‘Shocked,’ ‘profoundly disappointed’: Ex-clerks pan appointment process after Bosc passed over for House clerk
Another Liberal government appointment has current and former Hill-goers bristling, after longtime acting House clerk Marc Bosc was passed over for the permanent position, which instead went to his counterpart in the Senate this week. A pair of former House clerks blasted the government’s decision to hold what it said was an open competition for […]
Status of government bills
House of Commons S-2, Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act (second reading) S-3, An Act to amend the Indian Act (elimination of sex-based inequities in registration) (report stage) S-5, An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-smokers’ Health Act (second reading) C-5, An Act to Repeal Division 20 of Part 3 of […]
Canadian media approaches a ‘cliff’; subsidies not the answer, say industry analysts
Canada’s media ecosystem is ill-equipped to adapt to a digital landscape, and some of the solutions proposed by the federal House Heritage Committee would do little to address the root causes, warned one researcher at a conference put on by the think-tank Canada 2020 last week. “Legacy institutions are struggling everywhere,” Taylor Owen, a journalism […]
Feds must strengthen protections for public service whistleblowers: unanimous committee report
A Liberal-majority committee is urging the Trudeau government to bolster legislative protections for those exposing government misconduct to ensure a more level playing field between whistleblowers and the powerful bureaucratic institutions they confront. In a unanimous report released last week, the House Government Operations and Estimates Committee recommended major changes to the Public Servants Disclosure […]
MPs billing thousands more on average in expenses in first full year of Liberal rule
MPs are charging taxpayers 11.6 per cent more for office and travel costs since the Liberals took office, with expenses soaring by $29-million over the past year, new House of Commons statistics show. Collectively, House members racked up $141-million in expenses in 2016-17, a roughly 25 per cent hike from the $112-million tab recorded the previous […]
Senate likely to rise this week, not expecting new bills from House, says Independent leader McCoy
The Senate is on track to rise at the end of the week, if it can work through hotly debated bills on indigenous registration and the federal budget, says the facilitator of the Independent Senators Group. “People are keen to go home, summer is approaching, and we’re pretty much on track with where everyone hoped […]
Politics This Morning: Cities across the country celebrate National Aboriginal Day with events scheduled from sunrise to sunset
In case you missed it: Geoff Regan, speaker of the House of Commons, officially welcomed Charles Robert as the Clerk of the House of Commons yesterday, after the motion for his appointment was passed in the House of Commons. Since March 2015, Mr. Robert has been the clerk of the Senate and clerk of the Parliaments, […]
Liberals’ House rule changes pass, will be in place for fall sitting
The Liberal majority in the House passed the government’s Standing Order changes on Tuesday afternoon, though opposition Members are patting themselves on the back for fighting the government’s unilateral moves by forcing them to water down the proposals. After two days of debate, the motion to reform the Standing Orders of the House of Commons—the […]
Politics This Morning: String of cabinet ministers to make national security-related announcement
Happening around the Hill: Ralph Goodale, minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness; Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould; Harjit Sajjan, minister of National Defence; and National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier will be making a public safety-related announcement today at 1 p.m. at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. Mr. Goodale will also be making an announcement […]
‘Media relations’ classification of Senate staff changed to ‘media outreach’ after Housakos’ claim there is no media relations
The term “media relations” disappeared from the description of some Senate communications staff last month following debate in which Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos said the Senate has no media relations staff. At the time, Sen. Housakos (Wellington, Que.), chair of the Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Committee, was arguing why the Senate had put out […]
