and accompanying hosting conditions,
Canada’s biotechnology industry
is well positioned to build on
its natural strengths to become
a global leader and support
Canada’s economic competitiveness more broadly.
Andrew Casey is president and
CEO of BIOTECanada.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
13
OPINION AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM
Five steps to redefine Canada’s
agri-food system for the future
BY DAVID MCINNES AND DON LENIIHAN
their part. So are food providers.
They compete for each customer
and depend on reliable sources
of ingredients and foods; many
grocery stores now offer “sustainably-sourced” seafood.
Ethics, health, and provenance
are also influencing people’s decisions. Consumers can buy “cagefree” eggs, “low sodium” soups and
“shade-grown” coffee. The array
of choices is impressive. But a
deeper concern is being signalled.
The foods we have been enjoying
have come at a cost. At the forum,
delegates heard about the declining nutritional quality of food and
agriculture’s significant environmental footprint.
Confidence in the global food
production system is being tested.
This actually creates a huge opportunity for Canada. If Canada
could build even greater trust,
it could redefine and leverage
the country’s agri-food “brand.”
Strengthening consumer trust
while not disrupting our competitiveness could be the cornerstone
of a new food strategy. This is the
route to raising the bar on our
competitors both in the Canadian
market and abroad.
However, trust cannot be
blind. Consumer trust must be
based on fact, not faith—and that
requires reliable information and
transparency. There are five steps
to build genuine trust in Canada’s
agri-food system. These measures
provide the basis for a Canadawide action plan.
First, demonstrating trust
is the foundation. We already
measure food safety incidents.
Credible, national measures
should track the agri-food sector’s performance on environment, nutrition and other factors.
Industry and government can
decide on the right benchmarks
and disclose them. This is a key
way to help secure the “social
licence” to operate: avoiding restrictive regulations and minimizing public criticism and consumer
skepticism.
Second, our efforts to reinforce
the Canadian food brand could be
more sophisticated. Canada is often thought of for its clean water
and good soil but what demonstrates this? Ireland, for example,
has pledged that its exports will
be 100 per cent sustainable. It’s
time to back up our claims. Given
our natural advantages and sound
governance practices, Canada can
aim high. We could be the food
“supplier of choice” for consum-
ers and customers because of this
credibility.
Third, being sustainable is not
just good “PR”; it’s about productivity. The food sector has been
improving water use, optimizing
fertilizer application and lowering
energy costs. Waste is generating
new revenue streams for some,
who are using manure to produce electricity in bio-digesters.
Managing natural capital has real
economic value and reinforces the
positive image of the sector. Sustainability should drive business
and government decisions and
strategies across the food system.
Fourth, innovating differently
is vital. Considerable cross-cutting
scientific challenges face all
countries’ food production, such
as adapting to climate change and
sequestering more carbon. A new
innovation system must better
coordinate our scientists so that research and investment are focused
and reach beyond their organizational silos. Setting shared national
research priorities, with public and
private sector involvement, would
be an excellent start. This will enable Canada to remain a reliable
and high quality food supplier.
Fifth, the sector’s economic
importance should be recog-
Seven political winners
for Trudeau to strengthen
environmental protection
nants. Toronto recently became
the 100th municipal government
in Canada to pass an environmental rights declaration since
2014, illustrating a groundswell of
public support for this approach.
W
ith one of the safest food
systems anywhere, Canadians can trust the food they
eat. But consumers here and
abroad are pushing the bounds of
what “trust” means to them. Can
Canada lead the world in redefining trust for the future?
Food costs are a primary concern for many consumers. Nevertheless, a wide range of other
issues is increasingly important,
from the quality of animal care to
the impact of food production on
the planet.
The agri-food sector is grappling with the best ways to meet
these rising expectations and
remain competitive. Enhancing
trust could be the key to both.
This was the finding of a recent
forum in Ottawa attended by agrifood specialists and leaders from
across the country and abroad.
Food systems around the
world, they said, are under pressure. Climate change is one reason. The challenge of increasing
food production without depleting
“natural capital” (such as water)
or ruining ecosystems is another. Consumers are conscious
of these threats and want to do
nized. Canada’s food system is
an economic engine that generates wealth. It can improve our
ecosystems and the health of our
citizens. But the sector shies away
from embracing a common purpose. It certainly doesn’t speak
with “one voice.”“Enhancing trust”
offers up a goal that most can
rally around. As an increasingly
important sector, this should help
it win more supportive policies at
home. The sector’s value can be
leveraged abroad, too. By being
global leaders in the management
of natural capital, for instance,
Canada could better influence
international food rules and standards in ways that would support
our national interests.
The issue of trust—when
broadly considered—is redefining food systems for the future.
The strategic opportunity for
Canada is embracing this change
and building on our advantages.
Canada could become a global
leader in producing food that
actually enhances the health of
our ecosystems and improves
the nutrient-quality in our food.
The question now is whether
stakeholders are willing to work
together to make this happen.
David McInnes, president &
CEO, Canadian Agri-Food Policy
Institute (CAPI), and Don Lenihan, senior associate, Canada
2020. This article is based on
CAPI’s report Achieving What’s
Possible for Canada’s Agri-Food
Sector.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
OPINION ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Canada is the only
wealthy industrialized
country lacking
a national plan to
reduce the terrible toll
that environmental
hazards, from air and
water pollution to
contaminated food
and toxic substances,
inflict on our health.
DAVID R. BOYD
P
ENDER ISLAND, B.C.—In
Ottawa, the machinery of
government is reversing course
after a decade of environmental
backsliding. Newly-minted Cabinet ministers and reinvigorated
public servants are scrambling to
fulfill the extensive green commitments set forth in the Liberal
platform, Throne Speech, and
mandate letters. Barring some
unexpected cataclysm, it seems
likely that most of these pledges
will be fulfilled over the course of
the next 18 to 24 months.
Yet, other vitally important environmental policy issues have been
deferred. Work needs to begin shortly in order to lay the foundations for
ongoing progress in the second half
of this government’s term.
Here is a wide-ranging list of
seven political winners that fulfill
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s
objective of finding solutions that
advance Canada’s economic interests while concurrently strengthening environmental protection.
1. Develop a National Health and
Environment Strategy
Canada is the only wealthy
industrialized country lacking a national plan to reduce the terrible toll
that environmental hazards—from
air and water pollution to contaminated food and toxic substances—
inflict on our health. Experts from
the Canadian Medical Association
and World Health Organization
estimate that thousands of prema-
ture deaths, millions of cases of
preventable illnesses, and billions of
dollars in wasted health-care expenditures could be prevented every
year through a comprehensive and
preventive approach.
2. Establish a national pollution tax
Economists and environmentalists find common ground on the
need to correct the free market’s
failure to put a price on pollution.
Canada trails all other wealthy
western nations in using taxes
to discourage pollution, despite
evidence that this approach is
environmentally effective while
spurring innovation and competitiveness. If Canada applied
pollution taxes at just the average
level of OECD nations, it would
generate an additional $8-billion
in annual revenue.
3. Recognize that every Canadian
has the right to live in a healthy
environment
Such a law would be a catalyst
for a comprehensive strengthening of Canadian environmental
standards, many of which lag
behind world leaders in protecting human and ecosystem health
from pollutants and contami-
4. Amend free trade deals to
remove special rights for foreign
investors
Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanisms provide foreign
investors with powerful legal
rights to challenge government
policies and actions that they
allege adversely affect their investments. Already sued 38 times
under NAFTA, Canada will face
additional lawsuits for billions in
damages if it lives up to its promises to tackle climate change.
Canada should not ratify any
more trade deals including ISDS,
including the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Canada-EU Trade
Agreement, until these provisions
are removed or reformed.
5. Create a national solar schools
initiative
The price of solar panels has
fallen dramatically, transforming
solar from an off-grid hippy niche
product into the fastest growing
renewable energy technology in
the world. Putting solar roofs on
schools will have educational,
employment, and innovation benefits. Australia did this for thousands of schools, while communities from British Columbia to
Nova Scotia have demonstrated
that these projects can succeed in
Canada as well. Simultaneously
supporting solar training programs for electricians and roofers
would ensure that there are qualified workers to do the jobs.
6. Establish a sovereign wealth fund
Many countries endowed with
extensive reserves of oil, gas, coal,
and minerals have allocated a portion of revenues from these nonrenewable resources into funds that
provide economic resilience, stabilize currencies, and ensure benefits
for future generations. Norway has
a fund generated from oil and gas
revenues that is worth more than
$1 trillion, while other major oil
producers have funds worth more
than $750-billion. The Harper government rejected the International
Monetary Fund’s recommendation
that Canada establish such a fund
but Prime Minister Trudeau should
heed the IMF’s advice.
7. Lead an international initiative
to phase out developmental
neurotoxins
While claiming nothing is
more precious than our children,
we continue to allow the use of
toxic chemicals that can irreversibly damage the developing
brain. Developmental neurotoxins
including lead, manganese, and
toluene should be phased out
globally by an international treaty
based on the successful model
of the Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Taking these seven steps in addition to fulfilling existing commitments would catapult Canada into a
position of global leadership, saving
lives, protecting the environment,
and transforming our economy into
a shining model of sustainability.
Dr. David R. Boyd teaches environmental law and policy at the
University of British Columbia
and at Simon Fraser University.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
14
CANADA & THE 21ST CENTURY FEDERAL BUDGET
Morneau’s budget will set path for
Trudeau government’s full term in office
Finance Minister Bill
Morneau will need to get his
budget right, which means
putting what’s best for
Canada ahead of what the
federal Liberals promised in
their platform.
DAVID CRANE
T
ORONTO—When Finance Minister Bill
Morneau finally gets around to presenting his budget—and so much seems to be
on hold until he does—he will be setting
the path for the Trudeau government’s full
term in office. Unfortunately for him, there
are few, if any, rabbits he can pull out of
the hat to get the economy roaring again.
The Liberal platform contains many
promises, some of them wise—such as
spending more on infrastructure—some
highly dubious—such as cancelling plans
to bring the retirement age for the Old Age
Security pension back down to 65 from the
Harper government’s plan to slowly raise it
to 67—and others that were simply shameless pandering for votes—such as lowering
the small business tax rate.
In fact, there is almost universal agreement
that the Liberal platform’s fiscal plan—with
three years of deficits followed by a fourth (in
an election year) with a balanced budget, is
dead. Indeed, after finding that its calculations
for the middle-class tax cut were off by an
annual $1-billion and making new spending
commitments since the election, the Liberals
have shifted their pledge from balancing the
budget to lowering the federal debt to GDP
ratio every year for four successive years; an
easier, though far from easy, target.
The Liberal platform boasts that its
stimulus measures would significantly
boost economic growth and that this in
turn would “translate into additional billions of dollars per year in the fiscal bottom line.” But seeing will be believing.
The latest employment numbers show
that in January, 61.2 per cent of Canadians of
working force age were employed, that 65.9
per cent of Canadians of working force age
were actually participating in the workforce,
and that the unemployment rate was 7.2 per
ON FEBRUARY 22 SEE
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cent. A decade ago, in January 2005, 62.6
per cent of Canadians of working force age
were employed, 67.3 per cent were actually
participating in the labour force, and the
unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent. We are
still playing catch up. If 62.6 per cent Canadians of working age had been employed
last month, instead of 61.2 per cent, an extra
424,000 Canadians would have had jobs.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in its latest forecast, has
projected growth in the Canadian economy
this year of a measly 1.4 per cent, compared
to the two per cent projection for 2016 it
made last year. For next year, it has lowered
its forecast to 2.2 per cent, from 2.3 per cent.
These forecasts, of course, do not include any
additional growth that may be generated by
Morneau’s budget. The fall update Morneau
presented shortly after assuming the Finance
portfolio forecast growth of two per cent this
year, though this also did not include any impact from Morneau’s forthcoming budget.
Clearly, Morneau has to introduce a stimulative budget. Indeed, the need for stimulative
fiscal policy has been evident since 2010-11,
when the Conservatives opted for a balanced
budget strategy instead. But this was a lastminute conversion by the Liberals to budget
deficits. Until this past summer, Liberals had
been attacking the Conservatives for running
budget deficits. As with much of the Liberal
platform, this conversion was born more of
political expediency than any sustained committment to Keynesian economics.
Too much reliance on fiscal policy, if there
is an excessive build up of public debt, can
create problems for the economy and the
financial system.“But these costs,” Timothy
Lane, deputy governor of the Bank of Canada
said in a recent speech,“needed to be assessed
against concerns that prolonged monetary
policy stimulus may result in an excessive
build-up of private sector vulnerabilities.”
Loose monetary policy has indeed contributed the build-up of household debt, overpriced
housing, over-leveraged investments, corporate takeovers instead of new investments,
and increased inequality as the wealthy have
seen a sharp rise in the value of their financial
and other assets.
The problem looking ahead is that there
are few signs of confidence that conditions
will improve. Business in not investing or
spending on R&D, compared to a decade
ago or longer. A crucial indicator of the lack
of confidence is the low rate of interest for
10-year Government of Canada bonds, currently at about 1.8 per cent. This is surely an
indication that financial markets expect weak
investment, low inflation, and low interest
rates to continue for some time. This implies
weak demand for capital because business
does not see new investment opportunities.
Morneau’s first budget, then, has to be to
increase demand. But it needs to be done in
a smart way. He has to bring in measures to
accelerate innovation and business investment
and to get more money into the hands of those
who are most likely to spend, those with the
lowest incomes rather than just the middle
class. Boosting the federal minimum wage
would put pressure on provinces to follow suit,
for example. Unfortunately, the Liberal platform
does little to encourage business investment or
to accelerate innovation. But Morneau’s first
budget will need to show that the government
takes the innovation challenge much more seriously than the Liberal platform did.
Morneau’s first budget will tell us much
on what we can expect over the next four
years. He needs to get it right, which means
putting what’s best for Canada ahead of
what the Liberals promised in their platform.
David Crane can be reached at crane@
interlog.com.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
15
NEWS ECONOMY & DEFICITS
Morneau expected to shed light on deficit,
CIBC economist predicts $30-billion
Economists are
urging the federal
government to
spend money on
infrastructure as
a way to boost the
economy.
Finance
Minister Bill
Morneau is
facing a deficit
of at least
$30-billion
in the coming
year, according
to economist
Avery
Shenfeld,
which is three
times what
the Liberals
promised
during the
election
campaign.
one of about a dozen external
economists Finance Minister Bill
Morneau (Toronto Centre, Ont.)
recently met with as part of prebudget consultations—told The
Hill Times. “That projection is
now out the window.
“Even to do the stimulus that
the Liberals talked about during the campaign would be on
the order of a $20-billion deficit,
and that doesn’t look like enough
medicine now, given the state of
the economy. I think we’re looking at something like $30-billion,
or higher.”
Last Friday, reports indicated
that Mr. Mourneau would reveal
more information about the size
of the deficit on Monday, according to government sources.
Earlier in the week, the office
of Mr. Morneau referred to the
minister’s remarks in the House of
Common on Tuesday, Feb. 16, when
asked for comment on this deficit
estimate. During Question Period
on this day, Mr. Morneau declined
to say—when asked by Conservative MP Lisa Raitt (Milton, Ont.),
her party’s finance critic—what the
government’s “deficit cap” is for the
coming budget.
“Mr. Speaker, we believe that
the right question to ask is what
we are going to do in order to
improve the economy for all
Canadians,” Mr. Morneau said in
response. “We were elected on
a plan to grow the economy in
order to help those Canadians
who are struggling, who are most
vulnerable, and those middleclass Canadians to do better.”
Mr. Shenfeld said a $30-billion
deficit is reasonable. He said this
would represent about 1.5 per
cent of the Canadian economy,
which compares favourably to
the federal deficit in the United
States, “and their economy’s much
stronger than ours.”
He added that with currently
low interest rates, now is a good
time for the government to borrow money in order to spend
more on the economy.
“The alternative is that provincial governments end up borrowing more, and they would do so at
a higher cost,” Mr. Shenfeld said.
He said that it’s safer for government to borrow more money than
for the private sector and individuals to become more indebted, which
would happen if the economy failed
to grow adequately.
“We already have a household
sector that’s run up their own
debt levels, and at this point, it
might be safer to have the government doing a bit more borrowing
and spending,” Mr. Shenfeld said.
A report from National Bank Fi-
The Hill Times
photograph by
Jake Wright
nancial, meanwhile, is forecasting
$50-billion in deficits over the next
two years, or $25-billion in deficits
in each of the next two years.
Craig Wright, chief economist
for Royal Bank of Canada, also met
with Mr. Morneau this month. Mr.
Wright said the government is on
track to run deficits in the range of
$20-billion to $25-billion over the
next couple of years, factoring in
likely initiatives that go beyond the
Liberals’ campaign promises.
While he supports stimulus
spending, Mr. Wright said he would
prefer a “fiscal anchor” in form of
a target for when the budget is
expected to return to balance.
“Increasingly, it’s looking less
likely we’ll get a [balanced budget] over the [government’s] fiscal
projection,” Mr. Wright said.
The Liberals had said during
last year’s election campaign that
they would balance the budget by
the fourth year of their mandate.
However, in the House last Tuesday,
Mr. Morneau said: “We will work
to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio
throughout our term. We will be
disciplined in our spending. We still
want to achieve a balanced budget,
but we also recognize that it is not
going to be easy in this economy.”
Mr. Wright said the commitment to lower the debt-to-GDP
ratio has become the government’s fiscal anchor, instead of a
projected balanced-budget date.
“I like [to see a balanced budget]
out there on the horizon … but the
next-best outlook is a trend decline
in the debt-to-GDP ratio. But the
challenge with that is that you have
some control over debt and you
have no control over GDP.”
Ted Mallett, chief economist
with the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business, estimated
the government’s first deficit
would hit $15-billion, if based just
on promises the Liberals have already made, due to the dampened
economic outlook.
Mr. Mallett, who was also
among the economists meeting
with Mr. Morneau this month,
said that while deficits are sometimes appropriate, the government should minimize the budget
shortfall as much as possible.
“To the degree that deficits
help spark economic growth,
it does so at the cost of future
growth because that money has
to be paid back,” Mr. Mallett said.
While interest rates are low
now, they won’t always be and
debt incurred now will be vulnerable to future interest-rate hikes,
Mr. Mallett said.
The federal budget is expected
to come down in March. Many
economists are calling on the
government to spend significantly
on infrastructure to stimulate the
economy in the short term and
fulfill long-terms needs.
“Find infrastructure projects
that the economy needs in the
longer term anyway, and put
people to work doing them,” Mr.
Shenfeld said.
When asked what type of
infrastructure the government
should spend money on, Mr.
Shenfeld said: “This is a national
government so it’s important
that they look at national priorities. What it isn’t is giving every
mayor their wish list for a new
garden or hockey rink. It’s about
fixing infrastructure that’s broken
and needs repair in any event,
and building what’s needed to
support economic growth in the
private sector over time.
“It’s roads, bridges, but there’s
a pretty broad range of projects
that could be looked at.”
Mr. Shenfeld said priority
should be given to projects that
are deemed most beneficial, as
opposed to worrying about which
ones are “shovel-ready.”
“I think it’s less imperative
to find the project that can be
started the earliest and more
imperative to find the project
that will have the longest-lasting
impact on the economy.”
Mr. Shenfeld said that “infrastructure isn’t just boring roads
and bridges; it would include
infrastructure and support of the
tech sector and the service sector
as well,” though he declined to
elaborate on whether this meant
things such as broadband networks in rural and remote areas.
Mr. Wright said that beyond
“roads and rails,”the government
could make investments in things
such as worker-retraining programs
and technology such as broadband
networks, which would help improve
the economy’s productivity.
“If you look at the long-run
speed limit for Canada, it’s
driven by labour-force growth
and productivity growth,” he said.
“And labour-force growth, with
the aging demographics, is slowing, so our speed limit is going to
move along with our productivity
numbers. So I would like any new
initiatives to be looked at through
that productivity lens.”
Asked about how near-term
infrastructure spending should
compare with how the previous
Conservative government responded to the recession in 2008-09, Mr.
Shenfeld said: “I think if you look
at the list of what was done the
last time, it had some important
projects, but it also had a bit of a
flavour of, ‘We get a gazebo here
and a curling rink there.’ So I think
there’s going to be an effort made
to perhaps concentrate some of
the money in perhaps some larger
projects rather than sprinkling
fairy dust over the economy in
every single riding.”
Mr. Wright also warned
against making “shovel-ready” a
major factor when assessing opportunities for government investment, which he said happened
too much when the government
initiated stimulus spending in
response to the 2008-09 recession
“This will be, I hope, more
thought out and less focused just
on what’s shovel-ready,” he said.
Glen Hodgson, chief economist for the Conference Board
of Canada, was also among the
economists that met with Mr.
Morneau and also spoke before
the House Finance Committee
last week. He agreed investments
are needed in infrastructure, and
some attention needs to be paid to
what kind of projects will provide
the economy with the most effective long-term impact.
“I think we need to separate
between the short-term spend, sort
of a one-year stimulus package,
and the long-term structural needs
of our economy,” Mr. Hodgson told
The Hill Times.“It’s been our
view, as an organization, that we’ve
under-invested in infrastructure for
a long time, like for decades.”
Mr. Hodgson said when assessing various proposals, the
government needs to look at ones
that have “a clear payback in
terms of strengthening the performance of the local economy. …
Clearly, there are always going to
be potholes and hockey rinks that
need to be repaired, but shouldn’t
we be doing things to get goods
and services to the border faster,
to allow more small businesses
to engage in international commerce, things like that?”
Specifically, Mr. Hodgson cited
things such as “border crossings,
the adequacy of our port system,
transportation infrastructure,”
as well as “urban infrastructure
and public transit” as areas that
should be considered for federal
investments.
“We’ve been doing the research showing how much time
people are wasting stuck in traffic
in cities,” he said. “So getting them
to work and saving them half an
hour of their lives every day is
another form of payback for us as
a society.”
Mr. Mallett warned that when
governments spend on infrastructure as a way of stimulating the
economy, poor decisions can be
made.
“The temptation is to hurry
up and plant some infrastructure
in there,” he said. “It may mean
that you’re not putting the right
amount of money into the right
kind of projects. You’re hurrying
the process and, as a result, it
may not be the best investments
over time.”
Mr. Mallett said the longerterm benefit of an investment
should take priority over the
shorter-term economic boost.
“There’s no point in spending
a lot of money on a spark that
doesn’t start a fire,” he said.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
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17
NEWS PUBLIC SERVICE
Short-term work assignments stymie federal
public service renewal: union leaders
Officials with PSAC and
CAPE says increasing
rates of casual and term
employment within the
federal government
is preventing the
recruitment of younger
workers for the long term.
As government officials, such as Treasury
Board President Scott Brison (Kings-Hants,
N.S.), wrestle with the problem of large
cohorts of public servants approaching
retirement age, leaders from both the Public
Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and
the Canadian Association of Professional
Employees (CAPE) tell The Hill Times that
increasing use of “precarious” employment—
such as term and casual job positions—is a
key element limiting the government’s appeal as a career choice for younger workers.
“We’re forcing [new employees] into
casual positions and into very precarious
situations,” said Emmanuelle Tremblay,
president of CAPE.“It definitely puts them
at a disadvantage, and when you hire them
through a temp agency or something, it’s not
giving them stability. And they have high
student debt, they can’t buy their first home,
they can’t start planning for a family.”
Ms. Tremblay said if the government
does not step up with better opportunities, a lot of young talent will be lost to
the private sector. However, given the vast
amount of young people she sees working in these temporary positions throughout government, Ms. Tremblay said she’s
convinced there is much interest among
millennials—generally those born between
the early 1980s and early 2000s—to have
careers with the federal government.
“I’m absolutely positive about that,
that there’s a lot of young people in those
workplaces that are eager to get those jobs
… and to be able to replace people who are
planning to retire,” she said. “And if they
are given the opportunity to get a stable
job rather than just a casual contract with
no benefits, with no stability, of course
they’ll jump on that occasion.”
Marianne Hladun, PSAC’s regional executive vice-president for the Prairies, who’s
also in charge of issues concerning young
workers, said: “Having people come in as a
term doesn’t allow them to really invest in
their positions. So [the government has] to
look at creating full-time positions where
millennials can come in and see themselves
progressing through the organization.”
The annual report from former Privy
Council clerk Janice Charette to former
prime minister Stephen Harper last year
on the state of the public service said the
proportion of government workers who are
in permanent positions fell to 86.6 per cent
as of March 2014 from 87.6 per cent one
year earlier, or to 222,721 indeterminate
workers overall from 230,238. The proportion of term workers rose to 8.3 per cent
from 8.1 per cent over that time, while the
percentage of casual workers rose to 3.1
per cent from 2.5 per cent.
Ms. Tremblay said when she started in the
public service 16 years ago, co-op students
could be “bridged in” to permanent positions
after two or three semesters in a placement.
“That bridging stopped happening
around 2010,” she said.“Austerity measures
were brought in, so we were not giving
students the opportunity to just seamlessly
move into a public-service careers. … What
has happened is that people were not offered
bridging into indeterminate positions anymore, so young people are either not bridged
in at all or they’re offered term positions.
“So I think if there’s one place to start—
and it’s a quick win—it would be for the
government to establish a policy again that
when you bridge students in, you bridge
them into indeterminate positions.”
Ms. Hladun said one result of the
increasing use of short-term positions for
government work is that people often end
up spending shorter periods of time in any
one department before finding another
temporary position in another department.
“If you’re moving around, you don’t have
time to participate in any kind of additional
training and really get some of that knowledge from the other workers that are there,”
she said.“If you’re going to be able to stay for
a longer time, it’s going to enhance the public service that’s delivered for Canadians.”
Linda Duxbury, a professor with Carleton
University’s Sprott School of Business who
specializes in workplace issues, agreed that
the prevalence of temporary positions is a
turn-off to many younger workers in terms
of sticking around for careers with the public
service. Those that do take such jobs tend be
on the verge of leaving whenever they can
get more stable employment, she said.
“The government seems to expect
loyalty and that people will want to wait
around, but young people don’t see it that
way,” she said. “So yes, it’s a massive issue.”
Ms. Hladun said other issues that are
detriments to attracting younger workers
to the public service include unreasonable
workloads, forced overtime, a lack of provision for reasonable work-life balances,
and not enough training.
“It really puts [new employees] at a disadvantage coming into a workforce where
everyone is basically just trying to keep
their head above water,” she said.
The Privy Council clerk’s report from
last year said the average age of all federal
public employees was 44.9 in 2014. The
average age of executives was 50.4, it was
54.6 for associate deputy ministers and 58
for deputy ministers.
The report said the proportion of federal employees aged 25 to 34 fell to 17.9
per cent in 2014 from 18.6 per cent a year
before. The percentage who were of the age
of 55 to 64 rose to 17 per cent from 16.7 per
cent, and those 65 or older rose one-tenth
of a percentage point to 1.9 per cent.
Grouped into 10-year cohorts, the report
said the largest proportion of federal workers, or 32.7 per cent, was between 45 and 54
in 2014. That was down from 33.1 per cent a
year earlier. The next highest proportion of
workers was between 35 and 44, representing 27.5 per cent of the federal workforce, up
from 27 per cent a year earlier.
The report said the total number of
federal government workers declined to
257,138 in 2014 from 262,817 in 2013.
“I think in light of the cuts that the federal
government has gone through in the last
number of years, bringing new workers in,
bringing young workers in that have a different perspective is critical to keep the vibrancy
of the public service,” Ms. Hladun said.
Ms. Hladun said if the government cannot renew the public service ranks with
younger workers to replace those who are
poised to retire, “there is nowhere to transfer that knowledge, and it makes it difficult
to maintain a level of service to Canadians
when you lose that type of knowledge.”
In an op-ed published in the Ottawa
Citizen last week, Mr. Brison wrote about
the need to attract more millennials to the
public service “to help address the challenges of an aging workforce.”
PUBLIC SERVICE
FIGURES FROM
PRIVY COUNCIL
CLERK’S 2015
REPORT ON
PUBLIC SERVICE
As Treasury Board President Scott Brison deals
with the issue of attracting younger workers to
the public service, union leaders are recommending that more people be hired into permanent positions, rather than term or casual roles.
To do this, he said: “We need less rigid
hierarchies, fewer layers of bureaucracy,
more open and transparent decision-making,
a culture of intelligent risk-taking, more
opportunity for continuous learning, and
greater mobility in and out of government.”
The issue of short-term employment was
not directly addressed in this article. Mr. Brison was not available for comment, and his
office did not respond to an emailed question
about whether increasing the proportion
of permanent positions within the public
service is part of the government’s plans for
attracting younger workers.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
Number of federal employees in 2014:
257,138, down from 262,817 in 2013
Proportion of federal workers in permanent
positions in 2014:
86.6%, down from 87.6% in 2013
Proportion of federal workers in term positions
in 2014:
8.3%, up from 8.1% in 2013
Proportion of federal workers in casual positions
in 2014:
3.1%, up from 2.5% in 2013
Average age of federal workers in 2014:
44.9
Proportion of federal workers in 2014 by age groups:
Under 25:
3.1%
25-34: 17.9%
35-44: 27.5%
45-54: 32.7%
55-64: 17.0%
Over 64:
1.9%
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19
DIGITAL WORLD ONTARIO
Why the Ontario Music Fund is in need of tuning
As the Canadian
cultural sector faces
new challenges and
opportunities in the
digital age, there is
unquestionably an
important role for
government support.Yet
the secrecy associated with
the Ontario Music Fund
and the results to date
provide a cautionary tale
on the need for greater
transparency, oversight,
and accountability in
public funding programs.
MICHAEL GEIST
O
TTAWA—Earlier this month, the British Columbia government unveiled
a new $15-million dollar music fund to
support the local music industry. The fund
matches a similar Ontario initiative that
has doled out nearly $30-million over the
past two years with a commitment from
Premier Kathleen Wynne to make the Ontario Music Fund a permanent program to
support the industry.
The millions of taxpayer dollars earmarked for the music industry represents a
major success for the industry lobby, which
shifted several years ago from focusing on
digital copyright reform to identifying new
sources of government financial support.
Yet despite the industry accolades, the
Ontario program suffers from a surprising
lack of transparency with virtually no public
information on how the money is actually
spent. Moreover, according to documents
obtained under provincial access to information laws, the Liberal government has
exaggerated the impact of the first round of
funding with the creation of relatively few
new full-time positions and limited international investment in the province.
The Ontario Media Development Corporation, which administers the program on behalf of the government, announced the first
round of Ontario Music Fund recipients in
September 2014. The big recording company
winners were the three major foreign record
labels (Sony Music Entertainment Canada,
Universal Music Canada, and Warner Music
Canada), who averaged over $830,000 per
company. By comparison, the 36 successful
Canadian record companies garnered an
average of $115,000.
The OMDC identified the recipients and
the total grant amount, but it provided no
details on specific projects, programs, or
how the money would be spent. I subsequently filed an access to information
request for the records associated with ten
of the largest funding awards. The OMDC
responded with a fee estimate of $11,659.10
for the information, which was only
reduced after an appeal to the provincial
Information and Privacy Commissioner.
After months of delay, the released documents excluded virtually all relevant information about the funding applications. The
OMDC redacted the objectives of the funding,
the planned activities, recipients’ track record,
communications plan, timeline of activities, anticipated outcomes, and financing. An appeal
is currently before the Commissioner.
When asked about the appropriateness of the lack of disclosure, a ministerial
spokesperson responded that, “program
guidelines and evaluation criteria are made
public. Applications are evaluated according to this criteria and applicants are provided with feedback if they request it once
the funding decision is communicated to
them.” In other words, the Ontario government supports the secretive approach in
which the public has seemingly no right to
know how its money is spent.
Not only is the lack of transparency surprising, but government documents suggest
that the initial results are underwhelming.
When asked about the results in an interview last year, Michael Coteau, the Minister
of Tourism, Culture, and Sport, claimed that
the fund created 2,000 jobs and that over
$24-million in revenue was brought into the
sector in the first year alone.
Those claims led to a second access
to information request on the program
results. Once again, the OMDC was unwilling to release specific details on the results
of any funded organization. Instead it
provided a spreadsheet with de-identified
data on all program recipients.
The data indicates that contrary to
Coteau’s claims, there were only 263 new
full time jobs created by the fund, a cost
to taxpayers of $57,000 per new full-time
Ontario
Premier
Kathleen
Wynne created
the Ontario
Music Fund
a permanent
program to
support the
industry.
The Hill Times
photograph by
Jake Wright
job. In addition to the new full-time jobs,
another 569 full-time jobs were retained,
still well short of 2,000 figure.
The investment results were not much
better. Recipients reported spending less
than $7 million in private equity and support,
under half of the provincial government
investment. Moreover, while Coteau promoted the benefits of attracting recording
to Ontario, the data indicates that only 15
international artists recorded in the province
and that the total international investment in
Ontario recording studios was $213,277.
As the Canadian cultural sector faces new
challenges and opportunities in the digital age,
there is unquestionably an important role for
government support.Yet the secrecy associated
with the Ontario Music Fund and the results to
date provide a cautionary tale on the need for
greater transparency, oversight, and accountability in public funding programs.
Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce
Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty
of Law. He can be reached at [email protected] or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
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20
THE FULL NELSON HARPER’S ORDERS IN COUNCIL
Stephen Harper’s disputed lateterm appointments all about politics
The appointments had been
published in the Canada
Gazette before the election
campaign began. If the
appointments were as flagrant
an abuse as the Liberals
claimed, they ought to have
raised the issue during the
election campaign.
NELSON WISEMAN
T
ORONTO—Relatively few Canadians
know what an order-in-council is. Few
may realize that an O-in-C, proclaimed by
the Cabinet, has the same force in law as
an enactment by Parliament. Many will
be surprised to learn that Prince Edward
Island, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories became parts of Canada
through O-in-Cs of the British government.
More than a month after the October
election, there were news reports that not
long before the election campaign had
begun, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had made 49 O-in-C patronage appointments to various boards including the
National Energy Board, and to some senior
positions such as CEO of Canada Post.
Many of the appointments were renewals, some taking effect during the election
campaign. Other appointments are to take
effect in the future, including one in 2019.
The well-established caretaker convention
prohibits governments from making such
appointments during election campaigns.
About 1,500 positions are subject to Oin-C appointments by the federal government. Most get little attention but this batch
by the late Conservative government raised
many eyebrows and drew the condemnation of Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government. Many of the appointments were made
“at pleasure,” that is, at the discretion of the
government; they can be terminated as easily as they were made, by another O-in-C;
the rest of the appointments were made
subject to “good behaviour,” requiring that a
cause be demonstrated for dismissal.
Past Liberal governments have also
made late-term pre-election appointments,
but they have not been future appointments, so this lot of Conservative appointments may have broken new ground. Gov-
ernment House leader Dominic LeBlanc
condemned them as an “abuse of process,”
although they were approved and signed
by the Governor General. With much unnecessary fanfare, LeBlanc went on to take
the unprecedented step of publicly calling
on most of the appointees to submit their
resignations, or voluntarily withdraw, and
giving them a deadline to respond.
One could speculate that the Liberals
wanted to impress even more firmly in the
public’s mind that Harper was a schemer, far
from transparent, and that underhanded and
unsavoury methods were the standard modus
operandi of his government. There is substantial evidence to support the charge. However,
the Liberals in this case protest too much.
Liberal Senator Percy Downe, who
handled appointments for Jean Chrétien,
has noted that the new government is free
to rescind the appointments, most of which
had not come into force before the swearing
in of the new Liberal government in November. No one can contend that withdrawing
an “at pleasure” appointment is problematic.
As for those “good behaviour” appointees,
some of whom may litigate if they are denied
their position, their success in a court of law
is questionable, and in the court of public
opinion it is doubtful. It may be difficult to
claim “good behaviour” if the position and
term to which you’ve been appointed has not
yet involved any behaviour at all.
Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose has
made clear that her party has no problem
with the government cancelling the appointments, so there was no need to beat
up on the Conservatives any more than
the public had already beaten them down.
There was even less need to make a public
show of writing the appointees and asking
them to withdraw voluntarily. The new
government’s commitment to an “open,
merit-based appointments system” is laudable, but the government’s action inappropriately shames the appointees, many
of whom clearly merited the positions to
which they had been appointed. LeBlanc’s
letter was not consistent with the “sunny
ways”Trudeau has been preaching.
The late-term appointments by the Conservatives are troubling because of the disregard shown for Parliament, something of
which past Liberal governments have been
guilty as well. Parliament has no opportunity to discuss an O-in-C before it is signed
by the Governor General. Under the Standing Orders, the government is required to
table O-in-C appointments in Parliament
within five sitting days of their publication.
Because Parliament and its committees
were not sitting at the time, they were denied the opportunity to weigh in. Although
it cannot revoke O-in-C appointments, Parliament, through its committees, may call
on appointees or nominees to appear and
answer questions about their competence
and qualifications for the positions.
The Conservatives’ skirting of the spirit
of the rules, and their denial of any opportunity for Parliamentary scrutiny, made
LeBlanc’s attack appear at first glance spot
on, but the appointments had been published in the Canada Gazette before the
election campaign began. If the appointments were as flagrant an abuse as the
Liberals claimed, they ought to have raised
the issue during the election campaign.
Perhaps they did not do so because they
had learned that campaigning on an abuseof-Parliament issue is not a vote-getter. In
2011, the minority Conservative government
was brought down on a contempt-of-Parliament motion, something that had never
happened before. In the subsequent election
campaign, Michael Ignatieff and Liberal ads
made much of the government’s disdain for
Parliament. The public responded by returning a Conservative majority.
This was a comment, perhaps, on the
public’s understanding and estimation of
the dignity of Parliament.
Nelson Wiseman is a professor in the
Department of Political Science and the
director of the Canadian Studies Program
at the University of Toronto.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
L’énorme pouvoir de la recherche
universitaire au Canada et dans le monde
Bessma Momani est une « incontournable de l’innovation ».
Les travaux de recherche et les interventions de Bessma Momani contribuent à l’élaboration de politiques
publiques qui favorisent un comportement civique responsable chez les jeunes arabo-canadiens et leur
engagement citoyen dans une société multiculturelle saine.
Mme Momani est professeure agrégée de science politique à la University of Waterloo et à la Balsillie School
of International Affairs. Elle est agrégée supérieure de recherche au Centre for International Governance
and Innovation, et lauréate 2015 de la fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Elle collabore avec divers médias
nationaux et internationaux en tant qu’analyste et experte du Moyen-Orient et des questions de gouvernance
économique mondiale.
Mme Momani et d’autres « incontournables de l’innovation » seront à Ottawa le 24 février 2016.
Renseignements : [email protected]
univcan.ca/innovation
@univcan
22
INSIDE POLITICS LIBERALS
Liberals sidelining Rae, perhaps unfairly
He is not miffed, he does
not feel snubbed, they say.
Is he owed something by
a party that wouldn’t be
where it is if Bob Rae didn’t
roll up his sleeves and don
a hard hat when it was
needed? So far, I guess not.
TIM HARPER
Before Justin Trudeau arrived to rebuild the
foundation, the Liberal house was sagging
badly and threatening to collapse.
It remained standing because Bob Rae held it
together. The Hill Times photographs by Jake Wright
O
TTAWA—Before Justin Trudeau arrived to
rebuild the foundation, the Liberal house
was sagging badly and threatening to collapse.
It remained standing because Bob Rae
held it together.
Now that Trudeau has moved that
Liberal house into an elite neighbourhood,
many are wondering why there is no room
at the inn for Rae.
Rae, a political survivor with the stitches
to prove it, would likely be the first to tell you
there are no obligatory rewards for those who
ply his trade, but what makes this case rare is
that the former interim party leader and Ontario premier has let it be known through associates he would have welcomed the chance
to represent this government in Washington
or at the United Nations.
Liberal sources say Rae offered to make
any contribution the new government
might find helpful.
There have been discussions, although
not directly between Trudeau and Rae. No
promises or offers have been made and Rae
is certainly not campaigning for a job. But
his view, on the outside looking in, is a subject of much speculation.
“Rae almost guaranteed a role in Trudeau
government, insiders say,’’ blared one headline in the wake of the Liberal victory and
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it quoted senior Liberals crediting Rae with
the hard work that led to the Trudeau victory,
touting him for Washington, the UN, London,
Israel, or as head of the inquiry into missing
and murdered indigenous women.
He was passed over for Washington and
the UN.
Trudeau, who took the baton from Rae,
rebuilt the moribund party, invigorated its
fundraising and took it to last October’s
improbable majority, has the unfettered right
to choose—or reject—anyone he wants in his
inner circle or as a representative abroad.
Our political culture seems to know
what to do with former leaders or leadership rivals. We make them travel.
Brian Mulroney made Joe Clark his
external affairs minister. Former Liberal
leader Stéphane Dion shows signs of
becoming a shining global affairs minister
for Trudeau. Barack Obama made Hillary
Clinton his secretary of state.
But what about those who held the
undermanned front lines of battle until the
white knight could saddle up?
Trudeau reached back into the comfortable
Dalton McGuinty bullpen and chose David
MacNaughton for Washington. MacNaughton
co-chaired Trudeau’s Ontario campaign last
autumn. He was once the principal secretary to
McGuinty and was succeeded by Gerald Butts,
who now holds that post for Trudeau.
The UN post went to Marc-André
Blanchard.
Rae, the son of a diplomat, spent part of his
youth in Washington and would have been a
natural fit for a job that has gone to politicians
in the past, including Stephen Harper appointees Michael Wilson and Gary Doer and Jean
Chrétien appointee Frank McKenna.
He would have been the same natural
fit at the UN, where in recent years former
politicians Stephen Lewis (a Mulroney
appointee) and Allan Rock (a Paul Martin
appointee) served with distinction.
There had been suggestions that Rae may
have alienated some around Trudeau by resigning his Toronto Centre seat, but senior government officials adamantly deny there is any
bad blood and say this rather awkward dance
is merely a matter of finding the right fit. Rae’s
resignation actually allowed Trudeau’s team to
reach out to a hand-picked candidate—International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Jobs are being filled and senior government officials still laud Rae, even if his postelection contribution is unfilled. Nobody is
saying never, they maintain.
Previous interim leaders Bill Graham
(who stepped down to allow Rae to run) and
Herb Gray had better fates after holding the
fort, but Rae is 67 and this government is
focused on generational renewal.
Rae did Trudeau and his team the biggest
of favours by getting out of the way, bowing
to the inevitable and realizing it was time
for the younger, flashier Trudeau.
Until then, in his interim post, he expertly
grilled the Harper government, made himself
endlessly available to the media, spoke out on
many progressive issues Trudeau inherited and
travelled to sell the Liberal brand—something
he continued right through the 2015 election.
The job as interim Grit maintenanceman-in-chief fell to him after the Michael
Ignatieff debacle.
Friends say Rae is not sitting by the
phone. He has a full plate, as a lawyer working as a negotiator for First Nations, work on
diplomatic and international commissions
and public speaking. He has written a book
since leaving politics.
He is not miffed, he does not feel snubbed,
they say. Is he owed something by a party that
wouldn’t be where it is if Rae didn’t roll up his
sleeves and don a hard hat when it was needed?
So far, I guess not.
Tim Harper is a national affairs writer
for The Toronto Star. This column was
released on Feb. 19.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
EVENTS
FR
EE
RE
AD
ER
EV
EN
T
AN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
DISCUSSION ON
GENDER
EQUALITY
PRESENTED BY:
MARCH 8
7:30-9:00 AM
DELTA OTTAWA CITY CENTRE
Hill Times Events is pleased to bring you a free reader event on March 8, International Women’s Day, to discuss gender equality and the important role
ZRPHQSOD\LQSROLF\PDNLQJ-XOLH'HODKDQW\([HFXWLYH'LUHFWRU2[IDP&DQDGDZLOORXWOLQHKLJKOLJKWVLQWKHˋQGLQJVRIWKHLUODWHVWUHVHDUFKUHSRUW
written in conjunction with The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Making Women Count: The Unequal Economics of Women’s Work.
Following, Kathleen Monk, Former Executive Director of the Broadbent Institute, will moderate a substantive discussion with the report’s authors:
Brittany Lambert with Oxfam Canada and Kate McInturff with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Joining in the discussion and sitting on the
panel will be Nancy Peckford, Executive Director Equal Voice and Anita Vandenbeld MP (Ottawa West-Nepean).
Speakers:
Kathleen Monk
Former Executive
Director of the
Broadbent Institute
Presented By:
Brittany Lambert
Oxfam Canada
Kate McInturff
Canadian Centre for
Policy Alternatives
Nancy Peckford
Executive Director
Equal Voice
Anita Vandenbeld
MP (Ottawa WestNepean)
Supported By:
hilltimes.com/events/GE.html
24
NEWS PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DYING LEGISLATION
LeBlanc backs away from whipped vote on
assisted dying bill, Oliphant says ‘it’s good’
Pictured top
left and clockwise at the
Joint Committee at Physician-Assisted
Dying Committee: Benoit
Pelletier and
Lib MP René
Arseneault;
Lib MP Rob
Oliphant; Lib
MPs Brenda
Shanahan,
Julie Dabrusin,
Denis Lemieux,
and John Aldag; and NDP
MP Murray
Rankin and
Mr. Pelletier.
Two weeks ago, Government House
Leader Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour,
N.B.) declared the vote on the eventual
right-to-die legislation will be a whipped
vote for the Liberal caucus because it’s a
Charter of Rights and Freedoms issue, but
he told The Globe and Mail on Friday that
the government will now decide whether
MPs will be forced to vote for the legislation after the parliamentary committee
releases its report and not until the bill is
drafted.
“We decided to delay the decision about
whether or not it’s a whipped vote. It’s
premature to come to a final conclusion
like that,” Mr. LeBlanc told The Globe and
Mail. “We’re going to discuss the bill and
the committee report in our caucus and we
will make the decision as to how the bill be
handled once the bill is introduced in the
House.”
House Chair of the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying and
Liberal MP Rob Oliphant (Don Valley West,
Ont.) told The Hill Times that he was relieved the Liberals have backed off on the
whipped vote, for now.
“When I watched the news on television
or read the articles and it’s mostly about
the whipping of a vote. … Having spent
really hundreds of hours in the last month
on making sure that we have a careful
substantial report that is thorough and everything I want the discussion to be about
our ideas,” Mr. Oliphant told The Hill Times.
“My first reaction is good,” he said.
Liberals late last week were backing away from whipping the vote on the
government’s upcoming and controversial
legislation on doctor-assisted suicide saying it’s too early to determine how the vote
will go without seeing the bill.
But Mr. Oliphant and other Liberal MPs
The Hill Times spoke with earlier in the
week say they are “comfortable” with the
whipped vote, because as they were told at
the start of the session, the Liberal caucus
will have whipped votes on: Charter issues,
platform issues, and confidence matters.
“Obviously it’s a Charter issue so I
expect, and we’ve been told there are three
things that will be whipped: Charter issues,
platform issues, and confidence matters,
and this is a Charter issue,” Mr. Oliphant
said before the news broke on Friday, but
later he expressed relief.
“So that takes this off the table for now
and we can have that discussion later and
we’ll be presenting a report in the House
on Thursday,” said Mr. Oliphant. “My hope
is that all MPs in the House and every
party will see in the work that the committee has done and in the legislation that is
The Hill Times
photographs by
Jake Wright
presented, something they want to support.”
Mr. Oliphant wouldn’t comment on
whether this was discussed in caucus, or
speculate on why the Liberals backed off,
but he said he wasn’t involved in any discussion about the whipped vote. He also
said no one in the Liberal caucus has discussed with him the content of the report.
Mr. Oliphant told reporters last week
that he is confident Justice Minister Jody
Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver Granville,
B.C.) will “pay attention to our, our report
and will do her best to find a way to make
sure that the law is balanced.”
The Joint House and Senate Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying is due to
report back to the House with legislative
recommendations by the end of this week,
it was given a Feb. 26 deadline when the
committee was struck in early December,
but according to Mr. Oliphant, the report is
now almost finalized and will be ready by
Thursday, Feb. 25.
The government will then have to draft
legislation, consider the committees findings, and table the bill in the House with
enough time to have it pass through the
House and Senate Justice committees and
debate processes by the time the House is
scheduled to rise.
“It’s kind of a funny conversation to
have at this point because we don’t even
have the legislation in front of us. I don’t
personally have a problem with it,” Liberal
MP and committee member Julie Dabrusin
(Toronto-Danforth, Ont.) told The Hill
Times before The Globe and Mail broke the
news on Friday.
“I’m comfortable with it in the sense
that in Parliament, the decision we’re going
to be making is on the structure of the legislation coming out of the Supreme Court
of Canada decision, which is a Charter
decision,” Ms. Dabrusin said.
Both the Conservatives and NDP caucuses have been told it will be a free vote.
The news that this wouldn’t be the case for
the government members had opposition
MPs questioning whether the government
already has the legislation drafted.
“It’s very disappointing to hear that
Dominic LeBlanc would come out and say
the vote is whipped before even seeing the
contents of this report. It really raises the
question in my mind whether this entire
exercise is a sham and that the government has legislation in its back pocket that
it’s ready to go forward with regardless of
what this committee does,” Conservative
MP and member of the committee Michael
Cooper (St. Albert-Edmonton, Alta.) told
The Hill Times.
“It raises the question of whether this
was a genuine effort to reach a consensus
or whether it was a forgone conclusion
and nothing more than an exercise in
public relations from the standpoint of the
government and that would be very disappointing,” he said.
Liberal MP Sean Casey (Charlottetown,
P.E.I.), parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice, was in attendance at most
meetings, according to Mr. Cooper.
NDP MP and member of the committee Murray Rankin (Victoria, B.C.) told the
committee he’s looking forward to seeing
what the Liberals bring forward in terms of
legislation.
“I’ll be looking to see if that legislation
reflects the views of the committee, one
hopes that all the work we’ve done has a
value,” he said.
The committee began its study of the
February 2015 Supreme Court decision
regarding right-to-die legislation on Jan. 18
and heard from 61 witnesses over 15 meetings, as of the end of last week.
It’s expected the committee will meet
again on Tuesday to finalize the draft report that it began work on Feb. 5. According to MPs, the report will be in the spirit
of the Carter ruling, but will also have to
address age, advance directives, including
dementia, and psychological suffering. It
will be in broad policy language and a “federal framework that looks at the Criminal
Code and other issues,” Mr. Oliphant told
The Hill Times.
The committee members The Hill Times
spoke will all emphasized that their biggest
challenge is finding an appropriate balance
between patients’ rights, vulnerable people,
and the conscience rights of physicians.
The committee had been given a
mandate to consult broadly, taking into
consideration existing research, and to
review laws in other countries. The committee was granted permission to travel
both within and outside Canada, however,
that did not end up happening. Witnesses
came to Ottawa, in most cases, and others
video-conferenced.
The Hill Times
LIST
WITNESSES AT THE SPECIAL JOINT PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DYING COMMITTEE:
Feb. 4, 2016
• As an individual, Lawyer Gerald Chipeur
• As an individual, McGill University Professor Margaret
Somerville
• Alliance of People with Disabilities Who Are Supportive of
Legal Assisted Dying Society
• Canadian Association for Community Living
• DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada
• Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
• The Canadian Medical Protective Association
Feb. 3, 2016
• Canadian Council of Imams
• Canadian Paediatric Society
• Canadian Unitarian Council
• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
• Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience
Feb. 2, 2016
• As an individual Carolyn Ells, associate professor, medicine,
Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University
• Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
• College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia
• Criminal Lawyers’ Association
• Dying With Dignity Canada
• Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada
Feb. 1, 2016
• Alzheimer Society of Canada
• British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
• College of Family Physicians of Canada
• Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
• Canadian Cancer Society
• First Nations University of Canada
Jan. 28, 2016
• As an individual, Bakerlaw Lawyer David Baker
• As an individual, Jocelyn Downie, professor, Faculties of
Law and Medicine, Dalhousie University
• As an individual, Hon. Steven Fletcher
• As an individual, Trudo Lemmens, professor, Faculty of
Law & Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of
Toronto
• Council of Canadians with Disabilities
Jan. 27, 2016
• Canadian Medical Association
• Canadian Nurses Association
• Canadian Pharmacists Association
• Canadian Psychiatric Association
• Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians
Jan. 26, 2016
• External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to
Carter v. Canada
• Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on PhysicianAssisted Dying
Jan. 25, 2016
• As an individual Peter Hogg, scholar in residence, Blake,
Cassels & Graydon LLP
• Barreau du Québec
• Department of Health
Jan. 18, 2016
• Department of Justice’s Jeanette Ettel, senior counsel, Hu
man Rights Law Section
• Department of Justice’s Joanne Klineberg, senior counsel,
Criminal Law Policy Section
25
STATUS OF GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
HOUSE OF COMMONS
• C-2, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (second reading)
• C-4, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code, the Parliamentary
Employment and Staff Relations Act, the Public Service Labour
Relations Act and the Income Tax Act (second reading)
• C-5, An Act to repeal Division 20 of Part 3 of the Economic Action
Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 (second reading)
SENATE
• No government bills have passed into the Senate yet this session.
Modern Makers of
Canada Award, 2016
ROYAL ASSENT RECEIVED
• C-3, Appropriation Act No. 4, 2015-16
THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY, FEB. 22
• The House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Agenda and
Procedure will meet in-camera at 9 a.m. in Room 7-52, 131 Queen
St. to discuss committee business.
• The House Official Languages Committee will meet at 3:30 p.m. in
Centre Block, Room 253-D to discuss committee business.
• The House Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Human
Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons
with Disabilities Committee will meet in-camera at 3:30 p.m. in the
Valour Building, Room 306 to discuss committee business.
• The Senate National Security and Defence Committee will meet
at 1 p.m. in Room 2, Victoria Building to discuss Canada’s
national security and defence policies, practices, circumstances
and capabilities. It will hear from Pierre Blais, chair and Michael
Doucet, executive director of the Security Intelligence Review
Committee; Assistant Auditor General of Canada Nancy Cheng and
AG principals Gordon Stock and Nicholas Swales; From the Office
of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner J.
William Galbraith, executive director and commissioner Honourable
Jean-Pierre Plouffe; and Retired Lieutenant-Colonel John Selkirk,
Executive Director of Reserves 2000.
TUESDAY, FEB. 23
• The House Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee
will meet at 8:45 a.m. in Centre Block, Room 237-C to receive
a briefing from Information Commissioner of Canada Suzanne
Legault; Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien;
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson; and
Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd.
• The House Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the National
Defence Committee will meet in-camera at 8:45 a.m. in East Block,
Room 362 to discuss committee business.
• The House International Trade Committee will meet at 8:45 a.m.
in The Valour Building, Room 306 to conduct a pre-study on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. It will hear from Canadian
Manufacturers and Exporters, the Business Council of Canada, the
Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business.
• The House Public Accounts Subcommittee on Agenda and
Procedure will meet in-camera at 8:45 a.m. in Centre Block, Room
112-N to discuss studies and activities.
• The House Status of Women Canada Committee will meet at 3:30
p.m. in Centre Block, Room 253-D to receive a briefing by the
Minister of Status of Women Patty Hajdu; and Meena Ballantyne
and Anik Lapointe of Status of Women Canada.
• The House Government Operations and Estimates Committee will
meet at 3:30 p.m. in the Valour Building, Room 306 to discuss
committee business.
• The House Status of Women Subcommittee on Agenda and
Procedure will meet in-camera in Centre Block, Room 253-D to
discuss committee business.
• The House Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Committee
will meet at 3:30 p.m. in 1 Wellington St., Room C-110 to receive a
briefing from Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assemby of First
Nations. It will then go in-camera to discuss committee business.
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee will meet in-camera at 3:30 p.m.
in the Valour Building, Room 268 to discuss committee business.
• The Senate Aboriginal Peoples Committee will meet in-camera
at 9:30 a.m. in Room 160-S, Centre Block to consider their draft
agenda and to discuss their study on best practices and on-going
challenges relating to housing in First Nation and Inuit communities
in Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut and the Northwest Territories.
• The Senate Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament
Committee will meet in-camera at 9:30 a.m. in Room 356-S, Centre
Block to consider a draft agenda.
• The Senate Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources
Committee will meet at 5 p.m. in Room 9 in The Victoria Building
to study emerging issues related to its mandate and will hear from
Tim McMillan, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24
• The House Liaison Committee will meet at 1 p.m. in the Valour
Building, Room 268 to elect the chairs and discuss committee
business.
• The Senate Human Rights Committee will meet at 11:30 a.m. in
Room 9, Victoria Building to study Bill S-201, an Act to prohibit and
prevent genetic discrimination. It will hear from Dr. Ronald Cohn,
and Stephen W Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children and the
University of Toronto; the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s
Marcella Daye and Marie-Claude Landry; Patricia Kosseim and
Daniel Therrien of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner; and
Bruce Ryder, professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School.
• The Senate Special Senate Modernization Committee will meet
in a room to be determined, at 12 p.m. to have an organization
meeting.
• The Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee will
meet at 4:15 p.m. in Room 160-S, Centre Block to continue its
study on foreign relations and international trade generally. It will
hear from C.D. How Senior Fellow John Curtis; Carleton Professor
Emeritus Michael Hart; and John Weekes of Bennett Jones Ottawa.
• The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee will meet
at 4:15 p.m., in Room 257, East Block to on matters pertaining
to delays in Canada’s criminal justice system. It will hear from
Kevin Fenwick, Deputy Minister and Deputy Attorney General
of Saskatchewan; and Michael Waby of the Attorney General of
Ontario.
• The Senate Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament
Committee will meet at 6:45 p.m in Room 160-S, Centre Block
to hear from Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc, and
Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef.
• The Senate Transport and Communications Committee will meet
at 6:45 p.m. in Room 2 of the Victoria Building. Its agenda has not
been made public.
THURSDAY, FEB. 25
• The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee will meet at
10:30 a.m. in Room 257, East Block to continue studying matters
pertaining to delays in Canada’s criminal justice system. It will hear
from Mark Benton, CEO of Legal Aid BC; David Field, president
and CEO and Marcus Pratt, acting director general of Legal Aid
Ontario; Karen Hudson, executive director of Nova Scotia Legal
Aid Commission; and Joseph Oliver of the Canadian Association of
Chiefs of Police.
Denis
Coderre
Don
Iveson
Hazel
McCallion
Naheed
Nenshi
Madeleine
Redfern
Gregor
Robertson
Colette
Roy Laroche
Mike
Savage
Jim
Watson
Brad
Woodside
Join us in the nation’s capital for one of the
most memorable evenings of the year!
The Modern Makers of Canada Award has been
established by the Institute on Governance to recognize
Canadians who have contributed to good governance
through transformational public sector leadership.
In celebration, the Institute on Governance will honour
a group of extraordinary Mayors of Canadian cities.
With remarks from:
The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi
Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
The Honourable John McCallum
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Adam Vaughan
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26
NEWS
NEWS LIBERAL RESEARCH BUREAU
Liberals’ $2.4-million
research bureau headed
by Thalmann, Bosch
Parliamentary
research bureau
offices are discreet
entities on the Hill,
tucked away in
offices a few streets
down from the
main precinct and
providing internal
support to each party
caucus, as well as the
party leaders offices
and the offices of
House leaders and
caucus whips.
Brett Thalmann,
top, is managing
director of the LRB,
and Kevin Bosch is
deputy director in
the office, pictured
here with Prime
Minister Justin
Trudeau. Photographs
the whole operation,” says
Warren Kinsella, CEO of Daisy
Consulting and a former Liberal
war-room strategist.
“The prime minister would be
relying on them [research bureau
staff], in addition to what they
do for caucus and some Cabinet
ministers, to assist him on political
stuff that you can’t ask the public
service to do,” Mr. Kinsella told
The Hill Times last week.
Caucus research bureaus, as
described by House rules, exist to
support Members of Parliament in
carrying out their parliamentary
duties. That includes research
on other parties, aiming to dig
up political dirt or bombshells to
lob at opponents, and providing
information to caucus members and
their staff.
Parliamentary research bureau
offices are discreet entities on
the Hill, tucked away in offices a
few streets down from the main
precinct and providing internal
support to each party caucus, as
well as party leaders’ offices and
the offices of House leaders and
caucus whips.
The Liberal caucus most often
refers to its national caucus
research bureau by its acronym,
“the LRB,” while the NDP has
dubbed its bureau “NDP caucus
services,” and the Conservatives
call it the “Conservative Resource
Group” or “the CRG.”
Funded by Parliament, each
recognized party on the Hill—that
is those with at least 12 sitting
members—is allocated a budget to
support a caucus research bureau
based on caucus size. The Liberal
research bureau has been allocated
a budget of $2.4-million for 201516, while the budget for the CRG
is $2.3-million, and the NDP has
$1.4-million to work with.
courtesy of Facebook
and Twitter
The LRB offices are located in
the Valour Building at 131 Queen St.
Last Parliament, Michael
McNair oversaw the LRB as
director of policy, research and
parliamentary affairs to the
leader, aided by Marci Surkes as
senior manager for policy and
research. Ms. Surkes is now chief
of staff to Public Safety Minister
Ralph Goodale (Regina-Wascana,
Sask.) and Mr. McNair is now
policy director in the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO).
This time around, Brett
Thalmann is head of the LRB
as managing director, aided by
longtime Liberal researcher
Kevin Bosch as deputy director.
As LRB managing director, Mr.
Thalmann liaises and coordinates
with deputy chief of staff and
deputy principal secretary
Jeremy Broadhurst over in the
PMO.
Mr. Thalmann said his office is
the “front line” resource for Liberal
MPs and their staff, and as a result,
focus was put on hiring staff with
parliamentary experience right
away in November, after the Oct.
19 election. The office is now “fully
operational,” with staff largely
now in place, he said. There are 28
staffers currently working in the
office.
“We’re the main office that
supports Liberal MPs, and that
ranges from assistance with
communications products to
research above and beyond the
available resources from the
Library of Parliament,” said Mr.
Thalmann.
He added that LRB staff help
answer “any kind of question”
from MPs, help “direct caucus to
resources,” help connect MPs to
departments, help craft “template
responses,” and also recently helped
to “lead training of MPs’ staff.”
“[In December] we had a bit
of a crunch to get a basic [office]
framework in place so that we
could support caucus,” including
in setting up Hill offices.
Mr. Thalmann said “some early
emphasis” was put on hiring LRB
staff with parliamentary experience,
but generally he “wanted to build
a diverse team that reflects the
makeup of the country.”
The LRB’s role, as he sees it,
is also to help MPs to “effectively”
engage and communicate with their
constituents, said Mr. Thalmann. For
example, he said LRB staff, working
with the Finance Minister’s office,
helped to put together a “pre-budget
consultation kit that MPs could use”
in their constituencies, “and then
feed that information right into the
Finance Department’s big online
consultation.”
Research bureaus often also
share similar talking points and
research with pundits who appear
on evening political shows, and
variably reach out to media
with dirt or other leaks, said Mr.
Kinsella. But the approach of
each research bureau varies, by
party and by party standing.
“In the Conservative years,
[research bureau staff] weren’t
even allowed to talk to the media;
they were completely invisible,”
said Mr. Kinsella.
At other times, research bureau staff are regulator communicators to journalists, he added.
“When you watch CTV News
or CBC News every night, at
least once a week there’s a story
showing up there that Kevin
Bosch came up with. You just
don’t know about it. These guys
are very important in the larger
scheme of things,” he said.
With the Liberals now in
government, the Liberal research
bureau will have a change of pace,
said Mr. Kinsella. Unlike opposition
parties, government is supported
by the non-partisan public service,
which provides policy research and
helps draft legislation. Opposition
parties don’t have similar support
in challenging legislation or
drafting amendments.
“For the opposition, [research
bureau’s are] essential. You would
not have a functioning opposition
without it,” he said.
That said, how MPs use
research bureaus vary by
individual, said Mr. Kinsella:
“Some MPs don’t use the LRB
at all. They just feel they don’t
need to or they know their issues
and they’ve got staff they’ve got
confidence in. And others depend
on them for everything.”
Current LRB managing director,
Mr. Thalmann, was most recently
director of operations for Ontario
for the federal party in the lead-up
to the 2015 election. Before that,
he was part of the 2013 leadership
transition team after serving
as deputy national campaign
director for Mr. Trudeau’s bid for
leadership. He’s also previously
worked at Queen’s Park for the
Ontario Liberals.
Originally from Alberta,
deputy LRB director Mr. Bosch
was a research analyst for the
Alberta Liberals in the mid-to-late
1990s before moving to Ottawa
to work for the Liberals on
Parliament Hill. Over the years,
Mr. Bosch has largely stuck to the
party’s research bureau and is a
former LRB director. He was also
previously director of campaign
research on Paul Martin’s 2003
leadership campaign.
Ashley Wright, who worked in
the LRB last Parliament as a special
assistant for caucus services, is
now director of caucus services and
planning in the office. Ian Perkins,
who worked closely alongside
Mr. Thalmann in organizing in
Ontario for the federal party during
the 2015 campaign, is director of
parliamentary affairs. Mr. Perkins
has experience working as a senior
adviser to then Liberal Veterans
Affairs minister Albina Guarnieri,
is a former war room staffer, and
is also a former aide to Liberal MP
Jim Karygiannis.
John Delacourt, brother
to Toronto Star reporter
Susan Delacourt, is director of
communications in the LRB,
while Melissa Cotton is director
of operations and outreach.
A former aide to Liberal MP
Sukh Dhaliwal and former MP Joe
Volpe, Mr. Delacourt, who was part
of the 2015 campaign team, was
previously director of multicultural
communications in to Mr. Ignatieff
as leader, and also worked on Mr.
Trudeau’s leadership campaign.
Ms. Cotton was most
recently director of operations
to the Ontario Liberal Minister
for Community Safety and
Correctional Services and is also
a former Liberal Senate aide.
She’s also previously worked for
Ontario’s Minister of Health and
Long-term Care and is married
to Brian Kaufmann, a policy
and regional affairs adviser to
Indigenous and Northern Affairs
Minister Carolyn Bennett.
Lars Wessman, executive
assistant to Mr. Thalmann, was
until recently associate executive
director of Ottawa Riverkeeper.
Linda Hooper, who was manager
of finance and administration in
the LRB before the election and
is a former aide to Liberal MP
Borys Wreznewskyj, continues in
the same role.
Thomas Gagné, a former
Quebec Liberal, is a special
assistant for research, along
with Ben Parsons, who was a
researcher in the LRB during the
last Parliament and worked in the
2015 campaign war room.
Emily Trogen, a former aide to
Liberal MP Ted Hsu and a former
constituency assistant to Liberal
MP Peter Milliken, is a special
assistant for caucus services
and planning, as is Doug VidalHernandez and Frédéric Côté.
Andy Singh is deputy director
of parliamentary affairs in the
LRB, while Marty McKendry
is a special assistant for
parliamentary affairs.
Mr. McKendry worked on
digital social media for the 2015
national Liberal campaign and is a
former Senate staffer and former
policy adviser to Liberal MP
Sean Casey. His LinkedIn profile
indicates he was a staff writer for
the Royal Canadian Air Farce for
just over a year in 2008—and on
the non-satire side, was a sailor
with the Canadian Forces. He also
has a background in law.
Jenn Kuss is a team lead for
communications in the LRB, while
Kait LaForce is a writer. Earaj
Inam is a design assistant in the
communications branch, while
Marine Detraz handles francophone
communications. Cameron Sabadoz
is a policy adviser.
Amanda Campbell is a special
assistant for the Northern and
Western Region, while John
Hearn is a special assistant for
the Atlantic. Nadine Medawar,
who ran as the party’s candidate
in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie,
Que., in the last election, is now
a senior adviser for Quebec.
Former Ontario Liberal staffer
Tahiya Bakht, who worked in the
provincial caucus research bureau,
is special assistant for Ontario.
Alan Ning, a former field
organizer for the federal party, is
a special assistant for operations
and outreach, as is Angad Dhillon,
a field organizer for the party in
the Peel region near Toronto in
2015. Kazim Habib, a youth
organizer for the federal party
in Ontario in 2015 and a former
intern, is also a special assistant
for operations and outreach.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
EVENTS
A discussion on:
PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DEATH
SUMMARY
On February 16 Hill Times Events presented a substantive discussion on Physician-Assisted Death
(PAD). Moderated by Catherine Clark, the panel addressed issues surrounding PAD in Canada and
how the government must proceed as it approaches the deadline to implement new legislation.
EXPERT PANEL
Anne Sutherland Boal CEO, Canadian Nurses
Association
Ensuring access for
patients is crucial.
Therefore, federal legislation
must ensure that all Canadians have
access to PAD. The following points are
critical to ensuring this is the case. A
change in terminology from “physician
assisted death” to “medically assisted
death” as the reality is that end of life
care is provided by teams involving
physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners,
pharmacists -- who all rely on each other
professionally to deliver end of life care.
A consistent approach to PAD across
Canada – equally applicable to urban,
rural and remote settings - and universal
coverage. Amendments to the Criminal
Code to ensure that health care providers
(in addition to physicians) are protected
to be engaged in supporting individuals
seeking PAD. The need for the creation of
a federal oversight committee consisting
of legal and ethics experts, health care
providers, other stakeholders and the
public to monitor, review and report on
PAD.
Jeff Blackmer - Vice
President, Medical
Professionalism,
Canadian Medical
Association
The CMA has been
working on issues associated with
care at the end of life for the past few
years. Starting with a series of crossCanada public town halls hosted in
FRQMXQFWLRQZLWK0F/HDQ·VPDJD]LQH
the CMA has engaged extensively with
the public and with physicians on this
FRPSOH[WRSLF+DYLQJUHSUHVHQWHGLW·V
over 80000 members as an intervenor
in the Carter case, the CMA has been
advocating actively at the provincial
and federal levels for a consistent
pan-Canadian approach to the issue
RISK\VLFLDQDVVLVWHGG\LQJ,W·V
principles-based framework document
lays out its suggested approach for the
current and ongoing development of
laws and regulations.
Maureen McTeer - Author
and Lawyer
How we die will continue
to preoccupy Canadians.
The SCC decision in
the Carter case last year,
struck down the Criminal Code provisions
prohibiting physician-assisted death
LQFHUWDLQVSHFLÀFFLUFXPVWDQFHVDQG
left Parliament (and the provinces and
territories), grappling with how to proceed.
In just four months, law makers must
GHÀQHFOHDUO\ZKRZLOOEHHOLJLEOHIRU
physician assistance in dying, and how,
where, and by whom such assistance
will be provided. They must protect
the vulnerable patients from abuse;
doctors who object to the procedures;
and allied health professionals who
will assist. Finally, they must create an
effective oversight body that covers all
Canadians across the country. Canadians
are counting on Parliament and the
Legislatures to act decisively on this most
important issue of our generation.
hilltimes.com/events/ht-upcoming-events.html
28
HILL CLIMBERS POLITICAL STAFFERS
HILL CLIMBERS
B Y L AUR A R Y CK E WA E RT
Fisheries Minister Tootoo
hires chief of staff,
Heritage Minister Joly
hires Carr as director
Ben Carr, son of
new Liberal Natural
Resources Minister Jim
Carr, is now director of
parliamentary affairs
to Canadian Heritage
Miniser Mélanie Joly.
F
ormer Liberal party national director George Young has been recruited
to serve as chief of staff to Fisheries and
Oceans Minister Hunter Tootoo, Hill
Climbers has learned.
Mr. Young, who started last week, was
until recently, working for the City of Ottawa as a strategic support coordinator and
is a former communications director for
the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He has
a long history with the Liberal Party, dating back to the early 1990s when he was
executive director of the Ontario Liberals
after working in the private sector—including for McCain, Kraft Foods, and the
National Cheese Company—for more than
two decades overall.
After a long hunt for a chief of staff to
run Mr. Tootoo’s ministerial office—the last
of Cabinet without one—Mr. Young has
finally been recruited to the role.
Over his years of involvement with the
Liberals, Mr. Young has served as national director of the federal party (on two
separate occasions), as director of operations to Stéphane Dion when Mr. Dion was
Liberal leader, and he worked under the
former Liberal government in the offices
of the ministers for Fisheries and Oceans,
National Defence, and National Revenue
over the years and was also chief of staff
to Tony Ianno when he was minister of
state for Families and Caregivers in prime
minister Paul Martin’s government.
Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly
recently welcomed Ben Carr, a former high
school teacher, active Liberal and son of Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, as her new
ministerial director of parliamentary affairs.
Before joining Ms. Joly’s office earlier
this month, Mr. Carr spent the last threeand-a-half years teaching at Kelvin High
School in Winnipeg, Man., and coaching
the school’s junior varsity football team,
and before that briefly taught Grade
6 French immersion at Robert H. Smith
public school in Winnipeg.
Mr. Carr served as a senior political
adviser on his dad’s 2015 campaign in Winnipeg South Centre, Man., having run his
2014 nomination campaign in the riding.
Mr. Carr is a former president of the Young
Liberals of Canada Manitoba branch and
was a national campaign liaison for election readiness for the federal party in 2008.
He also previously was Manitoba campaign manager for Scott Brison’s 2006 bid
for federal party leadership, and again for
Bob Rae’s 2009 bid—both of which were
ultimately unsuccessful.
Mr. Carr worked briefly under the former Liberal government as parliamentary
assistant to then Treasury Board president
Reg Alcock starting in 2005, as indicated
by his LinkedIn profile. He’s also a former
research assistant with the University of
Winnipeg’s Institute of Urban Studies,
among other experience.
Pierre-Olivier Herbert is now press
secretary to Ms. Joly and joins her office
straight from a gig as press attaché to
Quebec Liberal Minister for Immigration,
Diversity and Inclusion, Kathleen Weil. Mr.
Herbert was recruited to work in Ms. Joly’s
office, having already served in a similar
capacity as press aide for Ms. Joly’s 2013
campaign to become Montreal mayor. He
has also previously worked for TC Transcontinental in Montreal in a number of
roles over the years.
Sandra Aubé has been hired as an issues
manager to the minister, and Hill Climbers
has learned that staffer Victor Esposito is a
legislative assistant to Ms. Joly.
Public Services and Procurement
Minister Judy Foote has recruited Hill and
Knowlton senior consultant Jessica Turner
to serve as her ministerial press secretary.
Ms. Turner is a former communications officer with the Department of Public
Safety and Emergency Preparedness. She
briefly served as a communications volunteer for the federal Liberal Party in Ottawa ahead of the party’s 2013 leadership
race and in 2012, volunteered as co-chair
of communications for the UN Women
Canada National Committee, according to
her LinkedIn profile.
Taras Zalusky, a former executive
director of the Ukrainian Canadian
Congress (UCC), which represents the
Ukrainian Canadian community, is now
director of policy to Public Services and
Procurement Minister Judy Foote. Mr.
Zalusky was until recently executive
director of the UCC since 2010. Mr. Zalusky, also a former Liberal Hill staffer,
served as chief of staff for the Canadian
observer mission to ensure fair elections
in Ukraine in 2012.
Lesley Sherban is now a special assistant for Ontario to Ms. Foote while Michelle Delaney is the minister’s executive
assistant. Lorraine Stevenson, meanwhile,
has been hired as executive assistant to
chief of staff Gianluca Cairo.
Science Minister Kirsty Duncan has
bolstered her ministerial team, hiring John
Burnett as director of policy and Stephanie
Muccili as a policy adviser.
Véronique Perron is now Ms. Duncan’s
press secretary, while Diana Mendes,
previously Ms. Duncan’s aide as the MP
for Etobicoke North, Ont., has moved over
to her new ministerial office as a special
assistant for parliamentary affairs. Rob
Rosenfeld is the minister’s chief of staff.
Son of Natural
Resources Minister
Jim Carr, Ben Carr,
pictured, works for
Canadian Heritage
Minister Mélanie Joly.
Former Harper press
secretary Catherine
Loubier is now a vicepresident at Citoyen
Optimum in Montreal,
Que. Photograph courtesy
Photograph courtesy of
LinkedIn
of LinkedIn
Democratic Institutions
Minister Maryam Monsef has
hired Jennifer Austin, pictured,
as her D.-Comms. Photograph
David Clements is
communications director to Health Minister
Jane Philpott. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn
George Young is back
on the Hill as chief
of staff to Fisheries
and Oceans Minister
Hunter Tootoo.
Photograph courtesy of
LinkedIn
Jesse Kancir, pictured, is now
a policy adviser to Health
Minister Jane Philpott. Photo-
Peter Cleary, pictured, is Ms.
Philpott’s director of parliamentary affairs. Photograph
graph courtesy of LinkedIn
courtesy of LinkedIn
courtesy of LinkedIn
Health Minister Philpott
bolsters staff team
Health Minister Jane Philpott has also
recently welcomed a number of new staff
to her ministerial office team.
David Clements is now director of communications to Ms. Philpott. Until recently,
he was a director at the Canadian Institute
for Health Information since 2010 and
before that was vice president of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. Mr. Clements was executive director
of Health Canada’s health-care innovation
secretariat, an advisory panel that delivered a report, Unleashing Innovation, to
the federal government in July 2015.
He has previously worked for Nature
Canada, the Canadian Agency for Drugs
and Technologies in Health and is a former
senior communications officer with the
B.C. ministry of Health Services. He also
spent two years in the late 1990s as a
reporter for Black Press in Victoria, B.C.
Of late, Mr. Clements has been an adjunct
professor with Carleton University’s health
sciences faculty.
Peter Cleary has been hired as director
of parliamentary affairs, scooped straight
out of the office of the Ontario Minister for
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Jeff Leal
where he’s been chief of staff since March
2015, and a senior adviser before that. Mr.
Cleary has been working with the Ontario
Liberals for a number of years, including for
the minister of Health and Long-Term Care
and the minister of Community and Social
Services.
He worked on Sandra Pupatello’s 2012
bid for the Ontario party leadership, and
was the Ontario Liberal Party’s Eastern
Ontario regional co-lead for the 2011 provincial election. Mr. Cleary is also a former
constituency assistant and community
liaison to the Liberal MPP for Northumberland-Quinte West, Ont. Lou Rinaldi.
Jordan Crosby is now in Ms. Philpott’s
office as assistant to the parliamentary
secretary for health, Liberal MP Kamal
Khera. Mr. Crosby was a special assistant
for operations and outreach in the Liberal
leader’s office last Parliament, and briefly
helped out in the PMO after last fall’s federal election before landing a spot on Ms.
Philpott’s team.
Mark Livingstone, who was also a special
assistant for operations and outreach in the
Liberal leader’s office in the last Parliament,
is now a special assistant for the Atlantic
regional desk in Ms. Philpott’s office.
Former departmental staffer Kathryn
Nowers is now a policy adviser in the
minister’s office. She’s previously worked at
Public Safety Canada, Aboriginal Affairs and
Northern Development Canada, and Human
Resources and Social Development Canada.
Jesse Kancir is also a new policy adviser in the minister’s office. A past-president
of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students for a year starting September 2013,
Mr. Kancir is also founder of the Medical
Humanities Student Working Group at the
University of Toronto where is studied a
doctor of medicine.
Mr. Kancir has been a member of board
of directors of the Association of Faculties
of Medicine of Canada since April 2014.
A 2010 Vancouver Olympic torchbearer,
he studied a bachelor in biotechnology and
economics at the University of Waterloo,
then a master of science in International
health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science before earning
his MD. He also studied a master’s degree in
public policy at the University of Cambridge.
Democratic Institutions Minister
Maryam Monsef has hired Jean-Bruno
Villeneuve as press secretary and issues
manager and last week was his first in the
minister’s office. Mr. Villeneuve previously
was working as an assistant director of media relations at Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship Canada up until Feb. 12, and
he’s also previously worked with Canada’s
foreign service.
Jennifer Austin is director of communications to the minister. Before joining
the minister’s office earlier this month, Ms.
Austin was director of marketing and communications at 4-H Canada. She’s previously worked for the Canadian Internet
Registration Authority and was director
of communications for Scouts Canada for
about seven years before that from 2002 to
2009, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ms. Austin’s online profile indicates she’s
previously worked as a legislative assistant to
an MP on the Hill and is a former Senate aide.
Small Business and Tourism Minister
Bardish Chagger is up two more exempt
staff, having hired Farees Nathoo as a
special adviser and Daniel Arseneault as
director of parliamentary affairs.
29
HILL CLIMBERS POLITICAL STAFFERS
‘Something about this place’
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Jody WilsonRaybould has hired Sebastian Cooper to
serve as her assistant, while Joanne Ghiz has
been hired as a senior communications adviser. Ms. Ghiz previously worked as a media
relations officer at the Canada Science and
Technology Museums Corporation.
A former Queen’s Park staffer up to
2011, including to the Ontario Liberal
ministers for Northern Development,
Mines and Forestry and Natural Resources, Ms. Ghiz is also a former assistant to
P.E.I. Liberal Senator Elizabeth Hubley.
Ms. Ghiz is former P.E.I. premier Robert
Ghiz’s younger sister. Their father, the late
Joe Ghiz, was also premier of P.E.I. and
relatedly, Ms. Ghiz is married to former
Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty’s son,
Jamie McGuinty.
NDP MP Caron hires
Soule as a Hill staffer
George Soule is back on the Hill after a
brief break post-election, now as an aide to
NDP MP Guy Caron, the MP for RimouskiNeigette-Témiscouata-Les Basques, Que.
“After the election, there were a lot of
cuts to the budget which resulted in cuts
to jobs, so … a whole bunch of us found
ourselves out of work, which, such is
politics,” Mr. Soule told Hill Climbers last
week. “Guy knew I was looking a little bit
and I actually wasn’t sure I was going to
come back here, but there’s something
about this place and Guy is a great MP.”
Director of media for the federal party
during the 2015 campaign, Mr. Soule was
a senior caucus press secretary for the official opposition NDP last Parliament. Until
recently, he had spent his years on the Hill
working at the leader’s office and at the caucus services level, starting in 2009 when he
was first hired as caucus press secretary.
A former chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, Mr. Soule has also worn
the hat of regional press secretary and
became press secretary to the NDP leader
in 2012 after Thomas Mulcair stepped into
the role. He stepped away from the Hill for
paternity leave in 2013 after his daughter,
Madeleine, was born. She became familiar
to many on the Hill in the last Parliament,
and Mr. Soule joked that while caucus
members were happy to see him return,
they were “even happier to see Madeleine.”
So far, Mr. Soule said working in an
MP’s office is a “different” kind of job, compared to central caucus offices.
“MPs have constituents directly looking for help and needing their help. … The
demands of an MP are different from the
demands of a leader,” he said.
The NDP is now the third party in the
House of Commons, and some have questioned the party’s viability as opposition
under a Liberal government.
“The result of the election wasn’t what
we were hoping for, but when I started we
had seven fewer MPs than what we have
now, and you build from that,” he said. “I
got involved politically in the ‘90s because
of Liberal cuts and because of the massive
slashing to social programs and Liberals
making promises that they never intended
to keep.… I think as the years go by people
will start to see how important it is to have
a progressive opposition to Liberals.”
Former CPC Cabinet
staffers find their feet
Catherine Loubier, former press secretary
and senior adviser for Quebec to former prime
minister Stephen Harper, began a new job
as vice-president of strategic consulting and
public affairs at Citoyen Optimum in Montreal,
Que., at the beginning of the month.
A former marketing adviser with Superior Propane in Calgary, Alta., Ms. Loubier
previously worked for Lawrence Cannon,
first when he was minister for transport and
infrastructure and later when he was foreign
affairs minister. She’s worked for international non-profit One Drop in Montreal,
Que., and for a time was vice president of
corporate and government affairs at Hill and
Knowlton’s Montreal office before joining
Mr. Harper’s PMO in 2013.
Reached by Hill Climbers earlier this
month, Ms. Loubier said, “it was a privilege
to serve” under the Conservative government and that she’s “delighted” to join
Citoyen Optimum’s team.
“It’s really a firm that prioritizes excellence
and values entrepreneurial spirit, that was
important,”said Ms. Loubier.“My goal here will
be to advise entrepreneurs and decision-makers so they can achieve the impact they desire
and the outcome they desire in public affairs
and communications, and I think that’s a way
for me to contribute to their growth and their
performance and their job creation.”
Ms. Loubier said her new job will put to
use “all my experience in public affairs and
communications.”
James Maunder, former chief of staff to
former industry minister James Moore in
the last Parliament, is now working as
director of government and regulatory affairs at Xplorenet Communications, which
describes itself online as Canada’s leading rural broadband internet provider, as
indicated by his LinkedIn profile.
Ted Laking, former communications director to former health minister Leona Aglukkaq,
has returned to his home stomping grounds
up North and is now in a new political ring
as director of planning and strategy toYukon
Premier Darrell Pasloski since December.
Mr. Laking worked on the Hill for a
number of years, including as a policy adviser to John Duncan when he was Indian
affairs minister in the Harper government
and later as policy adviser and director of
communications to Ms. Aglukkaq.
Mr. Pasloski is set to chair the Council
of the Federation this year, the first territorial premier to do so, and Canada’s premiers are set to meet in Whitehorse, Yukon
July 20 to 22. In his new role, Mr. Laking
is helping to coordinate this meeting, and
has some helpful experience under his belt,
having helped organize the Arctic Council
Ministerial meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut last
April while working for Ms. Aglukkaq.
Myles Atwood, previously a special
assistant in the Conservative PMO, is now
a manager at Manulife Financial. A former
Conservative Party intern, he first joined
the PMO in 2010 as executive assistant to
the director of tour and scheduling.
Ashley McArthur, former director of
policy to then minister of state for Western
Economic Diversification, began her new
gig as manager of research and public
affairs at Canada’s Accredited Zoos and
Aquariums (CAZA) earlier this month, as
indicated on LinkedIn. Ms. McArthur began working on the Hill following the 2008
federal election and over the years also
worked as a legislative aide to Conservative MPs Deepak Obhrai and Tim Uppal,
who was defeated last fall.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
SCHOOL’S OUT...
COME AND SEE US
THE CANADA SCHOOL OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE
is no longer offering retirement seminars
The Retirement Planning Institute
The largest provider of retirement seminars to the Public Service....established in 1986
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www.rpi-ipr.com
30
FEATURE HOUSE COMMITTEES
A primer
on House
committees,
members, agendas
Almost all House
committees have
elected their chairs,
but just 16 per cent,
or four of the 25
committees, are
chaired by women,
and 40 per cent, or 10
of 25 of committee
chairs, are rookies.
BY RACHEL AIELLO
A
s of now, almost all House
committees have elected
their chairs but just 16 per cent,
or four of the 25 committees
are chaired by women, and 40
per cent, or 10 of 25 of committee chairs are rookies. According to The Hill Times review of
committee makeups, male and
veteran MPs are still dominating
the top roles at House of Commons Committees, despite the
influx of new women and firsttime MPs in this Parliament.
By the end of last week 25 of the
29 House and joint House and Senate
committees had named their chairs,
and have begun holding or scheduling meetings with the ministers in
charge of their respective files.
The four committees still to
name their chairs (expected this
week) are: the Joint Committee
on Library of Parliament; the
Joint Scrutiny of Regulations
Committee; the House Liaison
committee which is made up of
all the House committee chairs;
and the newly formed House Pay
Equity Committee.
Other than the House Pay
Equity Committee, just one other
House committee, Status of Women has more than four female
members. There are also two committees—Access to Information,
Privacy, and Ethics, and Industry,
Science, and Technology—that
have no women on them at all.
There are only being 26 per
cent women in the House, and the
Liberals appointed 28 of their 50
female MPs to either Cabinet or
to be parliamentary secretaries,
and four female MPs (Conservative Interim Leader Rona Ambrose
(Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alta.)
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May
(Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) and
Bloc Québécois MPs Marilène Gill
(Manicouagan, Que.) and Monique
Pauzé (Repentigny, Que.) ineligible to be on committees, that left
just 56 eligible female MPs to fill
the more than 300 spots on House
committees.
On most of the standard House
committees of 10 MPs, the Liberals have six MPs, the Conservatives three, and the NDP one.
All of the available 22 Liberal
MPs who have been assigned to
at least one committee, and of the
16 Conservative female MPs, 14
are on a committee. Two Conservative MPs, Marilyn Gladu (SarniaLambton, Ont.) and Dianne Watts
(South Surrey-White Rock, B.C.),
are on more than one, while
Conservative MPs Alice Wong
(Richmond Centre, B.C.) and
Diane Finley (Haldimand-Norfolk,
Ont.) do not sit on any. The New
Democrats have 18 women in their
caucus and 11 of them were given
committee roles.
Aboriginal Affairs and
Northern Development
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Andy Fillmore
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
David Yurdiga and
NDP MP Charlie
Angus
Members:
Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree
Liberal MP Mike Bossio
Liberal MP Rémi Massé
Liberal MP Michael V. McLeod
Liberal MP Don Rusnak
Conservative MP Cathy McLeod
Conservative MP Arnold Viersen
Work: The committee has not
finalized its agenda but it’s expected to be called upon to study
any legislative changes that come
from the promised Liberal review
of all First Nations-related federal
legislation as well as likely any
changes to the funding cap that
First Nations peoples currently
experience if included in the upcoming budget.
Access to Information,
Privacy and Ethics
Committee
Chair: Conservative MP Blaine
Calkins
Vice-Chairs: Liberal MP Joël Lightbound and NDP
MP Daniel Blakie
Members:
Liberal MP Bob Bratina
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith
Liberal MP Wayne Long
Liberal MP Rémi Massé
Liberal MP Raj Saini
Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux
Conservative MP Pat Kelly
Work: The committee has not
finalized its agenda but the government has promised to reform
the Access to Information Act in
an effort to make government information more accessible, including applying the Access to Information Act to the Prime Minister’s
Office and to all Cabinet ministers’
offices and removing the $5 filing
fee on access requests.
Agriculture and AgriFood Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Pat Finnigan
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Bev
Shipley and NPD
MP Ruth Ellen
Brosseau
Members:
Liberal MP Pierre Breton
Liberal MP Francis Drouin
Liberal MP Alaina Lockhart
Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield
Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido
Conservative MP Jacques Gourde
Conservative MP Chris Warkentin
Work: The committee met last
week in-camera to discuss committee business and it could be expected to touch on the effects of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement on Canadian agriculture
industry, something chair Liberal
MP Pat Finnigan has expressed he
would like to hear investigated.
Canadian Heritage
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Hedy Fry
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Larry
Maguire and NDP
MP Pierre Nantel
Members:
Liberal MP Pierre Breton
Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin
Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan
Liberal MP Darrell Samson
Liberal MP Dan Vandal
Conservative MP Peter Van Loan
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh
Work: This committee will spend
at least 10 meetings studying the
state of the news industry, including
local news, media concentration, and
how digital media fits in. As well, it
will undertake a review of the state
of Canadian museums with a focus
on local and community museums.
Citizenship and
Immigration Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP David Tilson and NDP
MP Jenny Kwan
Members:
Liberal MP Shaun Chen
Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi
Liberal MP Randeep Sarai
Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara
Liberal MP Salma Zahid
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel
Conservative MP Bob Saroya
Work: Liberals plan to introduce
changes to the Citizenship Act in the
next few weeks to put an age limit on
the language test for new immigrants
to apply for Canadian citizenship,
which was brought in by the Conservatives in 2014 as part of its controversial Bill C-24, Strengthening
Canadian Citizenship Act. Expect
this committee to take on studying
those changes. As well, it’s likely it
will look into the ongoing Syrian
refugee resettlement at some point.
Environment
and Sustainable
Development Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Deborah Schulte
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Jim
Eglinski and NDP MP Nathan Cullen
Members:
Liberal MP John Aldag
Liberal MP William Amos
Liberal MP Mike Bossio
Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen
Conservative MP Martin Shields
Conservative MP Ed Fast
Work: This committee will be the
one to study any environmental law
changes, like the government’s new
climate change plans and national
emission reduction targets. As well,
the committee is mandated to cover
anything related to the Office of the
Commissioner of the Environment
and Sustainable Development, Environment Canada, Parks Canada
and the Canadian Environmental
Assessment Agency.
Finance Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Wayne Easter
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Ron
Liepert and NDP
MP Guy Caron
Members:
Liberal MP Raj Grewal
Liberal MP Steven MacKinnon
Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell
Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette
Liberal MP Francesco Sorbara
Conservative MP Lisa Raitt
Conservative MP Phil McColeman
Work: The committee is working on drafting a report on their
marathon pre-budget hearings last
week. Once that is completed this
committee’s winter and early spring
will likely be dominated by studying
the government’s budget bill.
Fisheries and Oceans
Committee
Chairs: Liberal
MP Scott Simms
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Robert Sopuck
and NDP MP Fin
Donnelly
Members:
Liberal MP Pat Finnigan
Liberal MP Ken Hardie
Liberal MP Bernadette Jordan
Liberal MP Ken McDonald
Liberal MP Robert Morrissey
Conservative MP Mel Arnold
Conservative MP Mark Strahl
Work: The committee is
expected to head up any study
related to the Liberals’ promised
restoration of funding to federal
ocean science and monitoring
programs and bring the percentage of protected marine coastal
areas up to five per cent by 2017.
Foreign Affairs
and International
Development
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Robert Nault
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Dean Allison and
NDP MP Hélène
Laverdière
Members:
Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos
Liberal MP Michael Levitt
Liberal MP Marc Miller
Liberal MP Raj Saini
Liberal MP Jati Sidhu
Conservative MP Tony Clement
Conservative MP Peter Kent
Work: The committee is undertaking a study on women, peace
and security, including the efforts
of the Government of Canada to
implement and support the United
Nations Security Council resolutions
on women, peace and security, as
well as sexual violence in conflict
and women’s leadership in conflict
resolution and peace-building.
Government
Operations and
Estimates Committee
Chair: Conservative MP Tom
Lukiwski
Vice-Chairs: Liberal MP Yasmin
Ratansi and NDP
MP Erin Weir
Members:
Liberal MP Ramez Ayoub
Liberal MP Francis Drouin
Liberal MP David Graham
Liberal MP Raj Grewal
Liberal MP Nick Whalen
Conservative MP Steven Blaney
Conservative MP Kelly McCauley
Work: The committee is responsible for looking at the annual expenditures of central departments and
agencies, as well as overseeing the
Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, Treasury Board, Public
Services and Procurement Canada
and Shared Services Canada.
Health Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Bill Casey
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Len
Webber and NDP
MP Don Davies
Members:
Liberal MP Ramez Ayoub
Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson
Liberal MP Darshan Singh Kang
Liberal MP John Oliver
Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu
Conservative MP Colin Carrie
Conservative MP K. Kellie Leitch
Work: A work agenda has not
been finalized but topics discussed as potential study issues at
this committee include: the health
impacts of marijuana, palliative
and home care, organ donation,
the cost of pharmaceuticals, and
safe injection sites.
Human Resources,
Skills and Social
Development and the
Status of Persons with
Disabilities Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Bryan May
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Bob
Zimmer and NDP
MP Niki Ashton
Members:
Liberal MP Wayne
Long
Liberal MP Yves Robillard
Liberal MP Dan Ruimy
Liberal MP Ramesh Sangha
Liberal MP Filomena Tassi
Conservative MP Gérard Deltell
Conservative MP Mark Warawa
Work: It’s likely that this committee will be charged with studying Bill C-4, the An Act to amend
the Canada Labour Code, the
Parliamentary Employment and
Staff Relations Act, the Public
Service Labour Relations Act and
the Income Tax Act that repeals
Conservative union bills.
31
FEATURE HOUSE COMMITTEES
House International Trade
Committee to study Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement
Industry, Science and
Technology Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Dan Ruimy
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Alexander Nuttall and NDP MP
Brian Masse
Members:
Liberal MP René Arseneault
Liberal MP Chandra Arya
Liberal MP Frank Baylis
Liberal MP Majid Jowhari
Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield
Conservative MP Maxime Bernier
Conservative MP Earl Dreeshen
Work: This committee is in
charge of studying everything
related to industry and technology capability; scientific research
and development; telecommunications policy; investment, trade,
small business and tourism; and
rules and services that support
the effective operation of the
marketplace.
International Trade
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Mark Eyking
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Randy Hoback
and NDP MP
Tracey Ramsey
Members:
Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal
Liberal MP Peter Fonseca
Liberal MP Linda Lapointe
Liberal MP Karen Ludwig
Liberal MP Kyle Peterson
Conservative MP Gerry Ritz
Conservative MP Dave Van Kesteren
Work: This committee has
elected to immediately begin
studying the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. It decided to
conduct at least six meetings on
this topic and will be travelling
across Canada holding hearings.
It will report back to the House by
a to-be-determined deadline.
Justice and Human
Rights Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Anthony Housefather
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Ted
Falk and NDP MP
Murray Rankin
Members:
Liberal MP Chris Bittle
Liberal MP Colin Fraser
Liberal MP Ahmed Hussen
Liberal MP Iqra Khalid
Liberal MP Ron McKinnon
Conservative MP Michael Cooper
Conservative MP Rob Nicholson
Work: This committee will
likely take on the study of the
government’s legislation on
physician-assisted dying, required
in response to the Supreme Court
of Canada’s Carter ruling.
Library of Parliament
Joint Committee
Members:
Liberal MP Angelo Iacono
Liberal MP Michael Levitt
Liberal MP Eva Nassif
Liberal MP Don Rusnak
Liberal MP Marc Serré
Liberal MP Gagan Sikand
Liberal MP Scott Simms
Conservative MP Gordon Brown
Conservative MP Kerry Diotte
Conservative MP Todd Doherty
Conservative MP Jim Hillyer
NDP MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach
Work: This committee is in
charge of helping direct the dayto-day functioning of the Library
of Parliament, as well as playing a
role in the direction of the Library
of Parliament.
National Defence
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Stephen Fuhr
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Cheryl Gallant
and NDP MP Randall Garrison
Members:
Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen
Liberal MP Jean Rioux
Liberal MP Sherry Romanado
Liberal MP Sven Spengemann
Conservative MP James Bezan
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus
Work: This committee will take
on any study related to the Canadian government’s involvement in
the fight against ISIS, and anything
relating to other missions, as well the
Canadian Armed Forces, generally.
Natural Resources
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
James Maloney
Vice-Chair: Conservative MP John
Barlow and NDP
MP Richard Cannings
Members:
Liberal MP T.J. Harvey
Liberal MP Denis Lemieux
Liberal MP Michael V. McLeod
Liberal MP Marc Serré
Liberal MP Geng Tan
Conservative MP Candice Bergen
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs
Work: NDP MP Richard Cannings said he would like to have
the committee study the softwood
lumber industry, but that hasn’t
been decided yet. The committee’s
mandate includes the energy, forestry, minerals and metals sectors
and the earth sciences sector.
Official Languages
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Denis Paradis
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
John Nater and
NDP MP François Choquette
Members:
Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger
Liberal MP Linda Lapointe
Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre
Liberal MP Darrell Samson
Liberal MP Dan Vandal
Conservative MP Sylvie Boucher
Conservative MP Bernard Généreux
Work: The committee does
not have a work plan yet, but
it’s expected to study the Liberals’ promises to develop a new
official languages plan to support
English and French linguistic
minorities and to establish a
free online service for learning
English and French as second
languages.
Pay Equity Committee
Members:
Liberal MP Matt DeCourcey
Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz
Liberal MP Terry Sheehan
Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu
Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld
Conservative MP Dan Albas
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu
Conservative MP Dianne Watts
NDP MP Sheri Benson
Work: This committee was
struck with the task of studying
pay equity and is expected to propose a plan to adopt a “proactive
federal pay equity regime.”
Physician-Assisted
Dying Committee
Joint Chairs: Conservative Senator
Kelvin Kenneth
Ogilvie and Liberal MP Robert
Oliphant
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Michael Cooper
and NDP MP Murray Rankin
Members Representing the Senate:
Liberal Senator
James S. Cowan
Liberal Senator
Serge Joyal
Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth
Conservative Senator Judith G.
Seidman
Members Representing the
House of Commons:
Liberal MP John Aldag
Liberal MP René Arseneault
Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin
Liberal MP Denis Lemieux
Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan
Conservative MP Mark Warawa
Conservative MP Harold Albrecht
NDP MP Brigitte Sansoucy
Work: This committee is
currently working on its report
based on its findings after 13
meetings on Parliament Hill
with 61 witnesses on the issue
of physician-assisted dying. The
committee is due to report back
by Feb. 26 and it’s likely expected to be suspended once this
occurs, although it’s possible
the committee could also play a
role in studying the upcoming
legislation.
Procedure and House
Affairs Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Larry Bagnell
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Blake
Richards and NDP
MP David Christopherson
Members:
Liberal MP Arnold Chan
Liberal MP David Graham
Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor
Liberal MP Ruby Sahota
Conservative MP Jamie Schmale
Conservative MP Scott Reid
Work: Currently the committee
is studying possible initiatives to
make the House of Commons more
family-friendly, including doing
away with Friday sittings, changing the House’s sitting hours and
sitting weeks and using technology
to further debate parliamentary
business outside the House.
Public Accounts
Committee
Chair: Conservative MP Kevin
Sorenson
Vice-Chairs: Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès and
NDP MP David
Christopherson
Members:
Liberal MP Chandra Arya
Liberal MP T.J. Harvey
Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre
Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan
Liberal MP Jati Sidhu
Conservative MP Joël Godin
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre
Work: Last week, the committee began studying the fall 2015
report of the Auditor General of
Canada. As the standing audit
committee for Parliament it will
also be in charge of reviewing
the government’s annual multibillion-dollar public accounts.
Public Safety and
National Security
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Robert Oliphant
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Larry
Miller and NDP MP
Matthew Dubé
Members:
Liberal MP Pam
Damoff
Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith
Liberal MP Marco Mendicino
Liberal MP Sven Spengemann
Conservative MP Erin O’Toole
Conservative MP Alain Rayes
Work: This committee’s agenda
has not been finalized but it’s expected to study the government’s eventual reforms of the anti-terrorism law,
Bill C-51. As well, the government
has pledged to introduce a bill to get
handguns off the street and to repeal
changes made by Bill C-42, the Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act.
Scrutiny of
Regulations Joint
Committee:
Members representing the House
of Commons:
Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree
Liberal MP Vance Badawey
Liberal MP Shaun Chen
Liberal MP Nicola Di Iorio
Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury
Liberal MP Bernadette Jordan
Liberal MP Geng Tan
Conservative MP Harold Albrecht
Conservative MP John Brassard
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis
Conservative MP Tom Kmiec
NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Members representing the Senate:
To be determined
Work: This committee has not
met yet and has no pending work,
but will be responsible for scrutinizing statutory instruments.
Status of Women Committee
Chair: Conservative MP Marilyn
Gladu
Vice-Chairs: Liberal MP Pam
Damoff and NDP MP Sheila
Malcolmson
Members:
Liberal MP Sean Fraser
Liberal MP Karen Ludwig
Liberal MP Ruby Sahota
Conservative MP Rachael Harder
Conservative MP Karen Vecchio
Work: This committee hasn’t
finalized an official agenda, but it
received a briefing from Status of
Women Canada officials last week
and will hear from Status of Women
Minister Patty Hadju this week.
It’s expected the committee will be
tasked with the Liberal promise to
implement a federal gender violence strategy and action plan.
Transport, Infrastructure
and Communities
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Judy Sgro
Vice-Chairs:
Conservative MP
Luc Berthold and
NDP MP Linda
Duncan
Members:
Liberal MP Vance Badawey
Liberal MP Sean Fraser
Liberal MP Ken Hardie
Liberal MP Angelo Iacono
Liberal MP Gagan Sikand
Conservative MP Kelly Block
Conservative MP Dianne Watts
Work: This committee has not
finalized its work agenda but will
likely be responsible for studying the
Liberals’ $125-billion over 10 years
infrastructure spending plans.
Veterans Affairs
Committee
Chair: Liberal MP
Neil Ellis
Vice-Chairs: Conservative MP Robert Kitchen and
NDP MP Irene
Mathyssen
Members:
Liberal MP Bob Bratina
Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson
Liberal MP Colin Fraser
Liberal MP Alaina Lockhart
Liberal MP Sherry Romanado
Conservative MP Alupa Clarke
Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall
Work: The committee would
like to plan outreach to veterans
across Canada and will be responsible for evaluating the Liberals’
promised changes to veterans’ services. During the election the Liberals promised to invest millions
annually in education, counselling
and training, as well as reopen the
nine Veterans Affairs service offices
closed under the last government.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
DEFENCE
AN EMBASSY POLICY BRIEFING
Publication Date: March 9, 2016
As the Trudeau Liberals sink their teeth
into Canada’s first defence strategy update
in years, questions are swirling about how
the new government intends to tackle
thorny procurement issues such as new
fighter jets and new frigates. Embassy,
which broke the news that the Liberals are
Booking Date: March 4, 2016
operating an ad hoc cabinet committee on
defence procurement, presents a briefing
on defence issues as wide-ranging as
Canada’s mission in Iraq and Syria, arms
exports and the future of the navy.
Only in Embassy.
Eighty-seven per cent of our readers say Embassy reports and policy
briefings are helpful to making informed professional decisions.
For more information or to reserve your advertising space in this issue,
contact Embassy display advertising at (613) 688-8825.
33
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34
FEATURE BUZZ
HEARD
ON
THE
HILL
B Y D ER E K A B MA
Reporters beat
parliamentarians in
charity hockey game
The Ottawa
Citizen’s Jason
Fekete holds the
championship
trophy after his
hockey team of
gallery journalists beat a team
of parliamentarians in the
annual Canal
Classic last
week. The Hill
Times photography
by Jake Wright
Parliamentary Press Gallery members
defeated Hill politicians last week in the
third annual Canal Classic hockey game
played on the Rideau Canada.
The journalists beat the parliamentarians by score of 22-15. It was the third of
such events, with each side each having
one victory in the previous two years.
The media team this year was comprised of Steve Rennie, Andy Blatchford,
Barrie McKenna, Hugo de Grandpré, David Akin, Andrew Thomson, Lee Berthiaume, Mike De Souza, Jason Fekete, James
Munson, BJ Siekierski, Mike Woods, and
Phillipe-Vincent Foisy. They also got some
help from Dom Cozzolino of the Canadian
men’s sledge-hockey team and former Ottawa Senators captain Laurie Boschman.
The parliamentarians team was made
up of MPs Rodger Cuzner, Geoff Regan,
Adam Vaughan, Matt DeCourcey, John
McKay, Marco Medicino, T.J. Harvey, John
Barlow, Don Davies, Francis Drouin, Kellie
Leitch, Gord Brown, Ben Lobb, Nathan
Cullen, and Christine Moore, as well as
Senator Jim Munson. Their ringers were
Ben Delaney from the national sledgehockey team and Shaun Van Allen, another
ex-Senator (as in the hockey team).
The event is intended to raise awareness of Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart charities,
which help underprivileged kids participate in organized sports and activities.
Welding Bureau
throws out invitation to
stranded journalists
From the left, Annabelle Archambault from
Veterans Affairs, Josh Arless from the office
of Liberal MP Sherry Romanado, Eleanore
Catenaro of the PMO, and Alex Howell from the
office of Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes
enjoy some food and refreshments during last
week’s reception of the Canadian Welding
Bureau. Photograph by Cynthia Münster
As Ottawa struggled with a record
snowfall last Tuesday, the Canadian Welding Bureau was offering an alternative to
journalists waiting for delayed buses during the evening rush hour.
That afternoon, the bureau sent out a
notice to members of the Parliamentary
Press Gallery to let them know that attending the group’s reception at the Shaw
Centre could be a welcome option when
compared to waiting out the “transit rush.”
Despite the weather, officials reported
the event as being “a great success.” During
the reception, the group emphasized the
need to encourage more young people to
get into the profession of welding, as tje
average age of a welders in Canada stands
at 54.
Look who showed up
for Flag Day
Justin Trudeau was among the guests at last
Tuesday’s Flag Day celebration at Centre Block
hosted by House Speaker Geoff Regan and the
Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy . He is
joined here by (from left) Greg Stulen, Gary
Gladstone, Beatrice Keleher Raffoul, Anthony
DiCarlo, Andrew Cardozo, Alicia Natividad,
Jonathan Calof, Sharon Fernandez, and Roy
Sengupta. Photograph courtesy of the Pearson Centre
for Progressive Policy
[email protected]
The Hill Times
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35
HILL LIFE PARTIES
PARTY CENTRAL
BY
RACHEL AIELLO
Female politicos, PM,
pack Rideau Club for
Equal Voice’s welcome
to the Hill shindig
O
kay ladies, now let’s get in formation, as Beyoncé says. And in so many
words that was the direction to the dozens
of female Members of Parliament filling
the room overlooking the Hill at the Rideau
Club on Wednesday night as they gathered
for an historic photo opportunity organized
by Equal Voice, the non-partisan group
dedicated to getting more women elected.
Many of the 88 female MPs elected into the
42nd Parliament, along with female MLAs
and MPPs, staffers, lobbyists, and a few
journalists filled the once men-only Ottawa
club on Feb. 17 for the party.
It was a full house of politicians from
all levels of government and where female
empowerment was the theme of the evening. Early in the evening, people mixed
and mingled, making introductions while
anxiously awaiting the arrival of Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau.
Fashionably late, Mr. Trudeau and Ms.
Grégoire-Trudeau arrived, flanked by assistant Tommy Desfossés, photographer Adam
Scotti, and PMO press secretary Cameron
Ahmad. They made their rounds in the room
saying hello and taking selfies with nearly
everyone in the room. Party Central watched
the swarm of self-facing cameras and smiling women of all ages crowd in to get snaps.
It was the first time a sitting Prime Minister
has ever attended an Equal Voice event, but
just when the rounds of photos seemed to
come to an end, Party Central thought,“surely, he will make a speech, or say something,
right?” But no, he was off.
Throughout the evening, servers circled
the room with trays of beverages and
delicious snacks, including tomato and
bocconcini skewers, a salmon and cream
cheese spoonful, vegetarian spring rolls,
fish cakes, chicken kebabs, goat cheese
tarts, and Party Central’s favourite, a Thai
steak and mango square on an ornate
twisted spoon.
A little after Mr. Trudeau and his entourage left the building, Status of Women
Minister Patty Hajdu took to a podium at
the front of the space and gave an impassioned speech about why she got into politics, acknowledging the barriers women
often face. Ms. Hajdu also brought news
to the event, announcing that soon her
department would be seeking proposals to
bring more women into the public sphere,
including how to employ indigenous
women to empower their communities and
how to remove barriers to women’s civic
participation.
Ms. Hajdu also called up NDP MP
Christine Moore, who she described as the
“changing face” of 2016 politics, because
she’s bringing her baby Daphnée with her
as she does her work. The two were in attendance and Equal Voice provided childcare
for those who needed it during the event.
There was a full roster of other
speakers, including Barbara DumontHill an Anishinaabe community leader
who before performing an honour song,
declared “it’s 2016 and it’s a great day to
be a woman in Canada”; Equal Voice’s
National Chair Lynne Hamilton, who
said Canadian politics “was due for a
makeover”; PC Nepean-Carleton MPP
Lisa MacLeod who joked that there is
only one job in Ottawa that is for men
only, “shovelling snow,” and implored the
women in the room to consider where
they’re standing, a traditionally maledominated, and male founded space; and
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May—who
in true Liz May style—by the end of the
evening got everyone in the room to yell
“I am a feminist.”
But, by the end of the evening, even the
lady-loving, and Spice Girls Girl Power
embracing Party Central was feeling like
a bad feminist. The speeches, albeit each
unique seemed to go on for too long to all
come to the same point: more women =
better politics. We get it, it’s 2016. A line
that to Party Central lost all its genuine
sentiment after CBC’s Peter Mansbridge
revealed it to be a Gerald Butts creation.
House Speaker Geoff Regan and his
wife, Nova Scotia Labour and Advanced
Education Minister Kelly Regan, Health
Minister Jane Philpott and lots of Liberal
MPs were at the event.
Liberal MPs Karen McCrimmon, Pam
Goldsmith-Jones, Salma Zahid and her
staffer Jeff Jedras, John Oliver, Sven
Spengemann and his staffer Adrian ZitaBennett, Adam Vaughan, Joyce Murray,
Pam Damoff, Gudie Hutchings, Yvonne
Jones, Karina Gould, Celina CaesarChavannes, Kyle Peterson, Ruby Sahota,
Anita Vandenbeld, Bardish Chagger, Iqra
Khalid, and Ginette Petitpas Taylor were
all there.
Conservative MPs Kellie Leitch, Cathy
McLeod and Marilyn Gladu, and NDP MPs
Christine Moore, Nikki Ashton, Sheila
Malcolmson, Georgina Jolibois, Tracey
Ramsey, Cheryl Hardcastle, and Rachel
Blaney were all there too.
Other attendees included: Equal Voice’s
Nancy Peckford, Denise Siele, Mary Anne
Carter, Scott Thurlow; Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth; United States Ambassador
to Canada Bruce Heyman and his wife
Vicki; Johnson & Johnson’s Lesia Babiak;
Canada 2020’s Susan Smith; RBC’s George
Wamala; NWAC’s Jenn Jefferys; Economic Club of Canada’s Natasha Morano;
Environics’ Greg MacEachern; strategist
Kathleen Monk; Shaw’s Alayne Crawford;
and Actua’s Kristina Martin.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
Members of Equal Voice with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie at the Rideau Club on Feb.
17 for Equal Voice’s celebration of the 88 women elected to the 42nd Parliament.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie
with Equal Voice’s Nancy Peckford and some of
the children of attendees.
Equal Voice’s Denise Siele and Conservative
Senator Nancy Ruth.
NDP MP Christine Moore and
her baby Daphnee with Justin
Trudeau.
House Speaker Geoff
Regan chatting with
Raylene Lang-Dion as Lesia
Babiak looks on.
PC NepeanCarleton MPP Lisa
MacLeod.
A snapshot of the many female elected
representatives in attendance.
Mr. Trudeau and Massey
Hoveyda.
Anishinaabe community leader
Barbara Dumont-Hill.
Photographs by
Cynthia Münster
Eva Nassif with Sophie
Gregoire-Trudeau.
Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu holding
Ms. Moore’s baby Daphnee.
Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau and
Co-Chair of Equal Voice Ottawa
Raylene Lang-Dion.
Ms. Siele was emcee for the
evening.
Denise Siele and Green
Party Leader Elizabeth May.
NDP Status of Women
critic and MP Sheila
Malcolmson.
Patty Hajdu.
Barbara Dumont-Hill addressing attendees.
Johnson & Johnson’s Lesia Babiak.
Liberal MPs Anita Vandenbeld and
Celina Caesar-Chavannes.
Ms. Hajdu and Minister of Small Business and
Tourism Bardish Chagger.
Conservative Senator David
Wells and Raylene Lang-Dion.
Liberal MP Joyce Murray and U.S.
Ambassador to Canada Bruce
Heyman.
36
FEATURE EVENTS
All-Party Ocean Caucus to hold
Oceans on the Hill event, Feb. 22
Parliamentary
Calendar
MONDAY, FEB. 22
House Sitting—The House is sitting on Monday, Feb. 22, and will
sit every weekday until Feb. 26, it
breaks for one week, returns March
7 to March 11, breaks for one
week, returns March 21-25, breaks
for two weeks, returns on April 11
and sits until April 22, breaks for
one week, returns May 2 for three
weeks until May 20, breaks for one
week, and returns again on May 30.
It’s scheduled to sit for four weeks
until Thursday, June 23.
Genomics on the Hill—Meet
some of Canada’s most renowned
genomic scientists and “end users” who are applying genomics to
benefit Canadians across many sectors including health, agriculture,
forestry, fisheries and aquaculture,
environment, and energy and mining. Hosted by Genome Canada.
Feb. 22 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in
Room 256-S, Centre Block. RSVP
to Lucy Sorensen telephone: 613751-4460, ext. 210 or [email protected].
Workshop for MPs on How to
Maximize Role in Budget, Estimates
Process—Geoff Dubrow, a former
Liberal Hill staffer who now works
as a governance consultant specializing in assessing and training parliamentary oversight committees,
is offering workshops for new MPs
and their legislative staffers on Feb.
22 in Ottawa. Mr. Dubrow, along
with former NDP MP Paul Dewar,
former Liberal MPs Peter Milliken
and Shawn Murphy, and former
Conservative MP James Rajotte,
will teach MPs how to maximize
their roles as elected officials and
how to contribute more effectively
to the parliamentary budget and
estimates process. The workshops,
which are $299 to $349 a pop,
depending on when you register,
or $500 to $550 for the two, will
happen on Feb. 22.
Launch of the All-Party Ocean
Caucus in the 42nd Parliament—David Miller, president and CEO of
WWF-Canada, and the All-Party
Ocean Caucus co-chairs, Liberal
MP Scott Simms and NDP MP
Fin Donnelly will host an ‘Oceans
on the Hill’ event. Sustainable
seafood and refreshments, Feb. 22,
Room 238-S Centre Block, 5:30
p.m.-7:30 p.m. RSVP to Gayle McClelland, gmcclelland@wwfcanada.
org 613-232-2512.
The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC)—Is pleased
to announce that its annual showcase for parliamentarians and Hill
staff will take place on Monday, Feb.
22, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the
Chateau Laurier’s Drawing Room.
The Canadian Video Game Industry
Showcase is one of the most exciting annual events on the Hill. You’ll
be able to play some of the best
new video games and technologies
and learn more about this dynamic
sector of the Canadian economy. If
you’d like to confirm your participation, RSVP to [email protected] or
416-620-7171, ext. 252.
TUESDAY, FEB. 23
Cabinet Meeting—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected
to hold a Cabinet meeting today
in Ottawa. For more information,
call the PMO Press Office at 613957-5555.
Opportunities for Europeans to
participate in research activities at Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada—Feb. 23, 9 a.m.-10:30
a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Canada’s Public Policy Forum and
Universities Canada will host the
webinar, which also features the
opportunities for Europeans to
participate in research activities
within Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada’s research centres as Foreign Research Participants (FRP).
Speaker: Charles Kounkou, senior
planning officer, Science and
Technology Branch, Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada.
Helping With Furniture &
HWF613 Press Conference—The
event will highlight the launch
of HWF’s services to furnish
homes of displaced members of
the Ottawa community, including
newly-arrived Syrian refugees.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and
Refugee 613 director Louisa Taylor will highlight activities, Feb.
23, 10:30 a.m. 1380 Star Top
Rd. Confirm attendance catana@
hwfottawa.org or 819-661-9514.
Canadian Produce Marketing Association reception with Chef Michael
Smith—Join the Canadian Produce
Marketing Association and Chef Michael Smith and see how fun and
easy eating fruits and vegetables
can be. Tuesday, Feb. 23, from
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Canadian
Room, Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 1
Rideau St. RSVP: [email protected]
or 613-226-4187.
Maclean’s and L’Actualité to Host
‘Welcome to the Hill’ Event—Maclean’s magazine and L’Actualite´
will host a ‘Welcome to the Hill’
event on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the
Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa
for MPs. This two-hour cocktail
reception will feature a speaker
and past Parliamentarians who will
share their wisdom; as well they
will honour the annual Lifetime
Achievement Award winner. The
event is by invitation only.
Annual Food & Consumer
Products of Canada Executive Reception for MPs—Meet the largest
manufacturing employer in Canada.
MPs are invited to meet CEOs from
across the industry that employs
nearly 300,000 Canadians in more
than 6,000 manufacturing sites
in every region of the country. Join
us for a conversation about how
the food, beverage, and consumer
products sector has become the top
manufacturing industry in Canada
and why it should remain a top priority for government. The reception
will take place on Tuesday, Feb.
23, 2016 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Quebec Suite, Fairmont Chateau
Laurier, 1 Rideau St., Ottawa.
Please RSVP to: [email protected] or
416-510-2480.
“Unmuzzled at the Met”—Debi
Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public
Service of Canada (PIPSC), invites
you to join scientists and other
federal public service professionals for some candid conversation
and celebration. Tuesday, Feb. 23,
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Métropolitain Brasserie, 700 Sussex
Dr. Please confirm your attendance
at [email protected] by Friday, Feb. 19.
Canadian Health Food Association’s Welcome Reception—Canadian Health Food Association
(CHFA): Parliamentarian Welcome
Reception, Tuesday, Feb. 23,
2016, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Parliamentary Restaurant, Rooms
601 & 602, please RSVP to Andrew Stewart at (613) 233-8906
or [email protected]
Canadian Parliamentary Press
Gallery’s 150th Anniversary Launch—
Feb. 23, Foyer of the House of
Commons, cash bar.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24
Liberal Caucus Meeting—The
Liberals will meet in Room 237-C
Centre Block on Parliament Hill.
For more information, please call
Liberal Party media relations at [email protected] or 613-627-2384.
Conservative Caucus Meeting—The Conservatives will meet
for their national caucus meeting.
For more information, contact Cory
Hann, director of communications,
Conservative Party of Canada at
[email protected]
NDP Caucus Meeting—The NDP
caucus will meet from 9:15 a.m.11 a.m. in Room 112-N Centre
Block, on Wednesday. Please call
the NDP Media Centre at 613-2222351 or [email protected]
eBay Canada Reception
Celebrating Entrepreneurs—eBay
Canada asks Parliamentarians and
advisers to come celebrate its 11th
Annual Entrepreneur of the Year
Awards at the Métropolitain Brasserie (700 Sussex Dr., Ottawa)
on Feb. 24, from 5:30 p.m.-9
p.m. Attendees must register at
[email protected] with
their name, title and office.
ECONOMIC CLUB
OF
CANADA
Closing the Gap: A New Era
for First Nations in Canada
National Chief
Perry Bellegarde
Assembly of First Nations
Canada is entering a new era when it comes to First
Nations. Assembly of First Nations National Chief
Perry Bellegarde put forward a comprehensive and
ambitious agenda for fundamental change, progress
and partnership aimed at closing the gap in the quality
of life between First Nations people and Canada. Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau has said “no relationship is
more important” than the one with Indigenous Peoples,
declaring the constitutionally guaranteed rights of
Canada’s First Nations “a sacred obligation.” National
Chief Bellegarde and First Nations across the country
are now ready to embark on a new path with Canada,
one based on respect, rights and a new nation-to-nation
approach to governing.
What does it mean
for business and the
economy? AFN National
Chief Perry Bellegarde,
leader of the
national organization
representing First
Nations in Canada,
will speak to the goals
and objectives of First
Nations and how we
can all work together
to close the gap, and
achieve real change and reconciliation. On March 7, join
National Chief Bellegarde to learn what Closing the Gap
means for Canada’s future.
Tuesday, March 7th, 2016
11:45 am - 1:30 pm , The Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 1 Rideau Street, Ottawa
Speech at 12 pm, lunch to follow
~
Individual member ticket price $89, Individual Non-Member ticket price $110.
Tables of 10 available. Lunch will be served. Advance registration is required –
numbers are limited. For tickets call (613) 369-4363, visit
www.economicclub.ca
Thank you to our Annual Sponsors:
Ottawa Partners:
37
FEATURE EVENTS
Entertainment Software Association holds
showcase Feb. 22 at Chateau Laurier Hotel
Calendar
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24
Universities Canada presents
Innovators to Know – Celebrating
Canada’s Research Excellence—
What do pulsars, pollution and
psychology have in common? Meet
outstanding Canadian researchers
and innovators who are improving Canadians’ quality of life and
contributing to Canada’s prosperity.
Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 from 6
p.m.-8 p.m. For more information,
please contact [email protected].
Samara Canada Shindig—Samara
Canada is hosting a shindig on Feb.
24, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. at the Aulde
Dubliner Pub (second floor), 62
William St., Ottawa. Cash bar, light
snacks provided.
MLI’s Sir Wilfrid Laurier Celebration Dinner—The Macdonald-Laurier
Institute will celebrate the life and
legacy of Sir Wilfrid Laurier on
February 24, 2016 at the Canadian
Museum of History, 100 Rue Laurier,
Gatineau, Que. MLI’s distinguished
speaker panel includes Bob Rae.
Tickets $150, tables of eight
$1,050. Register at macdonaldlaurier.ca/events or contact Patricia
at 613-482-8327 x104. For more
information, please contact patricia.
[email protected].
THURSDAY, FEB. 25
Manning Centre Conference
2016: Recharging The Right—Ottawa, Shaw Centre, 55 Colonel
By Drive, Ottawa. Journalist
panel: How Does the Conservative Movement Recharge? With
panelists Chantal Hébert, Anthony
Furey, Paul Wells, and Mercedes
Stephenson, moderated by Jim
Armour; Focus on Municipalities
with Stephanie Kusie; Conservatives on cannabis, with Dr. Karen
O’Keefe, Dr. Dean Vause, and Matt
Bufton, and moderated by Dr.
Daniel Lindsay; Green conservativism, with Ross McKitrick, Chris
Regan and Andrew Coyne; youth
lunch with Garnett Genuis, Rachael
Harder, and Alupa Clarke; The Importance of Political Training, with
Morton Blackwell; The State of the
Conservative Movement, with André
Turcotte; C2C Journal Panel, with
Sarah MacIntyre, Lydia Milijan,
and Paul Bunner; Wither American
Conservatives? With Michael
Gerson and Ray Pennings; Future
Premiers, with Brian Jean, Patrick
Brown, Jamie Baillie and Brian Pallister (video); First Past Its Prime?:
Examining Electoral Reform, with
Scott Reid, Nick Loenen, Jonathan
Rose, and Tasha Kheiriddin; Labour
Pains: How to Improve Fairness for
Taxpayers, with Charles Lammam;
Debt, Deficits, and Deceit, with Ian
Brodie, Aaron Gunn, and Adrienne
Batra; The Grey Tsunami: Preparing
for Canada’s Aging Population, wiht
Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Nadeem
Esmail, and William Robson; A
Win/Win Solution to Aboriginal Affairs, with Brian Lee Crowley, Elmer
Ghostkeeper, and Chuck Strahl;
Technology and Politics in the 21st
Century, with Kady O’Malley; and
the Keynote Address, with Interim
Conservative Party Leader Rona
Ambrose. To register, manningcentre.ca, or call the Manning Centre
at 403-255-8100, or email info@
manningcentre.ca
Income Inequality: The Canadian
Story Book Launch—Feb. 25, 5:30
p.m.-7:30 p.m., the Métropolitain
Brasserie, 700 Sussex Dr., Ottawa.
The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) is pleased to invite
you to join Graham Fox, president
of the IRPP, and the editors, to
launch Income Inequality: The
Canadian Story, Volume V in the
series The Art of the State.
Rising income inequality has
been at the forefront of public debate in Canada in recent years, and
it is now among the top priorities of
our new government. The guest of
honour will be Jean-Yves Duclos,
minister of Families, Children and
Social Development Canada.
TUESDAY, MARCH 1
Statistics Canada Announces
GDP for February—Statistics Canada
to release the GDP by industry,
national, for February on March 1,
2016.
Can Canada Become an Innovation Nation and Why Does it Matter?
Bell Lecture with Kevin Lynch—Tuesday, March 1, 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
River Building, Carleton University,
1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa. Free.
Contact information, 613-5202600, ext. 2995, cassie.hodgins@
carleton.ca.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
Writers’ Trust of Canada Announces Shortlist March 2—On
Wednesday, March 2, the Writers’
Trust of Canada will announce the
shortlist for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political
Writing. The announcement will be
made by press release at 6 a.m.
EST. On Wednesday, April 20 at
10 p.m. EST, the prize winner will
be announced at the Politics and
the Pen Gala in Ottawa. Details of
the authors and their nominated
books will be available on the
Writers’ Trust website: writerstrust.
com. Last year’s winner was Joseph
Heath for Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our
Economy, and Our Lives.
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Nestlé Canada Parliamentary
Reception—All parliamentarians
are invited to join Nestlé Canada’s
business leaders from across the
country to celebrate 150 years of
Nestlé ‘Good Food, Good Life’.
From Nescafé to Kit Kat, Purina
Beneful to Nespresso, the event
will showcase Nestlé’s brands
and product diversity, as well as
Nestlé’s proud history and commitment to helping Canadians live
healthier, happier lives. May 3, 6
p.m.-8 p.m., Daly’s Restaurant,
The Westin Ottawa Hotel. RSVP to
Laura Seguin [email protected] or
call 613-235-1400.
MONDAY, MARCH 7
A Taste of the Arctic 2016—In
its sixth year, ITK’s A Taste of
the Arctic has consistently drawn
hundreds of Ottawa foodies and
influential decision-makers keen to
sample some northern culture and
cuisine in the national capital. A
Taste of the Arctic will take place
on March 7, from 6 p.m. to 10
p.m., at the National Arts Centre,
53 Elgin St., Ottawa.
TUESDAY, MARCH 8
Canadian Chiropractic Association Reception—The Canadian Chiropractic Association, the national
voice of the chiropractic profession
which represents over 8,500 licensed doctors of chiropractic, will
be hosting a reception on March 8
in Room 602 in the Parliamentary
Restaurant from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. All
Senators, Members of Parliament,
and staff are invited to attend.
For more information or to RSVP,
please contact Cynthia Waldmeier
at 613-233-8906 or cynthia@
impactcanada.com.
Forum for Young Canadians MP
Reception—The Forum for Young
Canadians is a unique educational
program that brings high school
students from across the country to
Ottawa for a week-long, behind-thescenes look at federal politics on Parliament Hill. All MPs are invited to
join these smart and ambitious youth
from all over Canada for an evening
reception on Tuesday, March 8, at
the Sir John A. Macdonald building
(144 Wellington St.), from 6 p.m. to
9 p.m. If you have any questions, or
to learn more about Forum for Young
Canadians, please check out the
website http://forum.ca/, or contact
Catherine McDonald Tel: (613) 2334086, Email: cmcdonald@forum.
ca. To RSVP to this reception, please
contact Laura Seguin at lseguin@
summa.ca or call 613-235-1400.
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association—Invitation to an evening of
Canadian beef, Canadian beer and
Canadian whisky—Sir John A. Macdonald Building, 144 Wellington
St., Ottawa, Ont. 6:30 p.m.-8:30
p.m. RSVP by email to: rsvp@
cattle.ca by March 4.
Climate Action after Paris—
Citizens for Public Justice, Ecology
Ottawa, and the Polaris Institute
co-host a panel discussion of next
steps for faith communities on climate change. Wednesday, March 9,
from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Centretown United Church, 507 Bank
Street. cpj.ca/next-steps-climate
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
OEA-CABE Spring Policy Conference: “Canada’s Economy: Does
it Stay or Does it Grow?”—The
Ottawa Economics Association
and the Canadian Association for
Business Economics will host its
annual spring policy conference
on Thursday, March 10, 2016 at
the Chateau Laurier Hotel. This
full-day event will feature keynote
addresses from Postmedia’s Andrew
Coyne and Glen Hodgson, Conference Board of Canada. The four
sessions throughout the day will
discuss silver bullets for growth,
international trade and investment,
green growth, and skills and talent.
Click here for more details.”
Bacon & Eggheads Breakfast—
PAGSE presents a talk ‘Rethinking
Cyberattacks: New Strategies to
Counter the Mounting Costs to
Business and Threats to Canada’s
Security’ with Scott Knight, Royal
Military College of Canada. Thursday, March 10, 7:30 a.m.
Parliamentary Dining Room, Centre
Block. No charge to MPs, Senators
& Media. All others, $25. Preregistration required by Monday,
March 7, by contacting Donna
Boag, PAGSE [email protected] or
call 613-991-6369.
Prime Minister Trudeau to
Attend State Dinner in Washington, D.C.—Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau and his wife Sophie
Grégoire-Trudeau will meet for the
first time in Washington, D.C., with
U.S. President Barack Obama and
Michelle Obama. The two will be
welcomed for an official visit and
state dinner at the White House on
Thursday, March 10. It will be Mr.
Trudeau’s first official visit to the
U.S. since winning office. The two
are supposed to focus their talks
on economic, climate, security and
border matters, according to CNN.
For more information, call the PMO
Press Office at (613) 957-5555.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23
Chow Down for Charity—Speaker
of the House of Commons Salon,
Room 216-N, March 23, 2016
12 noon-1 p.m. The Evening
in The Maritimes Sponsors and
Citizen Advocacy board Members
will join invited members of the
Senate and House of Commons
for a chowder lunch in the House
Speaker’s Salon to raise awareness
for Citizen Advocacy Ottawa. This
is the official launch of Evening in
The Maritimes. Citizen Advocacy’s
annual gala is raising funds for its
Everyday Champions program. This
event is by invitation only. For more
information, call Virgilia Partridge,
Citizen Advocacy of Ottawa, at
613-761-9522, ext. 240 or email
to [email protected]
Forum for Young Canadians MP Reception–The Forum for Young Canadians is a unique educational program
that brings high-school students
from across the country to Ottawa
for a week-long, behind-the-scenes
look at federal politics on Parliament
Hill. All MPs are invited to join these
smart and ambitious youth from all
over Canada for an evening reception
on Wednesday, March 23, at the Sir
John A. Macdonald building (144
Wellington St.), from 6 p.m. to 9
p.m. If you have any questions, or to
learn more about Forum for Young
Canadians, please check out our
website http://forum.ca/, or contact
Catherine McDonald. Tel: (613) 2334086, email: cmcdonald@forum.
ca. To RSVP to this reception, please
contact Laura Seguin at lseguin@
summa.ca or call 613-235-1400.
FRIDAY, APRIL 8
NDP Federal Convention—The
federal NDP will meet for a policy
convention April 8-April 10 at the
Shaw Centre, Edmonton, Alta.
Rick Devereux is the convention’s
director. For more information,
call the NDP in Ottawa at 1-866525-2555.
TUESDAY, APRIL 12
Canadian Life and Health Insurance Industry Advocacy Day—Under
the theme “Working Together for a
Better Canada,” industry CEOs will
be in Ottawa to meet with Parliamentarians about issues of impor-
tance to Canadians, such as health
care, investing in infrastructure
projects and financial literacy. For
more information, contact Susan
Murray ([email protected]).
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13
The Agricultural Institute of
Canada Conference—It will be
holding a conference, April 13-14
on “Disseminating Agricultural
Research.” Delegates will be part of
a national dialogue on the place of
agricultural research to re-establish
Canada as a leading developer of
innovative and sustainable agricultural products and technologies.
Smart Global Development
conference—This event will explore
the role of higher education in
advancing sustainable development
goals, April 13-14, at the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa.
Organizers and sponsors: Aga Khan
Foundation Canada, Academics
without Borders, International
Development Research Centre. Undertaken with financial support
of: Global Affairs Canada.
THURSDAY, MAY 26
Liberal Biennial Convention—The
federal Liberals will hold their
convention in Winnipeg, Man.,
Thursday, May 26, to Sunday, May
29, 2016.
Conservative Convention—The
federal Conservatives will hold their
convention in Vancouver, B.C., May
26 to May 29, 2016.
TUESDAY, JUNE 7
Registration Now Open CIPMM’s
27th Annual National Workshop—June
7-8, 2016. The workshop fee is $875
plus HST and includes access to all
keynote and breakout sessions. More
than 400 delegates from PWGSC,
ESD, DND, HC, RCMP, CSEC, DFATD,
DFO, TBS, NRCan, IC, AAND, CIC,
and LAC. Senior government officials
from the lead departments and
agencies will be at the networking
reception. There will be exhibitors,
subject matter experts representing
both the public and private sectors.
https://willow.reg-system.com/login.
aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f2016CIPMMNW
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27
MAY 2017
Donner Canadian Foundation
Award Ceremony—The 18th anniversary of the Donner Prize to
reward excellence and innovation in
public policy writing by Canadians
for 2015-2016, will be held on
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 6
p.m. at The Carlu, 444 Younge St.
Invitation only.
Conservative Party Leadership
Convention—The Conservatives
will elect their next leader on May
27, 2017, Dan Nowlan, chair of
the party’s leadership election
organizing committee announced
last week. The party is urging
Conservative Party members to buy
memberships or renew them in
order to vote. For more information,
contact Cory Hann, director of communications, Conservative Party of
Canada, at 613-697-5614.
The Parliamentary Calendar is a
free listing. Send in your political,
cultural, or governmental event in
a paragraph with all the relevant
details under the subject line
‘Parliamentary Calendar’ to news@
hilltimes.com by Wednesday at
noon before the Monday paper. Or
fax it to 613-232-9055. We can’t
guarantee inclusion of every event,
but we will definitely do our best.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11
Canadian Rail Summit 2016—
Canadian Rail Summit 2016,
Canada’s leading rail event. Explore
cutting-edge products and services
from 50 tradeshow exhibitors,
and choose from a wide variety of
technical and conference sessions
on key industry issues such as
competitiveness, safety and emerging technologies. Register at www.
railcan.ca/crs2016 and for more
information, contact Janet Greene
at 613-564-8109 jgreene@railcan.
ca or Lynn Raby at 613-237-3888
or [email protected]
38
EDITOR’S NOTE: NEWSPAPER AWARDS
Hill Times finalist
for four OCNA
Newspaper Awards
Laura Ryckewaert’s story, left, about Maher Arar has been nominated for best news story in the OCNA’s
Better Newspaper Awards and Mark Burgess’ story, ‘Love, cigarettes and Tories answering NDP phones:
takes from the Hill’s lockdown,’ has been nominated for best feature story.
TRADE
I
n this important and
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The Hill Times¿QGV
out the latest on what the
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done to renew and repair
Publication Date: Feb. 29, 2016
Canada’s relationship with
Booking Deadline: Feb. 24, 2016
the U.S. and Mexico.
We also look into
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SDUWQHUVKLSEHWZHHQ0DQLWREDDQG0H[LFR&DQDGD¶VQHZIHGHUDO
DJULFXOWXUHPLQLVWHURQWKH733DQGWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV¶VWDQGRQ
PHDWODEHOOLQJDQGLI&DQDGDGRHVKHOSRXW%RPEDUGLHU,QFDQGLI
WKHUHDUHDQ\SRVVLEOHWUDGHFKDOOHQJHV
POLICY BRIEFING
Be a part of it.
Communicate with those most responsible
for Canada’s public policy decisions.
For more information or to
reserve your government
relations and public affairs
advertising space, contact
The Hill Times display
advertising department at
613-688-8825.
The Hill Times is a
finalist for best feature
writing, best news story,
cartoonist of the year, and
best vertical product, or
magazine in 2015.
KATE MALLOY
T
he Hill Times is a finalist for four awards in
this year’s Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Awards
Competition, including best feature writing,
best news story, cartoonist of the year, and
best vertical product, or magazine. The OCNA
recognizes“the outstanding quality of work
produced each week”by member newspapers.
Mark Burgess’ story,“Love, cigarettes, and
Tories answering NDP phones: tales from
Parliament Hill’s lockdown,” published Oct.
27, 2014, is a finalist for best feature writing. In this story, Mr. Burgess detailed how
MPs and staffers coped with being thrown
together and locked up for the entire day on
Oct. 22, 2014, the day of the Hill shooting. The
story profiled everyone from NDP staffer
Karl Bélanger who fielded hundreds of calls
from a Conservative MP’s Centre Block
office, to NDP MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach
who was locked in East Block while her
infant baby who needed to be fed was with
her spouse in Centre Block. This story was
judged primarily on its journalistic merit.
Laura Ryckewaert’s story,“Bill C-51 could
have been used to prevent Arar from coming
back from Syria to Canada, says lawyer,”published March 9, 2015, is a finalist for best news
story. The story looked at how the government’s proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, Bill C-51,
could have been used against Maher Arar, a
Canadian citizen with dual Syrian citizenship
who was detained in 2002 by U.S. authorities
while changing planes at NewYork City’s JFK
Airport after travelling home to Canada from
Tunisia. He was transferred to Syria where
he was held for a year and tortured. He was
released without charge and later cleared in
2006 of any links to terrorism by the O’Connor
Commission of Inquiry. Mr Arar received
$10.5-million in compensation from the federal
government and prime minister Stephen
Harper offered an official apology to Mr. Arar
for Canada’s role. This story was judged on
quality of reporting, significance, clarity, and
pictorial treatment. Judges gave greater weight
to initiative, research, and reporting.
Editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder
was nominated for best cartoonist for three
cartoons published March 2, June 29, and
Aug. 17, 2015. Entries were judged on artistic
ability, subject matter, relevance, and impact.
And The Hill Times’ spring issue of
Power & Influence, edited by Bea Vongdouangchanh, is a finalist for “best vertical
product,” or best magazine. For this category, judges looked at the newspaper’s use of
existing staff, current and new advertisers,
expanded business opportunities, potential
as a revenue generator, quality editorial
mix, and value to the community.
The winners will be announced at the
BNC Awards Gala on April 22 at the Hilton
Garden Inn in Vaughan, Ont.
Last year, The Hill Times won six newspaper awards at the Ontario Community
Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper
Competition and three at the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, including best
business news story, best environment story in
Ontario, best feature writing, best feature/news
series, best editorial cartoonist, and best website at the OCNAs, and at the CCNAs, for the
best feature series on government whistleblowers, best photo essay for a two-page spread of
the events of shooting on Parliament Hill and
at the National War Memorial on Oct. 22, 2014,
and for best agriculture issue.
The Hill Times
One block south of the Hill O Locally Owned & Operated since 1921
3PARKS3T/TTAWAs
www.ottawaleathergoods.com
,UGGAGEs,EATHER'OODSs(ANDBAGS
"USINESS#ASESs!CCESSORIES
39
THE SPIN DOCTORS
By Laura Ryckewaert
“What do you think of whipped votes in the House of Commons? Do they happen too often? When are they okay?”
KATE
PURCHASE
CORY
HANN
IAN
WAYNE
MATHIEU R.
ST-AMAND
CAMILLE
LABCHUK
Liberal strategist
Conservative strategist
NDP strategist
Bloc Québécois strategist
Green strategist
“We made a strong commitment to Canadians that we
would bring a new tone—and
a new style—of government to
Ottawa. An important part of
this promise focuses on giving
Canadians a stronger voice in
the House of Commons. One
way to do this is by limiting the
circumstances in which Liberal
Members of Parliament are required to vote in solidarity with
Cabinet.
“During the election, we
made our position clear. For
members of the Liberal caucus,
all votes will be free votes with
three important exceptions: first,
those that implement the Liberal electoral platform; second,
those that concern traditional
confidence matters, such as the
budget; and third, those that address our shared values and the
protections guaranteed by the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Parliament must be a place
where people can do serious
work on behalf of their constituents, make their voices heard,
and hold the government to
account. We are working hard to
do just that.”
“‘We will make free votes in the
House of Commons standard practice.’ Where is that from? The Liberal
Party’s election platform from just
four months ago.Yet we’ve watched
as this Liberal government goes
on, they clamp down more on their
benches. Even their Parliamentary
Secretary for National Defence, John
McKay, was surprised his boss was
telling him he couldn’t vote his own
conscience on an issue as important
as assisted suicide. Instead he has to
follow Justin Trudeau’s lead.
“As analysis after analysis has
shown in the past, our Conservative
Party is the most democratic, allowing more free votes for our MPs
than any other party in the House of
Commons. For the Liberals, it certainly looked good in their platform,
and they received applause for it,
but talk is cheap. And when it comes
down to actually following through,
like with so many of their other big
commitments, they’re failing. No
balanced budget, no revenue neutral
tax hikes, no $10-billion deficit caps
and now no free votes.
“I’ll give them one thing, they’re
consistent. Liberals haven’t yet met
a promise they wouldn’t break.”
“This question can get complicated really quickly. MPs are elected
to represent their constituents. They
are also elected on a party platform.
Once elected, they have a constitutional
responsibility to hold the government
accountable. On some issues these different roles are in conflict and must be
reconciled before an MP casts their vote.
“In terms of holding the government
to account, having a free and open debate can be as important as how they
vote. When our elected representatives
gather to debate important issues, it
would be grand if they didn’t just end
up in a free for all—where talking
points and wedge issues, like pipelines
or Israel, are simply hurled at each
other across the floor.
“For the NDP, free votes have generally not been a big issue. Our caucus has
been able to have robust yet respectful
conversations that lead to a consensus
position. Keep in mind that when you
actually agree on things there’s no need
for a leader to whip the vote.
“I believe more free votes are
better, while being mindful of the
potential tyranny of the majority. In
a democracy, we should never put
human rights, or minority rights, up to
a vote.”
“Physician-assisted dying is the perfect example of a
case where we should not
impose a party line on a vote in
the House. It is an extremely sensitive issue that concerns basic
values. In Quebec we created
a non-partisan committee to
study the subject from all sides
and, most importantly, to avoid
imposing a predetermined point
of view. This approach enabled
Quebeckers and elected representatives to make an enlightened decision based on their
values.
“Why would Justin Trudeau’s
Liberals establish a committee
to grapple with this subject if the
leader was simply going to tell
his MPs how to vote? By forcing
Liberal MPs to vote the party
line on physician-assisted dying, Government House Leader
Dominic LeBlanc is turning a human issue into a partisan one. In
2016, we expect our legislators to
have more freedom in debates of
this nature. It would be a breath
of fresh air for our democratic
system.”
“Forcing MPs to vote along
party lines restricts their ability to represent their constituents, which is why the Green
Party has a long-standing policy
against whipping votes. We
strongly oppose any attempt to
disempower MPs simply for the
sake of partisan convenience.
Whipped votes are a threat to
democracy.
“It’s critical to remember
that MPs are elected by voters—not party bosses. Yet, in
the old-line political parties,
MPs are routinely bullied into
falling into line through threat
of punishment, including not
being allowed to speak in the
House or even being thrown
of the party. Tying the hands of
MPs undermines the ability of
individual voters to have their
perspectives represented in our
political institutions.
“For the Green MPs, the duty
of representing constituents
is sacred, and Green MPs will
always be free to put their constituents or conscience ahead of
orders from the party leader’s
office.”
®
FROM
2006
TO
2015
illegal tobacco
robbed Canadians
of over
15
*
$
BILLION
HOW MUCH WILL
IT COST CANADIANS
IN THE FUTURE?
WHO IS
WINNING?
WHAT IS THE
GOVERNMENT DOING?
Up to $2 billion per year until the Federal
Government takes action to stop illegal tobacco*
The 175 organized crime groups
involved in contraband tobacco**
The Federal Government needs to
take action on illegal tobacco NOW
*National Academy of Science, Understanding the US Illicit tobacco market (2015), Page 93-94 and Estimate based on federal and
provincial contraband levels estimates and projected tobacco tax revenues in federal and provincial budget documents
**http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/tobac-tabac/tobacco-tabac-strat-2008-eng.htm

george - The Hill Times

Transcription

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