Politics This Morning: StatsCan reports on changing labour force

Good Wednesday morning, Statistics Canada will reveal new data today that quantifies changes to the way Canadians work, and how they get to work. The Public Order Emergency Commission is carrying on its policy hearings today, and a Ukrainian government official is taking questions from a House committee. We’ll unpack all that and more, below. What’s the cabinet up to? Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will continue the time-honoured tradition of Canadian PMs giving exclusive interviews to American journalists today. He's doing a "live virtual interview" at a summit organized by Reuters in New York at 9:20 a.m. Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE is in Belgium today, the first stop on a trip to Europe that will run through early next week. Today he’s scheduled to meet with the European Union’s competition commissioner, MARGRETHE VESTAGER. This evening, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister MARC MILLER and Indigenous Services Minister PATTY HAJDU will testify before a Senate committee. Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Marc Miller will field questions from Senators today. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade The two ministers will appear at 6:45 p.m. before the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples to discuss a specific portion of the fall economic statement implementation bill, C-32. The clauses in question repeal the First Nations Land Management Act. That act, which came into effect in 1999, has allowed First Nations to gain some control over their land by opting out of portions of the Indian Act that give powers over that land to the federal government. In its place, C-32 enacts the “Act respecting the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management,” which the government has described as “shorter, simpler legislation” that “better respects” how First Nations and the government want to co-operate on land management. In Parliament MPs will gather for their weekly caucus meetings this morning. The House is expected to continue debating the government’s bill to create a national council for reconciliation at report stage today. In committee Several House of Commons committees are scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. today. Ukraine’s deputy minister for the economy, TARAS KACHKA, is one of several witnesses who will testify during a meeting of the House Agriculture Committee this afternoon. The committee is studying the Ukraine goods remission order. What is that, exactly? Essentially, Canada has temporarily lifted its trade tariffs on products imported from Ukraine. It’s part of the government’s package of measures intended to help Ukraine whilst it defends itself from Russia’s invasion. Canada and Ukraine already have a free trade agreement, but it doesn’t cover every Ukrainian export. This temporary order has pried the tariffs off additional Ukrainian products, even—*gasp*—those under Canada’s supply management systems. As a consequence, Ukrainian firms were able to export $6,000 worth of ice cream into Canada over the past six months, according to testimony from the director general of Global Affairs’ international trade policy division, MICHÈLE GOVIER. We won’t hear what the dairy lobby has to say about that just yet, but lobby groups for chicken and egg producers—another two supply-managed industries—will testify at tomorrow’s meeting as well. The House Finance Committee is also meeting at 4:30 p.m. to do a clause-by-clause analysis of the government’s fall economic statement implementation bill. They will be assisted in this task by a busload of civil servants from five departments and agencies. The House Ethics Committee will meet at the same time to continue its study of privacy concerns related to the government’s ArriveCan application, which began on Monday. The lone witness scheduled to testify today is NARINDAR KHABRA, the president of IBISKA, a small tech company that received $8-million to work on the app, according to the Globe and Mail. Finally, the Transport Committee will hear witnesses as part of a study of intercity bus transport in Canada. Eight Senate committees will meet today to study topics including Canada’s foreign policy apparatus, treatments for veterans suffering from stress-related injuries, and the government’s supplementary estimates. The Senate Transport and Communications Committee will also meet to continue clause-by-clause examination of the government’s online streaming bill, C-11, and, as previously mentioned, a pair of government ministers will testify before the Indigenous Peoples Committee. What else is happening today? Census data unveiled Statistics Canada is releasing another batch of data from last year’s Census today. Education, instruction in official languages, and “the changing dynamics of the Canadian labour force and how people get to work” are the subjects of today’s planned release. The data should be available online beginning at 8:30 a.m. POEC tackles policing protests The Public Order Emergency Commission continues its policy hearings today. The morning’s panel of experts will discuss the subject, “national security and public order emergencies”; among them is RICHARD FADDEN, a former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In the afternoon the panel will examine the policing of public protests. Gun presser At 10 a.m. this morning, a lobby group for Canadian gun owners will hold a press conference on the Hill. Executives for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights will express and explain their displeasure at an amendment to the government’s gun control bill, C-21, that was proposed by a Liberal MP on the House Public Safety Committee. It appears that the government is trying to untangle the mess it made when it moved to ban “assault-style” guns: namely, trying to define “assault-style” in law. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has said the government does not intend to ban hunting rifles. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade The problem with that measure, as pro-gun lobbyists described at the time, was that “assault” doesn’t mean much in practical terms. Fully automatic weapons have long been illegal. The government’s recent ban outlawed some, but not all, of the semi-automatic variety. The amendment, put forward by MP PAUL CHIANG, would allow the government to ban almost any semi-automatic rifle or shotgun—or at least any that can hold more than five shots. That may be more coherent than the existing ad-hoc banned list, but it certainly hasn’t made gun owners very happy. It’s worth noting that the committee has not yet finished its study of the bill, and the terms of the version that passes into law are still up in the air. In the news The government's planned spending for the current year is now up to $433-billion, and counting. LAURA RYCKEWAERT has that story here. Should Canada push for nuclear disarmament? Some think so. NEIL MOSS has that story. Moss also wrote about what the government's new Indo-Pacific strategy will mean for Canadian diplomats. You can find that story here. Government House Leader MARK HOLLAND has been leaning on the Senate to help him move his legislative agenda with greater "efficiency." Ryckewaert reports. At least one constitutional lawyer thinks the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings have been among the most transparent inquiries in Canadian history. CHRISTOPHER GULY has the story. In case you missed it Yesterday PTM alerted you to the government’s report on the status of wild species in Canada. That report is now public. PTM noted a relative lack of data on the species that reside within Canada as one of the problems with studying the subject, and lo and behold, the most recent study includes information on 20,000 more species than the previous one. So that’s progress. The bad news is that about 2,000 of Canada’s 80,000 wild species are either “imperiled” or “critically imperiled.” The number of species declared to be in trouble has risen with each report the government has done over the years, though how much of that rise can be attributed to worsening conditions vs. improved data collection is unclear. Send your news tips to pmazereeuw@hilltimes.com

Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: StatsCan reports on changing labour force

Plus, the PM’s former national security adviser heads to POEC.

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