In less than 24 hours, the Conservative government decided that perhaps they were being a bit foolish, and they released the report on the Champlain Bridge, which apparently wasn’t as bad as they were intimating. And it also laid out some replacement options, one of which is a tunnel that would cost more to build, but may have some added benefits. Suffice to say, this will all serve as more fodder for more opposition calls for that replacement process to get underway tout suite. (And look – the Liberals are holding a press conference on that very subject this very morning. Who would have guessed?)
The federal government has reintroduced the ecoEnergy home renovation tax credit – for another year. And the problem the energy retrofit industry is having, however, is there’s no stability, and all of this year-to-year funding. Because they have no stability, they can’t get the industry off the ground to a sustainable level. So in other words, this announcement just creates more of the same rather than providing a tangible benefit for the industry.
Now that provincial long-gun registries are being discussed, Ontario sounds like they’d be game (provided that the Conservatives don’t win provincially this autumn), Nova Scotia is not, and Candice Hoeppner, the MP whose bill nearly succeeded in the last parliament, is decrying them as bad because a provincial list would be “inaccurate and incomplete,” while parroting all of the other talking points she’s memorised. Because apparently the reduction in domestic violence and suicide isn’t reason enough. And then there’s the issue of the previous Supreme Court reference on firearms – as it deals with public safety, it’s federal jurisdiction.
What’s that? We should actually explain the immigration and refugee system to Canadians? But how else are the Conservatives going to make fundraising drives to their base when they can’t make gross distortions?
Oh, look – we’re being asked to take more action on the humanitarian crisis in eastern Africa. Too bad Canada has pretty much disengaged from that continent in order to focus on territory closer to home (with no actual game plan for doing so, it should be said).
And here’s a look at the syphilis boom in Alberta – province where they make it a human right to pull your kids out of class whenever any discussion of sexuality comes up. Coincidence? Unlikely.