Month: April 2005

The federal government, on very shaky political ground, unveiled an expensive and ambitious plan for Canada to meet its international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. I have a story online at CTV’s site and did a piece for last night’s national newscast. [The link to that video is on the right hand side of this page]

Canada must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 270 tonnes or 45 per cent by 2012 — the most ambitious target in the world.

The plan is called Project Green. I have some highlights and associated costs up at CTV’s site.

Some assorted notes and quotes from yesterday’s reporting:

“This is a balanced plan it calls on all of us – governments, and individual Canadians – to do our part in a meaningful way.”
– Industry Minister David Emerson

Canada will do its share for the planet – it is our responsibility. Canada will build its capacity to be a champion of sustainability because that is our best interest.
– Environnment Minister Stephane Dion

We will create enough momentum that a government going forward, I believe, would be extremely unwise to nock it significantly in one direction or another. We're hitting a sweet spot to make sure we're not grinding the economy in the dirt in the interest of realizing greenhouse gas targets.
-Emerson

I believe we're looking at 100 per cent increases in electricity rates, in heating rates with natural gas, and of course the fuel at the pumps has to go up at least 50 per cent.
– Bob Mills, Conservative – Red Deer, Conservative Caucus Environment Critic

“If the government is serious about the Kyoto target, it's going to cost a lot more than ten billion dollars to do that and individual Canadians are going to pay in terms of higher prices for products, higher taxes or, perhaps, lost jobs.”
-Jayson Myers, economist, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters

“It's certainly positive news. It's really a good forward move to fighting climate change and our biggest fear is will we get out of the starting gate with the current political situation?”
-Elizabeth May, Sierra Club of Canada

Government officials say that while the cost for Project Green is pegged at $10–billion, just $3.7–billion has been set aside in the 2005 budget or earlier budgets. Of that amount, $1.7–billion has already been spent.

Officials said if the government falls before the budget is passed, much of Project Green will die with it. Officials, though, can proceed with some initiatives, particularly plans for large final emitters to cut back. Officials said existing provisions in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act could be used to enforce those provisions.

In Project Green, large final emitters — big companies in oil and gas, mining, and other heavy industries — are being asked to cut their output by 45 megatonnes. An earlier draft, however, had LFEs cutting their emissions by 55 megatonnes.

 

More people dropped by for a visit at this blog in March than ever before. There were nearly 48,500 unique visits to “On the Hill” in March. If you were one of those who dropped by, thanks very much. The most popular article here continued to be the post about John and Jackie Knill, the Vancouver, B.C. couple who perished in the Asian Tsunami. Celine fans also can’t get enough of that Air Canada video she did that I posted here.  That Celine entry has been in the monthly top 10 since it was posted. But except for those two posts, everything is new this month in the top 10. Here they are again for your review, the top 10 articles by March by the number of times they were viewed, followed by the date they were posted:

1. Looking for John and Jackie Knill (12-30-2004)
2. Air Canada and a new Celine Dion video — right here! (11-1-2004)
3. Michael Ignatieff on liberalism and the Canadian Liberal Party (3-4-2005)
4. Globe and Mail does RSS (3-11-2005) 
5. Bill Cameron: 1943-2005  (3-13-2005)
6. Blog post gets Solberg in hot water (3-8-2005) 
7. A tax break for hybrid car owners? (2-28-2005)
   A Porsche moment (1-10-2005)
8. Wheels Up (2-21-2005)
9. Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko  (2-25-2005  )
10. Hard at work  (3-5-2005)

The United Nations and many aid agencies were worried that the generous donations made by governments and individuals in the wake of the Asian tsunami might mean that other aid crises would get neglected. Well, it seems those fears were well-founded. Consider this statement, released today by the United Nations:

HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FOR CÔTE D’IVOIRE BRINGS IN ‘JUST OVER 0 PER CENT,’ UN SAYS

An international appeal for humanitarian assistance of over $39 million (U.S.) for Côte d’Ivoire has brought in “just over 0 per cent,” while a general appeal for all emergencies, except the Indian Ocean tsunami, has garnered less than 10 per cent of what was hoped for, the United Nations said today.

In response to the Côte d’Ivoire appeal for $39.3 million, the Netherlands alone pledged $181,000, “or about 0.05 per cent,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

OCHA has received $168 million of the $1.7 billion requested for emergencies outside of last December’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean. A donors’ conference for Sudan will take place next week in Norway.

Gathering less than 5 per cent of what was needed were Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Russian Federation for Chechnya, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and the West African region.

As the Conservative caucus is part of my beat here, I’m trying — lunch by lunch and coffee by coffee –– to meet all 99 members of the Conservative caucus. (If you’re a Conservative MP, feel free to phone me up if you’re looking for a lunch date today!) Today, in setting up some time to meet Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia MP and Conservative health critic Steven Fletcher (left), I made the happy discovery that Steven and his staff maintain a blog. I now know of three MPs who keep blogs. Steven’s caucus colleague Monte Solberg has one and so does Liberal MP Carolynn Bennett. (If you know of more MP blogs, or even of blogs by provincial politicians, I’d love to hear about them.)

Fletcher’s blog, though, has some much better features than Solberg’s or Bennett’s. At Fletcher’s blog, readers can add their own comments. Moreover, Fletcher’s blog can also handle trackbacks.

 

Justice John Gomery has partially lifted a publication ban on some testimony given in front of him over the last few days. We have a report with some video from the inquiry at CTV’s site:

[Montreal ad executive Jean] Brault claims in his testimony that he systematically kicked back huge amounts of taxpayer money to the federal Liberal party, a deception he claims involved senior Liberal organizers and people close to former prime minister Jean Chretien.

His testimony detailed secret meetings, phoney paper trails, envelopes stuffed with cash and bogus billings.

He said there were phoney employees on the payroll at the ad firm Groupaction.
Brault said there was $1 million in kickbacks to the Liberal Party of Canada.
His reward, he claims, was $172 million in government business for his firm. [Read and see the rest]

My Globe and Mail colleague Tu Thanh Ha also has a  report online at the Globe and Mail’s site.

A Montreal ad executive at the heart of the federal sponsorship scandal says Liberal organizers pressed him into secretly donating more than a million dollars to them through various covert methods that included envelopes full of cash, fake invoices and putting phony employees on his payroll.

The devastating testimony Jean Brault gave at the Gomery inquiry had been kept secret until now because of a publication ban so it wouldn't prejudice criminal proceedings against him.

Mr. Justice John Gomery lifted the blackout.

Mr. Brault's testimony portrayed a broad pattern of deception that spanned years and involved several people, including senior party organizers, a brother and a friend of then prime minister Jean Chrétien and several past and current ministerial advisers . . . [Read the full story]

 

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) lifted key aspects of the license for CTV Newsnet today and provided it with more money for programming.

The key paragraph from the CRTC release says:

“The licensee is no longer required to operate CTV Newsnet in a 15-minute news wheel. In addition, the licensee may broadcast a limited amount of programming drawn from category 2 (a) (Analysis and interpretation).”

Senior CTV officials had outlined why this was important earlier.

When Canada's military wants to buy something, it has to do what every other
government department must do and get final contracting authority from the
Treasury Board Secretariat.
But a few minutes ago, in a speech to defence policy analysts, Defence
Minister Bill Graham wants the department to have the final say on strictly
military stuff. He said he's going to do some pilot project procurement this
way.
“The point of such an experiment would be to ascertain if this approach
would cut the costs associated with the procurement process, reduce
acquisition times and clarify accountability lines, while not diluting
accountability or increasing risk to the Crown,” Graham said.

Canada has undertaken a review of federal access to information laws. Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler tabled a series of recommendations at the House of Commons committee that studies Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. The committee next meets to discuss these issues on Tues, April 12. Information Commissioner John Reid will be the key witness in front of the committee at that time.

Here’s the key changes tabled by Minister Cotler:

• Expanding coverage under the ATIA to more Crown Corporations and other entities, such as Alternate Dispute Delivery Organizations.
• Proposing the possible extension of the ATIA to the Office of the following Agents of Parliament: the Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Chief Electoral Officer, and the Auditor General.
• Modernizing exclusions and exemptions relating to such matters as Cabinet confidences, among others.
• Updating current Access to Information processes such as fee collection and t ime limits for processing Access to Information and Privacy requests.
• Introducing new administrative reforms such as providing specific training in information management and disclosure of information to executives and public servants, and upgrading tools to assist institutions in processing access requests or to track timelines.

The government is distributing a discussion paper that looks at the framework for these changes and has also published a more comprehensive report on the proposed changes to the federal ATI legislation.

Canada’s federal government ranked number one for the fifth consecutive year in a 22–country survey that measures delivery of government surveys using emerging communication and information technologies. The United States federal government ranked second, followed, in order, by the federal governments in Denmark, Singapore, and Australia.

The study was done by consultancy Accenture which surveyed 9,000 adults in 22 countries.

Accenture said that, in general terms, governments around the world are still struggling to meet demands by their citizens for better customer service.

Here’s this from the Accenture press release:

To measure overall service maturity, an indicator of how well governments are delivering customer service, Accenture focused on four key aspects of service delivery: a citizen-centered perspective, cohesive multi-channel services, fluid cross-government services, and proactive communications and education.  The study found that while eGovernment offerings across the board are well advanced; with an average service maturity breadth of 91 percent, all countries have room for improvement to realize the broader goal of leadership in customer service. In fact the overall average customer service maturity score – which measures four key aspects of service delivery, including how well governments are delivering service across multiple channels – was just
39 percent. Only Canada has an overall customer service maturity score of more than 50 percent.

“Canada continues to set the bar in government service delivery for the rest of the world,” said Alden Cuddihey, partner, Accenture's Canadian Government operating group. “Despite being a leader, there are still lessons to be learned from the rest of the world, areas for advancement, and opportunities to reach even more Canadians through eGovernment services. Canada still has work to do to meet the growing service expectations of it citizens.”

The 22 governments included: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The research was conducted Jan. 3-17, 2005.

Accenture noted that despite the widespread availability and use of Internet-based communication tools, citizens were most likely to use the telephone to obtain services from their government.

The citizen survey found that while most citizens prefer a number of different methods of communicating with governments, they continue to rely on more traditional, offline channels. Despite the relative Internet savvy and familiarity with online government in some countries, the telephone continues to be the predominant means citizens use to communicate with government. Over the past 12 months, 57 percent of respondents had used the telephone to interact with government, as opposed to only 22 percent who had used the Internet. Yet despite its popularity, the telephone is consistently ranked as the least easy form of communication across all countries surveyed.

 

Canadians, by and large, do not need passports to enter the U.S. Similarly, U.S. citizens don’t need passports to get into Canada. That’s about to change. Today, the U.S. State Department announced that anyone looking to enter or re-enter the U.S., including its own citizens, will need passports or a similarly secure document. This measure will come into full effect by 2008. The State Department also said that these documents will have to be linked to fingerprints, iris scans or some other measurement of some body part or characteristic.

“Ultimately, all documents used for travel to the U.S. are expected to include biometrics that can be used to authenticate the document and verify identity.”

A few minutes ago, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said the Canadian government is reviewing its policy governing what documents Americans and others must present to get into Canada but she did say that, generally speaking, a system of reciprocity seems to work best, suggesting that, one day, Americans will need passports to get into Canada.

Here’s the statement from the U.S. Department of State:

 Media Note                                                                             
 Office of the Spokesman                                                                
 Washington, DC                                                                         
 April 5, 2005                                                                          

New Passport Initiative Announced To Better Secure America's Borders

                   
Initiative Designed to Expedite Travel in the Western Hemisphere While Enhancing Security                                                                     
                                                                                         
The Departments of State and Homeland Security announced today the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative to secure and expedite travel.  The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will require all U.S. citizens, Canadians, citizens of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, and citizens of Mexico  to have a passport or other accepted secure document to enter or re-enter the U.S. by January 1, 2008.  

Currently, U.S. citizens, and some citizens of other countries in the Western Hemisphere are not required to present a passport to enter or re-enter the U.S. when traveling within the Western Hemisphere.  The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA, also known as the 9/11 Intelligence Bill), signed into law on December 17, 2004, mandated that the Secretary of  Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, develop and implement a plan to require U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to present a  passport, or other secure document when entering the United States.                    
     
To provide vital information to the general public, the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and State (DOS) are issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed  Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the plan to the public and requesting input and/or  comment on the suggested documents and possible alternative documents that can  meet the statutory requirements.A more formal rulemaking will be issued later this year following review of those comments to implement the first phase of  the initiative.This rulemaking will take into account comments received from  the advanced notice as well as soliciting further comments on the rulemaking  itself.
 
“Our goal is to strengthen border security and expedite entry into the United States for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors,” Homeland Security  Acting Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, Randy  Beardsworth stated.”By ensuring that travelers possess secure documents, such as the passport, Homeland Security will be able to conduct more effective and efficient interviews at our borders.”
 
“We recognize the implications this might have for industry, business and the general public, as well as our neighboring countries, and they are important  partners in this initiative.The advanced notice of proposed rule making will  allow these affected publics to voice concern and provide ideas for alternate documents acceptable under the law,” explained Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Maura Harty.”The overarching need is to implement this  legal requirement in a way that strengthens security while facilitating the movement of persons and goods.”
DHS and DOS propose to roll out the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in phases, providing as much advance notice as possible to the affected public to  enable them to acquire the necessary documents before the deadline.
As previously noted, the passport (U.S. or Foreign) will be the document of choice for entry or re-entry into the U.S.However, another document that we anticipate will be acceptable under the travel initiative is the Border Crossing Card, (BCC or “laser visa”).Currently, the BCC serves in lieu of a passport and a visa for citizens of Mexico traveling to the U.S. from contiguous territory.Other documents that we anticipate will be acceptable  under this Initiative are the Customs and Bo
rder Protection Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI), NEXUS and Free and Secure  Trade (FAST) program cards.
 
Additional documents are also being examined to determine their acceptability for travel.The public will be notified of additional travel document options  as those determinations are made.The government would expect that acceptable  documents must establish the citizenship and identity of the bearer, enable electronic data verification and checking, and include significant security features. Ultimately, all documents used for travel to the U.S. are expected to include biometrics that can be used to authenticate the document and verify identity.