Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali faced withering criticism from MPs who accused him of being woefully unprepared after he appeared unaware of a parliamentary committee motion calling for a ban on federal employees working as contractors. Opposition members mocked Ali as his staff handed him scripted responses during budget estimates questioning, reports Blacklock’s Reporter. "This is embarrassing," said Conservative MP Garnett Genuis. "I would be embarrassed. I am almost embarrassed for him" ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

  Canada's largest public sector union says that federal government plans to start rolling back spending are being "rushed."   Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said the union hasn't been consulted on any proposed plans to cut spending across federal departments since the cuts were first advertised in the spring federal budget.   "The government needs to pause these cuts until it has conducted a whole-of-government review of staffing and service needs, with bargaining agents involved throughout the process," he said in a media statement ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Some citizens currently receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) benefit were shocked and alarmed to receive news this week that they “ will not receive a (CERB) payment when you complete your next report ”. The reason? “ When you first applied for the CERB, you received two payments; a payment of $2,000 as well as a payment following your initial report. This $2,000 was an advance on four weeks of the CERB, which was issued in order to get money in your pocket as quickly as possible ”. The communication from the Trudeau Liberal Government then goes on to say: “ Because of this advance, you will not receive not receive a payment when you complete your next report ”. In other words, because the initial CERB payment was deemed to be an ‘advance’, it is now being fully clawed back. For many citizens, who were completely unaware that this initial $2,000 was considered to be an advance, they are now seriously adversely impacted having had no prior warning this si...

Montreal now has 7 Ministers serving in Cabinet On Wednesday Prime Minister Trudeau announced his new cabinet. Anyone who thought having less seats and a minority Government would in turn result in a smaller cabinet will be disappointed to learn otherwise. By the numbers the new cabinet now has 37 Ministers, in contrast to the 31 Minister's announced by the Prime Minister after the 2015 majority. In order to add so many new Ministers, in some cases a new Ministry had to be created. As an example we now have a Minister of Middle Class Prosperity. This is perhaps the first time where a well-known political talking point has now become a Ministry. At this point it is unclear what will be the mandate of this or any Ministry as the official mandate letters have yet to be released. Not counting Prime Minister Trudeau, of the remaining 36 Ministers, 18 are female and 18 are male as the gender quota policy of the Prime Minister remains unchanged. What has changed is...