This is the first in a series of posts focussed on the new Liberal minority Parliament. This post focuses on Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s first 30 days (34 to be exact).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carney\u2019s election night acceptance speech was gracious, including thanking his opponents for taking part in the democratic process. In his first post-election press conference, May 2, Carney focussed on \u201caffordability, security and safety\u201d, saying he was responding to Canadians saying they \u201cwanted their cost of living reduced and their communities to be safe.\u201d He didn\u2019t specify which Canadians wanted to be safe, and from whom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He promised he\u2019d announce his new Cabinet May 12 (he did May 13) and said he\u2019d invited King Charles to deliver the Speech from the Throne, outlining his government\u2019s priorities, May 27 (which the King did). During the press conference, Carney said having King Charles read the Throne speech would demonstrate Canada\u2019s sovereignty then struggled to respond when a Quebec journalist asked him how having the King read the Throne Speech demonstrates Canada\u2019s sovereignty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carney said his government would cut taxes for the middle class and keep programs that benefit them, including pharmacare, dental care and child care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On immigration, Carney said he would cap the total number of temporary workers<\/a> and international students at less than five per cent of the population by the end of 2027, adding, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sharp drop from the high of 7.3 per cent and this will help ease strains on housing, on public infrastructure and social services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On housing, Carney outlined plans<\/a> to reduce taxes for first-time home buyers and development charges (that cities charge developers to provide infrastructure to new developments), and create a modular and prefabricated housing industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To keep \u201cCanadians\u201d \u201csafe\u201d in their communities, Carney promised to add 1000 more RCMP officers and toughen up bail laws for anyone charged with stealing cars, home invasion, human trafficking or smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he said he would cap the public service (presumably to reduce government spending but he didn\u2019t say that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he mentioned one other priority: Canada\u2019s relationship with the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Speech from the Throne – which was written by the government and read by King Charles – included pretty much everything Carney said in his first press conference. However, what was more notable was what it didn\u2019t mention: diversity, equity and inclusion. The only mention of diversity was King Charles saying, \u201cI have always had the greatest admiration for Canada\u2019s unique identity, which is recognized across the world for bravery and sacrifice in defence of national values, and for the diversity and kindness of Canadians.\u201d Equity and inclusion aren\u2019t mentioned once. However, King Charles did say, \u201cThe Crown has for so long been a symbol of unity for Canada. It also represents stability and continuity from the past to the present. As it should, it stands proudly as a symbol of Canada today, in all her richness and dynamism.\u201d So, just as the Speech ignores diversity, equity and inclusion, it also ignores the views of the many Canadians who see the Crown as a symbol of violent colonization of their countries of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consistent with this omission, the Speech also doesn\u2019t explicitly mention human rights. It simply says, \u201cThe Government will always protect the rights and freedoms that the Charter guarantees for every Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The King also said, \u201cIt is with a sense of deep pride and pleasure that my wife and I join you here today, as we witness Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope.\u201d, which completely ignored the fear that\u2019s driving much of the current \u201cunity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another attempt to put a positive spin on a grim reality, the King said, \u201cThe Prime Minister and the President of the United States, for example, have begun defining a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S., rooted in mutual respect\u2026\u201d. Is Trump saying Canada should become the 51st state and calling former Prime Minister Trudeau \u201cgovernor\u201d how he shows his respect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Speech included some good things to address the national housing crisis, including cutting the GST on homes at or under $1 million for first-time home buyers and lowering the GST on homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.\u00a0 The Government also said it will undertake a series of measures to help double the rate of home building while \u201ccreating an entirely new housing industry\u201d. It will do this by introducing measures to deliver affordable homes by creating Build Canada Homes, a \u201cmission-driven organization\u201d that will act to accelerate the development of new affordable housing by investing in the growth of the prefabricated and modular housing industry. The Government says it will provide \u201csignificant\u201d financing to \u201caffordable\u201d home builders. It promised to \u201cmake the housing market work better\u201d, including by cutting municipal development charges in half for all multi-unit housing (which seems like a pretty blatant intrusion on municipal jurisdiction). The Government says it will \u201cdrive supply up to bring housing costs down\u201d. But it said nothing about preserving existing affordable housing despite groups like the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative producing reports<\/a> saying this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt a national level Canada is losing eleven lower rent affordable homes for every one home added (at considerable subsidy cost) under federal and federal-provincial-territorial programs. The lesson from this analysis is that it is not enough to focus on adding new supply (both market and affordable). It is critical to slow the erosion, and to plug the holes in the bottom of the bucket \u2013 a solution that is currently absent in the National Housing Strategy (NHS).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Speech also said nothing about addressing the role of real estate investment trusts in creating – and maintaining – the housing crisis. REITs allow corporations to invest in real estate without needing to manage a property, whether residential or commercial. Investors receive the rental income as a dividend. According to Doreen Nicoll\u2019s August 2024 rabble article Long-term care REITs fueling the housing crisis in Canada<\/a>, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cREITs own over 20 per cent of the private rental stock in Canada. From 2011 to 2016, a total of 320,000 rental units became unaffordable to tenants with incomes under $30,000 annually. REITs and other financial models incentivize taking affordable units off of the market. That\u2019s part of the reason affordable rental units continue to be lost at a rate 15 times faster than new affordable units are being created.\u201d If the Government really cares about Canadians\u2019 safety, it should put more money into affordable housing and less in policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Throne Speech included only two references to one of the biggest threats to Canadians\u2019 safety: climate change. The Speech was much more focussed on getting energy projects built than on ensuring they didn\u2019t accelerate climate change. The Government committed to creating a new Major Federal Project Office mandated to reduce the time needed to approve a project from five years to two; \u201call while upholding Canada\u2019s world-leading environmental standards and its constitutional obligations to Indigenous Peoples.\u201d The Government said that by \u201cremoving these barriers that have held back our economy, we will unleash a new era of growth that will ensure we don\u2019t just survive ongoing trade wars, but emerge from them stronger than ever. It will enable Canada to become the world\u2019s leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy. To build an industrial strategy that will make Canada more globally competitive, while fighting climate change.\u201d How the Government will fight climate change while approving energy projects faster, isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is clear is how the Government continues to respond to non-existent \u201ccrises\u201d dreamt up by Donald Trump, including the false idea that massive amounts of fentanyl are pouring across the Canadian border into the U.S. To address this \u201ccrisis\u201d, the Government plans to \u201cintroduce legislation to enhance security at Canada\u2019s borders. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies will have new tools to stop the flow of fentanyl and its precursors. The Canada Border Services Agency will be given new powers to examine goods destined for export, to prevent the transport of illegal and stolen products, including cars.\u201d This War on Fentanyl risks having some of the same disastrous impacts on marginalized people as the War on Drugs<\/a>, which at least was attempting to address a real problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Real problems – like crime – need solutions that address their root causes. Instead, the Government has chosen to hire a thousand new RCMP officers and toughen up bail laws for anyone charged with crimes including stealing cars and home invasion. First, hiring more police and imposing stricter bail conditions have both proven ineffective as they don\u2019t address the roots of crime, including poverty. Secondly, the focus on car theft and home invasion shows who the government cares about as poor people don\u2019t have cars to steal or homes to invade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Throne Speech does address another real problem: immigration. The Government says it\u2019s \u201cdedicated to rebuilding the trust of Canadians in immigration by restoring balance to the system.\u201d What is meant by Canadians\u2019 \u201ctrust in immigration\u201d and what evidence the Government has that they\u2019ve lost it, isn\u2019t clear. What is clear is the Government\u2019s promise to cap the total number of temporary foreign workers and international students to less than five percent of Canada\u2019s population by 2027. Carney said this move<\/a> \u2014 promised by then-immigration minister Marc Miller under the previous government \u2014 will ease the pressure on housing and social services. This is backed up by evidence. However, federal public servants told the government about these pressures in 2022<\/a> – the same year Canada opened its doors to Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country. The federal government said nothing about immigration worsening the housing crisis then despite things like Ottawa – the seat of the federal government – becoming the first Canadian city to declare a housing and homelessness emergency<\/a> in January 2020. Could this be because the immigrants coming to Canada now are a different color than they were then? That\u2019s the kind of question the few remaining NDP MPs will hopefully ask. They will also, no doubt, push the government to keep its promise to protect child care, pharmacare and dental care – programs the NDP pushed the Trudeau government to implement via the agreement the NDP had to keep the minority liberals in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Throne Speech says the Government will \u201cembark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War\u2026\u201d, aimed at creating a \u201cnew economy that serves all Canadians.\u201d This sounds great except that the only means of paying for it that the Government mentions in the Throne Speech is capping the public service. It says nothing about increasing corporate taxes or closing corporate tax loopholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering some of the corporations that will benefit from the Government\u2019s favourable corporate tax policy are media companies it\u2019s good that the Government has promised to protect CBC\/Radio Canada – because we\u2019re going to need journalists willing to bite the hand that feeds them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Government has promised a fall budget we can expect to reflect the priorities in the Speech from the Throne. Black Canadians aren’t among those priorities – as Carney’s Cabinet reflects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the first in a series of posts focussed on the new Liberal minority Parliament. This post focuses on Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s first 30 days (34 to be exact). Carney\u2019s election night acceptance speech was gracious, including thanking his opponents for taking part in the democratic process. In his first post-election press conference, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220,219,221],"tags":[224,222,223],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mark-carney","category-minority-report","category-parliament","tag-mark-carney","tag-minority-report","tag-parliament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1770,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/box5353.temp.domains\/~dabizblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}