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BY MIKE LAPOINTE

As Canadians now enter thesecond month of self-isolation

amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal public service is winning

BY ABBAS RANA

While it’s highly unlikely thatan election will be called in

the midst of a global pandemic, Canada’s Chief Electoral Offi cer Stéphane Perrault is still consult-ing with his provincial counter-parts regularly to plan for the possibility that one is called in this minority government.

BY ABBAS RANA

With the country deep in thethroes of a deadly interna-

tional pandemic, veteran pollsters

are predicting that the next fed-eral election will be a referendum on how Justin Trudeau’s minority government managed COVID-19 and its impact on Canadians after

this global crisis is over.“We won’t know until the very

end how much damage this will

BY PETER MAZEREEUW

Two Senate committees justassigned to monitor the gov-

ernment’s response to COVID-19 should leave partisanship at the door, and cut the government some slack as it stickhandles the country’s biggest crisis since World War II, say some of the

BY NEIL MOSS

As U.S. President DonaldTrump makes headline-

grabbing suggestions that could have wide-reaching effects on Canada’s response to curb CO-VID-19, analysts say the presiden-tial pronouncements have little

Senators laud performance of public service amidst pandemic, with one calling for greater ‘risk taking and innovation’ by bureaucrats

Canada’s chief electoral offi cer Perrault consulting provincial counterparts regularly on how to hold an election if one is called in midst of COVID-19

Senate’s new COVID-19 oversight committees should leave rough stuff for the House, say Senators

Trump coronavirus pronouncements have had little impact on Canadian response as few have been realized, say analysts

Next federal election a referendum on Trudeau’s management of COVID-19, say pollsters, ‘a crisis like no other’

Continued on page 7Continued on page 26 Continued on page 22

Continued on page 6

Continued on page 23

News

News

NewsNews News

Federal government

Elections Canada

SenateCanada-U.S. COVID-19 & leadership

THIRTY-FIRST YEAR, NO. 1720 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 $5.00

Veteran pollster Frank Graves says the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought the world to the ‘cusp of another great transformation,’ but it’s unknown what changes it will create until this international crisis is over. But it’s never going back to normal.

MichaelHarris

p.11

The next federal election will be a referendum on how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured April 14, 2020, at his daily press conference outside Rideau Cottage, and his minority government handled the COVID-19 pandemic, say veteran pollsters. Pollster Nik Nanos says the decision on when to end the lockdown will be a tough situation for the federal government and provincial governments, but they will need to work together in order to get it right. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Rose LeMayWhy we need

race-based data on COVID-19 p. 5

Parliamentary accountability or pandemic

pandemonium? p. 4

The uncertainty embedded in oil and gas serves up

another option p. 20

COVID-19 crisis off ers hope for a clean energy transition p. 18

Toddler in chief in the White House is frantic to reopen the economy p. 15

Susan Riley Dayna Mahannah Jatin Nathwani Gwynne Dyer

The nominees for 2020’s prestigious Don-ner and Dafoe book prizes are now out,

with 10 books earning the nod and offering Canadians another enlightening way to pass their time in the COVID-19 lockdown.

The fi ve books nominated for the Don-ner Prize for best public policy book include Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson‘s Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population De-cline; Wendy Dobson‘s Living with China: A Middle Power Finds Its Way; Thomas

Flanagan‘s, The Wealth of First Nations; Dennis McConaghy‘s Breakdown: The Pipeline Debate and the Threat to Canada’s Fu-ture; and Rich-ard Stursberg and Stephen Armstrong‘s The Tangled Garden: A Ca-nadian Cultural Manifesto for the Digital Age.

This is the second time Mr. Ibbitson of The Globe and Mail has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize. He was also nominated for his 2005 book, The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream.

The winner of the Donner Prize will take home $50,000, with the four runner-ups receiving $7,500.

“The Donner Prize has always shone a spotlight on books that are exceptional works of public policy research,” Donner Canadian Foundation chair Kenneth Whyte said in a statement. “This year is no excep-tion, with books on topics that are quite literally ripped from the headlines. They will undoubtedly provoke debate. And these books refl ect the challenges facing all levels of governance and policy. Policy affects us all, and books that probe hard questions, that suggest guidelines and direction for the future, become essential reading.”

The shortlist was selected by a jury that is chaired by former Bank of Canada gov-ernor David Dodge, and includes former University of Calgary Schulich School of Engineering dean Elizabeth Cannon, Mc-Gill University political economy professor Jean-Marie Dufour, past deputy minister to the premier of British Columbia Brenda Eaton, and Peter Nicholson, who was a deputy chief of staff for policy in Paul Martin‘s PMO.

Although the Donner Prize winner has been typically announced in the spring, this year’s award ceremony will take place in the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year’s prize was won by Thomas Courchene for his book, Indigenous Nationals/Canadian Citizens: From First Contact to Canada 150 and Beyond.

Joining Mr. Ibbitson, fellow Parliamen-tary Press Gallery member Aaron Wherry has also been nominated for a book prize this year.

His book, Promise and Peril: Justin Trudeau in Power, is one of fi ve titles up for the 2020 John W. Dafoe Book Prize. The other nominations include Adam Chapnick‘s Canada on the United Na-tions Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage; Brendan Kelly‘s The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy; Tina Loo‘s Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada; and Dave Meslin‘s Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up.

The Dafoe Prize—named after the former editor of the then-Manitoba Free Press—is awarded for the best book on

“Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world.”

“My great thanks to the foundation and the judges and congrats to the other nominees…a nice bit of news, personally, when everything else is a bit nuts,” Mr. Wherry tweeted about the honour.

The CBC senior writer released his book on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election. Mr. Wherry told The Hill Times last year that he had a se-ries of interview with Mr. Trudeau that added up to around eight hours, one of which was conducted on the prime minister’s plane on the way to New York City for a United Na-tions General Assembly meeting.

Previous winners of the Dafoe Prize have included historian Tim Cook for Vimy: The Battle and the Legend; Maclean’s writer Paul Wells for The Longer I’m Prime Min-ister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006-; and historian John English for Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919-1968, Volume One, among many others. The prize has been awarded since 1984.

The winner of this year’s prize will be awarded $10,000 at the J.W. Dafoe Founda-tion’s annual Book Prize dinner, likely to be held in the fall.

Bloomberg’s Kait Bolongaro joins the Parliamentary Press Gallery

Kait Bolongaro of Bloomberg is the latest addition to the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

The press gallery ex-ecutive board announced in an email to its members last week that she was accredited during a meet-ing last month.

Ms. Bolon-garo has reported from Bloomberg’s Elgin Street newsroom in Ottawa since Feb-ruary, according to her LinkedIn profi le.

Previously, she has been a reporter with Politico Europe, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Al Jazeera, among others. In 2017, she was awarded the silver medal from the United Nations Correspondents Association Global Prize on Climate Change for her reporting on water pollution in China. She also won an award from the World Health Summit and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting in 2016 for her coverage of down syndrome.

Along with Ms. Bolongaro, the Bloom-berg parliamentary newsroom is composed of bureau chief Theophilos Argitis, as well as Christopher Fournier, Michelle Hagan, Erik Schmitz-Hertzberg, and Stephen Wicary.

nmoss@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES2

by Neil Moss

Heard on the Hill

This just in: Donner Prize, Dafoe Prize name books shortlisted for honours

Good reads: The winners of the Donner and Dafoe book prizes will be announced in anticipated ceremonies this fall. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

The books shortlisted for the 2020 John W. Dafoe Book Prize are Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up, by Dave Meslin; The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy, by Brendan Kelly; Canada on the United Nations Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage, by Adam Chapnick; Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada, by Tina Loo; and Promise and Peril: Justin Trudeau in Power, by Aaron Wherry. Book cover images courtesy of UBC Press, Penguin Canada, and Harper Collins Canada

The titles up for the 2020 Donner Prize are The Tangled Garden: A Canadian Cultural Manifesto for the Digital Age, by Richard Stursberg and Stephen Armstrong; The Wealth of First Nations, by Thomas Flanagan; Living with China: A Middle Power Finds Its Way, by Wendy Dobson; Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline, by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson; and Breakdown: The Pipeline Debate and the Threat to Canada’s Future, by Dennis McConaghy. Book cover images courtesy of Signal/McClelland & Stewart, University of Toronto Press, Fraser Institute, Dundurn Press, and James Lorimer & Co.

The Globe and Mail‘s John Ibbitson was previously shortlisted for the Donner Prize for his book, The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream. The Hill Times fi le photograph

Author, author: CBC’s Aaron Wherry is pictured on Sept. 9, 2019 with National Post columnist John Ivison. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Kait Bolongaro has previously been a reporter with Politico Europe, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Al Jazeera, among others. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn/Kait Bolongaro

Visit ontario.ca/coronavirusPaid for by the Government of Ontario

Stop the SpreadCOVID-19 can be deadly.Stay home. Save lives.

CHELSEA, QUE.—In theory, a healthy democracy needs

a vigorous opposition. In reality, there’s Question Period.

That may be why Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer appears to be having trouble rousing public opinion to his cause. His cause, essentially, is more face time for the official opposition. Or, as he puts it, more “accountabil-ity.” He has already moved back to Stornoway with his family, from Regina, and has argued for parliamentary sittings to resume, preferably four days a week, involving a skeleton showing of MPs from every party.

Near the end of last week, a compromise was in play with the Liberals suggesting one live session a week—not the usual Question Period, but an account-ability session, which would give opposition MPs a chance to question ministers. This would be eventually supplemented by on-line sessions which could involve all members of Parliament broad-casting from their book-lined home studies. The virtual Parlia-ment could be up and running in three weeks, say government sources, but Scheer is not keen on the idea.

However, the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May prefer the online option in the interests of con-taining the virus. May has said even the limited sittings held so far, involving about 40 MPs, felt unsafe to her because physical distancing was difficult within the confines of the chamber. These sessions also force political staff, cleaners, translators, and others, to come into work when they should be staying home.

What may seem like office poli-tics writ large is vitally important to Scheer, a traditionalist, who likes to be a sword’s-length across the aisle from his main target. The

Conservative party leader also no doubt realizes that stuttering on-line debates lack the immediacy of the vigorous exchange of real-time insults and evasions that distin-guish the daily Question Period. It would be, undoubtedly, even more boring television.

Whatever agreement is reached, it is important that op-position parties be given a chance to play a constructive role—to improve legislation, question proposed remedies and champion forgotten victims, or communi-ties. Hopefully, all parties will take up the disaster unfolding in the country’s long-term care homes. There already are two Commons committees meeting regularly online, soon to be six, to review the flood of federal pan-demic legislation. Amid the cur-rent avalanche of news, however, they mostly operate in obscurity.

From the government’s per-spective, every hour spent in the Commons is an hour subtracted from the hectic business of re-sponding to the crisis, to media questions and to meetings with premiers and others. This rationale

would be suspect, if, as May points out, opposition parties had not been regularly, if informally, con-sulted by ministers throughout the crisis—and, often, listened to. She notes, ruefully, that Parliament is “working way better than usual.”

May concedes these are extraor-dinary circumstances and would resist the first sign of government “running roughshod” over its politi-cal opponents. But, she says, so far that is not the case, adding “I don’t think Canadians will appreciate people and parties that seek parti-san advantage right now.”

But will federal opposition parties play a constructive role, given weekly exposure? So far, the evidence is mixed. Both Scheer and New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh claim credit for pressing Liber-als to increase wage subsidies intended to help companies retain regular staff from 10 percent to 75 per cent. Other opposition complaints have been answered quickly—lightening speed by Ottawa standards—in the form of tweaks to legislation by a public service running in overdrive.

But, as weeks go by, Conserva-tives, in particular, are becoming restless. Scheer is posing increas-ingly sharp questions in televised statements. Why was cabinet so slow to shut down foreign travel, why did it accept assurances from China and the World Health Orga-nization that community transmis-sion wasn’t an issue, and why the confusion about the usefulness of masks? Why, he wondered the other day, did we send surplus protective equipment to China in February only to be scrambling at home a month later? Why have other countries—South Korea, Tai-wan, Singapore and New Zealand, for instance—been so much more successful in containing the virus?

Some of these questions, particularly concerning Canada’s relationship with China, will no doubt be exhaustively examined in future. But to raise them now, in so querulous a tone, is like proceeding with the post-mortem while the patient is still struggling to breath. Perhaps the govern-ment relied too much on ill-founded advice from the WHO—although so did almost everyone,

including, it must be said, Donald Trump. On Jan. 24, the U.S. presi-dent praised China’s “efforts and transparency,” then downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic for almost two months.

As for the countries that reacted more effectively than Canada, most are close neighbours of China with dense populations, powerful central governments and a culture of compliance. No provinces to co-ordinate, no erratic neighbour to deal with, no vast ocean between them and the contagion.

That doesn’t explain away the lag-time in closing the U.S. bor-der, or the decision to welcome home spring break travellers with only cursory screening and voluntary quarantine. But these questions—as with Alberta Pre-mier Jason Kenney’s ill-tempered attack on Health Canada and Dr. Theresa Tam last week—should wait until the worst is over. And that could be a while, especially if Trump makes good his threat to re-open the northern border.

What the moment does not need are tweets from hyper-partisan Conservative MP and finance critic Pierre Poilievre (forgotten, but, sadly, not gone). Said Poilievre: “The media is ramping up a campaign to protect Trudeau from accountability sessions. They know he can’t handle tough questions. He left the borders open to 2,000 people from COVID hotspots and (he’s) giving away our medical stockpiles. No wonder he’s hiding from these questions.”

Meanwhile, everyone else can be forgiven for hiding from Poilievre.

And, how helpful will it be to Canadians to hear Scheer ac-cuse Liberals, and, by extension, hard-pressed public servants, of forcing people to wait “weeks and weeks” for assistance? Or to ac-cuse the prime minister, prepos-terously, “of using a health crisis to shut down democracy?”

Still, you can understand the Conservatives’ frustration. Cabinet ministers, Scheer groused, “get to make speeches every day.” Indeed, every politician in the country is on television daily while Scheer and Singh have only occasional cameos. The mayor of Toronto gets more air time. Ontario Premier Doug Ford—whose interventions have been empathetic and constructive, rather than partisan and combative—has become a folk hero in the salons of Rosedale. Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu has been candid and well-informed; Deputy Prime Min-ister Chrystia Freeland calm, and forceful with the U.S. when required.

Trudeau has been Trudeau—stilted, artificial and repetitive—but he has been nothing if not available. And, in place of the tendentious “questions” he fields in the Commons, he has faced a more pointed, less theatrical, daily grilling from the media. As have his senior ministers and senior public health officials. They have mostly acquitted themselves well.

No wonder Sheer and com-pany are feeling left out. We’ll get our democracy back when this crisis is over—along with the daily barrage of Quebec Period—but, in all honesty, has anyone really missed it?

Susan Riley is a veteran politi-cal columnist who writes regu-larly for The Hill Times.

The Hill Times

4

Parliamentary accountability or pandemic pandemonium?  We’ll get our democracy back when this crisis is over—along with the daily barrage of Question Period—but, in all honesty, has anyone really missed it?

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

MPs, pictured in the House for an emergency meeting on April 11, 2020, to pass the government's $73-billion wage subsidy bill. Screen capture courtesy of CPAC

Green Party Parliamentary Leader Elizabeth May has said even the limited sittings held so far, involving about 40 MPs, felt unsafe to her and also forced political staff, cleaners, translators, and others to come into work when they should be staying home. Screenshot courtesy of CPAC

Susan Riley

Impolitic

5

OTTAWA—With more than 30,000 Canadians tested or presumed to have

COVID-19, we are facing a health crisis like no other. This crisis will also shine a light on a number of weaknesses and inequities in our society, some of which are delineated along racial lines.

Twenty-nine states in the U.S. released a mix COVID-19 data by race and the data is already stark: Black Americans and Latino Americans are overrepresented and im-pacted, and two Indigenous communities

in New Mexico “had higher infection rates than any U.S. county” on that day, accord-ing to a story on April in The Atlantic.

The pandemic is also touching Indig-enous communities in Canada. Inuit in Nunavik are facing a crisis with 13 cases as of April 15. The community of Puvirni-tuq is a fl y-in community located on the east side of James Bay with about 1,800 people and it has most of the cases in the region of northern Quebec. But there is no reliable data nationally to show if First Na-tions, Inuit, and Métis are impacted more than others. There is no reliable data.

In Canada, an Ontario provincial senior leader recently dismissed the idea of col-lecting and analyzing racial demographics for COVID-19. “Regardless of race, ethnic or other backgrounds, they’re all equally important to us,” said Ontario chief medical offi cer Dr. David Williams in The Toronto Star on April 10). This is, unfortunately, another example of the often used “all lives matter” response which denies the voices of minorities. Health offi cials might want to consider how to voice their appropriate concern for each patient that they treat, while also respecting the unique needs of each patient. It is possible to do both.

It is also possible and necessary for Canada to collect racial demographics on the impact of COVID-19. We need to know if black Canadians or Indigenous Cana-dians are disproportionately impacted. COVID-19 is colour-blind, but Canadian society is not.

Crowded housing which makes physical isolation impossible, lack of clean water, pre-existing health conditions, and lack of access to health services? This is the

alarming picture of many Indigenous com-munities. COVID-19 is colour-blind, but the impact will paint a clear picture of the social inequalities in our country.

Will the data paint a picture that will be diffi cult to see? Yes, for those who have not seen this picture before. The truth is that for Indigenous Canadians, this picture is lived experience—it’s not new, it simply has not been documented clearly enough to encourage change.

With racial demographics on the impact of COVID-19, we will have the policy abil-ity to do something about it. Without the data, we will not have the policy ability.

We cannot wait for Indigenous Services Canada to collate COVID-19 data for In-digenous peoples. Provinces and territories

need to step up now in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis health lead-ers to get this done. We need good anony-mous data on a regional basis, or we won’t be able to learn anything from this crisis to benefi t Indigenous health.

Too many white Canadians in positions of power are saying that racial data is not important. The next step is for thought leaders, like Canada 2020, to lead discus-sions on the country’s recovery, but with-out any data on how to refl ect the needs of Indigenous Canadians or Black Canadians or other minorities. Without our voices. The irony that Canada declares itself to be a champion of minority rights is particularly painful this week.

Without the clear decisions of chief pub-lic health offi cers in each province and ter-ritory, without the clear leadership of the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network, this is how it might play out: COVID-19 data continues to ignore race or ethnicity so we’ll never have the information to know for sure how many minority Canadians are impacted, and the country misses the best opportunity to make real change in health systems and policy, and Indigenous health outcomes continue to lag behind other Canadians’ health.

Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and rec-onciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradict-ing the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth.

The Hill Times

Opinion

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Why we need race-based data on COVID-19 With racial demographics on the impact of COVID-19, we will have the policy ability to do something about it. Without the data, we will not have the policy ability.

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The village of Puvirnituq in Nunavik, Que., pictured Feb. 7, 2018, is a fl y-in community located on the east side of James Bay with about 1,800 people and it has most of the cases in the region of northern Quebec. But there is no reliable data nationally to show if First Nations, Inuit, and Métis are impacted more than others, writes Rose LeMay. Photograph courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

Rose LeMay

Stories, Myths, and Truths

6

Senators involved in shaping those com-mittees.

Two Senate leaders and another Senator tapped to serve on an oversight commit-tee told The Hill Times that the Senate’s Finance and Social Affairs committees should avoid duplicating the work or parti-san atmosphere of the House of Commons committees that have been given a similar task.

“They’ll take a little bit more of a blood-less view,” said Senator Scott Tannas (Al-berta), the interim Leader of the Canadian Senators Group, which has two seats on each of the two oversight committees.

“Politics are creeping into the House of Commons stuff. It’s natural,” said Sen. Tan-nas, who will sit on the Senate’s Finance Committee.

The House Finance and Health commit-tees are already meeting virtually to scru-tinize the government’s response to the crisis, heeding advice from public health offi cials to shut down public gatherings.

The House Finance Committee has already summoned Finance Minister Bill Morneau (Toronto Centre, Ont.) twice, most recently last week. He was grilled by Conservative fi nance critic Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.) and others over the rollout of the government’s fi nancial relief measures. The Health Committee has heard from high-ranking offi cials in the Canada Border Services Agency, and departments of Public Safety, Transport, National Defence, and Global Affairs, as well as Canada’s chief public health of-fi cer, Dr. Theresa Tam.

The Senate committees should be focused on transparency, said Sen. Tannas, and on pointing out problems with the gov-ernment’s response that have been missed by the House of Commons.

“It really comes down to monitoring what the government is doing. Is what they’re doing consistent with what they’re saying?”

The Senate Finance and Social Affairs committees were struck on April 11 during a one-day recall of the Senate to pass the government’s $73-billion wage subsidy bill, C-14. Senators also agreed to set up the In-ternal Economy Committee to handle Sen-ate business. The Senate’s other standing committees still have not been established for the 43rd Parliament.

Finance and Social Affairs were as-signed to examine the government’s response to the public health crisis that has put much of Canada on lockdown. The Senate’s Finance Committee was also

asked to study two of the government’s recently passed bills to bail out Canada’s economy amid the crisis, C-13 and C-14.

The passage of C-13 gave the govern-ment extraordinary powers to spend money to help mitigate the crisis without parliamentary approval until the end of September. The government has already opened the taps, pledging more than $100-billion in direct spending and tens of billions more in loans or deferred tax and duty payments.

The Senate oversight committees should not summon witnesses who have already testifi ed before House committees about the crisis, said Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.), who leads the Sen-ate’s largest group, the ISG, but does not sit on one of the oversight committees.

“We should avoid duplicating, calling those same people and asking for the same information,” he said.

The committees should “fi nd a niche that is a little bit more forward-looking,” he said.

“You don’t want to overreact to any policy that was announced last week, which may be defunct already or which may have been superseded by something else because circumstances have changed,” he said.

“Of course … where there is legitimate criticism, the committee should offer it, with a view though to fi nd solutions, and to improve the interim response to the coro-navirus crisis,” he said.

The Senate committees likely won’t produce reports any time soon either, said Sen. Woo, given how quickly the crisis is changing.

“Things are moving so fast the whole idea of releasing a report seems ridiculous, because it would likely be obsolete the minute you fi nalize it,” he said.

‘It needs to be something that can be used’

However, the members of the Social Af-fairs Committee—which has not yet met—haven’t decided yet how they will approach the job, said Independent Senator Chantal Petitclerc (Grandville, Que.), who sits on the social affairs committee and chaired it during the last Parliament.

The committee’s work should be “rel-evant,” she said, but avoid duplicating the work of the House committees.

“At some level, it needs to be a balance of understanding that the government is under a lot of pressure. We are in a crisis, but they still need to be held accountable. Canadians need to know what is going on,” said Sen. Petitclerc.

“I don’t think it should be gentle. It should be critical, it should be relevant, it should be useful. It should not be partisan just for the sake of being partisan,” she said. “It needs to be something that can be used by the government or by the leaders.”

The Social Affairs Committee has not yet selected its chair for this Parliament. An Independent Senator is expected to take on the job.

Conservative Sen. Percy Mockler (New Brunswick), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, did not respond to an interview request by deadline.

Conservative Senate Leader Don Plett (Landmark, Man.) declined to be inter-viewed, but issued a press release that said “Canadians must be reassured that the government is functioning and reacting to this unprecedented crisis in a manner that is in the best interests of us all.

“The execution and outline of clear time-lines for the government’s plan will be key.”

Sen. Plett has previously said that the Senate’s oversight committees should not take a partisan approach to their work.

Senators have also agreed to set up another special committee to examine the “lessons learned” from the crisis at some future date when the Senate has returned to its normal operation. The Senate is sus-pended until at least June 2.

“That committee is not about oversight, it’s about lessons learned, and how Canada can be better prepared for future pandem-ics and other health emergencies,” said Sen. Woo.

“We’re going to be looking at everything through a lens of, how do we prepare for the next one?” said Sen. Tannas.

“We’re going to be taking a global view. We’re not just going to be looking at the government, and looking at what they did right and what they did wrong. We’ll be looking at other countries. We’ll be asking some questions of experts about things like the supply chain,” he said, citing shortages of medical supplies in Canada as health care workers try to cope with the pan-demic.

“There’s a lot of these areas where I think we can really do an analysis and provide some recommendations to the gov-ernment in a way that, I think, the House of Commons is just not wired to do,” he said.

“It’s just not in their political DNA to spend weeks and weeks and weeks look-ing at all the multiple facets that need to be looked at. And that’s what we can do, this is a chance for us to shine.”

peter@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Senate’s new COVID-19 oversight committees should leave rough stuff for the House, say Senators ‘I don’t think it should be gentle. It should be critical, it should be relevant, it should be useful—it should not be partisan just for the sake of being partisan,’ says ISG Senator Chantal Petitclerc, who sits on the Senate Social Aff airs Committee.

News

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Senate

Continued from page 1

Canadian Senators Group interim Leader Scott Tannas (Alberta) has proposed assigning Senate Clerk Richard Denis to study how the Senate can continue to operate during future crises similar to the one gripping Canada now.

The Senate and House have been suspended for weeks, and Senate committees are only now experiment-ing with how to meet virtually, after the novel coronavirus pandemic forced Parliamentarians into isolation along with the rest of the country.

CSG Senator Josée Verner (Montarville, Que.) gave notice of Sen. Tannas’ motion outlining the proposal in the Senate on April 11, during a scaled-down, one-day return of the Senate to pass the government’s wage subsidy bill.

Sen. Tannas told The Hill Times that he couldn’t get unanimous consent among Senators to introduce and consider the motion without notice on April 11.

“There were a number of people saying, ‘We’ve got to direct the administration and the clerk’s offi ce to get on with this now, that this is urgent, we need to do it now,’” he said, but “There were [also] people who were saying, ‘Let them do their work.’”

Senate Speaker George Furey (N.L.) sent a letter to Senators on April 9 to tell them that the Senate administra-tion “has already begun working on logistical, technologi-cal, procedural and security solutions to support virtual meetings of Senate committees.”

If Senators adopt Sen. Tannas’ proposal when the Senate returns, Mr. Denis would have 45 days to put together a report that answers some of the questions about the technology and procedural changes that would be needed for Senators to meet remotely without running into problems.

Until then, the Finance and Social Affairs Committee, as well as the Senate’s Internal Economy Committee, will be meeting virtually until the Senate reconvenes.

Internal Economy’s fi rst virtual meeting took place on April 15. The meeting did not run smoothly; some of the Senators on the call couldn’t hear others in the meeting at times, and the video feed swapped between Senators haphazardly.

Senators on the committee were still able to re-elect Independent Senator Sabi Marwah as the committee chair, and elect Sen. Verner (Montarville, Que.) and Conserva-tive Senator Elizabeth Marshall (N.L.) as the deputy chairs during the nine-minute meeting.

While the Mr. Denis’ report would come too late to help the Senate’s Finance, Social Affairs, and Internal Economy committees to meet virtually, it could pave the way for a quick transition to smooth virtual committee meetings if a second wave of COVID-19—or another emergency—forces another suspension, said Sen. Tannas.

“The worst scenario that people thought about—that inspired us to do something—was that somehow [after] this whole hiatus there wouldn’t be a work product there that would be in any shape for us to look at, and we would be starting from scratch when we get back,” he said.

It’s too early to try to sort out a virtual sitting for the Senate as a whole, however, said Sen. Tannas.

“We’re not going to create a virtual Parliament.”Setting up virtual committee meetings for the Senate

during a pandemic isn’t as easy as it might seem. Not all Senators have the same technology in their homes. Some represent remote regions without reliable, high-speed internet connections. Senators are also spread across multiple time zones.

Committee meetings are supported by stenographers, so the Senate can publish what was said; interpreters, so Senators can participate in French of English; and proce-dural clerks to represent the administration and help the chair serve as a referee. The stenographers and interpreters rely on equipment in the Senate’s committee rooms, and can not easily do their jobs from home in isolation. IT sup-port staff would also be required to facilitate the meetings.

The Senate also relies on a unit of the House of Commons’ audio-visual team in order to broadcast its meetings, further complicating any solution that would be custom-tailored to the Red Chamber.

The virtual meetings of the Internal Economy, Finance, and Social Affairs committees will serve as “pilot projects” for the Senate administration to work out the kinks, said Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.), who leads the Independent Senators Group.

“At some point, if the Senate is still unable to meet in person, we could potentially apply the new modus operandi to other committees of the Senate. But that’s down the road,” he said.

“I think it is an urgent matter for the Senate to vigor-ously examine ways in which the Senate can be a 21st century institution. In other words, have the means to meet remotely without violating any of the privileges of Senators and any of the requirements of our constitution”

Technology review tabled until Senate returns

Independent Senators Chantal Petitclerc and Yuen Pau Woo, and CSG Senator Scott Tannas say the Senate committees assigned to COVID-19 should be helpful to the government where they can, and focus on transparency. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade

7

accolades for its efforts to help citizens while the fast-changing crisis has strained the civil service’s front-line capacity.

Lori MacDonald, senior asso-ciate deputy minister of employ-ment and social development and chief operating offi cer for Service Canada, told The Hill Times that before the “tsunami” hit, the gov-ernment would have processed roughly 9,000 employment insur-ance claims a day.

“What happened on Monday, March 16, we saw a shift whereby the end of the day, we had 71,000 claims, and we were shocked and startled,” said Ms. MacDonald. “But that was just the beginning.”

By March 18, the government was at 87,000 claims from the previous day.

As of April 16, the Canada Emergency Response Benefi t re-lief program had received 7.9 mil-lion applications, processed 7.6 million, and paid out $17.4-billion through the program, according to the government’s website.

Ms. MacDonald said they’ve built “integrity into the front end,” recognizing “that nothing is ever completely perfect.”

“But it is a constant conversa-tion and part of our structure, and every day we add components into the programming that we’re doing—both from an integrity perspective and from a follow-up perspective, in terms of, what does this mean from a risk frame-work conversation, what does this mean for accountability for meeting people’s needs, but also to be accountable to the money that we’re expending?” said Ms. MacDonald.

In the fi nal minutes of a Sen-ate meeting on Saturday, April 11, Senator Peter Harder (Ottawa,

Ont.) made the case for having a higher tolerance for risk in the public sector.

“I made the allusion once that if the public service was a hockey team, it would be a team of goal-ies because it was better not to be scored on than to score,” said Sen. Harder. “We won’t get through this if we don’t have a full-fl edged hockey team, with forwards and risk takers, people who are prepared to see a goal being scored because the game needs to be won. And that requires public institutions like the Senate, the House of Commons, the Auditor General, and others who are charged with ensur-ing proper oversight, are also aware that we need a culture of risk taking and inno-vation in the public service.”

“I applaud the public servants who have taken us thus far in de-veloping the advice and starting to implement it, but the imple-mentation of what we are passing today will, colleagues, mean mis-takes will be made. People will game the system and we’ll have, I’m sure, sober advice to tell us how this and thus should not have taken place,” said Sen. Harder.

In an interview with The Hill Times following the speech, Sen. Harder said the public service is now implementing an extraordi-nary set of programs over a short period of time, with very large economic costs and huge conse-quences to their being effi ciently and effectively and quickly delivered.

“And that will take some spirit of innovation, some risk taking and some willingness to toler-

ate mistakes and that’s not just a public service issue, it’s also a parliamentary issue that we need to understand; that in imple-menting legislation that is this profound, that is this broad, of this of this magnitude,” said Sen. Harder. “We have to tolerate risk taking and with that, the fact that people will learn as they as they administer.”

This is a situation of ‘national crisis,’ says Senator Dean

Senator Tony Dean, who was the secretary of cabinet and head of the Ontario public service from 2002 to 2008, told The Hill Times that this is a situation of “national crisis.”

“With the shadow of Italy in front of our eyes, this is a situa-tion where the federal govern-ment, in particular, had to go big or go home. There were no incremental approaches,” said Sen. Dean. “When you go big and it works and has an impact, there are some things that you miss. There’s no doubt that some peo-ple will be overpaid. Some people will game the system. The auditor general will do exactly what we would want the auditor general

to do. And to point out where this worked as well as where it had some side impacts that weren’t considered in the design.”

“In realizing that when you go big as we needed to, that there will be some issues that arise later and government will prepare itself for that, and participate in those reviews and answer ques-tions that arise as a result of those reviews,” said Sen. Dean. “There

will be a number of reviews besides the auditor general about how well this worked, and what worked and, and what worked not so well. And those are also antici-pated after signifi cant events of this time. And we learn from [them] as we learn from, you know, from previous emergen-

cies and crises.”Former parliamentary budget

offi cer Kevin Page said there’s probably nobody better than Sen. Harder to provide comments about how the public service is doing.

“He’s a long-time public senior public servant, with a stellar reputation when he was a public servant as well as a Senator,” said Mr. Page. Sen. Harder arrived in the Senate in 2016 with nearly 30 years of experience in the fed-eral public service, and a decade serving as a volunteer in various organizations and as a member of several boards of directors.

Mr. Page was the parliamen-tary budget offi cer during the 2008 fi nancial crisis, but also said “nothing compares to this.”

“I don’t think in our life-time, the amount of change, the amount of policy, the fi scal weight

of the measures, we’ve never had anything like this. So, how do you prepare for something like this, and how do you prepare a public service to respond at this sort of speed?” said Mr. Page.

“Behind all of these develop-ments, changes to programs, new additions to programs, I don’t think in my lifetime we’ve ever been in an experience like this where we’ve had this much policy development happening this quickly,” said Mr. Page.

Non-critical workers volunteering in call centres, says union president Debi Daviau

Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada president Debi Daviau said she appreciates all the comments about how the public service has performed in the last few weeks.

“A lot of CRA employees, not just our members, lots of them are [under] PSAC as well, but a lot of our members have volunteered to work in those call centers,” said Ms. Daviau. “So they’re actually non-critical workers. So they were basically on paid leave, but they put up their hand to work on the phones, which basically entails them giving up their per-sonal cell phones for up to eight hours a day in order for them to receive calls from Canadians.”

“I think it’s incredible actually, what public servants are doing in this time of crisis,” said Ms. Daviau.

Former clerk of the Privy Council Mel Cappe told The Hill Times that Senator Harder is a “very thoughtful and insightful person and that speech refl ected that, and I thought that it was spot on in terms of what needed to be said.”

Mr. Cappe also said he wanted to make the distinction between decision making ex ante (before the event) and the assessment of decisions ex post (after the event).

“One of the problems is that when you look back, you have the results, and you know whether it was right or wrong. Looking forward, you don’t even have the information you need on which to make a decision properly,” said Mr. Cappe. “And so people like Theresa Tam, are making decisions with an understanding intuitively about how this is going to go, but not the knowledge of how it will go.”

“And to be judged by how it turned out, as opposed to whether they took into account the right factors in making their decision ex ante, is inappropriate,” said Mr. Cappe, who referred to a piece in the Globe and Mail by health writer André Picard who criti-cized politicians for shifting into “full fi nger-pointing and scape-goating mode,” who also said “it is dangerously inappropriate to kneecap public health offi cials and agencies at a time when a pandemic is racing around the world.”

“The question is, did you make your best effort on the basis of the information you had at the time you made the decisions? And in that regard, Dr. Tam is doing a good job,” said Mr. Cappe.

mlapointe@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Senators laud performance of public service amidst pandemic, with one calling for greater ‘risk taking and innovation’ by bureaucrats In the fi nal minutes of a Senate meeting on Saturday, April 11, Senator Peter Harder made the case for having a higher tolerance for risk in the public sector.

News

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Federal government

Continued from page 1

Senator Peter Harder says the public service is now implementing an extraordinary set of programs over a short period of time, with very large economic costs and huge consequences to their being effi ciently and effectively and quickly delivered. The Hill Times fi le photograph

8

The federal government, the provinces, and the municipalities have been put-

ting a war-time-like effort into preventing the spread of the coronavirus ever since the World Health Organization offi cially declared it a global pandemic on March 12. Canada is on lockdown, and so far, the federal government has spent, loaned and deferred $262-billion to help people keep the economy alive. The prime minister, federal ministers, provincial premiers, chief medical offi cers, and most mayors have been holding daily press briefi ngs to keep people updated. The prime minister may not directly an-swer every question, but you can ask him anything, every day. The same goes for top federal cabinet ministers and Canada’s chief medical offi cer. They’re available every day to the media. Behind the scenes, thousands of bureaucrats and hundreds of political staffers across the country are burning the midnight oil to do their jobs. Everyone is working hard. All this is what good governments should do.

But as each week passes, it’s becoming clearer that the country was not prepared, and Canada underestimated the strength of the coronavirus. We must be prepared for the next one. Canada needs a national body, led federally, and dedicated solely to fi ghting pandemics, and one that is able to marshal a more cohesive, co-ordinated response to the threats posed by these outbreaks. If there are any lessons to be learned here, this is the biggest one.

Canada went through the SARS epidemic in 2002-2004, which killed 774 worldwide. There was the H1N1 fl u in 2009 that killed 428 Canadians. The Public Health Agency of Canada later issued a report on the need for more ventilators. There was the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus

(MERS) in 2012, which hit 21 Middle East countries. People like Barack Obama and Bill Gates have been warning the world about a global pandemic for years. In fact, Canada’s chief medical offi cer, Dr. Theresa Tam, even co-wrote a federal report on pandemic pre-paredness in 2006, which was shelved once the urgency was lost. According to The Globe and Mail, a federal audit in 2010 highlighted “problems with the management of Canada’s emergency stockpile of medical equipment; a 2018 assessment of the H1N1 swine fl u out-break a decade earlier raised concerns about ventilator shortages; and a 2019 study led by a team of global scientists questioned the ability of many countries, including Canada to prevent, detect, and respond to a major outbreak.”

But as Canada’s federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu recently said, “Health systems were never designed for this kind of surge. I think federal governments for decades have been underfunding things like public health preparedness.”

Canada does have the little-known National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, but, as The Globe recently reported, public health offi cials weren’t sure what the stockpile contained. Canada has underestimated the coronavirus. Canada shouldn’t have critical shortages of medical supplies and testing equipment. Canada’s health-care system shouldn’t be struggling to keep up. Canada should have widespread, uniform testing. The federal government and the provinces will need to work even more closely together. A second wave is expected in the fall. Instead of just fl attening the curve, Canada should also be fattening its stockpile of medical equip-ment and test units for another pandemic.

The Hill Times

Re: “Some MPs donate their automatic salary increase to charities in effort to

help fi ght COVID-19,” (The Hill Times, April 13). I think it’s absolutely fair game that your paper did an article about MP pay raises and highlighted some who will give the hike to charity. But as a former journalist with 30 years in the business, I do have an issue with the story. To my constituents, it looks as if I’m taking the pay raise when I’ve long decided against it and, indeed, publicized that many days ago. I’m not mentioned in your list or story as one of the MPs donating my raise to charity. So I’m conspicuous by my absence on that list and social media has drawn atten-tion to your story.

You may well say that you only did this story as a type of snapshot by noting some MPs who put out news releases or huge posts on social media. But I’m afraid that with such a sensitive issue, the public and all elected MPs deserve a more thorough process. I have always found your newspaper exceedingly fair and I hope you’ll continue to be so by car-

rying out my request for a clarifi cation or an update to your story.

I’d ask that you also please add me to your list of MPs who have promised to give their salary hike to charity and further that you’ll explain that I was simply missed in your original survey because you’ve been apprised of new information that showed I too had, as far back as April 1, decided to give my raise to charitable causes. That’s important. I don’t want to be seen as a Johnny-come-lately, me-too guy because I was onboard long before your story was published on April 13.

As a Conservative who prides himself on being a fi scal watchdog, this is very impor-tant to me and to my reputation. I expect that, as a newspaper that prides itself in accuracy and fairness, it will be equally important to you to clarify this.

Keep up your important journalism work. I hope you and your staff stay safe in these trying times.

Conservative MP Kerry DiotteEdmonton Griesbach, Alta.

Re: “Hajdu made a courageous and dan-gerous statement last week,” (The Hill

Times, April 6, by Sheila Copps). One of the core functions of Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s Health Ministry is being respon-sible for ensuring that the country as a whole is ready and has suffi cient emer-gency stockpile of supplies. Unfortunately,

this Public Health Agency under Hajdu’s Health Ministry failed to suffi ciently stash PPE for a pandemic. Previous govern-ments can’t be blamed, as the federal Lib-erals have been in power almost fi ve years. Give credit where credit is due.

Max BorkOttawa

You too may have seen the many “before and after” photos showing

how our collective response to COVID-19 has literally given us a clear view to the horizons of our various cities. Once this is over, I wonder if our view to the horizon will also be over. As a collective, a culture

and a nation, what are we willing to do for the sake of a visible horizon? If you could, how would you organize our politi-cal and economic future so the view to our horizon would still be in sight?

Ron Robinson Nelson, B.C.

It was very moving to listen to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech last

Saturday in the House of Commons. He made reference to the full Canadian and sacrifi cial stance to meet the invisible enemy of the coronavirus. In particular, he paid full respect to the front-line health workers, grocery shop members, transport workers and, to all citizens obeying the counterac-tion to the disease. He well indicated that our current strength and inspiration comes from our predecessors, such as those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the world wars. The underlying determination, sharing and compassion among Canadians is our ongoing strength. For me, in particular, I am so pleased that he made clear and sensi-tive reference to the Passover and Easter, as

inspiring examples with the Jews moving from “slavery to freedom” and from “death to resurrection” of Jesus Christ for the Chris-tians. He also made reference to other faiths as Hindu and the signifi cance in this strug-gling period. As a joint Hindu-Christian from my parents’ interfaith marriage and, with my Reform Jewish wife, I found the prime minister’s direct interfaith appeal in Parlia-ment to be most encouraging. It is not often that the religious faiths are so formally and openly placed “side by side” in Parliament. For those citizens not attached to any religious faith, the prime minister gave the encourag-ing spring message for hope, to resolve the virus to its end.

Roman MukerjeeOttawa, Ont.

We should have a federal pandemic body

Conservative MP Diotte also donating his $3,750 salary increase this year to charity

Feds should have been better prepared for pandemic, previous governments can’t be blamed, says reader

A view to the horizon after COVID-19

Prime Minister Trudeau off ers an encouraging, spring message of hope, says reader

Editorial Letters to the Editor

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

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9

OTTAWA—Canada’s dirty little secret is now out in the open.

While we all claim respect and reverence for seniors, when the time comes, they often fi nd them-selves in substandard conditions with little recourse or options.

The number of COVID-19 deaths in institutions is a clear signal that we need to revisit the defi ciency of end-of-life and continuing care solutions.

It is also proof positive that running 13 independent nursing home systems makes absolutely no sense.

Because of the scarcity of COVID-fi ghting equipment, the federal and provincial gov-ernments have actually been coordinating international purchases and domestic distri-bution.

Incredibly, this is the fi rst time in the history of our country that we have actually had agreement from all parties to cooperate on purchase require-ments.

The federal government is also stepping in to offer updated guidelines for nursing home op-erations across the country.

But guess what. Their recom-mendations have zero legal au-thority. The federal government is responsible for guaranteeing the health of what we eat in Canada but has zero responsibility gov-erning the health of our people.

The COVID death rate in in-stitutional care is shining a light into an area that health advocates and the children of ailing parents have known for years.

The management and stan-dards of public nursing facilities is a dog’s breakfast.

Several years ago, my own mother had to be institutionalized because of her increasing dementia.

Luckily, she was in a position to secure a place in a private fa-cility that specialized in memory wards, a euphemism for people who no longer retain their memo-ries.

She was thriving for almost two years but in the last four months of her life, she went rap-idly downhill.

The community care experts who track placement for vulner-able seniors suggested it was time to move her into a public facility where there would be more focus

on heavy care. We were given a list to visit, and quickly discov-ered the differences in facilities even in a single city.

There were at least three outstanding facilities, that would pass muster on any nursing inspection. The waiting list to get into these places was up to three years.

We were given another list that had immediate openings, and my husband and I scheduled tours with several of them.

The fi rst one we visited was a retrofi tted warehouse con-veniently located beside what appeared to be a brothel motel.

The stench of urine was so pungent when we opened the front door that we recoiled. Patients were in the sunroom, some of whom were literally naked as their hospital gowns had come undone, and

nobody seemed to think that their dignity was worth preserving.

I left the facility in tears, and vowed that I would never, never, never put a loved one into a place that was not even suitable for a dog.

I expressed my concern to community care and the work-ers agreed that there were some nursing homes in the nation’s capital that were absolutely sub-standard.

Luckily, my mother was able to stay in the private facility until

she passed away, but to this day, images of the poor quality of some nursing homes in Ottawa still stings.

The other thing that stood out during my mother’s time in institutional care was the untiring devotion of staff, many of whom are surviving on minimum wage.

Dealing with demented patients is not an easy task, as they can suffer from inexplicable mood swings and sometimes, un-characteristic violent behaviour. It is not uncommon for nurses and personal service workers to be slapped, cursed or spit on by people who have literally lost control of their minds.

I called the workers my mother’s saints, because they cared for her with dignity and gentleness, and never lost sight of the fact that she was a person, not just a patient.

Last year, the Ontario gov-ernment rolled back a planned minimum wage increase. Many of these saints saw their wage hikes go up in smoke, while the work-load did not get any easier.

Many nursing homes are owned by holding companies, that are focussed on one thing, the bottom line. And cutting food and care budgets help get to that bottom line.

If we learn one thing from this COVID nightmare, it is that the time has actually come to put our money where our mouth is.

When we say we respect elders, the time has come to prove it. Giving the federal public health agency authority to nationally accredit nursing homes would be a good start.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister.

The Hill Times

OAKVILLE, ONT.—We all know how the COVID-19

“lockdown” has decimated the entire world’s economy.

But what’s less appreciated is how the pandemic will negatively impact on the bottom line for Canada’s federal political parties.

After all, as long as the virus crisis is in full swing, the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are going to have an extremely diffi cult time when it comes to fundrais-ing.

Yup, even in this time of terror I’m talking about mundane issues like fundraising. Please, don’t judge me; fi ve weeks in isolation has likely warped my mind.

At any rate, my point is it’s go-ing to be a challenge to convince people, who might be worried about meeting their next mort-gage payment, to donate money to a political party.

What’s more, even people who aren’t hurting fi nancially will probably be more likely to donate their discretionary income to any COVID-19 related causes.

In short, Canadians will be more concerned about their own

fi nancial and physical health than about the fi scal health of their favourite political party.

So how can political parties get around this; how can they persuade donors to open up their wallets even during trying times?

Well, I think each party will at-tack this problem from a different perspective.

First, let’s consider the Liber-als, who in my view will focus their future fundraising pitch almost exclusively on the lead-ership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In other words, Liberal fund-raising letters will say something such as, “If you’re like me, you’re extremely proud of the way Justin Trudeau has handled the greatest crisis Canada has ever faced. His calm reassuring leadership cou-pled with his quick and decisive actions, helped get us through this frightening time.”

Then, once donors are re-minded of Trudeau’s awesome-ness, they’ll get hit with this pitch: “But just as Justin helped us, now we must help him. Trudeau needs your money!”

Basically, the Liberal will hope fondness for their leader will translate into donated dollars.

Of course, the Conservatives can’t use that particular tactic since for the foreseeable future they’re stuck with a lame duck leader.

So what can they do?My sense is the Conservatives

will respond by ramping up their always reliable fear-mongering machine.

They’ll start by spooking their donors about Canada’s perilous fi scal state, saying something along the lines of “Even in good fi scal times, Liberal economic mismanagement led to a series of massive defi cits and job-killing taxes, now just imagine what this gang of incompetents will do to our economy in bad times. It’ll be a gigantic disaster! The economic future of our children and grandchildren is at stake. Send money!”

Then for good measure, they’ll bash China.

Expect an appeal such as, “For far too long, Trudeau has pan-dered to his communist pals in

China; Enough is enough. Canada needs a government that will stand up to the Red Menace. Send money!”

So this now brings us to the NDP, which is probably facing the worst of fundraising times; don’t forget even before the pandemic hit this party was having a dif-fi cult time raising money.

Accordingly, the NDP can’t afford to get too cute or nuanced when it comes to fundraising, they’re going to have to hit do-nors hard with a blunt message.

Hence expect the New Demo-crats to hammer their donors with a message like: “I know your facing tough times, but so is our party. Without your fi nancial support the NDP won’t be able to fi ght for you and for other regular Canadians. Send money!”

Of course, none of the appeals mentioned above relies on ratio-nal arguments.

But then again, fundraising is all about invoking emotions.

Gerry Nicholls is a commu-nications consultant. www.ger-rynicholls.com.

The Hill Times

Opinion

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Canada’s dirty little secret is now out in the open

Fundraisers face tough challenge

When we say we respect elders, the time has come to prove it. Giving the federal public health agency authority to nationally accredit nursing homes would be a good start.

We all know how the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ has decimated the entire world’s economy. But what’s less appreciated is how the pandemic will negatively impact on the bottom line for Canada’s federal political parties.

Gerry Nicholls

Post-Partisan Pundit

While we all claim respect and reverence for seniors, when the time comes, they often fi nd themselves in substandard conditions with little recourse or options, writes Sheila Copps. Photograph courtesy of Needpix.com

Sheila Copps

Copps’ Corner

OTTAWA—The COVID-19 pandemic is not only putting extraordinary pres-

sures on medical care workers, govern-ments and economies, but on Parliament and legislatures. These bodies are required in democracies to pass necessary legisla-tion, provide funding and, most important-ly, to hold governments to account.

No doubt the present circumstances require expediency, effi ciency, and fl ex-ibility. But these goals cannot be achieved at the expense of democracy, transparency, and accountability. As governments are re-quired to spend billions of dollars, expand and create social programs, and make deci-sions over the life and death of millions of Canadians, our democratic representatives need to be able to hold governments to ac-count for how they are managing the crisis.

It is now clear that because of the requirements of health, travel, and social distancing, traditional, in-person sittings not only set a bad example, but are danger-ous, and in a country as large as Canada, would disenfranchise MPs who represent communities at a distance from Ottawa.

Millions of people work from home, and businesses, particularly those based on information, continue to function. More importantly, governments seem to have no problem continuing to meet, make deci-sions and communicate their messages. The same technologies must be leveraged to ensure that Parliament does not become a casualty of the pandemic.

Countries that share the Westminster system of government, are exploring digi-tal means of legislating and of holding the government to account. Some have found innovative solutions, with none requiring physical sitting.

For example, the Welsh National As-sembly has amended its rules to allow it to sit virtually, in plenary session, with a small number of representatives of each party participating. The fi rst minister and others appear, make statements, and are questioned by other members. Where legis-lation is considered, the group is expanded

to include the leaders of the party who are entitled to cast block votes for their entire caucus. Independent members can also participate virtually in any vote. Believed to be the fi rst virtual vote ever in the Com-monwealth, a vote took place on April 8.

The New Zealand House has estab-lished the Epidemic Response Committee with a mandate to hold the government to account. Composed of members of all par-ties where the opposition has a majority of members, and the leader of the opposition chairs, the committee has the power to require anyone to attend to be questioned. It too, meets virtually and is televised.

A combination of the two is being considered in the U.K. House of Lords, which will sit virtually as a Grand Com-mittee. As such, it can discuss and debate, but not vote. The U.K. House of Commons will sit as a hybrid, with up to 50 MPs in the Chamber and an additional 120 by video. Because of numbers, the 120 will rotate. In both cases, the rules of debate are tightened so that only one at a time can speak without interruption. How vot-ing will take place in the U.K. has not yet been determined. In the U.S., the House of Representatives is working on a remote voting system.

While none of these necessarily meets

all the needs of the Canadian Parliament, they provide examples of quickly devel-oped, imaginative solutions that meet the twin needs and purposes of legislating and holding government to account.

Any solution must recognize that all MPs are equally elected. A means must be found for all MPs, representing all parts of the country to be accounted for and partici-pate. The process must be as inclusive of all MPs as possible so that rule changes do not become yet a further way to impose greater discipline in determining who gets to “sit”. The decision of participation should be up to the various party caucuses to decide, not merely the leaders.

The two functions of accountability and legislating need not be performed by the same group, using the same process. While proceedings will be smaller, this does not mean that those not present cannot still participate. Those at the meeting do so in a representative capacity and must be pre-pared to express the views of their caucus members.

Accountability through a specially designed committee chaired by the leader of the opposition, and at which the prime minister must present a statement and be questioned, would no doubt provide transparency and accountability. If chaired

by the leader of the opposition with the presence of the prime minister and cabinet ministers, the necessary media coverage would also follow.

A smaller virtual plenary House for leg-islation, supported by robust virtual com-mittees, could allow for broader participa-tion and votes. The plenary meeting could allow for a rotation of MPs to speak to a bill, chairs of committees could report and votes could be done through caucus block votes. If block votes are seen as problemat-ic, despite that fact that they are used when votes are taken “on division” technological solutions with necessary security, such a PINs and encryption, could be developed in time.

Parliament has survived many crises, over many centuries. It has evolved to meet changed circumstances and needs. This is one of those times. An adaptive Parliament with smaller, but responsible components, meeting virtually and openly, can both hold the government to account and effectively and effi ciently enact the legislation that Canada needs.

Steven Chaplin is an adjunct profes-sor in common law at the University of Ottawa and is a former senior counsel in House of Commons.

The Hill Times

Name Lastname

Opinion

Parliamentary accountability need not be a casualty of the pandemicParliament has survived many crises, over many centuries. It has evolved to meet changed circumstances and needs. This is one of those times. An adaptive Parliament with smaller, but responsible components, meeting virtually and openly, can both hold the government to account and effectively and effi ciently enact the legislation that Canada needs.

The House of Commons Speaker’s Parade, pictured on April 11, 20202, opening up the emergency House sitting to pass the government’s $73-billion wage subsidy bill. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

10

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

House of Commons Clerk Charles Robert, pictured on April 11, 2020. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Middle Class Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier, pictured April 11, 2020, inside the House. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Finance Minister Bill Morneau, left, International Trade Minister Mary Ng, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough, pictured April 11, 2020, in the House. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

11

HALIFAX—What do the governments of Canada and

Ontario have in common with a coalition of states from both U.S. coasts and the Midwest?

They have all told Donald Trump to go to hell.

It was done on Canada’s behalf by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Freeland, who has been doing most of the heavy lifting for the Liberals these days, told U.S. President Donald Trump point blank that Canadians would decide when their border with the U.S. reopens—not Trump. Trump had earlier mused that he would like to see the border with Canada open as part of his economic recovery plan.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has burnished his image with the SOS pad of surprisingly strong COVID-19 leadership, bluntly told the president that he doesn’t want Americans in Ontario right now. This statement resonates with Ford’s lingering rage that Trump tried to stop a shipment of medical equip-ment that the 3M company had contracted to sell to his province to fi ght the pandemic. Now that border opening has delayed for at least 30 days.

As for the U.S. governors who have banded together to reopen their economies when they, not the president, see fi t, they too were reacting to what has to be the lowest point in the Trump presidency: his bald-faced declaration that he, and he alone, would decide when the U.S. gets back to work. Constitution? What Constitution?

Americans love their foot-ball. So maybe they have fi nally understood that they are at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter of a close game they must win.

If Trump should retain the White House in a few months, there is every chance he will fi n-ish his work of deconstructing the Western World. His performance

in the battle against COVID-19 makes Benedict Arnold look like a patriot. He has betrayed everyone except the stock mar-ket. Remember his great advice, reinforced by his chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow: “Buy the dip.”

For those lacking the quaint gift of cultural memory, allow me to take you back a bit in time. In 2003, U.S. president George W. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln just two months after the U.S. invaded Iraq, and announced the major fi ghting was over. He spoke those words in front of a huge banner declaring “Mission Accomplished.”

In fact, more Americans died fi ghting in Iraq after Bush’s foolish claim than before his

premature boast. Today, “Mission Accomplished” usually serves as a sarcastic put-down of any false or exaggerated claim by an ignora-mus or a liar.

Which brings me back to Trump. Has there ever been a more egregious “Mission Ac-

complished” moment provided by any U.S. president than Trump’s rolling bluster on COVID-19? He produced more undigested nutri-tional matter than a herd of cattle with the trots.

On Jan. 22 of this year, Trump said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fi ne.”

A little over a month later, on Feb. 26, the president said, “The 15 cases [in the U.S.] within a couple

of days is going to be down close to zero.”

The very next day, he boasted “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

Then on March 4, day 48 of COVID-19, Trump said “If we have thousands, or hundreds of thou-sands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around, and even going to work— some of them go to work, but they get better.”

Two days later, with 282 Amer-icans infected, Trump praised himself for his epidemiological knowledge, which of course, is the square root of bugger all. “People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said ‘how do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

On March 13, Trump was hoisted on his own petard. After months of denial and naval-praising over COVID-19, the president declared a National Emergency. How do you go from a nothing-burger to the house is on fi re? With nothing on the public record up to that time but his dismissive irresponsibility, it was time for the second stage of Trump’s ignorance to take centre stage: scapegoat time.

Here Trump gets points for au-dacity, story-telling and just plain stand-up comedy.

The comedy? At one of his rallies, he told

that basket of deplorables made famous by Hillary Clinton, that the whole thing was “the new hoax” of the Democrats, another attempt to defeat him. For the record, some of those deplorables are now holding mass rallies against the lockdown and social distancing.

The scapegoating?First, he blamed China, and

even insisted that COVID-19 be called the Wuhan virus. The

problem? He had initially fawned all over President Xi Jinping for his “transparency,” and “great dis-cipline.” Xi, Trump gushed on 15 occasions was doing “really well.”

Then he pointed the fi nger at former U.S. president Barack Obama, you know, the fellow born in Kenya, for leaving the medical cupboard bare and a broken testing system.

Two things. If the cupboard was bare, why didn’t Trump fi ll it during the three and a half years he has been in offi ce? And, oh yes, why did he disband the CDC team dealing with global pan-demics if safeguarding the health of Americans kept him awake at night?

Later came the turn of the World Health Organization (WHO). Trump accused the international health body of dropping the ball and getting it wrong on COVID-19. “So much death has been caused by their mistakes.” With a straight face, he accused the WHO of unwisely trusting China on its handling of the virus.

So did Trump for two months. But that didn’t stop him from

cutting $550-million of funding for the agency he so effusively praised in January and Febru-ary, along with his bouquets to China. Small fact. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic two days before Trump declared a National Emergency.

With Trump threatening to adjourn Congress in order to get his nominees through, with his order to place his own name on the relief cheques the federal gov-ernment is issuing to distressed Americans, and his renewed as-sault on a free press for allegedly “brutalizing” him, November just can’t come fast enough.

Let’s hope there is a doctor in the house, one that doesn’t quack.

Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.

The Hill Times

Opinion

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Canada and Ontario tell Trump to buzz off What do the governments of Canada and Ontario have in common with a coalition of states from both U.S. coasts and the Midwest? They have all told Donald Trump to go to hell. 

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, pictured on March 27, 2020, at a daily press briefi ng on the Hill in Ottawa, has been doing most of the heavy lifting for the Liberals these days, told U.S. President Donald Trump point blank that Canadians would decide when their border with the U.S. reopens—not Trump. Trump had earlier mused that he would like to see the border with Canada open as part of his economic recovery plan, writes Michael Harris.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has burnished his image with the SOS pad of surprisingly strong COVID-19 leadership, bluntly told the president that he doesn’t want Americans in Ontario right now. This statement resonates with Mr. Ford’s lingering rage that Mr. Trump tried to stop a shipment of medical equipment that the 3M company had contracted to sell to his province to fi ght the pandemic. Now that border opening has delayed for at least 30 days. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Michael Harris

Harris

Recently, when I talked to Canadian scholars and friends from business circle, they all expressed their concerns on the pandemic

and they were worried about its impact on the world economy. On these issues, I would like to share with you the following views.

Since the spread of the COVID-19 around the world, major international organizations have downgraded their forecasts for the growth of the world economy. Moody’s, S&P and other rating agencies have also issued warnings. The United States and Canada have successively announced interest rate cuts. The world’s major stock markets, foreign exchange markets and crude oil prices have fallen sharply. With the outbreak of the pandemic, the concern of the international community to the global economic recession is rising day by day, it has not only seriously threatened the world’s public health security, but also caused a great impact on the economic operation.

International cooperation is needed to contain the spread of the epidemic. The virus spreads beyond borders. At the Extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the community of nations must move swiftly to stem the spread of the virus. The outbreak we are battling is our common enemy. All must work together to build a strongest global network of control and treatment that the world has ever seen. We propose a G20 COVID-19 assistance initiative for better information sharing and policy and action coordination with the support of the World Health Organization. China will be more than ready to share our good practices, conduct joint research and development of drugs and vaccines, and provide assistance where we can to countries hit by the growing outbreak.

International cooperation is also needed to address the impact of the epidemic on the world economy. In the era of economic globalization, countries in the world are interdependent, and we are a community not only of shared future, but also of shared interests. The beggar-thy-neighbor approach and practices such as kicking someone when they are down cannot help a country stay immune.

The outbreak has disrupted production and demand across the globe. Countries need to leverage and coordinate their macro policies to counteract the negative impact. We need to keep our exchange rates and global financial markets basically stable, We also need to jointly keep the global industrial and supply chains stable. We should take concerted actions to provide for people’s basic needs and prevent the world economy from falling into recession.

The COVID-19 epidemic affects China’s economy in a temporary and limited manner. The long term positive fundamentals of China’s economy remain unchanged, and so do the factors underpinning high-quality development.

The Chinese government has promptly introduced a series of fiscal and financial measures to support enterprises to tide over the difficulties, including reduction of value-added tax for small-scale taxpayers, cost cut of electricity and gas for enterprises, and new loans with phased preferential interest rate.

At the same time, in accordance with the Foreign Investment Law, the Chinese government has actively helped foreign-funded enterprises solve their difficulties in resuming work and production. We are also broadening the opening-up in service industries like financial industry.

These policies and measures have effectively brought China’s industrial chains and supply chains back to normal. According to the Ministry of Commerce of China’s press release, by April 10, more than 76 percent of China’s key supply chain foreign trade enterprises had recovered more than 70 percent of their production capacity.The China federation of logistics and

purchasing’s logistics performance index(LPI) for march was 51.5%, up 25.3 percentage points from the previous month. At present, the phased effect of epidemic prevention and control in China has been further consolidated, important progress has been made in resuming work and production, and the economic and social operation order has been accelerate.

China’s adherence to reform and opening-up is crucial to the healthy and stable development of the world economy. China is willing to make concerted efforts with the international community to overcome the epidemic and push the world economy back to track.

Cong Peiwu, Chinese Ambassador to Canada

Deepen international cooperation and meet challenges together

Sponsored Content by the People’s Republic of China

A medical worker teaches as patients follow during a traditional Chinese physical exercises session at a temporary hospital in Jiangxia district in Wuhan, Hubei province. Photo/Xinhua

Zhong Nanshan shares experience with European experts on coronavirus control. photo by CGTN A video conference of medical experts between China and Canada

Over the past few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly spreading around the world and has become a disaster affecting

all mankind. It impacts every corner of the global village and respects no borders, races or culture.

At the moment, the pandemic in Canada continues to develop, whose increasing number of infections adds to everyone’s worry. We relate to the difficulties confronting the Canadian people.

The COVID-19 should not be underestimated. At present, mankind has not yet fully understood its generation mechanism, epidemic trend, and route of transmission, and each country has chosen different methods to fight against it, and among them, there is one common point, which is that all countries will need to make up their minds and make greater efforts.

To effectively control the disease, Canada has launched series of strict control measures, including closing the border, banning parties, telecommuting, and issuing stay-at-home orders; also, many provinces and cities have declared state of emergency.

China has just experienced the hardest times, and we deeply understand that, during extraordinary times, individual’s courage, perseverance, and determination, as well as collective wisdom in taking the pandemic as a common concern, abiding by rules and regulations, keeping united and giving mutual encouragement, are required.

China has always put people’s safety and health in the first place, and resolutely implemented the most comprehensive, stringent and powerful prevention and control measures in history. The practice has proved that such a series of actions are scientific and in line with China’s reality.

As an old Chinese saying goes, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. In our most difficult times, the international community, including people from all walks of life in Canada, has extended a helping hand to provide support and help. We are sincerely grateful for this, and will always keep it in mind.

We will always stick together through thick and thin and give mutual help. In the face of the global crisis, China has never

resolved it on its own without any thought of others. Chinese doctors have quickly identified the novel coronavirus during the flu season and immediately shared genome sequencing information with their international counterparts, laying the foundation for follow-up vaccine and drug development.

In terms of diagnosis and treatment plans, drug use, community prevention and control, and public health, China has explored much effective experience, taken the initiative to organize them into various languages, held a number of expert video conferences and press conferences, and actively shared them with World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community. Recently, the Red Cross Societies of China and Canada have also organized a virtual conference participating by relevant experts and medical personnel, which has achieved good results.

In the face of appeals for help from some deeply-stricken countries, the Chinese expert teams hurriedly transferred to the international

anti-epidemic battlefield without any preparation of packing the luggage, bringing these countries medical supplies as well as sympathies and blessings from the Chinese people.

Having experienced great disasters, we deeply understand that human beings living on the same planet are all blood brothers, and only by helping each other can we overcome difficulties together.

China interprets the profound connotation of a community with a shared future for mankind with actions. As Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, has said, what history bears in mind are not only the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, but also the common responsibility of all nations working together to tackle the crisis.

On the road to fighting the pandemic, we sincerely hope to work with people from all walks of life in Canada, to tide over the difficulties and safeguard the dignity of human life.

Cong Peiwu, Chinese Ambassador to Canada

Working together to defeat the COVID-19 outbreak as a community with a shared future

Sponsored Content by the People’s Republic of China

The construction of Huoshenshan Hospital.Bank of China donates medical supplies to Canada fighting against COVID-19.

A medical worker overlooks the makeshift hospital. Photo by Wang Jing/China DailyConstruction workers carry material at the site of a hotel project in Beijing. Photo by Feng Yongbin/chinadaily.com.cn

14

OTTAWA—Why would any country sell weapons to a

regime that saws its critics into

pieces and spreads terrorist ideol-ogy around the world?

The arms business is an im-portant one. Countries around the world sell weapons to each other to the annual tune of $95-billion (2017 fi gures from the Swedish SIPRI), while the globe’s top 100 arms manufactur-ers made close to $400-billion in sales that same year (I assume this is a larger number because of domestic sales).

Some custom-ers are ‘legitimate’ armed forces/police services. Others are less savoury. And then there is the illegal arms trade. According to the Federa-tion of American Scientists (FAS) ” illicit arms traf-fi cking fuels civil wars, contributes to sky-rocketing crime rates and feeds the arsenals of the world’s worst terrorists.”

Which brings me to Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom has led the world in arms purchases of late, again according to SIPRI. The only country named after a dynasty in the modern world has garnered attention and fawning

praise for decades thanks to its oil wealth. Hence everyone wants to make a deal with it.

But the kingdom has a darker side, especially today under the infl uence of Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as he is usually called, the son of the current

king, and has now ensconced himself as crown prince. De-spite an optimistic debut in which he pledged to open up the country and push back on the austere practices of Wah-habi Islamic clerics, MBS has done an about face. Among his more notable “achievements” are: a continued export of hateful

Wahhabist-tinged Islam around the world; the incarceration of anyone who disagrees with him, including senior members of the Al Sa’ud family; the humanitari-an disaster resulting from its war in Yemen, and, most critically; the torture, killing and dismember-ment (via a bone saw) of Jamal Kashoggi, a Saudi-American journalist who had gotten under his skin (MBS denies giving the order and has blamed ‘rogue ele-ments’).

So what does Canada do with such a country? It sells it arms

of course. The Canadian govern-ment is lifting a moratorium on approving new permits for military exports to Saudi Arabia after renegotiating some terms of a controversial $14-billion deal to sell light-armoured vehicles to Riyadh. These include the light-armoured vehicles (LAVs) made by General Dynamics Land

Systems in London, Ont., under a long-term contract brokered by the Canadian government.

After the brutal slaughter of Kashoggi the Trudeau Liberals had suspended all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. So why the change? Is the kingdom playing nicer? No, and all we got from our govern-ment was an anodyne statement that Saudi Arabia is not using the arms to violate human rights.

Huh?The more likely reason is the

fact that the Government of Cana-da would have been on the hook for $14-billion if the deal had remained unfi nished. That and the jobs it will create at the plant in London. But let’s not pretend that anything has really changed in Saudi Arabia since the original decision in 2018 to suspend the export of the LAVs.

It is simple: Saudi Arabia is a neither an ally nor a like-minded nation as far as Canada is concerned. Yes, it is an important regional player and has for years successfully convinced the world that we all need it in light of the Iranian bogeyman across the Persian Gulf from the kingdom. Canada’s move is naked realpo-litik, in essence, so can we stop pretending that this deal is moral?

Saudi Arabia has been the ma-jor ideological contributor to global Islamist extremism for decades. Some believe the country will change its ways once MBS sits on the throne. Don’t count me among that lot. This deal is repugnant and decent Canadians should say so.

Phil Gurski is the president of Borealis Threat and Risk Consult-ing and the author of fi ve books on terrorism since 2015.

The Hill Times

OTTAWA—COVID-19 puts privacy rights under attack.

Zoom-bombers, COVID-19 scam-mers, and cellphone trackers are gaining ground as Canadians self-isolate.

With the necessity of greater cyberspace interactions, the crisis continues to introduce or enhance more grounds for privacy inva-sion.

Contact tracing, for instance, is important for tackling the COVID-19 virus. Using wireless smartphones to identify people’s movements puts potential or actual infected people under a microscope. Technology apps may tell people too when to self-isolate and who is not doing this.

Using the video-conferencing Zoom tool to stay in touch and to hold meetings while being kept at home can and has led to privacy breaches and intrusions, even if precautions are taken.

Scam artists are taking ad-vantage of the COVID-19 crisis by using personal phone calls and internet excursions with fake cures and identity theft on their agendas.

Corporate profi teers are tak-ing advantage with jacked up prices, by building new-market profi les, storing new information on people’s fi nancial health or by withholding crucial information about their long-term facilities.

Enforcement of social isola-tion for health reasons can lead to unwarranted government actions, fi nes, and snitching.

At the same time, claims are being made that sensitive per-sonal information being collected by authorities remains secure and is used only as unidentifi able aggregate information during this public health emergency, even when gathered with facial recog-nition apps or by drone surveil-lance or thermal cameras.

But governments using emer-gency, quarantine, lockdowns, and border control powers to monitor residents and foreigners are demanding and getting more personal information for multi-purposes saying it is in the public interest. They want more aggres-sively to search for hot spots and incidents of COVID-19 outbreaks and to catch those in isolation breaking home stays.

They also like to remind cheaters trying to game the new fi nancial aid systems for wage subsidies that they can run com-puter checks on people collecting such assistance. New personal information data bases are being put in place and new cross checks are being done.

Front-line fi rst responders in Ontario get the go-ahead to col-lect sensitive personal data from labs and medical authorities, but without clear guidelines on shar-ing and retention timelines.

Fear, trade-offs, and a public health crisis appear to be over-whelming privacy consent and restrictive use of personal infor-mation conditions. Some jurisdic-tions, like British Columbia, are relaxing privacy rules. Plans for limited federal privacy act reform are on hold. But newer privacy legislation when introduced may broaden what personal informa-tion can be collected, used and stored in times of public health emergencies.

Right now, those affected may not be able to access data about being traced and have even less than operative and timely privacy appeal rights. Currently, extending the uses that personal information is put to can lead to discriminatory practices, more third-party interactions and can be part of previously unheard of privacy data breaches.

Privacy used to refer to physical intrusions into your personal home spaces. In a mod-ern state and economy, privacy becomes a balancing act be-tween personal information pro-tection and public and corporate needs under certain regulations. In many jurisdictions, separate legislative treatment was given to protecting individual health records.

Terrorism, 9/11, and foreign state spying brought a whole new world of security surveillance and screening and powers for security intelligence agencies and a shift in what the public could know and expect.

COVID-19 with its capabilities of spreading or because it could be but one emerging pandemic, could end up setting newer widespread barriers to privacy protection, too.

In the past, personal health information and records have been considered a prime personal matter and perceived to be a mat-ter to be left free of unnecessary state snooping or of widespread publicity about health cases.

Controlling the use made of one’s personal health informa-tion, however, may be shifting and could become a thing of the past.

Public interest group monitor-ing of the growing loss of health privacy and individual privacy rights is happening. But it’s going to take a concerted effort with the media reporting on privacy violations and breaches to get anywhere.

It’s a crisis within a crisis.Ken Rubin reviews privacy

matters and is reachable at ken-rubin.ca

The Hill Times

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Ken Rubin

Transparency & Accountability

No, Canada should not be selling arms to Saudi Arabia

COVID-19 invades and compromises our privacy

Saudi Arabia has been the major ideological contributor to global Islamist extremism for decades. Some believe the country will change its ways once MBS sits on the throne. Don’t count me among that lot. This deal is repugnant and decent Canadians should say so.

COVID-19 puts privacy rights under attack. Zoom-bombers, COVID-19 scammers, and cellphone trackers are gaining ground as Canadians self-isolate.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured in the Oval Offi ce on March 14, 2017. Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Phil Gurski

National Security

LONDON, U.K.—Wuhan, the Chinese city where it all

started, was locked down for 79 days before the restrictions on movement were fi nally lifted last week. A bit over-cautious, per-

haps, but in China the coronavi-rus does really seem to be under control—not totally eradicated, but controllable without extreme measures.

If Donald Trump “reopens” the United States at the end of this month, then California and a few other states will have been under lockdown for only half that many days, and some states for much less time or even none. Far from being under control, the COVID-19 virus is killing huge numbers of Americans (2,405 on Tuesday), and the number is still rising.

These two giants defi ne the extremes of the ‘lives vs. liveli-hoods’ debate, but almost every

other country is having it too. Everybody knows that you can’t shut the economy down indefi -nitely, but nobody wants to risk a second wave of infections by moving too soon.

Well, almost nobody. The toddler-in-chief in the White House is frantic to reopen the economy because he has an elec-tion coming up in six months, and he will lose it if the economy has not recovered by then.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has doubt-less explained that lifting the restrictions on movement on May 1 will cause a second wave of deaths and a second lock-down before November, but Trump doesn’t retain that sort of information for long. His atten-tion span is not only short but selective: he forgets unwelcome information very quickly.

Trump might actually order the country to reopen on May 1, as he believes that “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total.” But most states wouldn’t obey his command: as New York governor Andrew Cuomo said: “We have a Constitution … we don’t have a king … the president doesn’t have total authority.”

Elsewhere, some countries are cautiously reopening their economies a bit at a time, but

they either had a very high death rate early and have now wrestled it down again—China, Italy and Spain—or responded hard and early and never had a high infec-tion rate, like Germany, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand.

We should also note two countries that never closed their economies down at all, because they could test, identify the infected, and trace their contacts fast enough to break the chains of infection and keep deaths low: Taiwan and South Korea. All three of these groups have one vital thing in common.

They have the ability to “test, test, test,” as the World Health Organisation’s Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, put it a month ago, warning countries that they “cannot fi ght a fi re blindfolded.” And they can follow up the tests with contact-tracing teams and apps so that not just the individual who tested posi-tive but the whole cluster of other people who had contact with him or her can be isolated.

Any countries that have their infection rate down AND have their testing and tracing teams ready can start reopening their economies, although there will be a continuing low but steady toll of deaths until a vaccine is found.

France, Canada and Australia can probably do it next month.

Countries like Turkey, Russia and South Africa are more debat-able, because they gave the virus a head start, but their medical infrastructure is strong enough that they could think about letting their citizens go back to work by July. However, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and India are very worrisome.

India is doing the right things, but it started late, its medical resources are limited, and the sheer numbers of victims may overwhelm the system. Brazil has a complete fool in charge, Jair Bolsonaro, and the many sensible people in the health-care system may be unable to overcome his malign infl uence.

As for the U.S. and the U.K., they both reacted very late to the threat, which guarantees that their casualties would be con-siderably above the rich-country average. Worse, they do not have the testing and tracking resources in place that would make reopen-ing the economy a relatively safe proposition.

On April 3, the British Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, pledged 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month. Half the month is gone, and the maximum number of tests carried out on a single day has been under 15,000.

The US situation is harder to judge, since there is not a unifi ed health-care system but a highly fragmented “health care sector.” However, nobody has spotted evi-dence of nationwide preparations for extensive testing and track-ing once everybody goes back to work, so a second wave of deaths later in the year is practically guaranteed.

Finis Trump, perhaps, but at a high price.

Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future of De-mocracy (and Work)’. This column was released on April 15.

The Hill Times

15

Global

Toddler-in-chief in the White House is frantic to reopen the economy U.S. President Donald Trump has an election coming up in six months, and he will lose it if the economy has not recovered by then. Dr. Anthony Fauci has doubtless explained that lifting the restrictions on movement on May 1 will cause a second wave of deaths and a second lockdown before November, but Trump doesn’t retain that sort of information for long.

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured on April 7, 2020, in the White House press briefi ng room. Mr. Trump might actually order the country to reopen on May 1, as he believes that ‘When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total.’ But most states wouldn’t obey his command: as New York governor Andrew Cuomo said: ‘We have a Constitution … we don’t have a king … the president doesn’t have total authority.’ Photograph courtesy of Flickr/White House photographer Andrea Hanks

Gwynne Dyer

Global Aff airs

16

As the COVID-19 crisis un-folds, Canada will engage in

fundamental debates about its future—health care, economic strategy, the role of government in the economy, and Canada’s international relations. In many ways, these debates will not only be between differing viewpoints on any one issue but on those who look to the past for inspira-tion and those who look forward.

Those who look to the past in many ways see the crisis as an opportunity to promote America’s security agenda, including U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in place since 9/11: tough on Iran, Venezuela, and especially China. There are many supporters of this view in Canada who prioritize defence, intelligence, and security above all else.

For them, the crisis is an op-portunity not to rethink Canada’s policy mix to deal with a post-CO-VID-19 world but to reassert po-litical hegemony pre-crisis. Long ago, security surpassed develop-ment and diplomacy as America’s main objective abroad. Call it the “Wuhan” or “China” virus. Bemoan the fact that critical supply chains are dependent on China. Blame globalization. Make America even more secure.

They oppose problem solving and cooperation and see CO-VID-19 as a policy tool to drive a deeper wedge between states rath-er than bringing them together. At the core is a need to ensure that America—and by extension Can-ada—does not falter, and that any

advantage that China might enjoy post crisis is weakened. For them, the social contract is premised on a self-help system: a strong economy is advanced by the state which allows those who are able to succeed despite setbacks.

Economically, we already see fears of growing government defi -cits and debt, even though by his-toric standards in times of crisis they are low. We see an emphasis on resource-driven prosperity rather than the development of a post-carbon economy.

We see the knee-jerk reaction, exemplifi ed by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, to slash the state (including thousands of public servants and nurses) because of the crisis, even though these are the people needed to survive the crisis. Meanwhile, he uses the same crisis to fund pipeline proj-ects or promote tighter integration with the American energy market, as if climate change was some-thing that does not matter or as if the glut of cheaper oil elsewhere, including the U.S., did not exist.

On the other side, are those who were already challenging this “narrative” for some time, but who are now catalyzed and more unifi ed by the COVID-19 crisis. They don’t represent a coherent whole and may never be able to reconcile core differences, but theirs is a rejection of the 9/11 interpretation of the world.

Partly environmentally driven—reduced human activity actually works—and partly driven by the view that confrontation is coun-terproductive to problem solving a

global crisis, this view seeks to in-vest more resources in health and well-being. This is an urgent task, given the widespread unemploy-ment already resulting from the crisis and uncertainty about labour markets post-crisis, as social and economic behaviour changes.

If the virus knows no borders, we need better lines of communi-cation through effective multilat-eral institutions, not nationalism that blames others while advanc-ing narrow interests. We need more information and resource sharing to combat the virus and deal with the inevitable next wave of the pandemic.

Like it or not, this requires work-ing with all governments, friendly or not, and not using the crisis to bash opponents or reign in allies—seen, for example, in the American musing of stationing troops along the Canada-U.S. border.

This is not just a rhetorical debate. Since many states will be weakened post crisis, the balance of power vis-à-vis the U.S. and China will rest with key states in Europe and Asia. Will they reject the Trump approach to the crisis and international relations? A rejection will partly be a function of the extent to which COVID-19 damages the U.S.’s social fabric and undermines the legitimacy of its leaders because they failed to protect these on the margins. It will also depend on how China behaves. Will it assert its author-ity, or will it build a cooperative infrastructure?

Justin Trudeau can learn from former leaders Jean Chrétien

and Paul Martin. They grappled with post-Cold War uncertainties requiring whole-of-government approaches and a recognition that solving a wicked problem requires a high degree of international coordination, political capital, and shared knowledge. To succeed, Canada will need to deliver its very best diplomacy in support of evidence-based policymaking on a global scale. If America reverts to its old ways, Canada will need new allies to fi ght the global pandemic.

Canada’s dependence on the U.S. will be tested. The idea that Trump would consider putting troops on our border, or that he would order 3M to stop sending N95 masks to Canada, confi rms that the “special relation-ship” is over. Free trade will continue, but Canada will look elsewhere for reliable partners as it develops its post-COVID strategy.

Politically, if we plank the curve, Trudeau will weather the minority Parliament and gain a majority in a few years, citing the need for strong leadership in the face of rebuilding the economy. If he falters, the hard-liners’ agenda will prove to be the wedge that keeps Canada a divided nation.

David Carment teaches in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. He is the editor of Cana-dian Foreign Policy Journal. Richard Nimijean teaches in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University. They are co-editors of Canada, Nation Branding and Domestic Politics (Routledge 2019).

The Hill Times

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

David Carment & Richard Nimijean

Opinion

Where does Canada go post-COVID-19?Canada’s dependence on the U.S. will be tested. The idea that Trump would consider putting troops on our border, or that he would order 3M to stop sending N95 masks to Canada, confi rms that the ‘special relationship’ is over. Free trade will continue, but Canada will look elsewhere for reliable partners as it develops its post-COVID strategy.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured June 12, 2018, at the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Que. ‘Politically, if we plank the curve, Mr. Trudeau will weather the minority Parliament and gain a majority in a few years, citing the need for a strong leadership in the face of rebuilding the economy. If he falters, the hard-liners’ agenda will prove to be the wedge that keeps Canada a divided nation,’ write David Carment and Richard Nimijean. Photograph courtesy of Global Affairs Canada

17

OTTAWA—The pattern surrounding the World Health Organization (WHO) and

the Beijing party-state’s ongoing infl uence over it continues. Taiwan, a nation that has shown impressive success in combatting the COVID-19 virus despite its exclusion from WHO, is now accused of racism by the organization’s director general.

WHO Director General Tedros A. Ghe-breyesus—an Ethiopian microbiologist and the fi rst African to hold the position—as-serted that Taiwan’s government not only launched a cyber campaign against him, but is also the instigator of the racism directed at Africans in general.

In a press briefi ng on April 6, the direc-tor general claimed he had been the victim of racially abusive attacks emanating from

Taiwan, and that the country’s foreign min-istry had actually stepped up its criticism of him.

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen and the ministry of foreign affairs have denied the charges.

Given the fraught situation between Taiwan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) generally, including the latter’s manipulation of WHO policies of Taiwan exclusion over the years—combined with the Beijing government’s serious misman-agement of the COVID-19 pandemic, the evidence appears clearly stacked against Tedros’ claims.

President Tsai and her government pro-vided warnings to the WHO as early as last December, which, if not ignored, as they were, might have saved thousands of lives.

For nearly half a century, the People’s Republic of China has effectively blocked Taiwan from joining the WHO. Despite never having exercised authority over the island, the CCP deems Taiwan part of its territory, and forces international organiza-tions—including the United Nations and its agencies like the WHO—to accept its view.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, one of WHO’s top advisers recently evaded and then abruptly cut off Hong Kong journalist Yvonne Tong’s question on whether WHO would reconsid-er Taiwan’s status in light of the country’s exemplary performance in curbing the spread of COVID-19.

According to the reputable Foreign Policy Magazine, Beijing succeeded from the fi rst outbreak of the coronavirus in misdirecting the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO), which receives comparatively modest funding from it but has somehow become obedient to it on many levels.

WHO’s international experts could not gain access to China until Tedros visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of January. Before then, WHO uncriti-cally repeated information from party-state authorities, ignoring warnings from Taiwanese doctors. Reluctant to declare a “public health emergency of international concern,” WHO denied as late as Jan. 22 that there was any need to do so.

After China’s pandemic had levelled off, notes the Foreign Policy article, Tedros then praised Beijing’s “success.”

In sharp contrast, Taiwan has been treated as an outcast by the WHO, despite its exemplary performance in the current world crisis.

Almost 100 anti-COVID-19 initia-tives from Taiwan’s national government included: screening Wuhan fl ights as early as Dec. 31; banning Wuhan residents on Jan. 23; suspending Taiwanese visits to Hubei province on Jan. 25; and barring all Chinese arrivals on Feb. 6. These and other

measures resulted in only 388 confi rmed cases and six deaths as of April 12 in a population of almost 24 million.

The WHO not only ignores Taiwan’s medical expertise, but also its status vis-à-vis China.

During the current pandemic, the orga-nization keeps changing how it refers to Taiwan, going from “Taiwan, China,” to “Tai-pei” to the newer “Taipei and its environs”. It permitted Beijing to report Taiwan’s coronavirus numbers as part of its own to-tal, instead of reporting Taiwan’s numbers alone—a confl ation that created headaches for the smaller nation. Some countries im-posed travel restrictions on Taiwan along with China, despite the former’s small infection rate.

“Taiwan’s selfless medical workers and volunteers can be found around the world. The Taiwanese people do not differentiate by skin colour or language; all of us are brothers and sisters,” Tsai said in response to Tedros’ accusations. “We have never let our inability to join international organizations lessen our support for the international commu-nity.” She added that the WHO head was welcome to visit Taiwan and see for himself.

The internationally acknowledged suc-cess of Taiwan with the scourge of CO-VID-19 might lead to a diplomatic opening. Its government has already concluded a bilateral agreement with the United States to send masks, which could lead to drugs and vaccines going to America for clinical trials. Other governments seem likely to follow.

Susan Korah is an Ottawa-based jour-nalist and David Kilgour was secretary of state, Asia-Pacifi c, 2002-2003, and Africa/Latin America, 1997-2002, in the Chrétien government.

The Hill Times

Opinion

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Susan Korah & David Kilgour

Opinion

No evidence to back WHO director general’s accusations against Taiwan The internationally acknowledged success of Taiwan with the scourge of COVID-19 might lead to a diplomatic opening. Its government has already concluded a bilateral agreement with the United States to send masks, which could lead to drugs and vaccines going to America for clinical trials. Other governments seem likely to follow.

The National Police Federation, which represents more than 20,000 RCMP Members across Canada and internationally, is pleased to announce the

appointment of Michael Brennan as Chief Administrative Officer; Sarah Nolan as Director, Government Relations and Don Armstrong as Director of Finance.

Michael Brennan brings extensive experience in association management, is well known as an advocate for the rights and well-being of association members and as an accomplished leader in the not-for-profit sector. He has nearly 30 years’ experience in executive management, including nine years as the CEO of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. He is currently a Board Director of the Canadian Institute of Military and Veteran Health Research. Fluently bilingual, he holds a Bachelor of Arts and M.A. (economics) from the University of Ottawa.

Sarah Nolan has extensive experience liaising with key government decision-makers and providing

strategic advice on emerging policy and legislative topics and opportunities, on behalf of member-based organizations in Ottawa. Sarah most recently served as Lead, Government Relations for the Canadian Nurses Association.

Don Armstrong has provided financial, accounting and tax counsel and services to the National Police Federation for four years in a consulting capacity and joined as Director of Finance in March. Don has advised small and medium-sized organizations across an array of business lines for over a decade including member services.

The mission of the National Police Federation is to provide strong, fair and progressive representation to promote and enhance the rights of our ~20,000 RCMP Members. Our members provide effective and committed policing services to uphold the laws of Canada and support safer and more livable communities large and small.

APPOINTMENT NOTICE

Michael Brennan Chief Administrative

Officer

Sarah NolanDirector, Government

Relations

Don ArmstrongDirector of Finance

NPF-FPN.COM

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen and WHO Director General Tedros A. Ghebreyesus. Almost 100 anti-COVID-19 initiatives from Taiwan’s national government included: screening Wuhan fl ights as early as Dec. 31; banning Wuhan residents on Jan. 23; suspending Taiwanese visits to Hubei province on Jan. 25; and barring all Chinese arrivals on Feb. 6. These and other measures resulted in only 388 confi rmed cases and six deaths as of April 12, 2020, in a population of 24 million, write Susan Korah and David Kilgour. Photographs courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

18

WATERLOO, ONT.—Al-though the fi nal pages on

the unfolding human tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to be written, the ‘tsunami-scale’ of economic disruption has led to responses by the federal and provincial governments that the most acclaimed of futurists could not have predicted even six weeks ago. If the adage, ‘Do not let a good crisis go to waste’ has any resonance, this is the perfect op-portunity to re-set and re-confi g-ure Canada’s energy sector away from dependence on oil and gas.

Massive fi scal stimulus pack-ages have become the order of the day and acceptance by citizens that governments have a valuable and positive role to play in our lives is one refreshing outcome. Whether it is income support for individuals, the need for a strong health-care system, education, or a deepening of the social safety nets, it is clear that the present crisis opens the door for a mean-ingful dialogue across political aisles that don’t look like chasms. For the time being, the venom in Canada’s political discourse has been neutralized.

For over fi ve generations or longer, fossil fuels have played a dominant role in our economic well-being. Weighing against continued use of fossil fuels is a threat to the global climate that could prove to be even more con-sequential than COVID-19. The sting of climate threat may not be as directly felt as the virus nor as fast moving, but its uncontrolled and pervasive impacts can be worse.

In the tragedy of COVID-19, there is a sliver of hope that we could effect a clean energy transi-tion for the long term. Possibility exists now to turn this hiatus of trust and co-operation into a unique opportunity to redefi ne the role of fossil fuels and its contributions to our national eco-nomic output. The time has come for Canadians to demand that our leaders take the climate threat as seriously as the virus and use the existing fi scal capacity to engage public and private capital to fi nance a low carbon energy economy. This requires fresh thinking and bold actions.

COVID has introduced a new vocabulary into our households. We need to “fl atten the curve” to avoid the “peak” to minimize stress on existing capacity of the health system and ensure it is not overwhelmed. The message is clear: ‘Act now’ or suffer serious consequences later. The same template describes the threat of climate change and the green-house emissions trajectory to a T.

Actions now that promote deep de-carbonization and distance us from carbon intensive energy will help to “fl atten the curve”; greater intervention now will be more effective in the long run dramati-cally reducing social costs later.

We identify several options for consideration.

The bail out of the oil and gas sector with government purchas-ing shares in distressed petro-leum companies to prop them up is one. This effectively makes the Government of Canada, and by extension Canadian taxpayers, owners of a large number of com-panies in the oil and gas sector beyond pipelines. This option has little merit. It keeps us on a trajec-tory of increased greenhouse gas emissions, entirely antithetical to achieving the 2030 emissions tar-gets. An outright bailout support-ing the industry status quo simply maximizes regret, locks us into a high-carbon future, and passes on to future generations debt obliga-tions, create stranded assets, and forecloses on options for creating a cleaner energy system.

Instead, the government could take the opportunity presented by this pivotal moment in history to rethink and reshape the Canadian energy landscape by adjusting the economic incentives around the provision of funds. For example, to maintain viability of current operations, provide interest-bearing loans to companies in the oil and gas sector, but at the same time offer interest free or lower interest loans to clean-tech energy companies with large portfolios of wind, geothermal, solar, small modular reactors or bioenergy. Al-ternatively, buying bonds from gas companies while buying shares in hydro-electric companies. Subtle differences in the method of liquidity injection can impact the marginal costs of operating differ-ent assets in an energy portfolio aligning them with policy goals and reinforcing economic incen-tives like carbon taxes.

For energy investments, fi nancing typically has a high up-front capital cost with a stream of

revenues over the life of the asset. Structuring the cost of fi nancing could have crucial implications on which investments companies choose to pursue and could effec-tively change the economic costs of different alternatives in favour of the desirable ones. Subsidizing the exploration of geothermal, hydro, nuclear—in particular the emerging small modular reactor technologies, wind solar and bio-energy now could lead to conse-quential developments of these assets in the coming decades, much as public investments in Athabasca Oil Sands in the last hundred years led to its commer-cial development.

Working together with the industry, the government could considering contracting the oil and gas companies for explora-tion and development of deep geothermal energy options as these companies have extensive knowledge and expertise in geotechnical engineering. In the simplest sense, this could be a procurement subsidy: purchase the services of oil and gas to build geothermal capacity.

Furthermore, if the govern-ment has the appetite to explore creative options for risk sharing with the private sector, thereby assuming additional risk, it could incorporate a crown corporation (or private corporation with sig-nifi cant government ownership) focused on geothermal energy and seed it with scientists and engineers from industry. Entire R&D divisions could brought into the new corporation to build something similar to examples from our energy history like Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Such a bold move would provide rapid cash infusions to oil and gas companies to manage opera-tions while immediately pivoting Canada’s future R&D to a low carbon direction.

The political impasse that now characterizes relations between Alberta and Ottawa is a clear sign that the oil and gas sector is not aligned with the requirements of Canada’s climate change com-

mitments. The sector is all too aware of the “transition risks” that arise not because there are insuf-fi cient reserves of oil and gas in the ground—the world’s known fossil fuel reserves are three times greater than what could be allowed to emit to the atmo-sphere under a 2°C climate target. Rather, these risks arise from policy interventions intended to ensure compliance with interna-tional obligations, such as the car-bon reduction goals committed to under the Paris Agreement.

The risk-return profi les of organizations exposed to climate-related risks will change as the physical impacts of climate change, climate policy and the competitiveness of new tech-nologies undermine the fi nancial soundness of the companies in the sector. As companies dis-close their carbon liabilities, the knock-on effects range from di-vestment decisions by institution-al investors led by changing con-sumer sentiment, the insurance sector unwilling to underwrite the physical risk of extreme events, and the collapsing fi nancial valu-ations of a company’s stocks.

Worldwide de-carbonization will remain the core principle to mitigate the threat of climate change. Given that the energy system is the dominant contribu-tor to greenhouse gas emissions, a dramatic decline by 2050 to meet net-zero carbon targets can be readily foreseen. All this will require massive investment capital once we emerge out of the COVID-19 crisis. If we assume that the fi scal capacity of govern-ments around the world will be substantially diminished, this is an important time to pay close attention to fl ows of public capital and ensure they are directed to non-fossil fuel-based solutions in the long term.

There will likely not be another chance in the near term to deploy billions of taxpayer dollars to the energy industry without consider-able political backlash; it is incum-bent on the Government of Canada to make the most of this opportu-nity to launch us forward toward a sustainable energy future.

Jatin Nathwani is the founding executive director of the Wa-terloo Institute for Sustainable Energy, and he holds the Ontario Research Chair in Public Policy for Sustainable Energy at the University of Waterloo.

The Hill Times

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Jatin Nathwani

Opinion

COVID-19 crisis off ers hope for a clean energy transition There will likely not be another chance in the near term to deploy billions of taxpayer dollars to the energy industry without considerable political backlash; it is incumbent on the Government of Canada to make the most of this opportunity to launch us forward toward a sustainable energy future.

In the tragedy of COVID-19, there is a sliver of hope that we could effect a clean energy transition for the long term. Possibility exists now to turn this hiatus of trust and co-operation into a unique opportunity to redefi ne the role of fossil fuels and its contributions to our national economic output. The time has come for Canadians to demand that our leaders take the climate threat as seriously as the virus and use the existing fi scal capacity to engage public and private capital to fi nance a low carbon energy economy. This requires fresh thinking and bold actions. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

19

TORONTO—If we are to successfully transition from the current pandemic

to future prosperity we need a bold new nation-building strategy. This is quite dif-ferent from hoping that once the pandemic is over we will go back to where we were before the pandemic hit. That won’t happen.

The world will be different and we will need to be much more strategic and much more innovative in how we respond. In fact, the world was changing even before the pandemic hit, though this was not widely recognized by our political and business leaders.

This will require both a vision that identifi es and defi nes the strategic goals of a nation-building strategy and the practi-cal policies to implement the strategy and achieve its goals. We will need new ways to drive prosperity—to build a sustain-able economy where Canadian talent and knowledge build Canadian companies that can compete in the world economy and build wealth here at home.

This new economy is one that recog-nizes intangibles—intellectual property, branding, marketing, and business orga-nization, for example—as the drivers of prosperity. This is quite different from the industrial economy, based on tangible as-sets such as machinery and equipment and economies of scale. Our nation-building strategy should be one that accelerates and strengthens our capacity as an intangible economy, and the companies that create such value.

Yet much of our economic policy today, leaving aside aspirational rhetoric, remains focused on the tangibles economy.

This can be seen, for example, in cur-rent business supports to offset the impact of the government’s shutdown of much of the economy. There is much attention to bailing out the airline and oil industries but little to meeting the needs of the future knowledge economy.

The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program to keep employees on the pay-roll is readily available to companies in the tangibles economy, from auto parts to sawmills. But it is not accessible for many of the future drivers of prosperity, our knowledge-based tech companies or in-novative start-ups.

Promising tech companies, such as Ecobee, Touch Bistro, Borrowell, Rangle.io, Nulogy Corp., Swift Medical, Think Research Corp. and Mogo Inc. are being forced to layoff employees, after investing heavily to build up their human capital, and cut back product development at a time when they need support. Many of these companies have worldwide sales and strong growth prospects. They are exactly the kind of companies Canada needs for jobs and wealth creation in the post-pan-demic world.

Without support for our intangibles economy and the companies driving it we will see even more of our Canadian talent hired away by foreign Big Tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Micro-soft, Uber and Amazon to expand R&D branch plants here to generate wealth for their foreign parents. This will weaken our own future capacity for the needed wealth to support our valued public goods, includ-ing education, healthcare, infrastructure and a clean environment.

With their deep pockets, these same Big Tech companies are also well-positioned to buy up promising Canadian tech compa-nies, as they have been doing for some time. But with the economic collapse from the pandemic shutdown, more Canadian tech companies face fi nancial challenges and could easily become takeover targets.

Germany, for example, is said to be planning a fund of a half-trillion euros (almost $750-billion) to support struggling companies and help defend them from foreign takeovers.

In Canada we have an institution, the Canada Development Investment Corpora-tion, which could be re-energized to take equity stakes—perhaps preferred equity—in promising tech companies that have growth potential but lack long-term patient capital.

CDIC was created in 1982 to manage government-owned commercial business-es—Canadair, deHavilland Aircraft, Telesat, and Eldorado Nuclear—and prepare them for privatization as well as to be a source of advice for the federal government on industrial strategy.

When Newfoundland’s fi sh processing plants went through a wave of bankrupt-cies, CDIC created Fishery Products Inter-national to create a viable fi sh processing corporation. It held and managed the sale of government shares in General Motors Corp. Today it holds government’s shares in Canadian Hibernia Holding Corp. and Trans Mountain Pipeline.

Canadian history shows us we are ca-pable of nation-building strategies to build a viable and independent east-west society. Building the transcontinental Canadian Pacifi c Railway was one early example and the establishment of the National Research Council in 1916 another.

In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, we created a number of insti-tutions to strengthen Canada, including the National Harbours Board, TransCanada Airlines (later Air Canada), the CBC, the Bank of Canada, and introduced new sup-

ports such as unemployment insurance (though constitutional arguments delayed its introduction until 1940).

In the aftermath of World War II, Canada created the Business Development Bank, initially run by the Bank of Canada, and the Export Development Corp. In 1961, Canada established the National Oil Policy to develop Alberta’s oil industry by requir-ing Ontario consumers to use Alberta’s more expensive oil. Later, as research and development became more important Canada created the Industrial Research and Assistance Programme in 1962 to help small and midsize businesses across Canada develop and adopt new technology.

In 1969, we spun the Medical Research Council out of the NRC to help develop Ca-nadian capacity in the medical sciences—reconstructing it in 2000 as the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. In 1978, it spun the Natural Sciences and Engineer-ing Research Council of Canada out of the NRC to support university and industry research across Canada.

Today, we need similar creative think-ing to establish the institutions and programmes for the new knowledge-based economy, where intangible assets such as intellectual property and data are the sources of good jobs and wealth creation. This will require a willingness and abil-ity to develop fresh think, institutions and policies that will work for the new intan-gibles economy.

This may be our biggest economic chal-lenge. If we don’t succeed we will become a poorer and weaker nation.

David Crane can be reached at crane@interlog.com.

The Hill Times

Opinion

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

We need a bold new nation-building strategy The world will be diff erent and we will need to be much more strategic and much more innovative in how we respond. In fact, the world was changing even before the pandemic hit, though this was not widely recognized by our political and business leaders.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured April 14, 2020, at his daily press conference outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa. Canada will require both a vision that identifi es and defi nes the strategic goals of a nation-building strategy and the practical policies to implement the strategy and achieve its goals, writes David Crane. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

David Crane

Canada & the 21st Century

20

MONTREAL—COVID-19 may breed fear, but it

also spells opportunity. Mo-ments like these are ones where people are listening and change is imminent. But change can move in two directions—the better and the worse. We must push for the former. Above all, I believe we must look to ensure that the changes we make now will benefit us in the years to come; indeed, that they will benefit us in the battle against climate catastrophe.

CommunityTo get through this pandemic,

we will need each other more than ever. The people we have ac-cess to are those who are around us, the neighbours we pass every day, the couple on the balcony across the street, the man smok-ing on his fi re escape.

If we choose to battle the climate crisis in the coming years, community will be essential. We need carpooling, people to watch our children when we have to run across town, community gardens for our vegetables. The COVID-19 pandemic is giving us an oppor-tunity to strengthen our ties with those physically close to us and create an unbreakable system of support.

EmissionsPeople aren’t driving their

cars or taking public transit. They aren’t using planes or trains or buses. We are working from home, exercising in new ways. We are making do and willing to do it.

Cutting emissions requires simi-lar compromises—for the good of ourselves and the world. We might not feel the urgency quite as much as we do when it comes to disease, but if we are to trust the science that explains COVID to us, then we must trust the science that explains climate change.

LifestyleThings will change. There will

be shortages, just as there are now shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, shampoo, canned tomatoes, and KD. Yet life goes on, albeit differently. We are will-ing to take the necessary steps, to make ourselves a little uncom-fortable, when there is a tangible emergency. What makes this emergency more tangible than the climate crisis?

Perhaps it is a fear of getting sick. Perhaps it is because the me-dia, the government, our friends and family, our neighbours, our

teachers, our employers are all calling it what it is: urgent.

And while we may be fright-ened, we have all been brave enough to push through the changes, to make do.

EconomyWe can expect a recession, it is

true. It has happened before. I hope that we will come to realize that this economic system isn’t working: living in a world where numbers in a stock column can make or break the livelihoods of people who never invested a penny. It isn’t working. It’s not even working for the people who make money from this sys-tem—when stocks crash, they crash with them. There are ways to pull ourselves out of this—sustainable ways. Routes we can take that will lead us all out of a recession into a world where the reality that got us into the mess no longer exists.

For the people losing their jobs, now is a time to push for universal welfare. Now is the time to push for New Deal-like measures, which, in the United States, were designed to pull the country out of the Great Depression. It created jobs building necessary infrastructure, paid art-ists to create unity and community within neighbourhoods, cities, and

the country. Now is the time to insist on removing subsidies from big polluters and on raising taxes on the super rich, changes that will guarantee an easier transition for all and a better quality of life.

My conclusion is simple. We cannot return to business as usual. It has failed us in every way, isolat-ing us, teaching us to live unsus-tainably, risking our jobs and live-lihoods on the high-stakes games of the wealthy, and prioritizing the interests of the super rich to those of us whose work creates the foun-dations of life as we know it.

We need policies to ensure equality, sustainability, and a healthy society, and these are the policies that will allow us to emerge from this pandemic stron-ger than we went in.

We must demand of the govern-ment to implement policies for the good of the people who elect them. We must ensure that the infrastruc-ture we need to pull through this pandemic and to survive the climate crisis are put in place. After all, there are only so many bunkers to hide in, and they don’t belong to us.

Una Šverko is an undergradu-ate student of English literature at McGill University.

The Hill Times

VANCOUVER—“This pandem-ic is like the appetizer to the

effects of climate change.”This is the latest nugget from a

series of recent dinner conversa-tions with my roommate. We have discussions about apocalyptic sci-fi books sometimes, but this wasn’t one of them. (Though the other week I read Kevin Chong’s 2018 novel The Plague—based on Albert Camus’ classic but set in modern-day Vancouver—purely for escapism; it had a nice ending.)

My roommate needn’t remind me that, even with the vigilant fo-cus on a very real, very now global health crisis, Canada continues to warm at twice the rate—three times, in the North—as the rest of the world. Through the lens of today’s systems, however, an old climate crisis and a fresh pan-demic are second-fi ddle to a brand new economic meltdown. How to rescue it, and what to rescue, ex-actly? Canada’s economic identity is so entwined with oil and gas, it’s no wonder the federal government wants to put their money where their heart is. Letting go ain’t easy.

Canada pledged to phase out subsidies in 2009 and the Liber-

als were elected in 2015, based on similar promises. Still, Canada funnels billions of dollars every year into oil and gas—it’s hard to say exactly how much, as we are also one of the least transparent of the G7 nations with providing fossil fuel subsidy information. The Canadian oil and gas sector saw a 78.5 per cent average loss of share values from 2014 up until 2020, just prior to COVID-19 spreading to every corner of the earth. Subsi-dies—a.k.a. taxpayer dollars—are the reason the fossil fuel industry has survived as long as it has.

COVID-19—aside from the horrifi c impact on the health and societal norms of the human population—has devastated the global economy; inactivity is bad for demand. No single person has been spared the consequences, including in their day-to-day comfort and safety, or in their physical- and mental-health states. It has damaged people fi nancially. Necessarily, it has disproportion-ately affected lower- and middle-class citizens. This moment in time alludes to how and when we may fi nally respond to climate catastro-phe: during a state of emergency

directly linked to climate change, governments will implement sweeping, dramatic actions to do damage control. In January and February, COVID-19 was happen-ing somewhere else. People were dying, but not our neighbours. De-nial is our name, preparation and prevention are not our game.

In 2017, the oil and gas sector and the transportation sector accounted for 52 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Share values dropped steeply over the past six years. Those annoying climate activist kids are growing up and studying policy and political science. One only has to read the OPEC Wiki-pedia page to get a sense of the historic volatility of oil and gas. If uncertainty is the one thing that we can’t plan for, then investing in the wobbly future of hydro-carbons leaves Canada (and the world) at the whim of an industry that destabilizes its own viability with every GHG emission. A vola-tile climate creates uncertainty in the market and minimizes de-mand due to expanding fi nancial insecurity, jeopardized health, and death.

The best party trick is knowing when to leave. Our fossil fuel lega-cy is coming to an end, and better to sidestep the crash and burn and salvage our strength: adaptability. Economic disruption of this mag-nitude creates a tenable moment to reconsider what Canada’s future can be. Oil and gas has relied upon government subsidies for years in order to be viable and keep us on the market as a competitor, even as the playing fi eld pushes us to the sidelines (looking at you, OPEC and Russia).

The government might con-sider this a chance—an excuse, even—to invest in ourselves. To get ahead of the renewable energy game. It’s not a secret that 85 per cent of Canadian fossil fuels are exported, and those companies are owned by foreign direct investments.

When this is all over (and it will be, at some point), what will Canada look like? Will gas and oil boot back up, spewing GHG into the atmosphere? We could take this moment of economic disrup-tion to alter the course of our jobs and industries away from a pre-carious system that puts money into foreign coffers, corporations, and environmental collapse. After all, this is just a taste of what’s to come, an hors-d’œuvre de catas-trophe, if you will.

Dayna Mahannah is a writer and freelance journalist based in Vancouver, B.C. Follow her on twitter: @daynamahannah

The Hill Times

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

COVID and the environment: a rare opportunity

If we choose to battle the climate crisis in the coming years, community will be essential. We need carpooling, people to watch our children when we have to run across town, community gardens for our vegetables. The COVID-19 pandemic is giving us an opportunity to strengthen our ties with those physically close to us and create an unbreakable system of support, writes Una Šverko. Photograph courtesy of Pexels.comWe must demand of

the government to implement policies for the good of the people who elect them. We must ensure that the infrastructure we need to pull through this pandemic and to survive the climate crisis are put in place. After all, there are only so many bunkers to hide in, and they don’t belong to us.

Una Šverko

Opinion

The uncertainty embedded in oil and gas serves up another optionThe government might consider this a chance—an excuse, even—to invest in ourselves. To get ahead of the renewable energy game. It’s not a secret that 85 per cent of Canadian fossil fuels are exported, and those companies are owned by foreign direct investments.

Dayna Mahannah

Opinion

21

BY PALAK MANGAT & AIDAN CHAMANDY

As the world races to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, and

governments continue to grapple with the fallout of a global pan-demic, Canadian researchers, experts, and former Parliamentar-ians say stable research funding for pandemic preparedness is crucial to respond to the current outbreak and prepare the country for the next one.

Dr. Alan Bernstein, president and CEO of the Canadian Insti-tute for Advanced Research, said proactive and increased invest-ments in research are likely to bring forward new technologies, a pattern he has seen in years past.

“The broad support for re-search is critical if we’re going to be able to respond rapidly to new emerging pathogens like COVID-19,” said Dr. Bernstein in a phone interview.

The founding president of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Canada’s fl agship agency for health research fund-ing, Dr. Bernstein said there’s a “whole slew of technologies” needed for vaccine development, from DNA sequencing to viral vectors, that were not developed due to a lack of funding.

The agency has an annual budget of more than $1-billion and is responsible for allocating funding to various health re-search studies.

Data provided by CIHR showed that dating back to 2002, investments in coronavirus-relat-ed research, including measures like vaccines, have fl uctuated from $100,000 to $3.3-million.

During the time of the SARS outbreak in 2003, funding was $1.4-million in 2002 and peaked at $3.3-million in 2004, before dipping to $1.4-million in 2005.

Recently, there was a sharp jump in the 2019-20 year to $54.2-million, in the wake of the fi rst reported case of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in November 2019.

“We need a way for the next pandemic, [when] it breaks out, of being prepared in terms of having a pool of money ready, in terms of advancing fundamental research across a broad front, in terms of having a cadre of coronavirus researchers,” said Dr. Bernstein.

“You don’t hire a fi re depart-ment the moment a fi re breaks out, right? We have fi re depart-ments when there’s no fi re, so we need that in the case of the next pandemic.”

In response to the pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) announced on March 11 the government would spend $1-billion to combat the novel coronavirus, including $275-million for medical research like vaccine development, antivi-rals, and clinical trials.

Since the outbreak, Dr. Bern-stein noted that Ottawa has also provided $40-million to the Coali-tion for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a Norwegian-headquartered foundation backed and co-founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Previously, Canada contrib-uted $10-million to CEPI in 2018, on top of the $4-million in fund-ing given when the coalition was founded in 2017. The coalition has funded teams such as Moderna, a Massachusetts-based biotech fi rm, which has said a vaccine could be ready for emergency use as soon as this fall. A more widespread rollout could take at least another year, according to the company.

Dr. Charu Kaushic, the scien-tifi c director of the Institute of Infection and Immunity, one of the 13 institutes under the CIHR, also pointed to Canada’s support

of CEPI as proof that while there may be dips and peaks in CIHR’s funding for coronavirus-related research, “at no point has there been zero funding” for pandemic preparedness.

“The interest from researchers and priorities for funders waxes and wanes, depending on what’s the current topic, or what’s front and centre, for public health,” Dr. Kaushic said.

She said the government might have been preoccupied by other issues such as the opioid crisis and the legalization of rec-reational cannabis over the last fi ve years.

“I’m sure post-COVID, there will be more funding in the pandemic-preparedness area. There usually is, until something else comes up, and different governments have different levels of priorities that come up in their time.”

Coronavirus research ‘ugly duckling,’ says former health minister

Former Conservative MP Tony Clement, who was Ontario health minister during the SARS outbreak in 2003 and later served as federal health minister from February 2006 to October 2008, wrote in a March 11 Globe and Mail piece that the “hard lesson of SARS” is that “complacency about public health by successive governments, including my own, contributed to the challenge of containing SARS.”

Speaking to The Hill Times last week, Mr. Clement said that coro-navirus research might be “the ugly duckling of health research, in that it is probably underfunded for research compared to some of the other categories.”

“You’re always dealing with a new strain; you’re always dealing with the unknowns of what the morbidity is, what the individual unique characteristics of a coro-navirus are,” he said.

“But there’s no question in my mind that, if there had been greater sustained funding for re-search in this area, it could have made a difference, and Canadians could have been world leaders in it. … I’m sure you could say the same thing about 50 other epide-miological threats.”

Funding agencies, such as the institute, have much sway over where to direct funding, Mr. Clement said, but the health min-

ister, for example, is able to raise attention to certain policy issues that are based on the mandate letter he or she is given.

“There are always other com-peting interests, some of them grab the headlines more consis-tently,” said Mr. Clement, citing vaccine funding for HIV/AIDS and stem-cell research.

Former Liberal health minister Allan Rock, who held the role in Jean Chrétien’s cabinet from 1997 to 2002, said that, by design, the agency is able to determine for itself how to allocate funding.

“With the creation of the [CIHR], we took it out of the political arena and put it in the hands of scientists [to determine] how health research would be al-located,” he said. “Much of health research was funded depending on the topic of the day.”

The agency was founded in 2000 and replaced the Medical Research Council of Canada, with an expanded mandate aimed at improving the country’s competi-tiveness internationally by boost-ing funding and enhancing the virtual network of researchers.

“When I was there, a pandemic was certainly on the agenda. We were aware of the possibility that there might be a public health [threat]. It was all very theoreti-cal,” said Mr. Rock.

Researchers face ‘sleepless nights’

For scientists, it can be an uphill battle to get their research funded because of the competitive nature of applying for grants and limited available funding, said Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. “It has gotten increas-ingly diffi cult to convince funding agencies to be more proactive with infectious disease in par-ticular,” said Dr. Kindrachuk, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in emerging diseases.

Funding agencies like CIHR, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) “are facing limitations” in their own sources of funding, he added.

Data provided by NSERC showed that it provided a total of $5.8-million in coronavirus-relat-ed research since 2000, peaking in 2018 when it reached $717,000. Figures shared by the SSHRC indicated that from 2000 to 2020, fi gures ranged from $354,000 to a peak of $3.4-million in 2019.

Dr. Kindrachuk commended the feds’ efforts to quickly dole out research money amid the outbreak, but said the research community wants to see more sustained funding for coronavirus in the long term.

“There are a lot of research-ers in Canada that have a lot of sleepless nights debating where they’re going to be able to fi nd their next small pot of money in order to keep their research programs going,” said Dr. Kindra-chuk. “I think we need to be able to fi nd mechanisms to better sup-port our researchers in Canada, so that they can essentially focus on the science and research itself, as opposed to how they’re going to keep the doors open.”

Dr. Volker Gerdts, CEO and di-rector of the VIDO-InterVac lab at

the University of Saskatchewan, which studies human and animal pathogens to develop vaccines and other protective measures, agreed.

“It is always challenging to approach government and other funders to ask for [funding] when the disease is not there and just warn about it,” Dr. Gerdts said.

The lab was the fi rst facility in Canada to get approval to “har-vest a sample of the COVID-19 virus,” the government said on March 23, adding it gave $23-mil-lion in funding to the centre.

“It’s hard to tell these stories and relate the urgency when it’s not there, but [COVID-19] just shows how big the impact of these diseases can be.”

Since the outbreak spread across the world, more than 1,000 Canadians have died and more than 28,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Gerdts said the more spe-cifi c efforts there are focused on emerging diseases, the better, so those who want to focus on “the next coronavirus” are not compet-ing for funding with a scientist who wants to study the opioid crisis, for example.

Dr. Kindrachuk said he thinks he is one of just a few researchers in the fi eld at his university.

“I’m somewhat separated from other emerging virus people around Canada, and that makes it diffi cult on a daily basis to be able to collaborate directly with people,” he said, adding that since the pandemic, he has seen efforts “at the grassroots level, to identify teams of researchers” who can compete for grant money as a team.

For Dr. Rob Annan, president and CEO of Genome Canada, there will be refl ections on how the money was spent during the pandemic for months to come.

While not one of the main sources of federal research fund-ing, the not-for-profi t pitched in $250,000 to help Ottawa in its COVID-19 efforts, and has invested in areas like forestry, hu-man health, agriculture, and the environment in the past. Other contributors include the Canada Research Coordinating Commit-tee, which pitched in $7-million, and the International Develop-ment Research Centre, which pitched in $1.5-million.

According to Dr. Annan, about half of Genome Canada’s an-nual budget, which can climb up to $100-million, goes to health and the other half towards non-health-related research.

“Viral research has not been as pressing a concern over the last, say, fi ve years, simply because other issues had come to the fore,” said Dr. Annan, adding that envi-ronmental studies on developing clean technology to mitigate the impacts of climate change, for ex-ample, might have been an area where governments also focussed their money.

“The more limited [available] funds are, the more those deci-sions impact areas that maybe aren’t front and centre, and that’s where you end up seeing prob-lems when it comes to research for coronavirus,” he said.—With fi les from Beatrice Paez

pmangat@hilltimes.comachamandy@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

Reliable funding for coronavirus research key in bracing for future outbreaks, say experts, former MPs‘The broad support for research is critical if we’re going to be able to respond rapidly to new emerging pathogens like COVID-19,’ says Dr. Alan Bernstein, the founding president of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

News

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

COVID-19 research

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured on March 23, 2020, announced last month that the government is spending $275-million for medical research on coronavirus. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

22

actually do to the economy,” said Nik Nanos, founder and chief data scientist for Nanos Research. “And if people are out of work, and are underemployed or unem-ployed, it’s never good news for any incumbent government—even if the government says we did the best that we could. So, the fact of the matter is they’re going to be judged not just on a response, but also on managing the impact on the country.”

Mr. Nanos described COV-ID-19 as an issue that is affecting the everyday lives—health and jobs—of all Canadians. He said the issue started to appear on Canadians’ radar in late January, and between mid-March and now it has shot up like “a rocket” in its importance to people. In compari-son, the environment, which was

a top-of-mind issue for Canadians in January, is now trending down in significance.

“It’s basically like a rocket, it’s like a rocket trend line when it comes to importance,” said Mr. Nanos.

“Corona is engineered as the perfect runaway issue. What do I mean by that? You have the intersection of people’s health and jobs at the same time and it affects everyone. We always talk about issues that drive opinion or ones that are close to the day-to-day lives of Canadians, there’s nothing really more close to people’s day-to-day lives than the coronavirus right now, and the health concerns and the economic concerns they have,” Mr. Nanos said.

According to a Nanos Research survey released last week, 48.8 per cent of Canadians said that the coronavirus was the most impor-tant national concern to them, about 14 per cent identified health and economy as most important, and 5.6 per cent described envi-ronment as the top of mind issue. In mid-March, only about seven per cent of Canadians thought that coronavirus was the most impor-tant issue to them. The rolling poll of 1,000 Canadians came out on April 14 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

A Léger poll that also came out on April 14 suggested that 76 per cent of Canadians were satis-fied with the government’s efforts to fight COVID-19, while 84 per cent expressed support for the provincial government’s efforts, and 71 per cent approved of the

way the municipal government tackled the pandemic. In compar-ison, the same survey suggested that only 44 per cent of Ameri-cans approved of U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of the outbreak, while 66 per cent supported its handling at the state level, and 67 per cent their municipal government’s work to ward off this pandemic.

The survey suggested that if an election were held today, 39 per cent of decided voters would sup-port the Liberal Party, 28 per cent would support the Conservatives, 18 per cent the NDP, and eight per cent would vote for the Greens.

The survey of 1,508 Canadians was conducted between April 9 and April 12 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent-age points, 19 times out of 20.

Because of the lockdown across the country, as of last week, close to six million Canadians had filed for EI or emergency financial aid from the federal government. According to a recent IMF report, the global outbreak is a “crisis like no other” and predicted that the Canadian economy would shrink by 6.6 per cent this year. The report said that the economy would grow by 4.2 per cent next year assuming that the pandemic will fade in the second half of this year and all lockdown measures are lifted. The report also said that the economic consequences of the pandemic would “very likely” push the global economy in to the worst recession since the Great Depres-sion of 1930s.

The Parliamentary Budget Of-fice said last week that the size of the Canadian deficit will go up to $184-billion by next year.

As of last week, there were 28,205 confirmed cases of CO-VID-19 in the country, and more than 1,000 Canadians had died because of the illness. Accord-ing to Johns Hopkins University, there were 2,016,020 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, and 130,528 people had died.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nanos said that one of the key decisions to make at the federal and provin-cial levels going forward will be when to lift or ease the lockdown so that people could go back to work, as an error in this decision could result in another severe wave of the virus. It remains to be seen in the coming weeks which provincial government will be the first to lift the lockdown.

Mr. Nanos also said this is the decision where Canadians would like to see leadership from the federal and provincial levels of governments, and expect them to work together and to get it right. This is a tough situation for the federal government; providing financial assistance to Canadians is raising debt levels higher and higher with each passing week, but sending people back to their regular work and social activities carries serious risks.

“The problem with the current scenario is, who will be the first to propose stepping down from kind of the current regime? And I would expect that, politically, there’s probably not a lot of poli-ticians who would want to be the first to send folks back to work in isolation when other provinces are not having it,” Mr. Nanos said.

“Managing the transition out of the pandemic is probably a classic situation where Canadians would expect leadership from the federal government and for the federal government to work directly with provincial govern-ments, so that this happens in a way that is in the public good, but that is also orderly.”

Pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research, in an interview with The Hill Times last week, de-scribed the COVID-19 pandemic as a great transformational point in history. He said it’s not possible to predict at this point specifically what the new normal will be in the social, economic, or political lives of people around the world, as it all depends on the final outcome of the crisis. Before the interview, he said on social media that after this crisis is over, the world will undergo a number of massive structural changes in dif-ferent aspects of life.

“The world is on cusp of another great transformation. For those who think we return to the status quo, you are out to lunch,” tweeted Mr. Graves on April 11. “We are headed for a massive structural changes in how we live, what we value, the role of the state and public institutions, border between work and life.”

Canadians are looking to the government for help navigat-ing this complex situation, even those who have traditionally been the proponents of smaller govern-ment. He said it remains to be seen if Canadians will continue to have confidence in government’s

role in the lives of people in the post COVID-19 era.

“The kind of skeptical, mini-mal government, libertarian ethic really just kind of went out the window in the face of this. Ev-erybody turned to government to solve [the economic and health is-sues as a result of the pandemic],” said Mr. Graves. “Now that con-sensus, which has emerged, and, particularly in Canada, I think it’s relatively fragile. It’s strong now, but it could easily dissipate, depending on what happens.”

Mr. Graves said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s han-dling of the outbreak would be a key benchmark against which Canadians would judge their own government’s performance in dealing with this outbreak.

“The major benefit, and this is obviously a horrible way to look at it because the political calculus is sort of the last issue right now, but the Canadian government will benefit significantly from the fact that it’s been such a disaster the way it’s played out in the United States,” said Mr. Graves. “So it’s hard to imagine that this will not produce an advantage for Cana-dian governments.”

Léger pollster Andrew Enns said in an interview with The Hill Times that from a political angle, the Trudeau government has an advantage over the opposition parties in this crisis. They are dominating the agenda and the media coverage of the pandemic outbreak overshadowing ev-erything else. But, he said, the opposition parties can distinguish themselves from the government by offering their ideas in the recovery phase when Canadians start to go back to work.

“I think there’s absolutely room for opposition parties to start to point out what they feel are wrong approaches, or they could promote different approaches to what the country needs,” said. Mr. Enns, the executive vice president for Win-nipeg for Léger Market Research. “There you will see, I suspect from all the parties, much, much more vocal commentary as we start to move into that return to work.”

Mr. Enns agreed that the consequences of the outbreak will bring significant changes in societies around the world, but that it’s not possible to predict the precise nature of these changes.

arana@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Next federal election a referendum on Trudeau’s management of COVID-19, say pollsters, ‘a crisis like no other’ Veteran pollster Frank Graves says the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought the world to the ‘cusp of another great transformation,’ but it’s unknown what changes it will create until this international crisis is over.

News

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

COVID-19 & leadership

Continued from page 1

EKOS Research president Frank Graves says that the world is at a ‘great transformational point’ because of COVID-19, and it’s not clear what changes the crisis will bring to global society when it ends. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

23

consequence to the Canadian federal government as few have come to pass.

As the two countries try to deal with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been rumblings that Mr. Trump would be moving to quicken the

reopening of the U.S. economy, restrict the fl ow of much-needed medical equipment to Canada, and deploy troops along the Canada-U.S. border. But so far, none of the suggestions have seen the light of day.

“Most of what [Mr. Trump] threatens goes away, it doesn’t happen,” said Roy Norton, a former Canadian consul general in Detroit and Chicago, noting the renegotiation of NAFTA and tar-iffs on steel and aluminum exports being exceptions. “Generally, he makes pronouncements and they get quietly walked back because they … make no sense for Ameri-ca, to say nothing for Canada.”

“A lot of these pronounce-ments, frankly, are less meaning-ful than initially assumed,” said Mr. Norton, diplomat-in-residence at the Balsillie School of Interna-tional Affairs and a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “We probably vest each of them with more consequence than we should.”

Mr. Trump insisted last week that measures to restrict move-ment across the Canada-U.S. border, except for essential travel, could be loosened.

He told reporters that the Canada-U.S. border would be “one of the early borders to be re-leased” from the measure, noting Canada’s success at curbing the virus, which led to some specula-tion that border restrictions could be lessened soon.

But later in the week, multiple media outlets reported that an agreement was reached to extend the border measures for another month. The restrictions were set to expire on April 21.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) told reporters on April 16 that it would be “many weeks” before the measures are lifted.

Dalhousie University political science professor Brian Bow, who specializes in Canada-U.S. rela-tions, said there is a tendency for Canadians to feel that potential

disagreement between Canada and the U.S. over impactful poli-cies will lead to negative conse-quences for Canada.

“I don’t think that’s the case in this situation. I think it’s not so much we have to be worried about the Americans retaliat-ing against us or punishing us in some way,” he said. “It’s really much more about, ‘How do we prevent the way the Trump ad-ministration is handling this from making our situation, which is already extremely diffi cult, much, much worse.’ ”

Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at Washing-ton, D.C.’s Wilson Center, said the fast-approaching U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3 is infl uencing Mr. Trump’s desire to see the U.S. economy reopen, noting that the success of the American economy prior to the pandemic is one of his stronger selling points for re-election.

“It was not to me surprising that as soon as he thought he could, he would start banging the drum … to get the economy going again,” Prof. Sands said.

“Justin Trudeau is the oppo-site,” he added. “He’s already had his election, fi rst of all, and, sec-ond of all, the Canadian economy stinks.”

Prof. Sands noted that while Mr. Trump needs a strong econo-my for his re-election campaign, Mr. Trudeau can defl ect blame for the performance of Canada’s economy on to the coronavirus pandemic.

He added that the U.S. govern-ment’s push to restart its econo-my won’t have a large impact on Canada’s economic approach, despite the integrated nature of the two countries.

If Canada does face pressure to reopen its economy from the U.S., it is “much more likely” to come from the private sector to ensure supply chains, Prof. Sands said.

Prof. Bow said the pressure that Canada will face to reopen the economy will come through its social links and not economic integration with the United States.

“There will be a ton of ex-tra pressure on the Canadian government because of what’s happening in the [United] States,” he said, adding that given the interconnectivity of American and Canadian media and social media, “the direction of the debate there, will have an impact on the debates here.”

“The public messaging chal-lenge for managing the pandemic is just going to be that much more diffi cult for the Canadian health authorities because of the way the Trump administration has ap-proached it,” said Prof. Bow.

Mr. Norton said that Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the Canada-U.S. border would be one of the fi rst to resume normalcy is “encouraging” due to the impor-tance of cross-border movement to Canada, however he added, the U.S. cannot unilaterally decide what will happen with the border.

“I don’t invest a lot of conse-quence in what the president said, but, on balance, it’s better that he said that than signalling the extreme opposite, which is, ‘We’re not going to contemplate opening the border with Canada forever as long … as there’s a single soul

on Earth with COVID-19, we’re not going to let any Canadians into the United States,’ that would be worse,” he said.

Less strain on bilateral relationship as Canada and U.S. look domestically

While in the midst of the NAFTA renegotiations now-Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) highlighted the need to deal with contentious disagreements behind close doors, high-level Canadian politics, including Ms. Freeland, have publicly rebuked some American proposals, such as militarizing the Canada-U.S. border.

Mr. Norton said Canadians expect their political leaders to react when Canada is targeted.

“Canadians, for domestic consumption, insist on what seem to us to be outrageous initiatives by the U.S. [to be] contested, combated, taken issue with,” Mr. Norton said. “We don’t allow our politicians to just ignore outra-geous things that on their face seem targeted in some cases at Canada.”

“They have to walk a fi ne line to not be too provocative with the people that we need help from in the White House and elsewhere in the administration and sometimes in Congress, who have helped to successfully walk back these things,” he said.

Prof. Sands said, as opposed to during the NAFTA renegotiations, now with the Canadian and U.S. federal governments managing the effects of the coronavirus pan-demic domestically, there is less worry about bilateral tension.

“The bite politically or bilater-ally is much, much smaller,” he said. “I don’t see Trump neces-sarily having to respond to every Canadian disagreement.”

After Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. was cutting funding for the World Health Organiza-tion, International Development Minister Karina Gould (Burling-ton, Ont.) told The Globe and Mail last week that the decision was “disappointing.”

While Mr. Trump’s pronounce-ments have led to Canadian reac-tion and outreach to U.S. counter-parts, experts on the Canada-U.S. relationship told The Hill Times that it hasn’t had a substantial im-pact on the federal government’s effort to curb COVID-19.

“[Canada] has become pretty practised at dealing with the Trump administration and its volatility,” Mr. Norton said.

Mr. Norton added that while Ms. Freeland or PMO chief of staff Katie Telford may have to pick up the phone to stickhandle through an issue with the White House, Canada is always in a reactive mode with the U.S., to a certain extent.

Prof. Bow said while the pronouncements do take up some government resources, it is a manageable diffi culty.

“It has used up resources that they would have rather used for other things, but I don’t think it has severely compromised the Canadian response,” he said.

nmoss@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Trump coronavirus pronouncements have had little impact on Canadian response as few have been realized, say analysts ‘Generally, [Donald Trump] makes pronouncements and they get quietly walked back because they ... make no sense for America, to say nothing for Canada,’ says former diplomat Roy Norton.

News

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Canada-U.S.

Continued from page 1

At times throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have been misaligned as the U.S. president has pushed for reopening the American economy as the U.S. president prepares for re-election. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade and photograph courtesy of the White House/Flickr

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MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES24

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“THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF”

As of December 2019, the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) had nine projects across Canada. The CIB focuses on four main sectors: public transit, trade and transportation, green infrastructure, and broadband infrastructure. Is Canada getting good value? Are the projects in the public interest?

One key to how the federal government’s infrastructure policy is shaped is the need to navigate the chasm between how much money needs to be spent and what funding is actually making it out the door. What is Canada’s infrastructure gap and is it any closer to being closed?

This briefi ng will also take a look at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ fall report that said Canada’s public infrastructure is “at risk” unless some key investments are made.

It will also explore the federal Gas Tax Fund, and whether it lives up to its promise of providing predictable, long-term funding for local governments (a $2.2-billion one-time transfer was allocated in Budget 2019).

Finally, in this briefi ng, we’ll take a look at the progress of the government’s drive to expand high-speed broadband access for all Canadians, especially those in rural areas of the country.

Be a part of this timely and relevant briefi ng.

INFRASTRUCTUREPOLICY BRIEFING

Publication date: April 22, 2020 | Advertising deadline: April 17, 2020

For more information or to reserve your government relations and public affairs advertising space, contact The Hill Times

display advertising department at 613-688-8841.

Shane MacKenzie is back among Parlia-ment Hill’s staffi ng ranks and is one of

three recent additions to Seniors Minister Deb Schulte’s team.

Mr. MacKenzie took on the role of direc-tor of parliamentary affairs to the minister last month, after almost three years as a senior consultant with the public affairs

and government relations fi rm, Ensight Canada, during which time he was a frequent pres-ence at events and parties in and around Par-liament Hill.

While at Ensight, Mr. MacKenzie was a registered lob-byist for a num-ber of companies and associations, including Shop-pers Drug Mart, Aurora Canna-bis Inc., Stelco Inc., the City

of Edmonton, United Farmers of Alberta, and the Christian Labour Association of Canada, among others. He also acted as a political pundit, in print and on political prime-time panels.

Before joining the fi rm, Mr. MacKenzie spent about a year and a half as legislative assistant to Brampton Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu, having joined her offi ce from the federal Liberal Party’s headquarters where he’d spent about the same amount of time as a social media co-ordinator, including through the 2015 federal election.

Daniel Pollak has been hired as press sec-retary to Ms. Schulte and started on the job last month. He recently served as press secre-tary for former Ontario Liberal MPP Steven Del Duca’s successful leadership campaign; ultimately, Mr. Del Duca was elected to lead the provincial party on March 7, becoming the fi rst Italian-Canadian to do so.

Mr. Pollak graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carleton University last year, after which he spent a few months as a co-op placement with the Canadian Medical Association’s inter-governmental affairs and advocacy team. While at university, he served as vice-president of the Rideau River Residence Association, did a co-op placement with Transport Canada’s marine policy division, and volunteered on the Hill.

He’s now working closely with Ms. Schulte’s director of communications, Scott Bardsley.

Shiraz M. Keushgerian recently joined the minister’s offi ce as regional adviser for Quebec and assistant to Ms. Schulte’s par-liamentary secretary, Liberal MP Stéphane Lauzon. He marked his fi rst day on the job on April 6.

Before then, Mr. Keushgerian had spent the last three months working for the Trade Commissioner Service and prior to that was an assistant event co-ordinator for Miss Prêt à Manger, a food and catering business in Montreal. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from Concordia University, and is a former vice-president with the International Eth-nic Associations Council, amongst other past experience.

In other offi ce staffi ng news, Pierce Collier, who was hired on as an Atlantic regional affairs adviser to Ms. Schulte in December, has been promoted and is now also an issues manager to the minister.

He’s a former assistant to then-Liberal MP Nick Whalen and a former special assistant for Atlantic regional affairs to then-science minister Kirsty Duncan.

Anne Dawsonis chief of staff to Ms. Schulte, as previously reported. Also currently part of the minis-ter’s team are: Stephanie Muc-

cilli, director of policy; Melissa Rumble, director of operations; Michael MacKin-non, digital and social media lead; Chike Agbasi, policy adviser; and Ophelia John, executive assistant.

Staff changes forMendicino, McKenna 

Immigration, Citizenship, and Refugees Minister Marco Mendicino has a couple of new staff in his offi ce, including Matthew Paisley, who’s joined the minister’s policy team as an adviser.

Mr. Paisley was previously working for Mr. Mendicino in his capacity as the Liberal MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and government, with a minor in French, from Halifax’s Dalhou-sie University.

Casey Rich-ardson was also recently hired on as a special assistant for Ontario regional affairs in the immigration minister’s offi ce.

She’s spent the last year and a half plus as a constituency assistant to Mr. Mendicino, start-ing shortly after the June 2018 Ontario election. Before the election, which ultimately saw the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government unseated by now-Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative, Ms. Richardson had been a Liberal staffer at Queen’s Park, where she worked for Mr. Mendicino’s provincial riding counterpart, then-Ontario MPP (and now Toronto city councillor) Mike Colle.

Ms. Richardson attended Toronto’s Havergal College before heading off to Kingston, Ont., to study a bachelor’s

degree in political science and Spanish at Queen’s University, during which time she spent a year studying abroad at Cardiff University in Wales.

Headed in the other direction is Nathan Bessner, who until recently had been a senior special assistant for operations in Mr. Mendicino’s offi ce since the start of the year.

Mr. Bessner has since left to join Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna’s team as a policy and parliamentary affairs adviser. He’s also a former special assistant for operations to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and a former assistant to Mr. Mendicino as a Toronto Liberal MP.

Along with Mr. Bessner, Ms. McKenna recently welcomed Paul Hershaw to her offi ce as a senior adviser for Ontario.

Mr. Hershaw has spent the last two and a half years, starting in December 2017, as national fi eld director for the federal Liberal Party, including through the 2019 election.

He’d been working for the federal party steadily since 2013, previously, he was a national fi eld manager for the party, and has also been a regional fi eld organizer in B.C., during which time he served as cam-paign manager for now Liberal MP Gordie Hogg’s successful 2017 byelection cam-paign in South Surrey-White Rock, B.C. Mr. Hershaw also stepped away to oversee the New Brunswick Liberal Party’s fi eld team during that province’s 2018 election and is a former campaign adviser for the Nova Scotia Liberals.

Ms. McKenna’s offi ce is run by chief of staff Adam Carroll, as previously reported, and also currently includes: Bruce Chead-le, director of issues management; Lindsay Hunter, director of operations and parlia-mentary relations; Claire Seaborn, director of policy and legal affairs; David Taylor, director of communications; Chantalle Au-bertin, press secretary; Edward Rawlinson, senior adviser; Kate Proctor, senior policy adviser; Madeleine Gomery, parliamentary relations and operations assistant; and Louise Imbeault, executive assistant and scheduler.

Over in Mr. Mendicino’s offi ce, Cyndi Jenkins is chief of staff, as previously reported. Also currently working as part of the immigration minister’s political staff team are: Michael Jones, director of issues management; Olivier Cullen, director of operations and outreach; Marie-Pierre Richard, director of commu-nications; Kevin Lemkay, press secre-tary; Olga Radchenko, director of policy; Nyagua Chiek, manager of parliamentary affairs; Kyle Nicholson, senior adviser; Lisa Cheskes, director of case manage-ment; Émilie Simard, issues manager; Sebastian Clarke, special assistant for Ontario; Morgan Kelly, special assistant for the Atlantic; Eric Gustavson, spe-cial assistant for Western and Northern regional affairs; and Christopher Masotti, executive assistant.

lryckewaert@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

by Laura Ryckewaert

hill climbers

25

New parliamentary aff airs head for Seniors Minister Schulte

Seniors Minister Deb Schulte, pictured in the West Block building on Nov. 21, 2019. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Shane MacKenzie is back on the Hill as director of parliamentary affairs to the seniors minister. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

Pierce Collier is now an issues manager to Ms. Schulte. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino pictured after a cabinet meeting in the West Block on Dec. 10, 2019. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Casey Richardson is a special assistant for Ontario regional affairs in the immigration minister’s offi ce. Photograph courtesy of Facebook

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna, pictured heading into the House of Commons for Question Period on Jan. 28. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Plus, Hill Climbers takes a look at recent staff additions in the offi ces of Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

26

“The chief electoral offi cers from the various electoral management bodies across the country are speaking regularly on how to manage an election in the cur-rent context, and will continue to do so as the situation evolves,” said Natasha Gauth-ier, a spokesperson for Election Canada, in an email to The Hill Times, but did not say the precise nature of discussions.

“We have been monitoring how the situation is unfolding in other jurisdic-tions around the world through our normal moni-toring chan-nels (e.g., news media monitoring, social media accounts) which have continued to operate remotely,” Ms. Gauthier stated.

Because of the fi xed date election law in Canada, the next fed-eral election is scheduled for Oct. 23, 2023. The last general elec-tion yielded a minority government and the opposition parties outnumber the governing party which means an election can be called at any time if the Liberals lose a confi dence vote in the House. But the House has adjourned and most of the country is in lockdown because of the pandemic.

In 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) Liberals were reduced from a majority with 184 seats to a minor-ity with 157 seats, while the Conserva-tives increased their seats by 22 more and carried 121 seats. The Bloc Québécois won 32, the NDP 24, the Green Party three, and one Independent MP was elected. To form a majority government, the winning party needed 170 MPs in the 338-member House.

In order to defeat the government and force an election, the three recognized opposition parties would have to vote together to force an election, a highly un-

likely possibility at this time, considering that the last election happened only six months ago. The Conservatives are cur-rently in the process of electing their new leader. Outgoing Conservative Party Lead-er Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) has already announced he won’t lead the party in the next election and will stay on until the new leader is elected. The leadership election was scheduled in June, but has been cancelled because of COVID-19, and a new date is likely to be fi xed in May.

On top of that, like other countries around the world, Canada is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on the health and economic security of Ca-nadians. In this context, it’s highly unlikely that an election will be called anytime soon. But Elections Canada has to be pre-pared in case one is called for unforeseen reasons.

Late last week, Elections Canada an-nounced that the agency had formed an internal working group to plan for the possibility if an election is triggered during

the pandem-ic. Among other things, the work-ing group is examining Elections Canada’s capacity to handle a much larger number of voters should they choose to vote by mail. In the 2019 general election, only 55,000 Cana-dians living in Canada and abroad voted by mail and in the 2015 election, 34,000 Cana-dians used

mail in ballot. In total, 18.3-million voted in the 2019 election, and 17.7-million in 2015.

If an election were held in the midst of a pandemic or immediately after, the number of Canadians who might choose to vote by mail would likely go up signifi cantly.

“A viable election where all electors vote by mail would require fundamental changes to the Canada Elections Act,” said the Elections Canada media statement last week. “While not excluding adaptations to the act, the agency’s current efforts are focused on assessing its ability to adapt its approach within the general parameters of the existing regime. Any election in this context will likely involve a combination of adjustments to voting services, including more electors voting by mail, among other measures.”

arana@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

News

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Canada’s chief electoral offi cer Perrault consulting provincial counterparts regularly on how to hold an election if one is called in the midst of COVID-19 Elections Canada is assessing its capacity to handle a greater number of votes by mail system for the next election, according to a media statement by Elections Canada.

Elections Canada

Continued from page 1

While it’s unlikely to happen in the current political scenario, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government could be defeated at any time as opposition parties outnumber the governing party. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Canada's Chief Electoral Offi cer Stéphane Perrault is consulting with his provincial counterparts on a regular basis to plan for a federal election if one is called in the midst or immediately after the COVID-19 crisis is over. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Feature

MONDAY, APRIL 20House Sitting—The House has been suspended until

Monday, April 20, and the spring schedule is still not confi rmed due to the global pandemic. It was scheduled to sit for four straight weeks until May 15. It was then scheduled to take a one-week break and to resume sit-ting again on May 25, followed by four straight sitting weeks, until its scheduled adjournment on June 23, but none of this has been confi rmed yet. The House was also scheduled to adjourn again for three months and to return in the fall on Monday, Sept. 21, for three straight weeks. It was scheduled to adjourn for one week and to sit again from Oct. 19 until Nov. 6. It was scheduled to break again for one week and to sit again from Nov. 16 to Dec. 11. And that would be it for 2020. We’ll update you once the House calendar has been confi rmed.

Senate Not Sitting—The Senate has also been suspended due to the COVID-19 virus. When it’s scheduled to return, the possible sitting days are April 20, 24, 27, and May 1. The Senate was scheduled to sit April 21-23 and April 28-30. The possible Senate sittings were May 4, 8, 11, 15, 25, and 29. The Senate was scheduled to sit May 5-7 and May 12-May 14. The Senate was supposed to break May 18-22. It was scheduled to sit May 26-28. The June possible sitting days were June 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, and 19. The Senate was scheduled to sit June 2-4; June 9-11; June 16-18; and June 22, 23, it was scheduled to break on June 24 for St. Jean Baptiste Day; and it was scheduled to sit June 25 and

June 26. The Senate was scheduled to break from June 29 until Sept. 22. The Senate’s possible September sitting days are Sept. 21, 25, 28. It’s scheduled to sit Sept. 22-24 and Sept. 29-Oct. 1, with a possible sitting day on Friday, Oct. 2. The possible Senate sitting days are Oct. 5, 9, 19, 23, 26, and 30. It’s scheduled to sit Oct. 6-8; it takes a break from Oct. 12-16; it will sit Oct. 20-22; and Oct. 27-29. The November possible Senate days are: Nov. 2, 6, 16, 20, 23, 27, 30. It’s scheduled to sit Nov. 3-5; it will take a break from Nov. 9-13; it will sit Nov. 17-19; and Nov. 24-26. The possible December Senate sitting days are: Dec. 4, 7, and 11. The Senate is scheduled to sit Dec. 1-3; Dec. 8-10 and it will sit Dec. 14-18. We’ll also update you once the Senate calendar has been confi rmed.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22 Earth Day—It’s Earth Day on April 22. In honour of the

50th anniversary of Earth Day, the organization Earth Day Canada is inviting citizens to take simple and concrete actions at home. For the 2020 edition of its campaign, it is also offering activities and tools to assist municipalities in their role as leaders in the ecological transition. Earth Day Canada will also announce that its reach is now pan-Canadian and that it will support citizens and organizations from coast to coast in efforts to protect the environment. As part of this new campaign, Earth Day Canada encour-ages citizens to take action for the environment as part of their daily lives. To mark the occasion, the organization is unveiling a new webpage, entitled #EarthDayAtHome, with suggestions for activities to do from home. Each day, for 22 days, a suggestion will be shared across Earth Day Canada’s social media, accompanied by the same hashtag.

The Future of Money—The C.D. Howe Institute hosts a webinar on “The Future of Money: Is Canada Ready for a National Digital Currency?” featuring Scott Hendry, senior special director of fi nancial technology (FinTech) at the Bank of Canada; Thorsten Koeppl, professor of economics and RBC Fellow at Queen’s University; and Virgile Ros-tand, president and founder of Coinsquare. Wednesday, April 22, from noon to 1 p.m., via cdhowe.org.

What on Earth (Day) is Going On?—Former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, now chair of the board for Earth Day, will take part in a webinar on “Climate Change in the Time of COVID-19,” hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto. Mr. Mulcair will be joined by Dr. Christine Gabardo, co-founder

and director of technology, CERT; Jennifer McKelvie, To-ronto City Councillor; and Christine Rhodes, Central Canada market leader, climate change and sustainability services, EY. The virtual event, running Wednesday, April 22 from noon to 1 p.m., is free of charge via canadianclub.org.

Navigating Politics in Uncertain Times—Research Canada hosts a webinar on “On (and Off) the Hill: Navi-gating Politics in Uncertain Times.” Michelle McLean, interim general manager, Ottawa and senior vice-president of national health and wellness at Hill+Knowlton Strate-gies Canada, will discuss the changing political climate during this unprecedented global public health crisis. Deborah Gordon-El-Bihbety, Research Canada’s president and CEO, will explore what this means for health research and innovation advocates now and for the post-COVID-19 world. Wednesday, April 22, from 1 to 2 p.m., via rc-rc.ca.

THURSDAY, APRIL 23Foreign Minister talks Foreign Affairs—Foreign Af-

fairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne will deliver remarks in a video conference hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, April 23, from noon to 12:30 p.m., via corim.qc.ca.

FRIDAY, APRIL 24 Ipsos Ask Me Anything COVID-19 Webinar—It looks

like Canadians will be closing out their sixth week of physical distancing by April 24. Ipsos expects public opinion to be rapidly shifting but will be in the fi eld ev-ery week until the situation is behind us. Ipsos is asking Canadians how they are coping during the COVID crisis; how have they changed their behaviours; what are their views of the health system’s response; and has fi nancial aid been suffi cient and arrived fast enough. Join Darrell Bricker, global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, on April 24 at 11:30 a.m. PT/2:30 p.m. ET at www.ipsos.com.

MONDAY, MAY 4 International Day of Pink—In celebration of the 50th anni-

versary of the Stonewall Riots/Pride; and the 30th anniversary of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, we are proud to invite you to Stonewall 50 across Canada, in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and Cape Breton, from May 4-21, featuring Stonewall riot activist Martin Boyce. Stonewall 50

across Canada is a free speakers’ series in cities across the country featuring Stonewall Riot activist Martin Boyce. Boyce is among a handful of surviving Stonewall activists whose contributions have had a signifi cant impact on our communi-ties. Join us as he shares his stories of uprising and rebellion, what motivated him that night.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8Canada’s Foremost Fintech Conference FFCON20—Featur-

ing high-growth start-ups and leading industry experts across fi ntech sectors including digital banking, P2P fi nance, AI, capital markets, Wealthtech, payments, crypto, and block-chain. July 8-9. Speakers include: Robert Asselin, senior director public policy, BlackBerry; Paul Schulte, founder and editor, Schulte Research; Craig Asano, founder and CEO, NCFA; George Bordianu, co-founder and CEO, Balance; Julien Brazeau, partner, Deloitte; Alixe Cormick, president, Venture Law Corporation; Nikola Danaylov, founder, keynote speaker, author futurist, Singularity Media; Pam Draper, president and CEO, Bitvo; Justin Hartzman, co-founder and CEO, CoinSmart; Peter-Paul Van Hoeken, founder & CEO, FrontFundr; Cynthia Huang, CEO and co-founder, Altcoin Fantasy; Austin Hubbel, CEO and co-founder, Consilium Crypto; Patrick Mandic, CEO, Mavennet; Mark Morissette, co-founder & CEO, Foxquilt; Cato Pastoll, co-founder & CEO, Lending Loop; Bernd Petak, investment partner, Northmark Ventures; Ali Pourdad, Pourdad Capital Partners, Family Offi ce; Richard Prior, global head of policy and research, FDATA; Richard Remillard, president, Remillard Consulting Group; Jennifer Reynolds, president & CEO, Toronto Finance International; Jason Saltzman, partner, Gowling WLG Canada; James Wallace, co-chair and co-CEO, Exponential; Alan Wunsche, CEO & chief token offi cer, Tokenfunder; and Danish Yusuf, founder and CEO, Zensurance. For more information, please visit: https://fi ntechandfunding.com/.

THURSDAY, OCT. 15PPF Testimonial Dinner and Awards—Join us at the 33rd

annual event to network and celebrate as the Public Policy Forum honours Canadians who have made their mark on policy and leadership. Anne McLellan and Senator Peter Harder will take their place among a cohort of other stellar Canadians who we’ve honoured over the last 33 years, people who have dedicated themselves to making Canada a better place through policy leadership and public service. The gala event will be held on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front St. W., Toronto.

SATURDAY, OCT. 24Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner—The Parliamen-

tary Press Gallery Dinner happens on Saturday, Oct. 24, in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building on Welling-ton Street in Ottawa.

FRIDAY, OCT. 30CJF Awards Celebrating 30 Years of Excellence in Jour-

nalism—The Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards will be held on Oct. 30, 2020, at the Ritz-Carlton, Toronto, hosted by Rick Mercer, former host of The Rick Mercer Report. The CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti will be honoured. Tables are $7,500 and tickets are $750. For more infor-mation on tables and sponsorship opportunities, contact Josh Gurfi nkel at jgurfi nkel@cjf-fjc.ca or 416-955-0394.

THURSDAY, NOV. 12Liberal Party National Convention—The Liberal Party of

Canada announced the 2020 Liberal National Convention will be hosted in Ottawa, from Nov. 12-15. For more infor-mation, please contact: media@liberal.ca, 613-627-2384.

Conservative Party National Convention—The Conserva-tives will hold a convention in Quebec City from Nov. 12-14. For more information, please contact 1-866-808-8407.

The Parliamentary Calendar is a free events listing. Send in your political, cultural, diplomatic, or govern-mental event in a paragraph with all the relevant details under the subject line ‘Parliamentary Calendar’ to news@hilltimes.com by Wednesday at noon before the Monday paper or by Friday at noon for the Wednesday paper. We can’t guarantee inclusion of every event, but we will defi nitely do our best. Events can be updated daily online, too.

The Hill Times

27

Events

THE HILL TIMES | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

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A shopper, pictured on April 8, 2020, wearing a covering over their mouth lines up to enter Canada Computer on Laurier Avenue West in Ottawa. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

It’s Earth Day on April 22, hug a tree Parliamentary

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