GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau hides behind COVID-19 secrecy
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives on Parliament Hill to attend a sitting of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, May 20, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then Liberal leader, told a roomful of female supporters at a political fundraiser in 2013 he admired China’s “basic dictatorship,” it turns out he wasn’t kidding.
While not at the level of an actual dictator like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trudeau is using the public health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to bypass Parliament and reduce scrutiny of his government.
This despite Trudeau’s weakened mandate after the Liberals were reduced from a majority to a minority government in last year’s election.
Last week, Trudeau and the Liberals suspended most regular meetings of Parliament until Sept. 21.
While Parliament normally has a summer break, this is financially irresponsible during an unprecedented time of enormous government spending programs being launched day after day by the Liberal government, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spending which merits serious scrutiny by Parliament.
Despite that, the Liberals concocted a deal with the NDP to dismiss Parliament in return for a national sick leave program, which comes under provincial jurisdiction, would cost employers more, and which Trudeau didn’t run on in the election.
Under this Liberal-NDP agreement, MPs will have only four hours on June 17 to debate and approve up to $150 billion in COVID-19-related spending by the Trudeau government.
On Friday, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, a non-partisan, independent financial watchdog, called this decision “unfortunate to say the least.”
Giroux told a Commons committee it will be “a very expensive four hours, potentially, for Canadian taxpayers” because “the amount of scrutiny for this unprecedented spending will also be unprecedented, but for the wrong reasons.”
This is because there’s so little time “for parliamentarians to look at these important amounts of spending and to hold the government to account.”
The Liberals and NDP argue a Commons committee will continue holding hearings on COVID-19 in June, but that’s not the same as parliamentary oversight, particularly since MPs will consider the government’s pandemic spending package in an information vacuum.
The reason for that is Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Moreau haven’t set a date for the federal budget, or even an economic statement, for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which began April 1.
This is consistent with efforts by the Liberals from the start of the pandemic to restrict the role of Parliament in overseeing government spending, claiming their concern is for the safety of MPs, in the same way governments invoke “national security” to avoid answering questions.
Meanwhile, media scrutiny of Trudeau has been reduced to daily, heavily-controlled appearances by the PM outside his official residence.
During them, Trudeau gives brief statements about new spending initiatives to the public, followed by limited media questioning, presided over by the PM’s handlers.
The odds Trudeau will come close to answering a question he’s been asked are a daily crap shoot.
While there are typically some reporters on scene, many of the questions come in by phone, a format which anyone who has covered politics knows works to the politician’s advantage, because it results in more stilted and less aggressive questioning, compared to facing reporters in a scrum.
Oddly, supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, gas stations and other essential services have found ways to function safely, while interacting live with the public, throughout the pandemic.
Trudeau and the Liberals, who don’t consider Parliament an essential service, have not because it works to their political advantage not to do so.
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