Tech sector left out of feds’ COVID-19 rescue package
TORONTO—A healthy federal fiscal position and a professional public service are combining to give the Trudeau government the capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in a pragmatic and flexible manner. This doesn’t mean we should become boastful. We delayed acting and were not as well prepared to deal with a pandemic as we should […]
Updated: Senators agree on COVID-19 oversight committees, pass $73-billion wage subsidy bill
The Senate set up two committees on April 11 to keep tabs on the government’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, before Senators passed the government’s wage subsidy bill in the Upper Chamber. The Senate passed the bill shortly before 9 p.m. on April 11. Bill C-14 will allow the government to legally go ahead […]
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 […]
If this pandemic changes everything, can we do better for the most important workers?
COVID-19 is making us more aware of some absolute necessities of life. We seriously depend on cleaners to keep hospitals and supermarkets extremely clean. We need grocery store workers to keep those shelves stocked with the things we urgently need. Unload those trucks and get the stuff on the shelves fast—toilet paper, vegetables, canned goods, […]
Basic income in Spain: when the unthinkable becomes reality
In times of great emergency, when the normal rules have been suspended, all sorts of things that used to seem unthinkable suddenly enter the realm of possibility. A national health service paid for by taxes and free at the point of delivery in the United States, for example—or a guaranteed basic income in Spain. “We […]
Challenges to virtual sittings not insurmountable, say MPs, experts, but reforms should reflect House’s diversity
In the absence of daily televised parliamentary sittings, many MPs have been consigned to the sidelines of the pandemic, operating largely behind the scenes as they tend to constituency issues and keep tabs on the federal government’s evolving and unprecedented response to the coronavirus. But the looming prospect of convening the House virtually holds the […]
AFN National Chief Bellegarde calls on feds to ‘immediately’ release 10 per cent of COVID-19 funding to communities
The Assembly of First Nations wants the federal government to “immediately” release about 10 per cent of all its future funding dedicated to its response to the COVID-19 pandemic “directly” to First Nations communities. In an appearance before the House Finance Committee, which met over teleconference on Wednesday, AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde said his […]
More accurate testing key to fighting COVID-19 pandemic
By the time you read this, more than one million people worldwide will have tested positive for COVID-19 disease and more than 80,000 will have died. In Canada alone, more than 18,000 will have been confirmed as being infected with the novel coronavirus, with an accelerating death toll. It is a grim understatement to say […]
How the Senate can play complementary role in scrutinizing feds’ COVID-19 response
It is a source of hope that political divides have been bridged to achieve a massive federal response to COVID-19—including the largest economic package in our history—in a time of minority government. The measures aim to support the efforts of people across the country who are doing their part to curb the spread of the […]
The role of the WHO in this crisis has been tarnished by politics
OTTAWA—In February of 1997, I was the acting deputy head of information at the World Health Organization, and was invited to a meeting of senior staff in the office of then-director-general Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima. We were arranged in a circle in the director-general’s office at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, as it was explained […]
