Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux estimates that the feds' tax cuts will result in $6.9-billion in lost revenue. The Hill Times file photograph by Andrew Meade
Feds underestimate revenue loss from tax cuts, PBO says
Whereas the government projected that 1.1 millions Canadians will no longer be paying federal taxes, the PBO puts that figure at 900,000.
Signs of political opportunism emerge as MPs on Canada-China Relations Committee urge collaboration
Bloc Québécois MP Stéphane Bergeron says he thinks motions put forward by the Conservatives show signs of a 'partisan temptation.'Conservative Party a ‘rudderless mess’ and there’s bad blood between its fund and national council, say some Conservatives
The 'huge overstep by the Conservative Fund’ to fire executive director Dustin van Vugt has created ‘bad blood’ between the national council and the fund, says Yaroslav Baran, a former senior Conservative Hill staffer.Politics This Morning
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Budget, foreign affairs, and fighting climate change among top cabinet priorities as Parliament returns
Liberal MPs have been asked to hold consultations about the government’s priorities in their ridings, and report back to cabinet.Sen. Kutcher says transparency critical, in advising feds on assisting families of Flight 752 victims
Senator Kutcher had also advocated in favour of offering families financial assistance to alleviate the strain some may be experiencing in having to cover unexpected costs. Gatekeepers for Innovation, Finance, and Environment top lobby target lists
In an election year, lobbying activity dropped by 30 per cent compared to 2018, but some staffers kept busy.Quebec Senator Gold named government’s new point man in the Red Chamber
Sen. Marc Gold has been working as the liaison for the biggest group in the Senate, the ISG.Rota, first Speaker of Italian descent, encourages MPs to break the glass ceiling
'I didn’t plan a speech at all, so it came from the heart,' says House Speaker Anthony Rota of his first remarks when he was elected to the post on Dec. 5. ‘We’re flying the plane while we build it’: demolition work in Centre Block has begun
By this winter, PSPC expects work to assess the state of the Centre Block building to be completed, with schematic design plans expected by spring. Iranian investigator into downed Flight 752 should be replaced due to past, says former Liberal justice minister
Iran's chief justice Ebrahim Raisi was part of a 'death commission' in 1988, during a period of political repression which saw thousands of dissidents executed. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux estimates that the feds' tax cuts will result in $6.9-billion in lost revenue. The Hill Times file photograph by Andrew Meade
Feds underestimate revenue loss from tax cuts, PBO says
Whereas the government projected that 1.1 millions Canadians will no longer be paying federal taxes, the PBO puts that figure at 900,000.
Correctional investigator’s scathing report illustrates Canada’s refusal to protect its own citizens
Women in politics: every party should have a few
It is early days, there may be other candidates stepping up, but at the moment it looks as if that prize will go to yet another ambitious, confident and aggressive white male politician straight from central casting. The party of Stephen Harper isn’t going anywhere
The former prime minister's fingerprints are all over the leading contenders to replace Andrew Scheer atop the Conservative Party. MacKay must be verily relieved
Decisions by Jean Charest and Rona Ambrose to stay out of the Conservative leadership race were met with huge sighs of relief on more than one front.
Feds’ silence on funding, transition plan for child welfare law causing ‘intense nervousness and frustration’
Bill C-92 takes effect Jan. 1, bringing in new, stricter, and culturally sensitive standards to Indigenous child welfare decisions. Continued Liberal delays to end sexist Indian status rules ‘baffling’ to Indigenous advocates
The Liberals have promised to fully remove sex discrimination from the Indian Act by the election, but advocate Shelagh Day says with no public plan and no official date, 'it’s still only a promise.' Liberals passing the buck on weapons ban
If the Liberal government truly believes that the legal availability of assault weapons puts the public at risk, then why not enact measures that are available to them right now, while they are still in power?
Kuwait ambassador brings team approach to diplomacy
An advocate for women, Reem Al Khaled says she’s always wanted to be ‘one of the voices’ pushing to get women involved.Happy Year of the Rat! Please tip your waitress
Beijing is celebrating the Lunar New Year by cracking down on satire. This is not a good sign in a presumptive superpower.Demand for answers about Flight 752 can’t exclude Americans
How can one disassociate the American assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani with the escalated tensions and Iranian reprisals against U.S. targets in Iraq?
Opposition critics, House committees to be key lobbying targets in minority Parliament, say lobbyists
'If you want to advance a file, it’s no longer enough for the governing party to be onside,' says Yaroslav Baran of Earnscliffe Strategy Group.CIJA, Dairy Farmers lead last lobbyist push before election call
Lobbyists filed 772 reports last month, down from 972 in July, and from the 1,478 reports filed in June.
Despite majority support for a Canadian handgun ban, the politics of doing so may remain insurmountable
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised in 2015 to take handguns and assault weapons ‘off our streets,’ but have made only limited progress in the face of strong opposition.
Fisheries, seas, and globalization: three new reads to look out for
Plus, former NDP MP Nathan Cullen joins StrategyCorp, and Vincent Rigby named national security and intelligence adviser.
Mark your social calendar: 2020 party primer
From Stornoway to Sir John A, the party circuit gets cooking when the weather gets warm.
Bourrie brings New France explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson’s story to life in Bush Runner
Mark Bourrie talks about his book, Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson.
A guide to Parliament Hill’s cafeterias
Need a bite and short on time? The Hill cafeterias may be your best bet. Justice Minister Lametti adds a rights implementation director to his team
Meanwhile, Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez is entering the new sitting with a director of Senate affairs, Kornelia Mankowski.Gov. Gen. Payette to visit Auschwitz and Israel to mark 75-years since death camp’s liberation
Plus, Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia battles Newfoundland blizzard, and The Toronto Star's parliamentary bureau is moving to the Byward Market to join iPolitics. 
Trump, who built U.S. trade policy on a lie, leaves Americans hanging with China
While U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies touted last week’s ‘Phase 1’ agreement with China as a victory, most analysts saw it as, at best, a saw-off.
Bumpy ride ahead on the bandwagon: why Canadian foreign policy lacks direction
By exclusively focusing on the dissemination of some of our values, Canada is merely amplifying its domestic priorities outwards while other pressing geostrategic issues are flouted.
Lobbying Act review overdue, but court case could delay it further
The Lobby Act is two years past a mandated review by Parliament.
Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct establishes principles, rules of ethical behaviour expected from lobbyists
'I believe that transparency is a pillar of a healthy democracy. The federal lobbying regime, with its public Registry of Lobbyists, is a key tool for transparency,' says Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger.Public officials are expected to always act in the public interest
'One of the best tools our Office currently uses to demonstrate transparency is our public registry,' says Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion.
Minority rules: 2020’s most influential figures to watch in federal politics
This year’s Top 100 Most Influential List reflects the power brokers who will help shape the terms of how this minority Parliament will shake out.
The return of Parliament is more than an event in the news cycle. It’s a time to look ahead, and to thoughtfully consider the important role each branch of government will play in that future, and in the life of each individual Canadian.
Our worldview, our desire for control, and the way we get information are just three things that new MPs should consider as they orient themselves to life in Ottawa and as elected representatives. But the implications of these three forces matter to everyone who seeks to engage and connect with Canadians.
Annual Features
Contact list
Politics This Morning: Trudeau to convene cabinet
Plus, Health Minister Patty Hajdu says the risk of an outbreak of the coronavirus in Canada remains low. 
Jeremy Kinsman has seen Chrystia Freeland dance on a tabletop at the Hungry Duck pub, provoke Vladimir Putin, finesse Donald Trump, and become the most powerful woman in Canada. It’s been a trip.
Trust, vigilance, respect, hard work, compromise, and the ability of MPs to work together are the key elements required for a minority Parliament. Life is going to be very different on the Hill in 2020. 
Were the funding targets recommended to the federal government by David Naylor in the Fundamental Science Review actually implemented, then both the elite and the more broadly based project grants could continue.
The Liberal government has taken action to close that gap over the last few years, but it remains neither fair, nor rational, that in 2020, First Nations children on reserve receive at least 30 per cent less funding for 
'Even as EU27 post-Brexit, the European Union will remain the largest trading block in the world—and a major partner for Canada,' writes EU chargé d'affaires Brice de Schietere.An alternative system such as building a detailed independent regulatory structure to give effect to the proposed legislation will stretch existing resources and take too long to implement.
Bourrie brings New France explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson’s story to life in Bush Runner
Mark Bourrie talks about his book, Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson.‘There has never been an ethnographer-activist the likes of James Teit’
Wendy Wickwire talks about her compelling and historically important book, At The Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging.
Politics This Morning
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Key directors hired in Labour Minister Tassi’s office
Plus, Danielle Keenan has been named director of communications to Diversity, Inclusion, and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger, among other recent hires. Flanagan named one of two policy heads to Environment Minister Wilkinson
Erin Flanagan is director of climate, energy, and regulatory affairs, while Jamie MacDonald is director of nature conservation in the new environment minister’s office.Canada-China Relations House Committee members announced, to meet to decide chair
Plus, Marco Mendicino takes to the keys before a CBC interview, and former PMO spokesperson Justin Kingsley’s film Chaakapesh is coming to Ottawa.‘One of the best drummers in the world’: politicos remember the life of Neil Peart
Plus, Lisa Raitt, Jane Philpott, and Megan Leslie to discuss modern leadership In Toronto on Jan. 20, and Jean Chrétien celebrates 86th birthday in the air. Lingering Phoenix issues ‘no surprise’ to union leaders, as annual survey shows increase in pay problems
The 2019 federal budget allocated $523.3-million over five years, starting in 2019–20, to 'ensure that adequate resources are dedicated to addressing pay issues,' according to PSPC. ‘The tail doesn’t wag the dog’: PSAC wants a deal of its own amid ongoing negotiations
The government is ‘disappointed’ PSAC rejected an offer in line with recent agreements signed by 34 other bargaining units, according to a Treasury Board spokesperson. CTV’s Don Martin delivers barn burner speech, brings the house down at farewell shindig
Don Martin will soon be found on a golf course in Florida. Hillites celebrate new Parliament at old, favourite watering hole
They served poutine!From ‘failed state’ to stability: Rwanda has made ‘impressive’ strides, says envoy
High Commissioner Prosper Higiro speaks of his at times risky path to politics and how far the country has come 25 years after the genocide.Ecuador’s future is in mining, and Canada can play a big role, envoy says
Ambassador Diego Stacey says there’s 'political will' in oil-exporting Ecuador to improve its trade relationship with Canada.
House of Commons is back and there’s going to be some drama
Stairway to the West Block: The House, now located for the next decade in the West Block, is scheduled to return on Monday, Jan. 27, and it will sit for a total of 76 days or 15 weeks until it adjourns for the summer on June 23. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Ottawa-area residents gather on Parliament Hill for a candlelight vigil on Jan. 9, 2020, in memory of those killed in the plane crash in Iran. More than a hundred victims were on their way to Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ottawa MPs and ministers Catherine McKenna and Mona Fortier were among those who paid their respects. 
