federalism

Tuesday May 14, 2019 

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 14, 2019 

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians oppose provincial governments spending taxpayers’ dollars to battle federal carbon tax, poll says

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians oppose provincial governments spending taxpayers’ dollars to battle the federal carbon tax, says a new poll released Monday as the Ontario government launched a new television ad slamming the levy.

April 30, 2019

About 64 per cent of respondents said it is unacceptable for provinces to opt out of the federal effort to combat climate change, including the carbon tax, according to a survey done by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail. As well, 64 per cent of respondents said they oppose provincial governments spending public money to fight the tax.

Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick are pursuing legal challenges to the levy, which the Liberal government imposed in those provinces that do not have a carbon pricing system of their own, as part of Ottawa’s overall effort to meet its international commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

April 17, 2019

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is expected to unveil legislation on May 22 to rescind the provincial carbon tax adopted by the former New Democratic Party government. Mr. Kenney said he, too, will launch a legal challenge if, as promised, the federal government imposed its carbon tax in place of the provincial one that is to be cancelled.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his ministers have launched a multipronged opposition campaign that includes the court challenge in which a decision is expected soon; frequent ministerial photo ops highlighting the cost of the levy; a move to require gas stations to post stickers detailing the cost, and paid advertising. In a spot to air Monday, an Ontario government ad says the carbon tax will cost the average family $648 a year in 2022. Like the rest of the provincial material, the Ontario ad does not include any mention of the fact that the federal legislation requires all revenue raised to be returned to the province, with 80 per cent of families expected to receive more through a rebate delivered on their income tax return than they paid out in tax.

April 15, 2015

“It’s pretty clear that Canadians don’t like the idea of provinces opting out with the exception of Canadians in the Prairie provinces,” pollster Nik Nanos said. “While the carbon tax and the rebate is not a big political winner [for the federal Liberals], people definitely don’t like using provincial tax dollars to fight the federal carbon tax.”

The survey – which has a margin of error of three percentage points – polled 1,000 Canadians by phone and online between April 25 and 28. (Globe & Mail) 

 

Wednesday January 30, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 30, 2019

Provinces not co-operating to get infrastructure projects underway: Trudeau

Unco-operative provincial governments have been making the effort to get more infrastructure dollars into Canada’s cities a challenge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.

Trudeau, whose government has struggled to fulfil tens of billions worth of infrastructure commitments, made the remarks in Ottawa before a meeting with more than a dozen of Canada’s big-city mayors. He didn’t single any provinces out by name.

His Liberal government has been criticized for how slowly federal money has moved for big civic construction projects, despite its big-ticket plan to spend more than $185 billion on them over 12 years.

“It’s not always easy — we understand that the political context varies a little bit from one end of this country to the other and there are provinces that don’t completely have the same attitude when it comes to tangible investments in their communities and in the big cities,” Trudeau said in French before switching to English.

This cartoon has been animated!

“We’re having sometimes certain challenges with the provinces in various ways.”

Trudeau called big cities the economic engines of the whole country and argued that investing in infrastructure is one of the best ways to create jobs in the short term and growth over the long term.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who also met with the big city mayors Monday, said challenges have surfaced following several recent provincial elections.

Champagne, for whom speeding up the rollout of infrastructure investments is a top priority, said the arrival of new governments has slowed down some of the intake, review and approval of projects. He did note these delays are normal when there’s a change in government. (source: CTV) 

 

Wednesday October 24, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 24, 2018

Doug Ford slams federal government’s carbon tax plan

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has come out swinging against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plans for carbon tax rebates.

Trudeau announced details of the plan Tuesday, saying provinces that have not implemented their own carbon taxation system will have one imposed on them by the federal government.

He promised, however, that the feds would return 90 per cent of the tax it collects in affected provinces directly to Canadians to keep the plan from being unaffordable.

Ford calls the rebates phoney, describes the carbon tax as an ineffective environmental protection measure, and vows he’s willing to take the province’s ongoing legal fight against it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Trudeau has said an Ontario family of four would receive $307 back through the rebates this spring, with that figure doubling by 2022.

Ford, whose Progressive Conservatives introduced legislation to scrap Ontario’s cap-and-trade system established by the former Liberal government, says Trudeau should be ready for a fight on the carbon tax issue and raised questions about the timing of the rebate announcement.

“The people of Canada are too smart to believe that Trudeau’s phoney rebates are anything more than a temporary vote buying scheme that will be discarded once the election is over,” the premier said in a statement. “In contrast, the carbon tax rip-off is forever.

Ottawa required all provinces to put a minimum price on pollution of $20 a tonne of emissions by Jan. 1.

Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick have not complied and will have a federal carbon levy on fuels as well as a cap-and-trade style system for large industrial emitters imposed on them.

Residents in those provinces will start getting federal rebates on their next tax return to offset the extra costs they will pay for everything from gasoline and groceries to home heating and electricity.

Ford has joined other provincial leaders in challenging the carbon tax in court. (Source: CTV) 

 

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 17, 2018

‘Not Canadian’: Hussen, MacLeod exchange sharp words over asylum seeker ‘crisis’

A meeting between Canada’s federal and provincial immigration ministers ended bitterly Friday, with federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen openly criticizing the Ontario government for what he called a dangerous and un-Canadian approach to the issue of asylum seekers.

December 7, 2016

“They’ve chosen to use false language with respect to so-called queue-jumping, when we have told them over and over again there is no such thing,” Hussen told reporters in Winnipeg at the closing press conference.

“Asylum seekers are processed in a separate queue at the IRB and all the other regular immigration programs are processed by IRCC, and conflating the two knowingly is irresponsible, it’s divisive, it’s fearmongering and it’s not Canadian, and it’s very dangerous.”

Hussen criticized Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Lisa MacLeod — who is also responsible for the immigration file — for walking away from discussions between the other immigration ministers and for refusing to sign the official communique issued after the meetings.

MacLeod did not take the attack lightly, telling reporters after Hussen left the podium that it was the federal minister who did not want to collaborate on the issue of irregular migration.

“I am not going to get into a debate on semantics with the minister,” she said, “but I did request that he take into consideration these exorbitant costs which … is about $174 million on top of the $3 million that Ontario provided to the Red Cross.

“I was expecting that we would be able to collaborate on that. Instead, what I saw here today was … him calling me un-Canadian, which I take great offence to. And I so hope he will apologize and reconsider his language.

“There is a problem at the border, the border must be enforced and … Ontario should be made whole for all of the costs that we’ve incurred.” (Continued: CBC News) 

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Thursday April 19, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 19, 2018

Flailing about on the TransMountain Pipeline Project

April 11, 2018

Desperate times require desperate measures. In the standoff between British Columbia and Alberta over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the federal government is caught in the middle, trying to salvage its approved project that is about to collapse and avoid a major regional conflict. The federal Liberals are so desperate to save this pipeline from being scuttled by B.C. politics that they’re offering to financially backstop the project. Unfortunately, that might not be the solution they think it is. 

May 31, 2017

Their desperation escalated after Kinder Morgan leveled an ultimatum earlier this month: It would need, by May 31, political certainty that its project can go ahead or it will pull out. Some have called that blackmail, but that’s not fair: endless regulatory red tape has already driven Trans Mountain’s costs up to $7.4 billion from $6.8 billion. Further delays and costs would only further compromise the economic viability of the project, while making it harder to sign up shippers. Kinder Morgan has already spent over $1 billion to prepare its application, negotiate agreements with multiple First Nations and clear land. The next step is buying and installing the pipe, which will cost billions of dollars. The company can’t make that commitment while Canada plays its Mickey Mouse politics.

June 8, 2017

After neglecting the issues for too long, the federal government now promises to assert its constitutional power over the project. As legal scholar Dwight Newman notes, the federal government could pass legislation that clearly asserts the paramountcy of its constitutional power, rendering any provincial laws inoperable when a conflict arises. Using this strategy will prove even more important now that B.C. is threatening to also limit the transport of Alberta’s bitumen by rail, which also challenges federal powers. (Continued: Financial Post) 

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