The Green Municipal Fund: 20 years of sustainable infrastructure and job creation
This is the 20th Earth Day we’ve celebrated at the Green Municipal Fund (GMF). As president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), which delivers this program, I’m immensely proud of the GMF’s track record of helping municipalities build sustainable infrastructure solutions. And building on those 20 years of proven success, the GMF stands ready […]
Finance Minister Morneau names press secretary
Finance Minister Bill Morneau and team have been busy of late, with the 2020 federal budget delayed as the federal government works to see through economic relief and other measures announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now helping the minister communicate with the public and media alike is new press secretary Maéva Proteau. […]
Critics wary about feds’ COVID-inspired infrastructure push
Opposition critics are expressing skepticism over the government’s reported plan to push for smaller, “shovel-ready” projects as post-pandemic stimulus, saying the Liberals’ overall infrastructure vision and track record doesn’t instill much confidence. NDP MP Taylor Bachrach (Skeena–Bulkley Valley, B.C.) and Conservative MP Luc Berthold (Megantic–L’Erable, Que.), their respective parties’ infrastructure critics, said they were pleased […]
The post-COVID Canada faces many challenges
OTTAWA—Last week, I wrote about international policy in the post-COVID time. Now I want to examine how Canada should respond to the major domestic challenges it will face. First of all, the debt: there will be mountains of it. A debt and deficit like nothing most Canadians have experienced in their lifetimes. At the latest […]
Feds’ priciest COVID-19 spending measures could cost more than $851-million, says budget watchdog
Some of the federal government’s priciest spending measures in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic could cost more than $851-million between the 2020 and 2021 fiscal year, according to analyses released Thursday by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The PBO estimated that one of the feds’ priciest COVID-19 programs, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, which is […]
Market fundamentalism is dead. We’re all socialists now
OTTAWA—So, us SJWs (social justice warriors) were right all along. It seems like building a just and equitable society where people are paid a livable wage, health care and housing are human rights, the environment is protected, labour is powerful, and white supremacy/colonialism and patriarchy are relegated to the annals of history is quite doable, […]
The fight against COVID-19 isn’t a war, and shouldn’t be described that way
OTTAWA—Whenever there is a crisis involving death and destruction, one of the first reactions of the media is to describe it as being akin to “a war zone.” A tornado rips through an urban centre and we are told that the wreckage looks “like a war zone.” A train derails and bursts into flames and […]
COVID upheaval may prompt long overdue repudiation of selfishness disguised as austerity
OTTAWA—More than a decade has passed since, during the 2009 financial meltdown, we heard the now-resurrected refrain: “We’re all socialists now.” That ironic phrasing is, of course, a recognition of the reality that, in the worst of times, people turn to government to inject large quantities of money into the economy in hopes of resurrecting […]
‘Is it even big enough?’: Morneau shells out unprecedented billions, economists applaud move as COVID-19 crisis deepens
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says he is spending an unprecedented amount of borrowed money to prop up Canada’s economy as the spreading novel coronavirus has kept Canadians in their homes, out of stores, and more than two million out of work, and economists, a former parliamentary budget officer, and a former deputy prime minister say […]
COVID-19 illuminating challenges of democratic governance
Is COVID-19 a blessing in disguise? Patients infected or dying from COVID-19 are the least likely to think so. This virus has shaken a number of concepts that many citizens of democratic societies take for granted. Reviews of how this crisis has been handled by governments, and global efforts at bracing for its impacts, will […]
