Good morning,
Before the government can introduce a new piece of legislation, it needs to notify MPs of what’s coming by mentioning the proposed bill on the legislature’s daily notice paper.
Well, there’s a new bill on today’s notice paper: “An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of postal services.”
The Liberal government is preparing to legislate an end to the ongoing labour issues at Canada Post. Rotating strikes have gone on for weeks and, with the holiday season approaching, the volume of shipping is increasing and Canadians are waiting longer for their mail.
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said in a statement that she respects the collective bargaining process, but that she can’t allow the pain at the post office to continue indefinitely.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa. It is exclusively available only to our digital subscribers. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Finance Minister Bill Morneau will table the government’s fall fiscal update today. The update is sort of a mini-budget that comes about half a year after the regular budget. Sometimes the economic plans can be big: The Canada Infrastructure Bank, for instance, was introduced in the 2016 fall update. Mr. Morneau is expected to address policies for corporate Canada, particularly ones designed to spur productivity and respond to corporate tax cuts made in the U.S. last year. Check The Globe and Mail’s website after 4 p.m. for news on what’s in the update.
Mystery is swirling in B.C. after the two highest-ranking employees of the legislature were put on leave from their jobs amid a criminal investigation. Clerk of the House Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were suspended after a unanimous vote of the MLAs. So far, no one has said what Mr. James and Mr. Lenz are alleged to have done.
Canada’s former diplomats at the embassy in Cuba, many of whom suffered bizarre brain injuries that, so far, have no identified cause, say they’re received only “fragmented, slow and inconsistent” help from the federal government. Separately, the federal Auditor-General raised concerns yesterday with the level of security that Global Affairs provides to embassies abroad.
David Johnston is the first former governor-general to publicly declare the expenses he’s claimed through a controversial program.
Senators appointed before and after the expenses scandal that broke out six years ago are locked in a disagreement about how to provide more auditing and oversight of their expenses.
A Canadian investor in cannabis has been permanently barred from the United States because the individual tried to travel to Las Vegas on business, the Financial Post reports.
And residents of the United Kingdom could very well get another chance to vote on Brexit.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on today’s fall fiscal update: “The government has already signalled it won’t match Mr. Trump’s tax cuts – they are driving U.S. deficits higher and would do the same here. It wouldn’t fit the Liberal brand: Mr. Trudeau ran in 2015 promising the wealthy would pay a bit more. He’s not going to run in 2019 defending deep corporate tax cuts.”
Kevin Milligan (Maclean’s) on the benefits of corporate tax policies: “If we lower the corporate tax rate today, we give a windfall gain to the profits coming from investments already made in the past—and that doesn’t benefit future growth. Instead, if we change the way we tax new investment, we can reform our corporate tax system to focus directly on future growth. We can take the existing drawn-out way we write off investment and simply front-load the tax incentive by letting firms expense their investments immediately. A tax change to the expensing of investment ensures that our tax system exerts its efforts and incentives on what we want most from our corporations: productive investment.”
Stéphanie Chouinard and Serge Miville (The Globe and Mail) on the Ontario government’s cuts to francophone services: “Today, francophobia has donned new clothes: those of populism. Under the simplistic discourse of budgetary rigour, deficit reduction, and common sense, the new populist apostles see bilingualism not as an advantage but as a frill that responsible governments can no longer afford. But let’s not be duped: Behind this gloss of accountability hides a century-old intolerance that periodically rears its head to besiege francophone rights.”
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Chris Hannay