Month: May 2009

Is the stimulus money getting out the door?

As some readers here know, I maintain a database which tracks every spending announcement made by every federal government department. (Most, but not all, entries in that database, incidentally, get tweeted at #ottawaspends. Learn more.)

As the issue of getting stimulus out the door is an issue here in Ottawa right now, here's what the numbers from my database tell me:

Since the budget was tabled on Jan. 27, there have been 679 press releases issued by the federal government, announcing projects which have a combined value $33.87 billion.

Nearly $10 billion of that, though, was for extending employment insurance benefits and implementing the government’s skills and training strategy. That money will be paid out over the next two years.

Infrastructure Canada, the department responsible for implementing the $12-billion infrastructure spending plan announced in the budget, has made 46 announcements since the budget for projects totalling $2.7 billion.

When we count press releases, we don't care if it's new money, old money, or recycled money. We just care that a press release was issued announcing that the government is spending money on something.

The biggest ticket item: On March 13, 2009, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley laid out the details of the government's $8.3 billion Canada Skills and Transition Strategy. That money had been announced in the budget but Finely was calling our attention to that spending.

The smallest funding announcement since Jan. 27: Public Works Minister Christian Paradis announces, on behalf of Finley, a grant of $1,530 to help the Cercle de Fermieres de Courcelles in Courcelles, QC with a building project for seniors there.

The most important paragraphs in Budget 2009

The Budget Plan is a 360-page document that contains everything you need to know about Budget 2009, tabled Jan. 27 by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in the the House of Commons. The Plan contains all the background, rationale and details on how the government intends to collect and spend more than $200 billion between April 1, 2009 and April 1, 2010.

And while there are lots of important paragraphs in that document, I'm going to suggest that, politically at least, these paragraphs, found on page 10 of the hard-copy version, and found here on line, are now the most important:

Budget 2009 reflects a strong consensus among Canadians that the Government must deliver a potent economic stimulus to encourage growth and restore confidence in our economy. The Economic Action Plan is based on three guiding principles—that stimulus should be timely, targeted and temporary.

Timely. Canada is in recession today. Measures to support the economy must begin within the next 120 days to be most effective.

Targeted. Measures that target Canadian businesses and families most in need will trigger the largest increase in Canadian jobs and output.

Temporary. The stimulus plan should be phased out when the economy recovers to avoid long-term structural deficits.

The Government’s Economic Action Plan will provide almost $30 billion in support to the Canadian economy, or 1.9 per cent of our gross domestic product.

It will create or maintain close to 190,000 Canadian jobs.

These paragraphs contain a lot of the benchmarks that the opposition Liberals will hold Flaherty and the government to as the government presents its quarterly reports. The next quarterly report, as I report today, could be out as early as next week. So let's check in:

On the issue of timely: This document was tabled on January 27, 2009. That would be 120 days ago. Conservatives hve already tried to convince me that they really meant 120 days from April 1, the beginning of the budget year, but I see no such qualifier in the budget document.

On the issue of targeted. Liberals argue making it easier for more “families most in need” to qualify for EI is best.

On the issue of temporary. Liberals — and man Bay Street market watchers — would like some more explanation about how Flaherty gets us to deficit of $50 billion this year and then would like to hear some details on how he thinks this could be temporary.

The last point is also crucial: This is the line in which government commits to a certain job creation figure. The government gives itself an out when its says “create or maintain” but, still, Liberals will keep circling that number and will want to see progress on job creation.

, ,

Breitkreuz reloads on new bill to get rid of long-gun registry

Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz says he is happy to let his legislation to kill the controversial long-gun registry die a quiet death as he gets behind the bill of another Conservative MP who he believes has a better shot at abolishing the rule that would force rifle owners to be certified.

Breitkreuz had introduced a private member's bill in February that would have forced only owners of restricted and prohibited weapons to obtain a gun registry certificate. But his bill went further than that, with, for example, changes to restrictions on the transportation of weapons and a call that the auditor general periodically review the operation of the gun registry.

Those additional items, he said in an interview, may have jeopardized the chance of his bill passing through the House of Commons so, on Monday, as his bill came up for debate, he purposely stayed out of the House.

Under House rules, debate on his bill could not proceed unless he was present. It may come up one more time for debate but even if it does, Breitkreuz will likely do the same thing, effectively killing his own bill.

He will, instead, work in favour of another private member's bill put forward by Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner. [Read the rest of the story]

,

Finley's EI announcement: No new money, but they're helping many more

There were some who thought that, when the notice went out that Human Resources Minister Diane Finley was to be in Oshawa this morning for an announcement on employment insurance, the government was about to cave to opposition demands to enrich the program. Not so. Finley was in Oshawa to re-announce, describe, or otherwise call attention to what Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had announced on Jan. 27 in the federal budget, namely a $500-million fund to help older workers who had been on the job for a long time get set up for new career.

From page 98 of the Budget Plan:

Long-Tenured Workers

As the global economic slowdown has unfolded, a number of communities across the country have been particularly hard hit. Individuals who have spent years working in one industry or for one employer now face the prospect of unemployment and the need to retrain for a new job, possibly in an entirely different industry.
To ensure that Canadian workers have financial support while training for new employment opportunities, the Government will provide $500 million over two years to extend EI income benefits for individuals participating in longer-term training.

This funding will give up to 10,000 long-tenured workers additional time and financial support to allow them to gain the new skills needed to adapt to the changing economy. It will also allow earlier access to EI benefits for workers who have received severance packages, if they use some or all of that severance to purchase skills upgrading or training for themselves.

Finley's press release today offers the same financial figure but there is some decidedly different language on the number of people who will be helped by this fund. In the budget, this fund was to help 10,000. I suspect you will hear Conservative politicians today telling people this fund is now helping 40,000. Here's excerpts from Finley's press release.

… said Minister [Diane] Finley: “Through Career Transition Assistance, the Government of Canada will provide an estimated $500 million to help laid-off long-tenured workers with many years of experience upgrade their skills.”
…
Career Transition Assistance consists of two initiatives to provide additional support to long-tenured workers. One initiative will extend the duration of EI benefits for eligible workers who participate in longer-term training, up to two years. Approximately 40,000 individuals are expected to benefit from this measure. The other initiative will help between 5,000 and 10,000 people by allowing earlier access to EI regular income benefits for eligible workers investing in their own training using all or part of their severance package.

, , ,

Chalk River update: "Action levels" reached on airborne release of radioactive material

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is just about to release the following update on the status of the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River, Ont.. My annotation is in bold …

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) provides the following update of activities related to the unplanned shutdown of NRU at Chalk River Laboratories:

· The remaining Moly-99 available for isotope supply has now been removed from the NRU reactor and will be processed today.

· As reported on May 18th, the location of the heavy water leak has been identified at the base of the reactor vessel in a location where there is corrosion on the outside wall.

· The heavy water leak rate remains stable at approximately 5 kg/hr. Options to reduce the leak rate while inspections are ongoing are being considered.

· Due to high airflow in the area, a small portion of the leakage evaporates and results in a monitored tritium release through the NRU ventilation system. Although the airborne release is well below regulatory limits, the release has reached action levels for tritium. [I have asked AECL to explain what it means to have reached these “action levels” and what actions are triggered when this level is reached. I'll post any update here when I receive it.]

· Visual inspections using remote imaging devices are ongoing and will provide AECL with a better understanding of the nature of the leak and repair options.   

· An internal reactor vessel inspection using remote imaging was carried out at the leak location. No abnormalities were visible.

· Remote imaging inspection of the external wall of the reactor is ongoing.

· Ultrasonic investigation of the interior vessel wall is set to begin this weekend.

AECL anticipates that the NRU reactor will remain out of service for more than one month. However, the visual inspection process, once completed, will provide a more accurate return to service timeframe.

AECL confirms that there is no threat to workers, the public, the environment or nuclear safety related to this event. AECL will continue to provide updates to the CNSC and stakeholders when new information becomes available.

,

Chalk River: Time for return of the MAPLEs?

Canwest News Service has learned that some current and former nuclear engineers are quietly pushing a plan to reactivate a backup project for the NRU, a project shelved last year by AECL with the backing of Raitt's predecessor Gary Lunn.

In the 1980s, AECL began building two new reactors — MAPLE-1 and MAPLE-2 — next door to the NRU at Chalk River and were to have put them into service in 2000, allowing the NRU to be permanently retired. But last year, with construction of the MAPLEs seven years behind schedule, hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, and with no apparent prospects of sorting out a technical problem that prevented the federal nuclear regulator from certifying them as safe, AECL cancelled the project with Lunn's backing.

Raitt, who had not yet been elected an MP at the time, said she stands by Lunn's decision.

“We are not considering resurrecting this project which, despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent, continued to be crippled with irresolvable technical impediments, was eight years behind schedule, experienced serious licensing challenges, and had never produced a single medical isotope,” she said.

But two sources, both of them nuclear engineers who have worked on the NRU and the MAPLEs, say the MAPLEs are perfectly capable of safely producing isotopes and that Raitt ought to “persuade” the CNSC to take another look the project.

“I think there's a way out of this but the way out is that CNSC would have to relent on the safety requirements and that's a tall order,” said a former Chalk River engineer who is now a risk management expert for the federal government and asked not to be identified. “But maybe we'll have to get that in order to avert a major crisis.” [The whole story]

, ,

"I don't want to die with a black mark on my name"

Doing what good journalists are supposed to do: Though we've had this letter since yesterday, we did our due diligence today, checking its bona fides which, as it turns out, are both bona and fide. As a result, my colleague Juliet O'Neill is able to update an earlier post here and report that:

A distraught 81-year-old Filipina is accusing embattled Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla (left) of “taking advantage” of her to falsely claim the support of the Brampton Filipino Seniors Club.

“They took my signature,” Aurora Villanueva, 2007-2008 president of the Ontario club, said in an interview Thursday. “I need to clear my name. I don't want to die with a black mark on my name.”

Ms. Villanueva says she wrote a letter on May 13th to the Commons immigration committee retracting a May 7th letter that said Ms. Dhalla had been “unjustly smeared” by allegations of mistreating caregivers, had a character of the highest integrity and had the support of the club.

Ms. Dhalla “took advantage of my being an old lady and being friendly” to secure her signature on a prepared letter a Ms. Dhalla representative brought to her home two weeks ago, when she was ill and unaware of the caregivers' allegations, she said.  

[Read the rest of the story]

Iggy, Gandhi — both were "Just Visiting"!

“The Visitor” ad, above, seems to be a creation of a Liberal supporter and is being distributed on YouTube. It spoofs the “Just Visiting” spot, below, which is a creation of The Conservative Party of Canada and is being shown as a paid ad on Canadian network television.

It seems clear that Liberals (I assume they are Liberals) are having a certain amount of fun riffing off of the Conservative “Just Visiting” attack ads. Here's one from the Libs that accuses Mahatma Gandhi of being a mere arriviste for Indian independence. I've put up the YouTube links to both ads here on the assumption that you need to see the original (on the bottom) in order to get the joke (on the top.)
, , ,

Harper in Montreal attacks "centralizing" Ignatieff in Quebec, ignores Duceppe

Interesting.

After aiming frequently and often over the last year at the impuissance of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois when speaking to Quebec voters, Prime MInister Stephen Harper this evening warns Quebeckers against Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals, La Presse reports. In fact, La Presse says Harper hardly talked about the BQ and accused Ignatieff of being the most — and forgive my French here — centralizing leader the Liberals have ever had, a contrast to Harper and his (often vague and undefined but sometimes popular) open federalism:

Stephen Harper a décrit le chef libéral Michael Ignatieff comme «le chef libéral le plus centralisateur de l'histoire de ce pays».

Il a d'ailleurs opposé ce fédéralisme «centralisateur» des libéraux à ce qu'il a appelé «le fédéralisme d'ouverture» que lui dit pratiquer face au Québec. Il a cité en cela la reconnaissance du Québec comme nation et son siège au sein de la délégation canadienne à l'Unesco.

La Presse also notes that, though the party says it sold 2,300 tickets at $150 a pop for the fundraiser in Montreal tonight, its reporter only saw about 1,800. A Canadian Press reporter counts 2,000. La Presse and CP both noted the presence of former ADQ leader Mario Dumont at the event — he says he was attending as a journalist.

,