Category: Politics

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities met Thursday and, at that meeting, heard from a variety of departmental officials at Human Resources, the department that administers Canada's employment insurance system. Some numbers that popped out at me during that meeting:

• Mike Savage, the Liberal MP from Dartmouth-Cole Harbour noted that, according to a Caledon Institute commentary [PDF}, fewer unemployed Canadians than ever qualify for employment insurance benefits. The Institute said that in 1976, 84 per cent of unemployed Canadians could expect financial help from the federal government in the form of employment insurance. In 2007, that had fallen to just 44 per cent. Mind you, it was the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien that largely changed the eligibility rules on EI that has resulted in so few unemployed now being eligible.
• Departmental officials told me that, at the end of January, total number of claims for employment insurance was up 14 per cent compared to January, 2008.
• In 2008 — a year of remarkable job creation, notwithstanding the 100,000 jobs lost in the final two months — the department had 2.6 million applications for employment insurance; it processed 22 million cheques that were sent to 2.1 million Canadians.
• As of December, the department says it was meeting its service standard of ensuring that 80 per cent of applicants received their first benefit cheque within 28 days of applying. One should note that 28 day period generally begins the day after losing your job. EI requires a two-week waiting period during which you cannot receive benefits. That two-week waiting period is also within that 28 day waiting period.

[From today's editions] For the first time since 1976, Canadians spent more money buying goods and services from foreign suppliers than they did selling things to foreign customers, drawing attention to the importance of exports to Canada's own recovery plans.

Where Canada had been posting monthly trade surpluses of $3 billion or more for most of 2008, that surplus evaporated in December, with a trade deficit — the difference between the amount Canada sold to the world and the amount Canada bought — coming in at $458 million, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. Analysts said it likely will be the first of several monthly trade deficits.

In simple terms, Canada's foreign customers did not do much shopping here in December and when they did, they didn't pay very much for what they got.

“It's predictable when we're in a worldwide downturn in the economy and some of our major purchasers — the United States, China — are going through a very difficult time and therefore, they're buying less,” International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said Wednesday. “It reflects the tough economic times we're in.”

But the Opposition Liberals jumped on the latest data to note that the Conservative government is amassing a dismal record of economic indicators.

In December, bankruptcies shot up 50%. In January, the country suffered its worst single month for job losses. Now, the Conservatives have presided over the first trade deficit in 33 years.

“This is a bad record for this government,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in the House of Commons Wednesday.

Day said the federal government is continuing to push for open markets and against rising protectionist trends, as it has done in the last six months at international gatherings such as the G20 and the annual summit of Pacific Rim leaders.

“When we see a drop in exports, certainly it magnifies the reasons why we can't have any country fall backwards into protectionist activities and start slamming the doors on trade,” said Day. “We will continue to lead the parade so far as encouraging countries not to fall into protectionist activity.”

But Liberal trade critic Scott Brison said the Harper government must shoulder some of the blame. Brison said the Conservatives have taken the wrong tone with China and have done little to foster ties with India. The economies of both China and India are expected to post strong growth this year.

[Read the full story]

MP Scott Brison is the Liberal International Trade Critic and, because of that, is the ranking LIberal on the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade. That committee is meeting this morning to listen to witnesses from a shipbuilding union and from the federal departments of finance and industry talk about Bill C-2:

An Act to implement the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the States of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland), the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Republic of Iceland, the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Kingdom of Norway and the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Swiss Confederation

After the committee finishes taking its testimony on this issue, Brison has give notice that he'd like the committee to consider the following motions:

• Motion 1 – That the Standing Committee on International Trade request that the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, appear before the Committee during its study on Bill C-2 in order to answer questions regarding the state of Canada's shipbuilding industry.
• Motion 2 – That the Standing Committee on International Trade request that senior officials from Industry Canada and Finance Canada appear before the Committee during its study on Bill C-2.
• Motion 3 – That the Standing Committee on International Trade travel to Washington D.C. as soon as possible in order to meet with members of the United States Congress and Obama-Biden Administration.
• Motion 4 – That the Standing Committee on International Trade conducts a comprehensive review of the Canada-United States border, especially as it pertains to our joint trade and security pursuits with the United States.

UPDATE: Brison withdrew Motion 2 but there was considerable debate on Motion 1, with the Conservatives essentially accusing the oppostion of ragging the puck and delaying implementation of a trade deal. Liberal and NDP MPs argued that hearing witnesses on a given bill and asking questions of ministers on behalf of constituents — there are concerns about EFTA's impact on Canada's agriculture and shipbuilding sector — is precisely what they were elected to do. The meeting concluded without any conclusion to that debate so all of these motions will not be voted on at least until this committee's next meeting on Feb. 24.

Today, in the House of Commons, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said:

Mr. Speaker, … there was no radioactive leak into the Ottawa River …

And she appears to be quite right.

But, as the documents she tabled today in the House indicate, there will be a release of radioactive water into the Ottawa River:

The collected heavy water, along with other waste water from the Chalk River site, will be treated at Chalk River's Waste Treatment Centre to reduce contamination. Prior to any release of water to the river, water is treated to remove the majority of radio-nuclides. All applicable release limits are agreed with the CNSC, and adhered to by AECL, consistent with Ministry of Environment regulations.

In instances of handling water with tritium, which is not removed in the treatment process, concentration levels dictate whether the water will be stored or released. Releases from AECL's Waste Treatment Centre are carefully monitored and released at a controlled rate, subject to provincial and federal regulatory limits. AECL routinely monitors water in the Ottawa River for concentration of tritium. For example downstream from Chalk River Labs, at Petawawa, tritium concentrations in the Ottawa River are similar to the naturally-occurring level upstream of Chalk River, and negligible compared to the Canadian drinking water standard.

Technorati Tags: chalk river, nuclear reactors

Some notes pecked out as I pass the time inside the lockup for the release of the latest series of chapters from the Auditor General:

Feeding prisoners

Overtime for prison guards

Crown Corporations

These tidbits come from the recently tabled (by Treasury Board President Vic Toews) annual report on Federal Crown Corporations:

• The federal government is divided up – for legal, corporate and reporting purposes — into 383 distinct units. (Combined, those 383 units will spend about $230 billion this year, incidentally). Government departments — Justice, Health, Natural Resources, and so on — are the biggest units and each one has a minister. There are 20 of those. There are 125 “shared governance” corporations, 76 wholly-owned subsidiaries of Crown corporations, 58 statutory and other agencies, 48 Crown corporations but just 2 joint enterprises in which the federal government (or one of those 383 units) is one of the partners. That's a whole lot of stuff for your correspondent to keep an eye on.
• John Baird, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities has the greatest number of “units” reporting to him. In addition to his own department, he has 76 Crown corporations, statutory agencies, and shared governance corporations which Parliamentarians expect him to answer for. Heritage Minister James Moore is second in that regard, with 47 such units. Toews is third with 42 such units.

New federal institutions

Some you've probably heard of, some you probably haven't, but here's a list of new federal institutions created between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008, listed according to the department responsible for the institution.

• Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• • Indian Residential Schools Truth Indian Affairs and and Reconciliation Commission Secretariat
  • Registry of the Specific Claims Tribunal
• National Defence
• • Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
• Canadian Heritage
• • Registry of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal*
• Human Resources and Social Development
• • Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board
• Finance
• • PPP Canada Inc.

John Gero was the Assistant Deputy Minister in charge of Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Last November, he was named Canada's ambassador and permanent representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.

This week, he was named the chairperson of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body.

… was — shall we say? — mixed. From today's Senate Question Period:

Hon. Joan Cook: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Does the leader condone and associate herself with the remark made by her colleague Senator Duffy in his maiden speech yesterday regarding Premiers Williams and Ghiz?

Hon. Marjory LeBreton (Leader of the Government and Minister of State (Seniors)): I thank the honourable senator for the question. It is a pleasure to take a question from Senator Cook. I have not gone over word for word the comments of Senator Duffy in his maiden speech in the Senate. Senator Duffy is free, as are all senators, to speak his mind and to speak freely in this place. It is not a matter for me as the Leader of the Government in the Senate to judge any senator’s speech or the contents of their speech.

Senator Cook: With the house's indulgence, I would like to read part of yesterday's speech. On page 73 of the Debates of the Senate, Senator Duffy states:

Honourable senators, I was disappointed to see that our dynamic young Premier in Prince Edward Island, Robert Ghiz, has climbed into bed with the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and honourable senators know what a grotesque scene that is. Do honourable senators know what happens when two politicians climb into bed together? One of them comes out on top and I am afraid that when one is in bed with Danny Williams he will come out on top and I would hate to see where that will leave P.E.I. in the end. However, I will leave all that for another day.

Hon. Lillian Eva Dyck: I heard the honourable Leader of the Government in the Senate say that it was not up to us to look at what senators were saying and that we had freedom of speech. Would the minister not say that within this chamber there is an appropriate standard of speech which we must uphold and that we should set a high standard? Does she agree with that?

Senator LeBreton: I thank the honourable senator for the supplementary question. I do not think it is within my area of responsibility to adjudicate or judge individual senators' speeches. That is a role for the Speaker, not for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Here is Derek Burleton, an associate vice-president and director of economic analysis at the TD Bank, writing today about the country's economic outlook:

In the job market, some 325,000 jobs are expected to be shed on a net basis this year, pushing the unemployment rate towards 8.8%.

Here is the first paragraph from an annex in one of the budget documents, “Economic Action Plan: Employment and Output Impacts”:

… the measures in this budget will boost real GDP by 1.4 per cent by the end of 2010, which translates into about 140,000 jobs created or maintained. Including funds leveraged from other orders of government, the impact on real GDP is estimated to be 1.9 per cent by the end of 2010, translating into almost 190,000 jobs created or maintained.

So, just to review:

• Jobs to be lost this year: 325,000
• Government job creation target: 190,000

Meanwhile, the Commons Finance Committee will hear evidence tomorrow from Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Page may have some comments about the size and effectiveness of the government's stimulus plan and its impact on job creations.

The Bloc Québecois will use the current legislative session to push for changes to employment insurance and pay equity. It will also try to position itself as a defender of funding for arts and culture. Here's today's release from the BQ on their parliamentary priorities:

Ottawa, mercredi 4 février 2009 – Le leader parlementaire du Bloc Québécois et député de Joliette, Pierre Paquette, ainsi que la leader parlementaire adjointe et députée de Québec, Christiane Gagnon, ont dévoilé aujourd’hui les priorités parlementaires du Bloc Québécois pour la session qui débute.

« Les priorités que nous présentons aujourd’hui reprennent les propositions que nous avions énoncées dans le plan de relance économique du Bloc Québécois déposé le 24 novembre 2008 et qui ont été reprises par la coalition PLC-NPD », a déclaré Pierre Paquette.

« Au cours des prochains mois, nous allons mettre de l’avant ces propositions qui correspondent aux valeurs et intérêts des Québécoises et des Québécois et qui ne se retrouvent malheureusement pas dans le budget conservateur appuyé par les libéraux », a déclaré Christiane Gagnon.

En déposant des projets de loi et des motions émanant des députés ainsi que par le biais des journées d’opposition, le Bloc Québécois mettra tout en œuvre pour que le gouvernement fédéral réponde aux préoccupations des Québécoises et des Québécois en ces temps économiquement difficiles; notamment en défendant les dossiers suivants :

• Délai de carence assurance-emploi : Le Bloc Québécois réclamera l’abolition du délai de carence de deux semaines pour la prestation de l’assurance-emploi afin de venir immédiatement en aide aux travailleuses et aux travailleurs qui perdent leur emploi.
• Bonifications à l’assurance-emploi : Le Bloc Québécois proposera d’assouplir les conditions d’admissibilité au régime d’assurance-emploi et de prolonger les prestations pour s’assurer que les travailleurs des industries saisonnières et les travailleurs à statut précaire (principalement les femmes et les jeunes) soient couverts correctement. Le Bloc Québécois va aussi demander la mise en place d’un programme de soutien au revenu pour les travailleurs âgés.
• Équité salariale : L’équité salariale est un droit fondamental et non pas un privilège négociable, comme l’a soutenu le ministre Flaherty dans son budget. Le Bloc Québécois défendra le droit des femmes à l’équité salariale de même que la possibilité pour les travailleuses et les travailleurs de faire appel aux tribunaux pour régler les questions d’équité salariale.
• Supplément de revenu garanti pour les aînés : Le projet de loi du Bloc Québécois prévoit la majoration de 110 $ par mois du supplément de revenu garanti versé aux ainés, la poursuite, pour une période de six mois, du versement de la pension de vieillesse et du supplément à la personne dont l’époux ou le conjoint de fait est décédé, l’inscription automatique des personnes de 65 ans ayant droit au supplément de revenu garanti ainsi que le paiement de la pleine rétroactivité du supplément de revenu garanti aux aînés ayant été lésés.
• Kyoto : Le Bloc Québécois demandera au gouvernement d’imposer des cibles de réduction absolue des émissions de gaz à effet de serre en se basant sur 1990 comme année de référence afin de permettre au Québec de participer notamment à un éventuel système d’échange de droits d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre pour l’Amérique du Nord.
• Financement des organismes de développement économique : Le Bloc Québécois réclamera le rétablissement du financement des organismes de développement économique à but non lucratif qui a été coupé par le gouvernement conservateur.
• Culture : Le Bloc Québécois exige que le gouvernement annule les compressions qu’il a effectuées en matière culturelle et qu’il rétablisse le financement des programmes coupés au niveau où il était au cours de l’année financière 2008-2009.

Pierre Paquette et Christiane Gagnon ont par ailleurs précisé que le Bloc Québécois portera également d’autres de ses engagements électoraux. Mentionnons notamment ceux-ci :

• Reconnaissance concrète de la nation québécoise : Afin de concrétiser la reconnaissance de la nation québécoise, le Bloc Québécois revendiquera entre autres l’application de la Charte de la langue française dans les entreprises sous juridiction fédérale sur le territoire du Québec en ce qui a trait à la langue de travail.
• Projet de loi anti-briseurs de grève : Le Bloc Québécois veut interdire l’utilisation de travailleurs de remplacement dans tous les conflits de travail pour protéger les travailleurs sous juridiction fédérale au Québec, qui sont toujours privés d’une telle loi.
• Section d’appel des réfugiés : Le Bloc Québécois proposera la création d’une section d’appel des réfugiés dans le but de permettre aux réfugiés déboutés de pouvoir faire appel plus efficacement de la décision du gouvernement du Canada de ne pas leur attribuer le statut de réfugié.
• Crédits d’impôt pour les diplômés qui s’installent en région : Pour contrer l’exode des jeunes et la pénurie de main-d’œuvre qualifiée en région, le Bloc Québécois demandera que le gouvernement fédéral accorde un crédit d’impôt aux jeunes diplômés qui s’installent dans une région ressource pour y occuper un emploi.
• Retraités floués : Le Bloc Québécois exigera que le gouvernement fédéral offre une compensation aux retraités victimes de la faillite de leur ancien employeur et qui ont vu leur rente de retraite amputée. La compensation devrait prendre la forme d’un crédit d’impôt équivalent à 22 % de la perte subie.