Politics Insider for December 3, 2021: Omicron Variant Chaos; a financial reckoning is coming; and an unpopular monarchy
Not up, not running: The plan to screen all non-U.S. Travelers to Canada for COVID-19 has caused confusion both among passengers and among airport operators, CBC reports. Few details are available on the federal response to the Omicron variant.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos He said Wednesday that the new arrival testing program will go into effect immediately. “What starts today“The minister told reporters. But there is no signs today that the program is actually up and running.
“One concern is when it will go into effect … something that not even Air Canada and WestJet seem to know,” Cameron Turner, a traveler from Victoria, BC, asked CBC News. “Another concern is where travelers are expected to self-isolate while waiting for their test results.”
And on Thursday, the chairman of the Canadian Airports Council said he’s still not sure how the program will work.
Snowbird tests: Joe biden announced a new testing regimen on Thursday which will require all incoming travelers, including Canadians, to take the test no later than 24 hours before their departure, CP reports. That can complicate the snowbirds’ travel plans.
Unknown: Omicron’s impact on the world remains a mystery, BBC reports, because although cases in South Africa are increasing, it is too early to know what will happen to hospitalization rates.
Boost or share? While medical experts ask rich countries to share the vaccine, Western countries are considering distributing boosters at home, due to studies that indicate COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy Could Start To Decline After Six Months, Global reports. More than 10 million Canadians will reach that deadline by the new year.
The conservatives were right: Spokesman Anthony Rota ruled Thursday that the board of internal economics, the all-party committee that runs the parliamentary compound, exceeded its authority by demanding vaccinations in Hill, CP. reports.
Rota sided with the Conservatives on Thursday, concluding that the board of all internal economy parties did not have the authority to impose a vaccine mandate. He said that only the Chamber itself can make a decision to restrict access to the chamber and other parliamentary buildings. However, Rota governing does not change anything for parliamentarians or any other person who wishes to access the premises. Last week, Liberals and New Democrats joined forces to pass a motion to resume hybrid sessions, which also specified that anyone entering the compound must be fully immunized against COVID-19 or have a valid medical exemption.
Laboratory commitment: Liberals offered a compromise on Thursday to end a standoff over secret documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada’s high-security infectious disease laboratory, the Globe. reports.
Leader of the Government House Mark Holland told the House of Commons late Thursday that the federal cabinet is now prepared to hand over all the documents to a special committee of deputies from the Liberals, Conservatives, Québec bloc and New Democrats. Any dispute over whether to make public records would be decided by a panel of three former senior judges.
Federal opposition parties have fought for records that might shed light on why Ottawa expelled and later fired two scientists from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Financial reckoning is coming: The Liberals are asking Parliament to approve billions in new spending over a four-week session, but they have yet to release a financial accounting of how it spent more than $ 600 billion last year during the Canadian pandemic response. Balloon reports.
Former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, who is now president and CEO of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, said he does not see a reason why the government appears to be waiting to release key information, such as public accounts and a Fall Fiscal Update. . “They must be in the front [of the current four-week sitting]”He said in an interview, adding that committees should also be seated to review spending requests. “That is standard practice and good practice and I’m not really sure there is any reason not to have it. I am sure the work is done in public accounts and there is no reason not to submit it. Finance [Canada] he’s had a long time. “
Next update: Chrystia Freeland will release a financial update on December 14, CBC reports.
Battle of Wits: Speaking of Freeland, Aaron Wherry have a interesting column at CBC reviewing the parliamentary exchange between her and Pierre Poilievreand suggesting that it might just be the beginning of a long battle of wits.
If O’Toole lost his tenuous grip on the Conservative leadership, attention would quickly turn to Poilievre, either as a potential candidate or as a potentially influential figure in deciding who leads the party next. Whenever Trudeau decides to step aside, Freeland will be the first in the pool of possible successors.
O’Toole unpopular: On News, survey expert Philippe J. Fournier have an article (translation) on Erin O’Toole’s poll numbers, which are bad and getting worse.
Among voters for his party, 70% say they have a positive impression of him, a lower proportion than Trudeau and Singh among their respective voters, but higher than the same measure. by Abacus last spring (then it was 62%). However, we note that the Conservative leader scores anemic with the voters of other parties: only between 8% and 13% of the voters of the New Democrats, Bloc, Liberals and Greens view O’Toole favorably.
Unpopular monarchy: A new survey, conducted following the conversion of Barbados into a republic, shows a Most Canadians are in favor of severing ties with the British monarchy, but it wouldn’t be easy, Global reports. There would be complicated implications for treaty relationships with indigenous peoples, and also the constitutional amendment formula makes such a change almost impossible.
Cattle deaths: Hundreds of thousands of cattle perished in British Columbia flooding, Bloomberg reports.
– Stephen Maher
Reference-www.macleans.ca