Canada's Parliament Returns From Summer Break: Previewing the 2012 Fall Session

CUSLINexus rounds up assessments of Canada's upcoming fall 2012 parliamentary session.

5 Issues That Will Dominate the Fall Session of Parliament, Kieron Lang, CTV News. CTV News outlines and even offers a video segment on the key issues of Canada’s Fall Parliamentary Session. In short:

(1) Trade. EU and Trans-Pacific Partnership deals will get high priority, along with the government's review of a state-owned Chinese company bid to buy Canadian energy producer Nexen).

(2) Quebec. Will the PQ’s return to power in Quebec prompt another referendum. If so, they’ll be headaches in Quebec City and Ottawa.

(3) Government Contracts. There’s been criticism of how the government is handling non-competitive government contracts its administrating.

(4) Courts.  As many as 4 Canadian Supreme Court justices may step down before Harper’s term is up—talk about legacy-making stuff.

(5) NDP.  Last year, the NDP wowed the Canadian political world with a 2nd-place finish. Then, tragically, its leader—Jack Layton died of prostate cancer. Now the NDP’s new leader, Thomas Mulcair has to define himself and the party that needs to show the Canadian public it can take the reigns of Canada’s government.

 
Hoping for a Changed Tone in Parliament? Don’t Hope Your Breath,  Michael Den Tandt, Times Colonist and The Province. Writing for two leading Vancouver publications, Den Tandt previews the fall session—finding it will be much like the last—and again emphasizes trade and Quebec, but highlights the critical role Ontarian voters will play in the 2015 election:

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has as yet shown no inclination to back away from his “Dutch disease” theme, which holds that the high Canadian dollar, driven by booming resource revenue, is harming Canadian manufacturing, to the benefit mainly of Alberta and the detriment mainly of the rest of Canada.

That ensures the critical political battleground this fall, and likely for the next three years until election 2015, will be economic, with the NDP and Conservatives vying primarily for hearts and minds in Ontario, in particular in the industrial heartland of the southwest, where most Ontarians live and where the economy still rests on automobile manufacturing.

The Conservatives and New Democrats will co-operate, to the extent that both will seek to sideline the third-place Liberals. The Grits will seek to capitalize on their leadership race, which concludes next spring, to maintain visibility. To that end, look for a Liberal leadership candidate or candidates to emerge with a platform that is aggressively conservative economically and just as aggressively progressive on social issues. All eyes now are on MPs Justin Trudeau and Marc Garneau, who are expected to run but have not yet publicly announced their intentions.

Canada’s MPs Set to Return, More Polarized than Ever, Mark Kennedy, Calgary Herald, seconds the polarization while suspecting the Conservatives will push hard to deliver on their platform:

Moreover, emboldened by the majority power they secured in the May 2011 election, the Tories are intent on using that clout for the remaining three years of their mandate to press ahead with an agenda that includes billions of dollars in government cuts, diminished federal environmental oversight on private-sector energy projects, and cuts to the public pension system for future generations of seniors. All have sparked controversy.

But Harper is not backing down, even as public opinion polls showing the Tories’ popularity has dropped, leaving them in a tie with the NDP.

“We’re putting our foot on the gas,” the prime minister said in early July, explaining that he was sticking with the same cabinet ministers because he wants them to continue with the Tory agenda this autumn.

“I’ve told officials in Ottawa the majority is not time to rest.’’

“I think that one step at a time, I think we’re moving the country in the right direction,’’ said Harper.

A Rough Guide to the Fall Sitting, Aaron Wherry, Macleans, gives us a concise, tongue-in-cheek run-down. One aspect worth mentioning, some other debates that will be gripping Parliament:

Stephen Woodworth’s motion on the legal definition of a human being is due to be debated this month. Conservative MP Rob Clarke wants to overhaul the Indian Act. Conservative MP Russ Hiebert wants to change the rules for financial disclosure by unions. And Pierre Poilievre has mused of making it possible to opt out of paying union dues.

Fallout From Cuts Follow MPs Back to Parliament, Jennifer Ditchburn, Chronicle Herald. This Halifax-based publication focuses on the local--emphasizing constituent concerns over Conservative budget cuts:

The Conservative caucus meets for the first time Monday since Parliament packed up for the summer, but the catching-up chatter won’t all be about cottages and barbecues.

Many MPs have had to cope all season with the fallout from last spring’s budget cuts, some of which hit local services in areas such as train travel, the coast guard and interior waterways.

The lobbying has been going on hard in some cases to try and mitigate the impact of the decisions on constituents.

Harper's Northern Development Strategy: Too One-Sided for Success?

by Keith Edmund White

Is Harper's Northern Strategy sustainable?  CUSLINexus quickly recaps three articles that question whether the Harper government is jeopardizing Canadian sovereignty and long-term Arctic development to meet short-term cuts to government spending.

The HillTimes reports on the trade-offs Harper is making to develop Canada's Arctic. While pushing billions of dollars in energy development, other government funding is being cut. The National Post last week reported on delays in the construction of a Northern scientific facility and the Nanisivik port, not to mention the Post's May 2012 article reporting on the budget-busting price of of Radarsat satellites and plans for a dozen nuclear powered subsubmarines and the world's largest ice-breaker being scrubbed.

And now the HillTimes (a fantastic resource--and definitely worth, at least, signing up for a free trial) reports on another Harper cut to government services in the North. Mining Watch coordinator Ramsey Hart discusses the closure of the National Aboriginal Health Organization:

“I think a really big concern about the way that this government is treating resource development in the North is with its reliance on economic development as a way to deal with significant social issues that are found in the North,” Mr. Hart said.

He cited the elimination of the National Aboriginal Health Organization in the last budget as an example of an important federally funded program that could not be replaced by resource development. With an annual budget of $4.4-million, the NAHO produced health studies on aboriginal communities in the North. The organization ceased its operations at the end of June.

Mr. Hart said the NAHO was one of the few programs that focused on issues such as the impact of resource development on community health.

“To just assume that these projects will address social issues is really naive and runs the risk of further exacerbating some of the social issues in the North,” he said.

Taken together, these three articles suggest that concrete steps to Canada increasing its footprint to the North are falling behind ready-to-move mining operations.  While this approach is understandable, it may jeopardize attempts of Canada to assert sovereignty over the Arctic's emerging waterways and future Arctic economic development.

And does Canada need the Harper government's spending cuts?  Not according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative--though, it seems unlikely that any major Canadian party would champion this group's progressive tax and government investment strategy.