GOP's Least Favorite Projects Will Keep Running During Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON -- If Congress can't pass legislation to keep the government funded by Monday at midnight, the Smithsonian museums will close, the Centers for Disease Control will halt its influenza monitoring program and up to 800,000 federal workers (many of whom have already faced unpaid leave due to sequestration) will be furloughed.

But shutting down the federal government won't stop two of the Republican Party's most despised bogeymen: Obamacare and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Vancouver Island Soil Dump Proposal 'Seems to Defy Logic'

Residents of Shawnigan Lake and the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) protested Wednesday at the Ministry of Environment office in Victoria against a proposed contaminated soil dump in the Shawnigan watershed.

Shawnigan Creek runs through the site, flowing into Shawnigan Lake, about 50 kilometres north of Victoria. More than 7,000 people in the area get their drinking water from the lake.

The site is also on top of an aquifer, an underground supply of groundwater that can be extracted for drinking water.

Security Staff Barricade Chicago Board of Education in Anticipation of Mass Rally

Chicago officials announced last week that they plan to close 54 under-enrolled schools this year in the country's third largest district to help close a $1 billion budget deficit. It is the largest mass district closing of schools ever in the United States, and the announcement quickly inspired outrage among teachers, parents and activists.

A teacher I spoke to, who worked at one of the schools marked for closures, expressed concern that the "welcoming schools" students will be transferred to lack social and emotional support systems to aid the students' transition, and that some of the schools are far across gang territory, making the commute to the new schools more perilous than it already is in a city with infamous gun violence.

Collapse of oilsands boom will scramble Canadian economy

Disregarding global warming and the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket, the Harper government has bet Canada’s economic future on the oilsands. But do we want to return to a time when Ontario consumers paid half a billion dollars to subsidize an imperilled Alberta oil industry, with two-thirds of its capacity shut in for lack of sales?

At risk are hundreds of billions of dollars in jobs, government and industry revenue, and capital investment. Essential to diminishing hopes for an oilsands bonanza are three proposed pipelines, costing $17 billion, to move oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast and to the West Coast for tanker shipment to China. There is no certainty they will be built — even assuming government authorizations.

Firearms advocate's role in talks blasted

Gun-control advocates and opposition parties want to know why the Harper government has consistently included a prominent firearms advocate in Canadian delegations at international arms-control talks in recent years.

They believe Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) president Steve Torino's presence alongside Canadian diplomats is tied to what they say are Canadian efforts to weaken a new Arms Trade Treaty being negotiated at the United Nations.

Torino, whose organization represents 15,000 gun owners across the country, also co-chaired a government-appointed advisory panel that recommended making it easier to obtain and own handguns and assault rifles in Canada - a recommendation Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly rejected.

Clawing back job training money could expand EI backlash

In a previous life Stephen Harper advocated the creation of a provincial firewall to shelter Alberta from the policies of the federal government of the day. The concept must have stuck with him. As prime minister, he has presided over the building of an increasingly thick firewall to insulate his government from the input of the provinces.

Over Harper’s seven years in power, his management of the federation has come to feature a command-and-control approach that leaves less room for consultation and cooperation with the provinces than at any time in the recent past.

Peter Kent defends budget cuts in Environment Department and Parks Canada

OTTAWA – Environment Minister Peter Kent is dismissing opposition concerns about a significant decrease in visits to national parks, coinciding with $51 million in projected spending reductions at Parks Canada for the next year.

Kent defended the government’s budget cuts Tuesday in response to questions raised by NDP deputy environment critic Anne Minh Thu Quach at a House of Commons environment committee hearing.

Police defend panhandling crackdown

The Toronto Police Services Board has rejected a call to soften the force’s crackdown on panhandlers.

At a board meeting at police headquarters on Friday, anti-poverty activists said that the thousands of tickets given out under the Ontario Safe Streets Act every year have effectively made it illegal to be homeless on Toronto’s streets.

Conservatives set to snatch defeat from jaws of victory over Trudeau

Here they go again. The Conservatives are about to turn a positive news story into a negative one. The bright lights on the Conservative side havedecided to call Justin Trudeau and David McGuinty before the House of Commons Natural Resources committee to explain their controversial comments about Alberta.

Comments that both McGuinty and Trudeau have already apologized for and which in addition led to McGuinty resigning from his critic’s portfolio.

Ted Opitz's Inclusion In Mission To Monitor Ukraine Vote Under Fire

OTTAWA - The Harper government is making no apologies for sending a Conservative MP whose election remains shrouded in controversy due to numerous voting irregularities on a mission charged with ensuring free and fair elections in Ukraine.

Indeed, the government is showcasing Ted Opitz as model election observer.

"People are entitled to be innocent until proven guilty," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told the House of Commons on Friday, dismissing the ongoing legal uncertainty that hangs over Opitz's election win last year.

Green Economy: Canada Needs Strategy Or Risk Losing Competitive Edge, Axed Panel Says

OTTAWA - Low-carbon goods and services are the way of the future, and Canada had better embrace that fact or expect to lose its competitive edge, says the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

The federal advisory body lost its $5.2 million in annual funding in the last budget, and is using its very last breath to design a national environment-and-energy framework that would position Canada to become a global player in the burgeoning low-carbon economy.

Government rejects low-carbon plan proponents say would save, earn billions

OTTAWA - Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent is rejecting the final advice from the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy to embrace a low-carbon economy.

The federal advisory body lost its $5.2 million annual funding in the last budget and is using its last breath to promote a national environment-and-energy framework that would position Canada to become a global player in the burgeoning low-carbon world.

Roundtable's last report strikes familiar low-carbon chord

The National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy has used its final report to chart a suggested route for Canada to make the transition to a low carbon economy and to profit from it.

The report is the last in a six-part series that looks at the economic risks and opportunities that global climate change presents.

Canadian economy missing out on green revolution, says panel axed by Stephen Harper

OTTAWA — The Canadian economy will miss out on a booming market of green goods and services worth trillions of dollars if governments fail to steer away from foolish energy and climate change policies, says a new report to be released Thursday.

The analysis, the sixth and final report in a research series undertaken by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, concluded that goods and services promoting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were part of a sector that’s growing faster than the Canadian economy.

Arctic ships face 'increased cost of ownership' in separate maintenance deal

OTTAWA - Canada's new Arctic patrol ships will cost more to maintain if National Defence signs a long-term service contract for the mini-icebreakers while the boats are under construction.

The ships are at least two years behind schedule, and could fall further behind if contract talks with the Irving shipyard building them hit a snag.

An internal briefing for Julian Fantino, former associate defence minister, noted last fall the project's financial uncertainty, including the price tag for building up to eight warships.

Canadian company outsources passport covers to Netherlands

An opposition MP is outraged after the federal government awarded a contract to produce Canadian passport covers to an Ottawa-based company -- which then sub-contracted the work to the Netherlands.

Passport Canada awarded the contract to produce the new ePassport covers to Canadian Bank Note after a competitive bidding process last year.

Border agency hiring ‘mall cops’ to guard high-risk prisoners

OTTAWA — Canada’s border agency is hiring private security guard companies that normally patrol shopping malls to guard “high-risk” prisoners, including one so violent his own lawyer says he shouldn’t walk the streets alone.

Canada Border Services Agency says it’s cheaper than using their own armed officers as security guards and that they are doing it across the country.

Canada's National Security Advisory Council Quietly Shut Down By Conservatives

OTTAWA - Despite the Conservative government's frequent warnings about lingering terrorist threats, it has quietly abolished a federal panel of national security advisers.

The advisory council on national security was shut down during the summer — just two years into the three-year terms of its latest members.

The council was established in 2005 by the Liberal government of the day to provide confidential views on security issues in the post-9-11 era.

A Privy Council Office spokesman said it is now routine for federal security departments and agencies to contact outside experts through other means.

The advisory council had a budget of about $30,000 a year to cover travel and other hospitality-related costs associated with meetings.

University of Toronto historian Wesley Wark, who served on the council from 2005 to 2009, says he regrets the shutdown as there is still a complex security environment and a need for high-level, independent advice.

Original Article
Source: huffington post
Author: CP

No more Mr. Fixit at the UN

The Harper government is turning its back on the UN. The Prime Minister’s UN bypass last week seemed snubby and small, but the message was clear — the UN is far removed from Canada’s international affections.

Harper’s acceptance speech for the World Statesman Award could easily have been recycled for a UN General Assembly audience, and probably should have been. It delivered a stark portrait of a dangerous and uncertain world while offering the clearest statement yet of the guiding principles behind the government’s foreign policy.

Duncan Cameron Foreign policy behind closed doors: Why Harper snubs the UN

Stephen Harper was in New York when the 67th annual General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) opened, but did not see fit to attend. Indeed, he made a point of not attending.

Under Harper, Canadian foreign policy features over 40 secret bilateral negotiations of trade and investment agreements, conducted in consultation with business leaders.

For those interested in knowing the definition of Canadian national security see ... "American Republican." Canada is undertaking a major military build-up, and downgrading diplomatic missions. The government explains the latter as cost-saving, and offers no coherent account of the money wasting involved in the former.