Tag: Politics

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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November 29, 2016
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.

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November 29, 2016
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.

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.

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November 22, 2016
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.

“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.

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November 15, 2016
Liberals to repeal anal sex law

The Liberal government introduced legislation Tuesday to repeal a section of the Criminal Code that prohibits consensual anal sex by minors.

Addressing reporters, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says that Section 159 is “discriminatory” and that the Criminal Code needs to be updated to be more inclusive.

There have been several attempts to repeal Section 159, and four appeal courts have deemed the law unconstitutional, but it has remained on the books.

The section prohibits people younger than 18 from engaging in anal sex, despite being over the age of consent for other sexual acts.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said society has evolved and the law has to keep up.

“This piece of legislation is about ensuring we eliminate discrimination and ensure equality,” Wilson-Raybould said after she tabled the legislation.

She also noted that “Canada was among the first countries in the world to recognize same-sex marriage and our human rights act has long recognized the right to be protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault as his special adviser on LGBTQ2 rights. LGBTQ2 refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning and two-spirited people.

Boissonnault said that “there’s a lot of work to be done,” but the Liberals are ready to listen to Canadians to build an inclusive future.

Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, welcomed the repeal of Section 159.

“It equalizes us as a community” she said. “It recognizes our relationships in the same way it recognizes straight relationships.”

Egale released a scathing report earlier this year on Section 159, which has been used to charge 22 people with anal intercourse between 2008 and 2014.

Alberta MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) says that he is a member of the LGBTQ2 community, being the first elected openly gay MP from Alberta.

More than 20 members of the LGBTQ2 community met with Boissonnault Tuesday morning before the minister’s announcement to share their concerns with the new adviser.

Jean-Sebastien Boudreault of Montreal Pride drove from Montreal to be at the meeting. He said he was pleased, saying that the MP was “really open” to their ideas for the future of the LGBTQ2 community.

Wilson-Raybould said that this legislation does not cover pardons for previous convictions under the act.

However Boissonnault said that pardons would be given due consideration, and the government would take time to do a “deep listen” to Canadians on the matter and choose appropriate action.

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November 15, 2016