The Drift

Tag: Canada

  • AG says no way to measure whether border plan is working

    AG says no way to measure whether border plan is working

    Canada’s auditor general says that federal government has no idea whether its $1.1-billion action plan to strengthen border security and trade with the U.S. has produced results.

    Michael Ferguson’s audit of the Beyond the Border Action Plan was among several areas assessed in his fall report, released Tuesday.

    Ferguson’s audit on the plan focused on the progress in achieving the objectives of a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness between the United States and Canada.

    “This audit is important because the Canada-U.S. border is vital to our economy and way of life,” the report said.

    Launched in 2011, the Beyond the Border Action Plan started with a “vision of establishing a new long-term partnership to enhance security and accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods, and services across the border, ” said the report.

    The audit found a lack of performance indicators to assess results proved problematic.

    The auditor general recommended developing indicators to measure the security, travel, and trade benefits for various initiatives of the plan.

    Treasury Board President Scott Brison said the government accepts the findings.

    “We welcome the auditor general’s report, and we agree with all the recommendations,” he said. “In particular, we agree that the Government of Canada must do a better job at reporting and tracking its progress.”

    He added “this work has to be a top priority for the government and for the Treasury Board.”

    Former prime minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama announced to much fanfare in 2011 that the plan would establish a new long-term partnership built upon a perimeter approach to security and economic competitiveness.

    They agreed, among other things, they would jointly assess border threats, share information and intelligence on law enforcement and national security, and bring greater transparency and accountability to border fees and changes.

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  • “Why’s it hard to be queer in our country still?”: Ottawa’s LGBTQ community reacts to discrimination

    “Why’s it hard to be queer in our country still?”: Ottawa’s LGBTQ community reacts to discrimination

    Click below for the full story:

    “Why’s it hard to be queer in our country still?”

  • Doctors must assert independence from drug companies, MPs told

    Doctors must assert independence from drug companies, MPs told

    Independence and transparency are crucial to avoid conflict of interest between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors, health experts said Tuesday.

    “Doctors are trained and socialized to think that we are special, that we are better human beings than other people,” Thomas Perry, an internal medicine and clinical pharmacology specialist at the UBC Hospital in Vancouver, told the House of Commons health committee. “It’s very difficult for us as a species to come up with the idea that we might be bought or conflicted or influenced.”

    Perry, said he got used to declaring conflicts of interest as an elected official in British Columbia, which has strict conflict-of-interest rules. It was only when he returned to UBC, he said, that he realized his former medical colleagues were not used to declaring these conflicts.

    Conflict of interest can arise when doctors receive benefits from the drug industry to prescribe a certain medication without knowing whether there is a better product on the market, noted Ramez Ayoub, a Liberal member of the committee.

    Doug Coyle, a medical professor at University of Ottawa, suggested several steps that could be taken to address conflicts, including independent experts making decisions about drug coverage, and an oversight body to ensure the experts are adhering to principles of fairness and transparency.

     

     

    Coyle, the interim director of the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, also stressed the importance of finding experts outside of the pharmaceutical industry.

    “Don’t believe the argument from the pharmaceutical industry that those who have pharmaceutical money are the experts,”said Coyle.

    The issue of conflict of interest arose earlier this year, when Matthew Herder, associate professor at the Faculties of Medicine and Law at Dalhousie University, submitted a brief to the committee emphasizing the need for institutional independence.

    “Those charged with making drug coverage decisions must not simply disclose real or potential conflict of interest; instead, they should be conflict free,” wrote Herder.

    The committee also heard testimony on the need to properly educate doctors on pharmacare to ensure its success.

    “If we are going to go ahead with a national pharmacare strategy, the decision has to be that there is physician education as a key component,” said Coyle.

    Perry echoed Coyle’s testimony and said that as drug therapy becomes more complex, physicians’ understanding is falling behind.

    “This is something that will require enormous effort to undo,” he said.

    Pharmacare is a system of public insurance coverage for prescription drugs. Under the Canada Health Act, “medically necessary services” which includes drugs administered in hospitals are free of charge. However, prescription drugs used outside hospital settings are not free.

    A May 2013 survey entitled “Canadian Views on Prescription Drug Coverage” found that 78 per cent of Canadians support the idea of a universal public prescription drug insurance program.

    The committee has been tasked with the development of a national pharmacare program.

  • Pilot killed in crash identified as Capt. Thomas McQueen

    Pilot killed in crash identified as Capt. Thomas McQueen

    The RCAF pilot killed in a training accident near Cold Lake, Alta. yesterday has been identified as Capt. Thomas McQueen of Hamilton, Ont.

    McQueen’s single-seat CF-18 Hornet crashed in Saskatchewan yesterday morning near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

    In a press conference this morning, Col. Paul Doyle of the Department of National Defence said McQueen had served in the Forces for 10 years, including a stint in the Middle East.

    Doyle extended his condolences to the captain’s family, including McQueen’s fiancée who lives near Cold Lake.

    Doyle said there will be an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

    The crash comes a week after the federal government announced it would invest in new jets to replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18s.

     

    Photo: Capt. McQueen poses in front of a CF-18 fighter jet in 2014, when he served as a Santa’s escort pilot. ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE/Cpl. Elena Vlassova

  • Is the TPP Agreement Dead?

    Is the TPP Agreement Dead?

    International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland says that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) can’t go ahead without the United States.

    “The TPP agreement as currently structured and finalized can only come into force if it is ratified by the United States,” Freeland told reporters in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s pronouncement he would pull out of the deal.

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    International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland outside the House of Commons, Ottawa. [Photo: Floriane Bonneville]
    “It is a fact that the TPP agreement is so structured that this agreement can only come into force if six of the countries covering 85% of the GDP of the overall space ratified the agreement.” Freeland said.

    Nonetheless, Freeland said that Canada’s position on the TPP remains the same.

    “Our position on TPP is unchanged– we promised that we would consult Canadians and listen to them on TPP.”

    Freeland did not make clear if the structure of the agreement could be mended to still function without the United States.

     

    The combined gross-domestic product (GDP) of the 12 countries involved in the TPP agreement totals $28.5-trillion, which constitutes 40% of the world’s GDP.

    The 12 countries involved in the TPP are Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Australia, New-Zealand, the United States, and Canada. The TPP would eliminate tariffs on a lot of goods circulating between the countries involved.

    Freeland declined to answer when asked what use there would be in pursuing a trade deal that the next U.S. President opposes.

    The outcome of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will not be official until February 2018. This decision was taken to allow domestic politics to adjust to the agreement before it is ratified.

    Freeland said Canada is very confident that the economic relationship between Canada and the United States is beneficial. “This is probably the strongest, most mutually effective economic relationship in the world maybe perhaps outside of the European Union,” Freeland said.

  • It’s #Snowvember in Ottawa!

    It’s #Snowvember in Ottawa!

    I guess we all gotta deal somehow?

  • Rookie of the Year

    Rookie of the Year

    It’s obvious why everyone wants to be Bardish Chagger’s friend. The novice MP—already the Minister for Small Business and Tourism and now also the government House leader—looks naturally at ease among her constituents in the Kitchener Market on a recent Saturday, offering broad grins and friendly waves to all those passing through, sipping her Tim Hortons coffee through a straw.

    Not so long ago, a politician like Chagger—young, female and a visible minority—might have been relegated to the backbench. But instead, she’s been handed real decision-making power, and there are some changes she wants to make.

    “We need to be able to shake them up a little bit,” Chagger said, in an interview, adding that the best way is “to bring in somebody that’s not been in the halls of Parliament for too long, somebody who does question and challenge decisions that are being made.”

    First elected in October 2015 as the Member of Parliament for Waterloo—22 years after she first planted a Liberal sign on a front lawn for the then MP, Andrew Telegdi, whom she later served as executive assistant—Chagger is also the first woman to be appointed Leader of the House.

    The position calls for a steady hand and a thorough knowledge of parliamentary procedure, the kind of job not usually assigned to a young, first-time MP. At 36, Chagger is one of the youngest members in the cabinet, second only to the 31-year-old Maryam Monsef. Given that she was one of the co-leads for Trudeau’s Southwestern Ontario campaign, few observers were surprised when Chagger was named Minister for Small Business and Tourism. But her appointment as House leader, this August, certainly made waves, Jim Bronskill wrote in the Huffington Post at the time.

    “By having a government that looks like Canada, I believe, we’re more relevant because people can relate to us as well,” Chagger said.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t just paid lip service to diversity, appointing more women, visible minorities and people with disabilities to his cabinet than any previous PM. There are now 18 rookies and 15 women in a cabinet of 30. Jodi Wilson-Raybould of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, a former Crown prosecutor from British Columbia, has become the first indigenous Minister of Justice. Trudeau gambled by appointing so many novice MPs to cabinet, but it may pay off, especially with Chagger.

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    “She was always very interested in policy,” Telegedi said over the phone, “and always well-liked.”

    Telegi said Chagger has the diplomatic skills necessary to navigate the role.

    Eric Davis, a lawyer who knew Chagger when they were both Young Liberals at the University of Waterloo, says Chagger has “always been community-minded and an exceptionally hard-worker.”

    Chagger recognizes the value of maintaining an open line of communication with the opposition, and plans to focus on teamwork rather than control in her role as House leader.

    “It’s not about one individual, it’s about the team that one comes with, one builds, one empowers,” said Chagger.

    She understands that the government can’t be “everything to everyone,” but Chagger and her fellow ministers are willing to try.

  • Canada has gone to the birds!

    Canada has gone to the birds!

    Five battle for the title of Canada’s national bird

    On Wednesday, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society will be announcing its recommendation for Canada’s national bird, and the competition is fierce.

    After nearly 50,000 votes from the public, five birds have flown to the head of the flock.

    “Canadians have become enthralled with the idea of choosing a bird to become our national emblem,” Gilles Gagnier, publisher of Canadian Geographic, said in a press release.

    The common loon, the snowy owl, the gray jay, the Canada goose, and the black-capped chickadee beat out over 40 other birds to claim their position as finalists.

    While the common loon is leading the pack with almost 14,000 votes, not everyone is in favour of the bird being the face of the loonie, and the country.

    Canada's National Bird

    “People think they are gentle birds, they are not, they’re killers – they’ll kill each other.” says Michael Runtz, a professor at Carleton University who has personally witnessed two common loons fighting to the death.

    Runtz, author of Wild Wings: The Hidden World of Birds, says that only one of the contenders deserves the title, the black-capped chickadee, and he won’t be happy if the nation gets it wrong.

    Unlike the other four birds, the chickadee is commonly found throughout Canada.

    “Most Canadians have met a black-capped chickadee. It goes to birdfeeders all winter long, it’s found in people’s backyards,” says Runtz. “I don’t think any other species has that combination of  . . . hardiness and compatibility with our encroachment on its natural areas,” he adds.

    Earlier this fall, Runtz was asked to sit on a panel of experts to defend the Canada goose as the choice for national bird, but he declined.

    “Terrible choice, terrible choice,” says Runtz when thinking about the Canada goose as the feathered masthead of the country.

    Bird expert, Michael Runtz, weighs in on the fierce competition for Canada's National Bird.
    Bird expert, Michael Runtz, weighs in on the fierce competition for Canada’s National Bird. Photo: Jordan Steinhauer

    Although the Canada goose is easily recognized, it may be known for the wrong reasons.

    According to Runtz, “we have problems associated with Canada geese.”

    They are known to eat farmer’s crops, soil beaches and cars with their droppings, and wreak havoc in public centers.

    “They even downed an airplane in New York a few years ago, so the Americans don’t like Canada geese either,” says Runtz.

    While Runtz says the final two contenders, the snowy owl and the gray jay are both admirable birds, they are not as accessible as the chickadee.

    The snowy owl, which is currently in second place, is a northern bird that is only found in some parts of the nation.

    Although it makes a perfect pet for Harry Potter, it may not be the best choice for Canada.

    Similarly, the gray jay lives a secluded life.

    “Unless you go to the gray jay’s turf, you don’t see them,” says Runtz.

    Taking the public vote into account, the Royal Canadian Geographic Society will announce its official choice for Canada’s National Bird Wednesday evening at their College of Fellows annual dinner at the Canadian War Museum.

    “If the chickadee doesn’t win, I’ll cause civil unrest,” Runtz vows.