Hello,
Resignations and leaves of absence among elected municipal officials in Quebec have prompted the province to launch a telephone helpline, starting today, to connect politicians and their families with psychological aid.
Minister of Municipal Affairs Andrée Laforest said a growing number of elected officials are quitting because of intimidation and harassment – at least 741 of 8,000 local politicians have quit since 2021.
The provincial government also plans to create a mandatory online course for newly elected leaders to better equip them to handle some of the stressors of their roles.
A week ago, the mayor of Gatineau, beside Ottawa, quit citing a hostile work environment, including death threats from members of the public. France Bélisle, Gatineau’s first female mayor, was elected in 2021. In departing, she told a news conference she wondered about accomplishing the demanding work of the mayor’s job in an often-hostile context.
Scott Pearce, the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said he found the situation around departing municipal officials sad.
“It shows the pressure that mayors and councillors are dealing with when it comes to the lack of funding for infrastructure, and the pressures are enormous,” Pearce told a news conference on Parliament Hill.
With a report The Canadian Press
Breaking: Two scientists at Canada’s high-security infectious-disease laboratory in Winnipeg provided confidential scientific information to China and were fired because they were “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security” and engaged in clandestine meetings with Chinese officials, documents tabled in the House of Commons reveal.
Breaking: Veteran NDP MP Daniel Blaikie has announced he is stepping down effective March 31 after almost a decade in Parliament to become a senior intergovernmental affairs adviser to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. The Winnipeg-area MP, first elected in 2015, is the son of the late Bill Blaikie, who was the NDP MP in the riding his son now represents from 1978 to 2008. In a statement today, Daniel Blaikie said he was confident in the “fantastic team” of NDP MPs now working under the leadership of Jagmeet Singh. There are now 25 NDP MPs in the House of Commons.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
Ottawa rejects Alberta’s request to introduce new tracking for ‘safer supply’ drugs: Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks wrote this week to her counterpart in Alberta, saying that while she takes concerns about diversion seriously, the province’s proposal raises practical concerns.
Ottawa reviewing Indigenous contracting program linked to ArriveCan contractors: While much of the focus on ArriveCan has centred around GCStrategies, which received $19.1-million to work on the app for cross-border travellers, concerns have also been expressed about Dalian Enterprises, which presents itself as an Indigenous-owned company, and received $7.9-million.
Alberta Premier distancing herself from TBA leader after comments on Poilievre: Danielle Smith said she has told David Parker, founder of Take Back Alberta, a socially conservative organization that helped elevate her to power, to “get some help” and delete his X account, where he has recently posted derogatory comments about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and other political figures.
Ottawa will meet its fiscal targets, Chrystia Freeland says: The Finance Minister signalled this week that her 2024 budget will keep the size of this year’s deficit below $40.1-billion as the Liberal government faces competing pressures to both spend more and exercise restraint so as not to fuel inflation.
Online harms bill’s proposed changes risk muzzling free speech, experts warn: Josh Dehaas, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, warned the bill could silence people, from comedians to commentators, who fear being reported to the Human Rights Commission and the prospect of huge fines.
Alberta to ban renewables on prime land, declare no-build zones for wind turbines: The changes, announced today by Premier Danielle Smith and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf and obtained by The Globe and Mail, are the culmination of a ban on renewable approvals that lasted almost seven months.
Slow procurement keeps pushing defence spending down the line, PBO report finds: Yves Giroux, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, found planned spending is $51.5-billion more than it was two years ago, mostly because of NORAD modernization and new procurements.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“This is the sequel of a sequel of a sequel of a sequel of a not-so-good movie in which we have played so many times. I expect the court to say something Quebec won’t like” – Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, at a news conference today, on an expected Quebec Court of Appeal ruling Thursday on Bill 21, banning public servants from wearing religious symbols.
“It’s not like a switch you flip and suddenly you have better prices when it comes to grocery.” – Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, arriving for the Liberal caucus meeting today, defending his efforts to deal with grocery prices.
THIS AND THAT
Ambassador checks out Ottawa dining: David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador in Canada, reports on a summit at an iconic restaurant in Ottawa whose participants included a former mayor and governor-general.
Today in the Commons: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, accessible here.
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Chrystia Freeland is in Sao Paulo, Brazil for a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting. Freeland was also scheduled to meet with finance ministers from G20 countries. She departs to return to Toronto today.
Ministers on the road: International Trade Minister Mary Ng is in Abu Dhabi attending the World Trade Organization’s 13th Ministerial Conference. Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, in Toronto with representatives of the city, announced $5-million in federal funding to install more than 500 new electric-vehicle chargers, including 40 fast chargers across the city.
Commons committee highlights: Phil Hartling, president of wireless at Rogers Communications Inc., was among the witnesses appearing late this afternoon before the industry committee on the accessibility and affordability of wireless and broadband services in Canada. Immigration Minister Marc Miller appeared before the citizenship committee on recent changes to international student policy and plans for future measures. Arianne Reza, deputy minister at the public works department, was among the witnesses scheduled to appear at the government operations committee hearing on the ArriveCan App. Ivan Zinger, Canada’s correctional investigator of Canada, presented the 50th annual report of his office at the Indigenous and Northern affairs committee.
Senate committee highlights: Marianne Alto, the mayor of Victoria, was scheduled to appear before the national finance committee on Bill S-233 to develop a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau attended the Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill, and later Question Period.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet held a news conference on his party’s budget expectations and attended Question Period.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in Ottawa, held her weekly caucus meeting and attended the House of Commons.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, attended his caucus meeting and participated in Question Period.
No schedule provided for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
THE DECIBEL
On today’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, retailing reporter Susan Krashinsky Robertson and wealth management and insurance reporter Clare O’Hara explain the blowback against preferred pharmacy networks, which are meant to deal with the rising prices of pharmaceutical drugs. Detractors say these plans mean less transparency, competition and consumer choice. The Decibel is here.
PUBLIC OPINION
Federal politics: The federal Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre is 16 points ahead of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals according to new Leger research.
Childhood vaccination: Seven in 10 Canadians feel that the anti-vaccination movement is going to lead to unnecessary illness and suffering in the population, according to new research from the Angus Reid Institute.
OPINION
The prosperity problem: Ottawa needs to cut (the right kind of) corporate taxes
“One of the most basic principles of tax policy is cutting taxes on the thing you want more of (with the other of course being hiking taxes on the thing you want less of). Based on that principle, the debate over the last couple of decades about whether the corporate tax rate should rise or fall has been a waste of time, at least in terms of finding the most direct path to spurring business investment in Canada.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
One cheer for the new Online Harms Act
“The advance word on Bill C-63, the government of Canada’s latest attempt to regulate the internet, was that it was All About the Children. The government had learned from the debacle over the bill’s predecessor, the much-criticized Bill C-36, which would have subjected social-media platforms to 24-hour takedown orders for a wide range of content deemed harmful. The new bill would be more narrowly focused on protecting children. And who could be against that? Well, now we have the bill, and one part of it is indeed as advertised.” – Andrew Coyne
Alberta’s knee-jerk reaction to pharmacare puts its residents at a disadvantage
“Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange isn’t totally wrong when she says the national pharmacare deal is a politically motivated plan to keep the supply-and-confidence agreement alive, and stave off the threat of a federal election unwanted by both the NDP and the low-in-the-polls Liberals. Ottawa is encroaching on Alberta’s authority to deliver health care services, as she said – an area that is primarily a provincial responsibility. And true to form, Alberta and Quebec were the first out of the gate in saying there would be no participation in a program that’s expected to soon cover the costs of diabetes and birth-control medications for everyone.” – Kelly Cryderman
Fed up with economic issues, many young voters are moving to the right
“Ginny Roth, a public relations consultant and devout Conservative, reckons that more than 75 of the 117 Tory MPs in the House of Commons are the same age as leader Pierre Poilievre – who is 44 – or younger. Many young voters, especially young men, are moving to the right. They are now far more likely to support the Conservative Party than the Liberal Party. This confounds some older voters, who mistakenly assumed that each generation would be more progressive than the one that came before. The reason for the disconnect is simple. As Ms. Roth put it when she moderated a panel of young Conservative politicians last week that was hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto: “Politics is dominated by homeowners.” – John Ibbitson
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