Trudeau and Singh trade shots on carbon tax exemptions amid rumours on future of Liberal-NDP alliance

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the NDP for siding with the Conservatives in calling for the government to scrap the carbon tax on all forms of home heating, saying that New Democrats have deceived “millions of progressives” across Canada.

The NDP presented a motion of its own this week to instead cancel the GST on home heating, make heat pumps more accessible for Canadians and tax the “excess profits” of the oil and gas industry, but it was rejected by all the other parties except the Greens on Wednesday.

Speaking in question period, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh preemptively asked Trudeau how he could justify voting against his plan to tackle affordability and climate change.

“It was with confusion and consternation that I noted the way that the NDP voted with the Conservatives against one of the most successful measures Canada has ever seen in the fight against climate change,” said Trudeau, speaking about his government’s price on pollution.

“Seeing the NDP vote with the Conservatives against a fight on pollution is something that has disappointed millions of progressives across this country,” he added.

Note from Steve

It’s disappointing to see Jagmeet Singh take this stance. Here’s why:

The surprise announcement last week that Canadians who heat their homes with heating oil will get a three-year reprieve from the Trudeau government’s carbon tax led to immediate calls for the tax to be removed from other fuels, including natural gas.

But with or without the carbon tax, home heating oil https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/heating-oil-carbon-tax-pei-1.7012855 is largely in a class of its own when it comes to cost. At current prices, it can cost four times more to generate an equivalent amount of heat with oil as it does with natural gas.

Is it fair then, that easterners should pay four times more for home heating than westerners? I don’t think so. This is not improving my opinion of Mr. Singh. I feel this could cost him some votes… mine included.

|Read more https://nationalpost.com/news/trudeau-singh-trade-shots-carbon-tax-exemptions| nationalpost.com/news/trudeau-…

#cdnpoli #homeHeating #costs #tax #affordability #trudeau #singh #politics

Alberta to dismantle current patient-care model, create new health delivery system

At an NDP news conference Wednesday and in media releases, union leaders said the restructuring won’t solve worker recruitment and retention problems and will direct more public health dollars to generate corporate profits.

“Who is going to move to Alberta to work in health care when they don’t even know what agency or organization they will be working for?” United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith said in a news release.

The plan contains no imminent salve for a system collapsing under pressure, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said.

“This is a plan to eviscerate our public health-care system,” he said. “It’s an attack dressed up as a cure.”

Expecting seamless integration ‘naive,’ consultant says

Steven Lewis, an adjunct professor of health policy at Simon Fraser University and Vancouver-based consultant, said restructuring health systems is rarely the solution when they are underperforming.

He said even with a new agency in charge, it will be difficult to reform primary care until the Alberta Medical Association reaches new agreements with the government on how family doctors are compensated for their work and overhead costs. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-health-care-changes-1.7022133| cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/al…

#abpoli #healthcare #privatize #smith #ucp #underPerforming #AMA #AHS

Rachel Notley is sharing documents that came into her possession

Rachel Notley’s comments captured in a ThreadApp today.

We’re sharing documents that have come into our possession. I’ll be completely candid – they showed up in the mail. I don’t know who sent them.

There are 35 pages of photos of a presentation to cabinet detailing the UCP’s scheme to rip apart Albertans’ public health care.

This is a plan to massively concentrate control of healthcare in Danielle Smith’s office.

It’s a blueprint for chaos in our clinics and hospitals.

Those UCP members who cheered for more rural or local decision-making in healthcare at their AGM this weekend are about to find out they’ve been brutally double-crossed. None of that is in here.

This is a scheme to sell off and privatize public health care, piece by piece. That path is clearly described. The only person who benefits from this is Danielle Smith, who is giving herself powers to reach into any part of our health care and override medical professionals. |Read more https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1721978385662886385.html| threadreaderapp.com/thread/172…

#abpoli #healthcare #privatize #smith #ucp #blueprint #chaos

Democracy’s Missing Pieces: Questions for You

For years, I’ve argued that democracy around the world, including in Canada, suffers from at least two major challenges. For one, we have limited participatory self-government, preferring to farm out political decision-making to professional politicians who are all too happy to hoard that power. The structure of liberal democracy asks and expects little from us, which creates a thin relationship between individuals and political life, disempowering them and letting the powerful get away with all kinds of decisions that work against self-rule and social and economic justice.

We have also chosen to ignore – or obscure – the fact that you can’t talk about democracy without talking about class and economics. For instance, if someone has a series of democratic rights — the right to vote, the right to protest, the right to hold office, etc. — but can’t exercise those rights because they’ve been structurally marginalized by economic policies and working conditions, then do they really have those rights? I argue no, they don’t. I have been in so many rooms where well-meaning people jibber jabber about democracy and neither class nor economics ever even comes up.

There are things you know. Things you don’t know. And things you don’t know that you don’t know. I try my best to do well at managing that third category: the things I’m not even aware I’m missing. This week, I’m using this space to ask you about what isn’t covered in our political discourse, or what’s covered poorly. What’s missing, particularly from coverage about democracy? It could be a theory, an issue, a perspective, some bit of democratic history, or something else altogether. |Read more https://open.substack.com/pub/davidmoscrop/p/democracys-missing-pieces-questions?r=9kvzk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email| open.substack.com/pub/davidmos…

#cdnpoli #democracy #politicians #justice #economics